Essie

Essie Nail Polish [1 - Blanc] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - April 20, 2025

Okay, get ready for something high-end now! This is the Essie Nail Polish, shade 1/Blanc (makes sense to have the first shade to be the literally lightest colour)!
 
 
I have wanted to have an Essie nail polish for what seems like forever! It’s high-end, which means that it has always been just too expensive for me. After buying a few OPIs I really wanted to see how good Essies are, in comparison. If only I could get one at a discount… thank god for DM! Err – actually, it’s a shame because they seem to be getting rid of Essie in general; that’s why they slashed the price down to 50%. I originally wanted a nude light brown colour but they were selling out so fast I just took whichever colour (that isn’t red) I could get my hands on in time! Interestingly enough, this white Essie stayed for quite some time – enough for me to go to DM and grab it. Dunno why people slept on it – white is such an awesome colour for nail polishes! And one I absolutely adore, so I felt chuffed to finally have an Essie of my own – a white one, at that! All for like 5 euro, which is a superb price! I’m so excited, so let’s see what it’s like!
 
 
Packaging: classic regular Essie nail polish design. The bottle looks quite fancy and expensive. It is very heavy for its size! It is rectangular, but looks kinda short and chubby. The cap closes very tightly; it is pure white, just like the polish itself, in this case. The cap makes sure no air gets in, which means the polish lasts longer before drying. Also, this is where you will find the name of the shade, I’m used to it being either in the back or on the bottom so it took some time for me to find it at first. The text is white… let me remind you at this time that the polish is white as well. Yup. While the text is whiter than the polish, it is still very difficult to read. There is one more detail that I really like: there’s an embossed Essie logo on the sides; I feel like this makes the bottle look even more classy! Such a gorgeous bottle!
 
 
 
Ingredients: there are no nourishing ingredients and it is free from DBP, formaldehyde and toluene, but it has colophonium/rosin, which is a known allergen that can cause asthma or dermatitis. Fortunately, I do not have any ill effects from it, but it is a thing to consider. The scent is… oh god, is it intense! Essie isn’t fooling around! It’s extremely chemical and intense, even a small whiff (although, directly from the bottle) causes me to start coughing. Lesson learned: do not sniff Essie nail polishes! Gotcha! The expiration date is 24 months after opening.
 
 
 
The brush is flat, relatively thin and somewhat elongated. It’s a good shape to paint the entire nail easily. It’s an excellent brush! It does pick up a large amount of polish, waaay more than you need for even 3 nails, so don’t forget to tap off the excess. Seriously, because the formula isn’t too forgiving when it comes to overly thick coats (more on that in a bit). While it is easy to use, it can get a bit messy on the sides due to the formula being thick. It applies polish as evenly as it can, but the formula is, again, a bit problematic in this regard. The brush does everything it can to ensure you get a professional finish, it usually manages to do that quite well in the end!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Colour: white. That’s it. Just pure white. It does look kinda like correction fluid! Very pretty! I am always surprised by how good white nail polish looks on my pale skin, no matter how many different white nail polishes I try.
 
 
 
 
 
The formula is definitely a step above the previous nail polishes I used! It’s creamy and thick but not at all goopy. It’s creamy and silky at the same time! It really feels high-end – and it makes my usually bad-looking cuticles look good! But it is thick, that’s for sure! Much thicker than the other Essie I bought some time later. It’s not at all an annoying formula to use, you just have to make sure you are working with very thin layers. If you don’t, and you apply even a slightly thicker coat, it has a tendency to develop bubbles while drying. I had a lot of bubbles on a few of my nails – most notably, those where I fiddled around with the polish trying to get it to look right, which meant applying more coats than necessary. 
 
 
 
I would like it more if it were a bit more silky and just a smidge less thick – like the formula Essie Spring 2022 Collection Nail Polish, shade 836/Keep Branching Out has. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a good formula, but it is definitely creamy and thick so you have to be skilled to use it perfectly.
 

 
It’s fairly opaque with one coat but it is not very even at all. It definitely needs a second coat! It’s just messy with one coat. Not what I expected at this price level. It’s extremely streaky and just looks ugly. But with two coats it suddenly becomes flawless! A true ugly duckling story! It’s perfectly even and looks thick and rich and intensely white! It’s completely opaque and, despite the formula being so creamy, it does not look too thick with two coats. Even if the coats themselves are on the thick side. Now it’s blinding white! The texture is highly glossy, although this may not be as visible on this white colour as on any darker colour.
 
 
 
 
Longevity is quite fantastic, I must admit! I forgot to remove it when I should have, so I left it be on my nails for a week. Alright, so 8 days later it does look bad, but it is 8 days of, well, life! And not one, but two hair washes! 5 days in, when I should have removed it, it was in great condition. No scratches and barely any chipping; there were only a couple of tiny chips on a few nails, and that was after the first hair wash. It kept chipping more and more with each passing day, and the second hair wash was the last straw. The fact it managed to last this long, even with all the chips, is astounding! Now if only it didn’t develop bubbles...
 
 
 
 
Removal: not very difficult at all. It doesn’t take a lot of rubbing to remove it fully, although it may take a bit of time to break through it initially. Once you do, though, it’s smooth sailing and you will be done in no time! It doesn’t seem to have caused my nails to become any yellowed, though, truth be told, they are already pretty yellow from a previous nail polish. They don’t seem to be any more yellow, which is great! Though a protective base coat wouldn’t hurt.
 
 
 
 
 
All in all, this is a gorgeous white nail polish! It is pure white, which is always a stunning look on light skin! It really looks deluxe and expensive – at least until you look closer. Yup, despite all the prestige of being an Essie, it has some notable issues that really shouldn’t be there. Firstly, the formula. It is creamy and luxurious, sure, but you really have to apply paper-thin coats in order to prevent it from developing a ton of bubbles. I ended up with a slightly thick finish on a few nails; those exact same nails had the most bubbles. Indeed, it can be slightly clunky to use sometimes, because it’s so rich and creamy. It becomes goopy rather quickly which makes it impossible to fix mistakes without ending up with a thick coat that will, inevitably, cause bubbles. This is a formula made for skilled people, definitely. Also, it’s horribly uneven with just one coat. It really looks bad and not at all what a polish of this price should look like. However, this is easily fixed by applying a second coat (as long as it a very thin one), which makes it look perfectly even and rich and glossy – did I mention that it is highly glossy? Because it truly is! Although it’s not as visible on pure white as it is on darker colours. The longevity is truly spectacular! 8 days later and it’s still holding on. It’s massively chipped of course, since 8 days is a looong time, but it managed to stay almost untouched on a few nails. Hair washes don’t harm it too much, it usually only chips a tiny bit after a hair wash. Besides the bubbles, there are no other problems with it as it is pretty difficult to scratch it up! No matter what I did, there were no scratches, which kept the glossy finish preserved! And it did not leave any yellow stains, not that I expected it to, but still. I do love the way it looks on my nails, but this isn’t my first pure white nail polish – or the second. Out of all the pure white nail polishes I have so far, I must admit that this one does not reign supreme. The BEL London white polish is definitely still a step above this one, all while costing a fraction of what an Essie does. See, I expected more from an Essie. The bubbles are a horrible problem that really shouldn’t be present in a high-end nail polish. But it is. I also expected the formula to be more silky, not quite so creamy. Look, I am happy with this nail polish, but I do still feel some disappointment with it. Like, it’s very good, when it should be great. I will recommend it, solely because of it’s glossy finish and extreme longevity, but it’s not an instant recommendation. Although, the other Essie I ended up buying later is definitely better, but that is a story for another time! 



Rating: 7.5/10
 
 
Would buy again? YES (why not, it’s not horrible)


 

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