Review: Essie Nail Polish

I rarely splurge on nailpolish for myself.  It’s not that I don’t like the look of nicely polished nails.  I do!   A lot actually.  It’s just that my nails are always a mess.

I cook, I do dishes, I garden, I craft. . . my hands always seem to be in dirt or water or paint.  On top of that I keep my nails pretty short since I type all the time.  Oh, and I have this little quirk where if I break one nail I have to cut them all down to match.  So nice, pretty long nails and I don’t get along very well.

When I do paint them I usually mess up the polish before it even dries, and then all the aforementioned activities tear it up after about a day and a half.  I can’t stand having nasty chipped polish so I clear it all off and that usually is the end of that.

Walmart offered to send me some of the Essie nailpolish that they are now carrying.  I had heard good things about Essie (which until now was only offered in salons) from my more fashionable friends, so I decided to give it a whirl.

When the box arrived there were 4 shades inside:

Beautiful Essie Nailpolish

I thought it was a pretty interesting selection.  Pale pink (Ballet Slippers), a purple (Wicked) so dark it looked almost black in the bottle,  bright red (Fishnet Stockings), and a brown (Mink Muffs).

My grody nails don't deserve this pretty polish.

So I decided to be bold.  I went with the one color I never, not in a million years would have purchased for myself.  The Mink Brown.  I carefully painted on two coats and then made myself sit and watch TV for a half hour without doing ANYTHING with my hands.  I knew I had to take a picture and I didn’t want to mess it up.

Mink Brown. Hmmm.

I have to say that I was not in love with the brown.  Then again-I don’t like it when folks wear blue, green, black, orange etc.  I’m sort of old fashioned that way, I really prefer pink & red tones, maybe a coral if I’m feeling wild and crazy.  The brown did grow on me after a few days-it probably will never be my favorite shade, but I can see wearing it occasionally.

The polish went on smoothly and covered very well with two coats.  I wore it for 4 days before it started getting a bit too nicked for me and I decided to change color.  That’s actually pretty good for me.

Since I was heading off to a wedding on Saturday I decided to replace the Mink Brown with the bright red Fishnet Stockings.

Oooo! Red Polish!

I liked this color a lot, and it lasted again about 4 days before I mangled it enough that I really had to take it off.

All in all, I had a very good experience with the Essie nail polish.  Not only did it cover nicely with two coats, but I thought it came off very easily with nail polish remover (with some brands you really have to scrub).  It is retailing for under $8 at Walmart, is available in 99 colors, is 3-free, contains no formaldehyde, DBP, or Toluene.  Essie is also not tested on animals.

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This post is part of a campaign I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with  compensation and product for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.