PURCHASED
If you haven’t heard me say 16 times already in every post, fall is my absolute favorite season of all – it’s all my Midwestern upbringing. I love the cooler temperatures (even if it does lead to freezing winter), the changing leaves, the pumpkin everything, just the vibes. And I especially love all of the colors, both in clothing and in beauty – the olives, the mustards, and the burnt oranges, and then on the other side, with the deep and vampy shades. Now in the nail world, Orly has us covered with the mustard, the green, and the pumpkin orange in their fall release – and now Essie is here to help us all with our bold and dark sides.
For that new seasonal release from Essie, we have 6 cream shades, with 5 in deeper, vampier (read that correctly, not vampire) colors, and then 1 lighter neutral. This might be a boring set to some with all creams, but I’ll always take a rich and pigmented cream any day. I know I love the Essie formula, so as long as it was up to their normal standards, I had high hopes for this set.
These are available from BeyondPolish.com (affiliate link) and if you use the code GINGERLYPOLISHED you can get 10% off individual polishes. It is affiliated which means I get a little percentage from any sales – as always no pressure to use that code, but of course I appreciate any of y’all who have!
Now let’s get on into these gorgeous shades!
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We start right out with our technical namesake of the collection – Essie sometimes doesn’t use collection names as strongly as other brands, so it can be hard to find them. This is ‘Step Out of Line’, and it’s a very deep, rich navy blue cream shade. It definitely dries even deeper than it looks in the bottle – making it look almost black in some lights. But in most settings you’ll still see those blue tones coming out.
As you can imagine with such a deep color, it’s a very pigmented formula. This was practically opaque in just 1 coat – though of course I always do 2 with all of my swatches. It’s super smooth to paint on – and even with such a rich color, I didn’t experience any staining.
Step Out of Line – Live Swatch
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Next we have ‘Meet Me at Midnight’ and I’ll never understand why this one is not the midnight blue of the shade directly above. But I digress. This one is instead a deeper, warm-toned, almost olive forest green. This is absolutely a shade I can’t get enough of especially in the cooler temperatures.
Just like the shade before, it has a gorgeous pigmented formula. Almost opaque in just 1 coat, though I used 2 as always. It’s smooth and easy to paint on.
Meet Me at Midnight – Live Swatch
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‘Underground Ball’ is a warmer, almost pink-toned purple cream shade. It just feels so royal, and again it does dry down darker than it’s showing in the bottle.
This one had a touch of a thinner formula than the previous shades, with some sheerness peeking through in the first coat. You can especially see the pink pulling through on the edge of that 1st coat as well. But that “thinness” is just in comparison to those incredibly pigmented shades above, and this was still easily opaque with just 2 coats.
Underground Ball – Live Swatch
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Next up we have ‘Lights Down, Music Up’ (I’m not mad at that instruction). This one is a cooler toned chocolate brown shade. It has some red tones to it, almost pulling into the burgundy wine family. It’s such an interesting shade, and I like that it’s a little different than other classic browns.
This one has another STUNNING formula. Once again opaque in just 1 coat. Though I always do 2 coats to help smooth out the ridges in my nails, if you have smoother nails, this could be perfect for that time you’re needing to run out the door with a quick mani.
Lights Down, Music Up – Live Swatch
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‘Full Blast’ rounds out the 5 vampier cream shades we have in this set, and it’s an incredibly deep cherry red, a true burgundy wine.
The first coat on this one is a touch sheer. But the 2nd coat deepens up the shade, and brings it to full opacity, matching the color in the bottle. It’s smooth to paint on overall, but I will say I did have one complaint about this shade, and I think you can tell what it is based on my cuticles. Since it is a very pigmented red, that pigment makes this one messy. Be very careful with application – removing from the cuticles did take a lot more work, and I found I was smearing the pigment around a lot more than other shades. Also be careful with removal – this will be a shade that you’ll want to just pull off your nails, instead of twisting, to avoid ending up with red fingers.
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And to finish off the collection we have ‘Dance ‘Til Dawn’. It’s a soft, very light, rosy beige cream shade and I love the contrast, a nice palate cleanser after all of those deep shades.
For such a light, white-based color, I always expect streaks – but this one had a lovely formula! I did still have those streaks on the 1st coat – that always happens on my very ridged nails. But the 2nd easily covered and made it fully opaque and I was so impressed. It’s a thicker formula so it’s just easy to control and smooth on the nails. A fantastic way to end.
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And that’s the set! Essie has a beautiful cream formula, and I’m so glad we got to fully see it in action for this entire collection! All were opaque in just 2 coats – some even with just 1. The only complaints I had with application were with ‘Full Blast’, just because of that red pigment and how messy it could be to apply. If you’re careful overall, you can make that one work for a beautiful cherry red. Otherwise all of the shades are beautiful and you can’t go wrong with any of them!
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Holo Taco x Safiya collection • Salon Perfect Drop Dead Gorgeous Halloween collection • Mooncat Underworld collection • Sally Hansen x Trolls collection • Glam Polish Adams Family collection
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