Hey, look at me posting a review of a collection when it’s still pretty relevant! It’s a Christmas miracle! But really, I want to get all caught up with holiday collections and everything, and then I might actually be ahead of the game for spring releases (but I digress, that’s way too far to think forward). WE’RE STILL ON THE HOLIDAYS, NO SPRING HERE. There’s lots of holiday posts on the way – because you know, we’re still ahead of the holidays.

Not quite actual holiday themed, but we have some fun sparkles to talk about now. This is the Essie Concrete Glitters collection, and Essie released it in between the fall and winter collections. I do love these for this time of year, they’re soft and sparkly, and just remind of sparkly snow (which we have none of here, but I won’t complain about THAT).

This is a 6 piece collection of textured, sparkly polishes. I actually picked these up as a set on eBay before they were listed on other sites, but they’re up now on Ulta’s website, as well as transdesign.com (a site I order from quite a lot! They have super fast shipping and cheaper prices).

For all of these polishes, I found they really had the same formula, so I’m just going to quick sum it up here instead of repeating myself over and over again.

They’re all an easy two coat formula! One coat was easy to apply, though not completely opaque, and the texture was a little sparse. I found it easily built up in 2 coats. I preferred 2 coats with all of these to build up the texture and the sparkle. And because they’re textured, they did dry fairly quickly.

As for the texture itself, it wasn’t the roughest texture. It reminded me of like a nail file texture, just a little rough, but not crazy, or anything your hair will get caught on.

The pictures really don’t do the sparkle and bling justice. It’s so hard to capture on camera, but know it’s just like crushed gemstones. I have them all swatched here plain on their own, so you can see the finish. A good coat or two of top coat would smooth out any bumps, and then really bring out the sparkle.

So let’s get into the colors!

Up first, we have ‘Venture to the Venue’. This is a light pearl base with gold and pink shimmers.

Next is ‘Beat of the Moment’, a peachy pink base with gold and pink shimmers. This one I did find had a thinner, more watery formula. This did take me 3 thin coats, and took a little longer to dry than the others.

Other than this one, all of the others were the same formula.

‘Can’t Stop Her in Copper’ is a copper toned gold shade. (I do find it more gold than copper, but the name is still fun). This had darker gold and bright sparkles.

‘City Slicker’ is a deep fuchsia pink color with silver and pink sparkles.

‘Stay Up Slate’ is a smokey gray base with just a tinge of purple to it, with gold and blue sparkles. I love the color combinations on this one.

This last one is my favorite of the bunch. I’m a sucker for a dark blue and green. This is ‘Night Owl’ (what happened to the concrete/rock theme?). This is a dark teal shade with gorgeous green shimmer throughout.

I can’t tell you as much about removal, as I didn’t have them on for long before going to the next color. But my suggestion for glitter and texture polishes like this is either a peel off base coat underneath, or just soaking a cotton ball and holding it onto the polish for a couple minutes will help as well.

Now, I love a good textured polish, so that’s definitely a factor if you’re going to like these. If you don’t like texture, this is going to be a pass for you, simple.

But these are beautiful, sparkly textured polishes if you’re into it. I love that mainstream brands have continued to switch it up a little, and do unique finishes, and of course, I will always support that. Just gimme them all.

And I will love any and all textured polishes. Just put them into my grabby hands. So do I love this collection? Yes, but I’m biased. So let the pictures decide for you.

 

Lots of holiday polish on the way! Stay tuned for all of the reviews!

 

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