My Essie Nail Polish Collection

Essie, the nail polish brand that has every girl gawking at the selection of pretty colours that they have on offer. Imagine the scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Charlie stares longingly at the chocolate bars in the shop window. Now replace that with the Essie counter in Boots and a nail polish addict, such as I and you have a bit of an addiction. Over the past year or two, I've really fallen in love with the colour selection that Essie keeps adding to. I'd gladly go in and spend a fortune on the pretty pastels, the deep reds and the ocean-replicating blues if I had the money- but at £7.99 a pop, a girl is limited on just how many she can buy. 

I've built up a pretty varied selection of 10 polishes, so I thought that I could let you know a little about the ones that I love and recommend, the ones that don't quite reach my all time favourites and the ones that I was just plain disappointed with.  

"After School Boy Blazer", "Fiji" and "Mint Candy Apple" are definitely my top three Essie nail polishes out of my selection. 

ASBB, a dark navy, often has me glancing at my nails and wondering if they're black or blue. I love how different it is and that I can just about get away with it whatever the weather! Recently, I bought a navy playsuit from Topshop and goes perfectly with this colour. Love, love, love it.

Fiji is the lightest out of all of the colours, being a cute baby pink colour that looks stunning with a tan (the picture does not do it justice). I'm sure you've all seen it before, being one of the most popular Essie nail varnishes on offer within the beauty community. This was one of the first nail varnishes from the brand that I bought, after I'd heard so much about it and it definitely hooked me to them!

Mint Candy Apple. I hardly think I need to go into this one, as I'm fairly certain everyone knows about it. The bright pastel mint green that everyone knows and loves is beautiful and is perfect for the summer time. It's been allocated as my 'holiday nail' colour and will be topped up all throughout my trip to Magaluf this year with the girls.

"Chinchilly", "Bikini So Teenie", "Russian Roulette", "Sand Tropez" and "Nice Is Nice" make the 'pretty, but not the best' list for various reasons. 

Nice Is Nice was a polish that I received in a Glossybox last year. I'd never actually seen the shade prior to finding it in my box, but I was pleasantly surprised by the shade. Purple isn't a colour that I'd usually find myself going for, but this lilac shade had me quite interested. Definitely for the spring/summer seasons, this one!

Bikini So Teenie (such a cute name!) was a shade that I'd heard a fair few beauty bloggers and vloggers rave about. I thought that I'd never find it when I was searching through the Boots selection at my local store- but low and behold, I got my hands on the last one! It had shimmer in it, which surprised me. I'm more of a solid colour kind of girl, but that doesn't discard this as a lovely shade that looks good on every skin tone. 

Chinchilly and Sand Tropez are very similar in colour, the only difference being that Chinchilly is a darker shade. Both colours are lovely on the nails, but are just that little bit on the boring side. Depending on the number of coats, Chinchilly can also come across a fair bit darker than in the bottle- so beware if this is a shade you're thinking of buying!

Russian Roulette disappointed me. The shade itself is just your basic red and looks lovely on the nails. It does leave a little bit of staining on the nails, so if you're lazy like me and sometimes skip out on the base coat, I wouldn't recommend this polish as you'd have tinted nails for a week or so afterwards! Besides the staining, my major gripe about this polish is that it chips so easily. The only redeeming factor is that its a lovely shade and doesn't require more than two coats to have it looking perfect- but just remember that you should take it with you, otherwise it'll look like you've been washing dishes 24/7!

Finally, the two polishes that I was unimpressed with. "Tart Deco" and "Bahama Mama", whilst both having really cute names, didn't quite make me jump for joy when I was wearing them on my nails. Right now I'm wearing Bahama Mama and it's not making me fawn over the colour like I should.

Tart Deco is another raved about colour from the brand. It's a peachy/corally shade that would normally make any girl race home to try it out. That's exactly what I did, removing my last shade with vigour and swiping this over my nails. Afterwards, I was left quietly disappointed with the shade. It just didn't suit my skin tone and just looked far too bright. I even tried it out with a matte top coat and it still didn't look as nice as it does in the bottle. It might just be my opinion, as lots of bloggers tend to love this shade, but I won't be painting my nails this shade for a while. 

Like I said, Bahama Mama is currently on my nails. I painted them yesterday and left them to dry, doing pretty much nothing for roughly an hour so that they would spoil. Thinking that they'd be all dry after having such a long time to settle, I went on a little bit of a cleaning spree and was left with a huge indent on three of my nails. When I bought this colour, it came in a box set with Chinchilly and I didn't really pay it much attention, so I'm not completely dismayed about it. But still, it was very irritating. It's also chipped on a few of the nails, so I'm not impressed by this one.

I hope you liked reading about the different shades in my Essie collection and that it's inspired you to try a few out. Also, turns out Essie is now in Superdrug stores around the UK. If you want to check out Boots, Superdrug and also Essie's website for the different shades on offer, make sure to click the links.

Are there any shades that you really like? Any that you wouldn't recommend? Comment below, as I'm always up for trying new colours in the name of blogging! (Good excuse, right?)