My Picks from Essie Encrusted Treasures

Essie's got a solid reputation for classic, chic simplicity.  They're the mainstay of work and weddings and not fast to jump on trends.  They never made a crackle when they were trendy and took their time putting out a magnetic collection.  Textures have been around for a whole year now and Essie's only just put out their first bunch.  Their magnetics were pretty mellow, so you might expect a bunch of simple textured shimmers...unless you've seen the reviews for the Encrusted Treasures collection.  This might be the wildest Essie's ever gone.  Belugaria is....unique.  You've probably seen it.  If you haven't, it's a very coarse textured black cream with big holo glitter and it's...something.  I have a weird fascination with it and almost bought it even though I don't actually like how it looks in other people's swatches.  I'll stop tapdancing around it, I guess.  This collection's getting a lot of hate and negative reviews.  When I saw it at Ulta last month, my initial reaction was more amusement than attraction.  Still, I'll look at almost any polish for a moment and some of these shades are tempting in the bottle.  After a long look (and because they were BTGO) I wound up buying three.  I managed to talk some sense into myself and put Belugaria back, though I may buy it out of morbid curiosity if I ever have a great coupon or see it for a really good price.  I'm not a big fan of bar glitter, so Peak Of Chic stayed put.  Hors D'oeuvres seemed a bit too similar to On A Silver Platter to get both, so I erred on the side of blue glitter.  Since buying them I've seen even more hate lumped on them, to the point that I was a little nervous when I sat down to swatch them.  Let's see how it went...


On A Silver Platter is a textured polish with small and medium dark blue hexagonal holo glitter and dense gold shimmer in a clear base.

This is two coats of On A Silver Platter on its own.  Damn this is weird!  No other way to express it.  I can't figure out how to feel about it.  It's...sparkly.  There's that.  That's about all my brain can muster when confronted with it.  The formula's just ok.  It's weird too.  The shimmer is dense enough that it partly hides the glitter at some angles, as you can see in the second photo.  It makes the glitter look badly placed when it isn't.  It's also lumpy, but not lumpy in the way that most textured polishes are lumpy.  It's not rough, it's just...kinda uneven.

I top coated it and it didn't really look any different.  Still lumpy and incomprehensible.  I don't know, man...

with top coat

Ignite The Night has tiny, dense black and white-gold glitter in a clear base.

This is more like it!  My brain understands Ignite The Night just fine.  It was almost a relief after the strangeness of On A Silver Platter.  This is three coats and I didn't have any application issues.  It's essentially Beyond Cozy with a dark twist.  I like it a lot!

Top coat makes more of a difference than the photos show.  It's an improvement, I think.  Glitters like this take a bit of smoothing, but it's usually worth it.

with top coat

Looking back at my Beyond Cozy review from last year, I think I probably should have tried mattifying it.  Oh well.  Maybe as an accent sometime.  I can absolutely see myself wearing Ignite The Night again.

with top coat

Lots Of Lux is a cobalt blue fine-textured polish with fine green, gold, and magenta shimmer.

This and Ignite The Night were the two obvious picks once I decided I was going to buy three.  It's blue (a little darker in person) and it's the kind of texture I prefer.  Easy choice!  This is two coats and it was no more difficult to apply than similar textures I've worn.  It is on the thick side, but I expected that.  I have a hunch it's somewhat similar to OPI Alcatraz...Rocks!, but I don't have that yet.  It's ok as-is, but I always like textured shimmers way more when they're top coated.

with top coat

Ooooh!  Love would be an exaggeration, but I do like this.  I've never fully accepted textures, but this is cool.  The shimmer is what gets me.  The lumpybumpy thing gives them depth when they're top coated and I do love depth.

with top coat

Bottom line: Ignite The Night and Lots Of Lux are both winners for me, but On A Silver Platter is just bewildering.  I didn't have the application problems a lot of people seem to have had.  I'm a bit disappointed that Essie didn't do just fine-milled glitters and textured shimmers in various shades because they got them both just right.


Did you get anything from this collection or has the bad press scared you off?