Maychiri's Thoughts: Metallic

ANNY Nail Polish Midi [195.80 - Crazy World] Review

October 14, 2025

Ehhh... another one of these metallic ANNYs, huh? Cannot say I am looking forward to this much... well, this is the ANNY Nail Polish Midi, shade 195.80/Crazy World!

Well... I bought this shade first, so before I knew what the quality level of this whole range was like. Then I ended up buying two more (Digital Giant and Virtual Joke) because I loved what they looked like... and then I tried both of them first and learned that this range is hot garbage. Welp. So I guess I know what to expect from this one then. Anyways, this range of nail polishes consisted of a curated selection of colours that are all inspired by the Metaverse. You know, AI, digital stuff, that kind of thing. And Meta’s own Metaverse I guess! And what other texture better represents these concepts than metallic? Therefore, the name “Metalverse”! I actually really love the colours ANNY picked for this collection; they are all so cool and modern! This one was perhaps the most beautiful one to me because it is not just a metallic violet, it also has silver streaks in it! How unique! I thought that this violet nail polish would be just as good as the first ANNY I bought, how naïve I was. I guess I just love violet/pink nail polishes too much! But let’s see what this polish is like!

Packaging: I just love the bottles ANNY use for their nail polishes! Yes, they are square, but these Midi nail polishes are shorter, so it is a squat little cube of a bottle! It’s so cute how it’s so short and stumpy! There’s also a little step near the cap, which adds some elegance. The bottle feels quite heavy for its size. It’s very light in details, only having the ANNY logo, in white, which stands out nicely. The cap is black, and closes very tightly. A pretty simple bottle, yes, but I still like it!

Source: www.parfuemerie-becker.de

Ingredients: nothing nourishing and 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene), seemingly. I say that, because the ingredients list is annoyingly hard to find. The one I found seems like it’s the right one. The scent is like most other nail polishes, though more acrid, sharp. The expiration date is 24 months after opening.

Brush: this is a relatively short flat brush. However, it is actually the perfect size for most nails! This is because it spreads very wide so it can cover the entire nail in one swipe. This makes it so much easier to apply the nail polish; also, it is very precise, so it isn’t hard to avoid making a mess on the sides of nails. The brush applies the polish super evenly and thickly, but brushstrokes are still an issue – this is the formula’s fault, not the brush’s, though. Oh, just, you have to tap off the excess because this brush picks up an enormous amount of polish. It’s a really fantastic brush, I love it!

Colour: warm toned purple, with quite a bit of red pigments in it. I’d say this is quite violet, no? In terms of named colours, it is pretty close to Pantone’s “Willowherb” and to purpureus/purpura. It is kind of in between true purple and red. In some lighting conditions it even looks fuchsia! I love this colour, and I didn’t think I would! I thought it would look odd on my skintone, but it actually enhances my skintone incredibly well! Though, I do think it would look even better on darker skintones! Still, this is a very elegant colour, unlike the other two, which were just futuristic and cool. This one is that as well, but also, elegant. It is a fantastic colour for spring especially, when lilacs are blooming! Ah right! That’s what this colour reminds me of!

It was on the tip of my tongue this entire time! Yeah, this is a pretty lilac-like colour! Huh! Definitely very fembot, gynoid-like. Like, I could definitely imagine female avatars and female-presenting automatons (gynoids) having this on their fingers! It’s a crazy world indeed out there! And this colour represents that well!

So, here’s the thing. Although this formula feels incredible to use, I am not holding my breath. Why? Because the other two nail polishes from this collection had massive issues. But, objectively speaking, this formula is amazing! It feels super smooth, literally like molten metal! This fits the metallic theme perfectly! It applies completely evenly so it takes no time to make it look good on the nails! It is pretty thin though, which will more than likely cause huge problems. It is also not at all runny. But, just like with the other two ANNYs from this collection, this one, too, suffers from having visible brushstrokes. This happens often to all metallic nail polishes, though.

Oh come on! This shade has the same issue the other two had: the formula starts flaking literally a few hours after applying it. Seriously, what the hell is happening with these nail polishes??? Ugh...

One coat is already plenty enough, since it is completely opaque and the colour looks good. It is also even and the brushstrokes aren’t too visible. I could have left it at this, but since I review all nail polishes with two coats on, I decided to apply a second coat. I know it won’t make much of a difference. And... yep, I was totally right. The second coat adds little; it is still opaque and evenly applied. It just looks a bit “deeper”, like, more 3D. The colour is also a tad more vibrant, but it isn’t absolutely necessary to have 2 coats. Eh. It doesn’t feel thick with two coats, but don’t apply more than 2 because there is no point. The texture is, well, metallic! Well, duh, that was the whole point of this collection haha!

It is so highly metallic that the shine overpowers the base colour; I like this, it plays into the whole cyber/futuristic theme going on. It sure looks digital/cyber/call it what you want. It is also very grainy, but the silver unfortunately isn’t visible. I had hoped the silver would be visible in the grains of the metallic texture. This isn’t quite mirror-like shine, but it is still beaming bright! The graininess has the unfortunate effect of emphasising brushstrokes, especially with two coats on. Shame. Also such a shame that it flakes off so badly because the texture is so cool.

Longevity is non-existent. Seriously. Like, it starts to chip off and flake off within 2 hours! Not even half a day! I am very careful with my nail polishes after I am done painting them, so I always wait at least 2 hours before doing anything harsher with them, but this nail polish still ended up chipping badly before bed. And when I woke up, it was already half-chipped-off, that is atrocious! Of course, this also means that it continued to chip badly over the next few days. It might not look that bad in the photos, but, thing is, two of my nails snapped off before I had the chance to take photos so I had to shorten all of them. This is already the second Metalverse nail polish to cause my nails to snap – and they usually never snap!

So is this damaging to my nails??? What gives?! Anyways, you can see even on freshly shortened nails that it is all chipped off. It is miserable. Such a gorgeous texture and colour but literally zero longevity. Bah. Also, it has that infuriating issue with peeling off the free edges of nails. Even if there wasn’t any chipping, there would be a very noticeable white stripe on the edge of nails. Like, seriously?! Now, it doesn’t get scratched up at all but what use is that when it is already 80% chipped off? So annoying... I really should have waited to try one of these before buying more.

It is extremely easy to remove. I didn’t have to rub my nails a lot to get it all off, thankfully. It also doesn’t make nails yellower.

All in all, another nail polish that, at first, seemed like it would be a good one but that was all a ruse because it is nowhere close to being that. There are things I like with this nail polish, don’t get me wrong, such as the formula or the colour. The formula is actually really high quality when you apply it to the nails! It feels super silky and smooth and takes maybe 2-3 brushstrokes to get it to look good. So that’s good! It also can be worn with just one coat, as it is completely opaque like that. The brush is also really good! It’s a small brush, but it spreads out widely so it can cover most of the nail with just one brushstroke. And the colour is really pretty! A dazzling intense violet with even more intense violet shine. Sadly, the silver streaks aren’t visible, not even in the grains of the metallic texture. This would add an even more cybernetic touch. Oh well. The colour is seriously gorgeous! It reminds me of lilacs, it is the perfect spring violet colour and it looks amazing on pale skin! I just love it! But you know what I hate? The fact that this nail polish has literally zero longevity. It doesn’t last 2 hours before chipping. Freaking fantastic. The morning after I painted my nails, it was completely destroyed, with huge chips on all nails. And what’s even worse is that it peels off the free edge of nails, leaving behind a white stripe of the bare nail. Horrendous! You cannot do anything without it chipping – even if you don’t touch your nails, it will chip off. Catastrophic. It kills me because I was so excited for this collection... I was hoping I’d get a wicked metallic nail polish. Instead, I got a pathetic nail polish that is worse than nail polishes that cost like 1€! It’s baffling how it can be this bad... yeah, you already know I will NOT be giving it a recommendation. How could I, when it is this horrible?

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? NO

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ANNY

ANNY Nail Polish Midi [406.50 - Virtual Joke] Review

October 14, 2025

Oh yay... another one of these metallic ANNYs. Normally, I would be excited, but after the last one? Pah. This is the ANNY Nail Polish Midi, shade 406.50/Virtual Joke!

Oh man, I was sooo excited when I found this ANNY at Müller! That was before I tried out Digital Giant and saw just how atrociously bad this range is. But when I first saw this, I had a tough decision to make: this or a golden pixel glitter Essie? My heart wanted the Essie but this looked literally like jeans! Doesn’t it look like denim in the bottle?? I thought it would be so cool to have denim nails! Denim on denim... on denim nails? Brings a new dimension to “Canadian tuxedo”, haha! Then, later, I realized that this is metallic so it won’t look like denim... but it may look super AI and digital! Which is just as exciting in this age of rapidly evolving artificial intelligence and Metaverse. Virtual Joke is a funny name... just hope it isn’t “nomen est omen”... hope the nail polish won’t end up being a joke. Though, after trying out Digital Giant, chances are very slim – just as slim as me winning 2000 € on those tear-off lotteries. But still, let’s try to be as objective as possible and try this nail polish out, shall we? I have a bad feeling, but, still... let’s go!

Packaging: like other Midi ANNYs, this is a very stout little rectangular bottle. Like a little cube! Very cute! It’s relatively heavy for its size. I like how it has a little step up next to the cap, it adds a touch of elegance. It’s completely bare in terms of details, just the ANNY logo and that’s it. Though the white colour goes very nicely with the blue! The cap is black, which also goes well with the blue. The cap is taller than the bottle! It closes extremely tightly, so no need to worry that the nail polish is going to expire too soon. One thing that bothers me is that there are no ingredients stickers or lists anywhere, and since there are new collections all the time, it can become frustratingly hard to find the ingredients list. But overall, a very cute and elegant bottle! I love how short and stout it is!

Source: [honestly, no idea; it was extremely hard to find]

Ingredients: nothing nourishing and also 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). Can I just say how hard it is to find the ingredients list for any ANNY that isn’t currently available? It’s so frustrating... but onto the scent. It is like any other nail polish, nothing special. Though it may have a slight note of vinegar. It’s also not as intense as most other nail polishes. The expiration 24 whole months after opening.

Brush: relatively short but wide flat brush. It is the perfect size and shape for my nails! Even if you have larger nails, the size should suffice since it spreads out wonderfully. The brush is pretty high quality, not a single story hair and it just feels good to use. It picks up way too much nail polish, so don’t forget to tap off the excess! It applies the polish super evenly, though you have to be somewhat careful because brushstrokes are inevitable and it would be best if you could try to minimise them. However, it is incredibly precise, so this isn’t a problem – nor is avoiding making a mess around the nails! Just such a great brush, I love it!

Colour: very intense deep blue. The base is a darker slightly less vibrant blue, with some purplish pigments in it because it has a definite almost indigo or deep periwinkle quality. It’s extremely hard to properly describe this colour, best I can say is that it looks digital. Like, absolutely like what I would imagine a true Metaverse to look like. The base colour is most similar to a shade of blue called “Liberty”, but the shine is a much brighter shade of blue, since it is metallic, after all. The shine is quite similar to periwinkle. This colours gives off cyborg so much! Even more so than Digital Giant! It’s just so cool and so very futuristic and awesome! And it looks great on pale skin, not a trace of washing out.

Same formula as Digital Giant; it is super silky and smooth and literally feels like molten metal. It is extremely easy to use, though you do gotta watch out for brushstrokes because they can be quite visible here. That’s a problem that is common to most metallic nail polishes, so I am not surprised – doesn’t make it any less of a problem, though! Still, such a lovely formula... would be a shame of it, oh, idk, started flaking a few hours after applying... yeah, that would really be a shame, no?

One coat is already plenty pigmented and completely opaque. You could absolutely leave it like this, or you could apply a second coat. It really looks pretty good with one coat, and I don’t feel like adding a second one is going to do much tbh. It certainly didn’t with Digital Giant. Alright, so, second coat applied and... yeah, I was totally right. There’s barely any change, the colour might be a tad more vibrant now and it might look a bit more ‘deep’, but it’s still just as even and opaque as with the first coat alone. Eh. I test all my nail polishes with two coats, so I had to, but there is no pressing need to apply two if you really don’t want to or are in a hurry. Just don’t apply more than two, there’s 0 need for that.

The texture is, well, metallic. I wish I was more excited for this but how can I be when the mails are already in this kind of state of disrepair? Anyways, it is a very intense metallic texture, with a very high shine to it. It certainly does look cyber, I’ll give it that. There is a very fine graininess to the texture, which further emphasises this high shine. Very cool! But also, it emphasises brushstrokes. It’s not quite a mirror-like shine, but it is still very metallic. Though it doesn’t look quite as much like denim as I had hoped. Lovely texture!

Horrible longevity! Sigh... I saw this coming from 10 miles away, ever since I tested out Digital Giant. Don’t know what’s gone so wrong with this range because ANNYs typically have excellent durability, not thus rubbish, 50 cent quality. And bear in mind, this isn’t the cheapest nail polish around! This makes me even more furious at it for starting to chip within, get this... 2 hours! Yeah, not even half a day! What the evolving hell?! I was careful with my nails but nope, it just refuses to stay on the nails, for some goddamn reason. So frustrating. It’s Digital Giant all over again, but this time, I was prepared for this, so I am less angry and more just disappointed. I’ve got other reasons to be angry and sad anyways (PMDD).

And yup, when I woke up, the nail polish was missing from the free edges... again! Just loooove to see this!! By noon that day, which is approximately 14 hours after applying the nail polish, my nails looked like I had applied the nail polish 10 days ago and was rummaging through stuff with my nails. But I literally did nothing. I slept. I woke up. I washed my face. And already, half of it was gone. Miserable! Huge chunks of it kept coming off over the next 2 days, literally huge pieces all at once. No need to say that a hair wash destroyed it because it absolutely did. So what was I left with by the end? Just a couple of miserable little scraps... I get much better longevity from nail polishes that cost 1/3 of this price. This is absurdly bad. What the hell... and no, I don’t care one bit about the fact that it doesn’t get scratched up – because what is there to get scratched up, anyways?!! Ugh, I am so done...

One good thing is that this nail polish is extremely easy to remove. Just a few swipes and that’s it, no issues whatsoever... unlike with pretty much everything else. It doesn’t seem to stain nails one bit, as well. At least I am ending this on a positive note?

In conclusion, oh this indeed a (virtual) joke... a joke of a nail polish, that is. It’s pathetic. And to think I was so excited to buy it... I thought that it would look like denim and I found that to be way too cool. But it doesn’t. Not one bit. That said, the texture is fairly pretty! I cannot be negative towards everything here, gotta give flowers where they are due, like the texture, formula and colour. The formula is truly silky and super smooth; it applies like a dream, with literally zero effort need to make it look great. It still shocks me that such a high quality formula preceded days of it chipping of in huge flakes. The brush is also extremely good; it is wide and flat and has rounded ends, which helps you apply it evenly across the entire nail. The texture is another thing I really like, though it is hard to appreciate it when half of the nail polish disappears within 24 hours. The very high metallic shine suits this bright, almost denim blue perfectly – even better than the silver of Digital Giant! This looks even more digital and like, cyborg-ish. Idk why, but this colour and texture just scream Metaverse! So, theme nailed, I guess. However, one caveat with the texture is that it suffers from having very visible brushstrokes. This is typical for most metallic nail polishes, but just because it is a common occurrence does not mean that it is suddenly not an issue. And that is it in terms of good. Yikes. See, this nail polish is complete trash in terms of any sort of longevity – which is the most important metric. Because, I mean, you would want to be able to have this nail polish for some time, no? It’s way too pretty to just start losing it overnight, right? Well, too bad because that is exactly what happens. It is a carbon copy of Digital Giant, especially in terms of flaws. So, this shade, too, retracts from the free edges of nails in a matter of hours. But it also starts to chip within a few hours – isn’t that great? So, when I woke up, my nails were already chipped off. It took another 3 hours for the nail polish to start to chip off in huge flakes. So, by that afternoon, it was already destroyed. This was not even 24 hours after applying the damn polish. So how could I enjoy that lovely metallic shine or that gorgeous blue colour if 50% of it is simply gone? I am still baffled, like, what the hell happened with this entire collection that the polishes are literally garbage quality??? I know metallic nail polishes tend to have more problems but this is just absurd. I don’t think that even a base or top coat would save this, it’s just too horrible to be saved. And this pisses me off because I picked this over an Essie! I legitimately thought this would be at least just as good as that Essie. How foolish of me... this’ll teach me to buy variants before even trying out the first shade. Bah, what a waste of time. And yes, one of my nails broke off before bed, so that’s just adding salt onto the wound. Even my nails don’t want this nail polish... I am so pissed. No recommendation EVER. Not for Digital Giant, not for Virtual Joke. I just wish this was a joke and not the reality...

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? Hell NO

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ANNY

ANNY Nail Polish Midi [322.50 - Digital Giant] Review

October 14, 2025

Oh my! Another ANNY, because I am kinda hooked on them! This is the ANNY Nail Polish Midi, in the shade 322.50/Digital Giant!

Ah, judging by the names of the polishes in this collection, this is a Metaverse-inspired collection, yes? All 6 shades part of this collection have very cyber-like names. This makes me excited! Makeup inspired by the cyber-world tends to be very interesting! I had a very hard time deciding whether I should get this silvery shade or the brassy Meta(l) Hero... but I figured that silver would suit my skintone better than that greenish gold would. And it’s a classic anyways. You can’t go wrong with metallic silver... right? I sure hope so! The previous ANNY I used wasn’t metallic, so I don’t know what their metallic formulas are like... so time to find out! I cannot wait to try this out, especially after seeing Fantastic Four: First Steps in the theatre! I am feeling distinctly silvery right now and this nail polish is looking like it may scratch that itch perfectly! Now, let’s immerse ourselves into the digital frontier and test out this, hopefully great, nail polish!

Packaging: cute little cuboid bottle! I love the form factor of the Midi ANNYs, it is so stout and adorable! It is relatively heavy for its small size. I like the addition of the little step up next to the cap, it adds some geometric elegance to an otherwise simple bottle. No details whatsoever, apart from the ANNY logo, which is white – despite this being a metallic silver nail polish, the white is clearly visible. Still, I think that the black of the cap fits better. The cap closes extremely tightly, to prevent unnecessary drying out. Simple, but cute!

Source: [cannot remember for the life of me]

Ingredients: nothing nourishing, 3-free (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). Assuming that I found the right ingredients list, which is harder than it may seem for ANNYs. Seriously, good luck finding it for older nail polishes. The scent is like any other nail polish, with a hint of vinegar. Though it is less intense than other nail polishes. The expiration date is 24 months after opening.

Brush: oh, what a great little brush! I cannot remember whether the previous ANNY I used had this kind of brush, but in any case, this brush is amazing! It picks up a ton of nail polish, so you’d do well to tap off the excess, or you might make a mess. As long as there is a right amount of polish on the brush, it doesn’t make any messes around the nails. It is super precise, so you can carefully paint the nails to try and avoid the dreadful brushstrokes (that will happen regardless) as much as possible. The brush applies the nail polish perfectly evenly and thickly and it just turns out perfect with little effort! Oh, how I love this brush!

So, this is a very bright metallic gray, but I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s silver. To me, this is more of a platinum gray, or an aluminium gray. Oh, exactly! This looks like aluminium foil! That’s what it was reminding me of! It was wrecking my brain for so long, haha! In any case, it is a metallic silver colour, which goes fantastically with the whole theme of the Metaverse and cyber-stuff. It really is giving hacker-core. This is a completely neutral undertone silvery gray. There’s really nothing too special about it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t stunning! Because it very much is! So blindingly metallic and beaming gray, I just love it! And it doesn’t wash me out or clash with my skintone. It is so cool, wow! I really do feel like a digital giant with this nail polish on!

Oh my god, this formula! It’s legit perfect! Like, it feels like an expensive nail polish! It is extremely silky and smooth and so goddamn amazing to use, I just adore it! It applies evenly, with not a lot of brushstrokes, which is amazing because this is a metallic nail polish at the end of the day. And speaking of, it literally feels like I am applying a coat of molten, liquid metal on my nails! Though it does feel a bit thin... hope this doesn’t cause problems.

One coat was already pretty much opaque and it looked perfectly even and thick. Honestly, I would have left it at this, but I always test with two coats, so two coats it is! The second coat did not do much, it just made the colour slightly more vibrant and made it look a bit thicker and richer. But it’s still completely opaque and even, although I am starting to notice some brushstrokes. This is typical for metallic nail polishes, so I am not too fussed over it. It would be better if they weren’t present but eh, it is what it is. The texture is highly metallic, with a very fine graininess to it. It does look like molten metal! And very, like, cybernetic! Cool!

Okay, well, what the hell?! I am seriously angry right now... ANNY, what has gone wrong with this nail polish?! I am used to ANNYs lasting for like a week with no damage so why the hell does this nail polish start chipping off within the first 12 hours. Yes, you read that right, not even a full day after applying it, and it is already in a sorry state. See the photos, that should say enough. Now, to be completely transparent, these photos weren’t taken the morning after painting my nails but the following one; it doesn’t matter, because it was in pretty much the same state the day before. So I don’t want to hear any: “But May, you should have taken a photo on the morning after!!!” No, because it doesn’t matter. In fact, it started being damaged a few hours after painting my nails.

I was really gentle with it, trying not to touch it too much, but before bed, I noticed that it felt off on most of the nails on the free edge. Indeed, when I woke up, I found that on all nails, it had receded from the free edge... reminder that this was like 14 hours after painting the damn nails. It just slid right off the free edge. Why??! What the hell! And then, literally an hour later, I saw the first chipping... oh how fabulous, how well and truly fabulous. To pay ~10 € and have this sort of “longevity”, that nail polishes that cost 1 € far surpass? What a joke. And I am the butt of it. I am so pissed. It continued flaking off in large flakes over the next 24 hours, until it was time to remove it. Before a hair wash, it was so damaged that some nails barely had any nail polish left on them.

Of course, a hair wash destroyed what little was left of the nail polish. Well, silver (~~heh~~) lining is that now it will be easier to remove it – because there isn’t any nail polish left! What misery. Just a disaster. Ugh. This ain’t it, ANNY. But one good thing is that this nail polish doesn’t really get scratched up... what use is that when most of it will be gone anyways within 48 hours? Like, I know metallic nail polishes can be tricky to nail, but this is flat-out horrendous.

Extremely easy to remove, especially once 90% of it disappears from the nails. But even there where the nail polish stayed, it is super easy to remove. Just a few swipes with remover and that’s it. Thank god, because I don’t want to deal with this miserable nail polish anymore.

All in all, well, this was a huge waste of time. I don’t get it, I truly don’t. The previous ANNY had spectacular quality, where has that gone? Instead of lasting until the cows come home, proverbially speaking, it lasts all of maybe 2 hours before it starts to either chip or retract from the free edges of nails. I don’t know which of these irritates me more tbh. Both are serious problems. I woke up and all the nails had visible fading on the free edges, like, I could see how far up the nail polish slid! This is unacceptable! And it’s not user error because guess what? 99% of nail polishes don’t do this! Gah! What’s even worse is that it starts to chip within like 15 hours. And it’s not just some tiny chipping that I am making a huge fuss over – I am talking huge flakes coming off one at a time, until the nail only has a tiny smidge of nail polish left... how is this the ANNY quality that I knew from the previous nail polish? Or was that one the aberration, and this is the standard? Honestly, it might have everything to do with the metallic texture – wouldn’t be the first time a metallic nail polish started chipping within the first 24 hours, that’s for sure! Something about the metallic formula just doesn’t work half the time. I don’t know what it is, but I hate it because I love me a good metallic nail polish. And trust me, aside from the longevity being in the rubbish, this is a very gorgeous nail polish! I love the almost aluminium foil silver colour and how it is so bright and in-your-face! Although, again, like many other metallic nail polishes, it suffers from terribly visible brushstrokes, which isn’t ideal at all. The formula felt perfect while I was applying it... maybe I should’ve known that that might be too good to be true. And the brush is so amazing, like, it was all going so well, so smoothly, and then... disaster. Nosedive into disaster. To say I am mad would be an understatement because this did not cost like 1 or 2 euro, so I expected the quality to represent that, but alas. Instead, I got a lousy piece of garbage. Nope, no chance in hell would I ever recommend this one, it is simply terrible. Ugh...

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? Hell NO

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Essence

Essence Yee Haw! Jumbo Eye Crayon [01 - Big Dreams In Big Boots] Review

August 03, 2025

Let’s end the Yee Haw! LE with something that isn’t a lip product – this is the Essence Yee Haw! Jumbo Eye Crayon, shade 01/Big Dreams In Big Boots!

Oh my god! Ever since I first saw this crayon I knew I had to have it! It’s got a little cowboy hat, eeee! How mega cute is that??? I like the colour as well; I like golden shimmers on my eyes and how they typically mesh with my skintone. Plus, with it being a thicc crayon, applying the eyeshadow should be a breeze! See how excited I am for this? I really, really am – and the previous items being pretty good is a good omen for sure, right? Surely, this last item won’t be bad? Well, I am positively shaking in my (cowboy) boots to try this out finally! So let’s see what it’s like – I am dying to find out!

Reminder that you can see a video of the swatch on my Instagram Reel here!

Packaging: so, this is an eye crayon but jumbo sized! And they meant that! It is sooo thick and wide! I love the soft brown colour of the crayon, it totally gives off leather and cowboy vibes! The darker gold text is gorgeous but it is a bit hard to read because it blends with the brown colour. You have to angle it towards light just to read it clearly. Whatever, I don’t mind this too much. The colour of the text looks quite similar to the lead. The crayon is made of plastic but it doesn’t feel cheap, not really. I wonder if this is a retractable or sharpenable pencil... oh! It’s a retractable one. The retracting mechanism is very smooth and precise and holds its position very nicely. It feels quite high quality! I love the Western font they used and the little cowboy boots!

But this isn’t the only cowboy-themed detail here... check out that cap! Oh man, that is just soooo cute!!! It’s clear and plastic but it looks like a lil cowboy hat! Awww! So this crayon is a dapper lil cowboy with that hat on! I wonder if this would fit a LEGO person... hmm. Seems a bit wide for that, no? In any case, I fully plan to cut it just so that I have the hat alone. For what purpose? Oh I have no idea, but I want to do it! I just want to have this little clear plastic hat! Anyways, the cap closes extremely tightly, with a very satisfying ‘click’ once it has been closed properly. I am really impressed with the design, wow, this is sooo cool!

Source: www.essence.eu

Ingredients: vitamin E for nourishment. No parabens. Also, it’s got castor oil (hydrogenated). Lots of mica, it seems – well, it is shimmery, after all! The scent is barely noticeable, maybe a bit powdery. And a bit creamy. The expiration date is 18 months after opening.

Colour: gold. But a slightly orangeish kind of gold, as it does look a bit toasty. Almost like rose gold. Ah! This colour is a very close match to Crayola’s "gold", but slightly more vibrant and intense. It's got quite a lot of orange pigments in it, which reminds me a lot of old hay that’s been out in the sun. How very cowboy! It’s a fantastic colour for summer, matching the summer sunsets and heat. However, here’s the problem: it barely shows up on my skin. Damn. I mean, you can see it, but it’s not a vibrantly golden as I would have liked it to be. What a shame :( ... I guess this is one more item that is meant for tanned skin, but not all of us want to have that dark skin... oh well, if I use it with a lighter and darker gold, it will look good, I’m sure.

Ooh, this is one greasy formula! It is very creamy and so very soft! It also feels somewhat heavy on the eyelids, and a bit occlusive. Not the most comfortable formula around, and I can already tell that it’s not going to be on good terms with my oily eyelids. The creamier a formula is, the more it creases on my oily eyelids is the general rule. Hope this doesn’t happen here, I was so excited for this. But, this creaminess allows it apply better. So, you know, there’s a bit of good and a bit of bad. But I think I would prefer a slightly drier formula.

Soo... remember how I said that the formula is super soft? Well, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. Bad, because it is quite fragile. The pencil fell once and it broke from the base. Man... :( ... I had only used it once by then. But not all is lost! Such soft formulas are pliable – with heat! What I did was probably not exactly recommended, but it was the only way to salvage the pencil.

I retracted the pencil all the way down and then separated the broken off piece, warmed both it and the base with a lighter until the waxes started to melt and “glued” them back together, pressing down until the waxes started cooling. This has, so far, kept the pencil from breaking again. So just a heads up: be careful with this pencil as the lead likes to break! UPDATE: the lead is breaking again, seems like it cannot be glued with heat, not for a longer time at least... damn.

Such a soft, creamy formula is a dream to apply! It just glides across eyelids without ever tugging at them. And that’s without any sort of eyeshadow base. It applies better to bare skin, though. You don’t even need to press harder to get a nice thick, pigmented layer; a soft touch is more than enough. And it applies so incredibly evenly! It can look a bit chunky in places if you pressed too hard, but mostly it is smooth like molten gold. I love how simple it is to apply! Just swipe and go! If you are careful, there’s little need to even blend it out! It just ends up looking awesome from the start!

Ah, but it’s not too precise. After all, this is a jumbo pencil, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Obviously, this is meant to be used to swipe colour across the entire eyelid, not make graphic eyeliner looks with it. That’s what fine-tip pencils are for. I don’t mind it not being precise, it is easy enough to get an even look on both eyes without having to spend a long time perfecting it. It truly is beginner-friendly in the best way!

Again, the positives of having such a creamy formula continue to show! This pencil is extremely easy to blend out – too easy, even, as you can quickly go from ‘perfectly blended out’ to overblended, which can make it look messy and uneven. So be careful how you blend it! It seems like fingers are the way to go, they lead to a more natural blended out effect compared to a brush, which can overblend sooner. But like I said, oftentimes, there is little need to blend it out in the first place so... see how there’s both positives and negatives?

This is a very shimmery eyeshadow! It’s practically metallic, which goes fabulously with the golden colour! However, the shimmer can be rather chunky sometimes, which is not ideal. Most of the time, it is fine enough, though still obviously textured. Like, grainy. And it’s completely opaque, even if the colour might look sheer on me. But nope, it’s covered all the veins so it’s obviously opaque! I must say that I really like the texture, it looks almost like molten gold! So awesome!

Despite feeling so greasy at first, which is uncomfortable, it dries down into a drier, more comfortable formula. I can still feel it on my eyelids, but it doesn’t feel like a greasy mess anymore. It actually feels incredibly lightweight! Hmm... wonder if that’s got something to do with the longevity because it is weird that it’s changed so much and why I can’t feel it anymore...

Longevity unfortunately sucks. This is all because the formula is just too creamy, so it starts to crease within literally minutes. Now, yes, I have very oily eyelids (and skin in general), so most creamy or liquid formulas tend to be... problematic for me. But to see it crease within 5 minutes? Now, that’s just unacceptable. And I tried to wear it on top of a powdery eyeshadow, on top of foundation as eyeshadow base (which yes, works, 90% of the time), and on bare skin.

It doesn’t matter, it still creases badly no matter how you apply it. This is very bad. It honestly makes the pencil unwearable. And it will make anything under it crease as well, so... like, what’s the point? And it’s not like there’s just a bit of creasing – it is extremely bad, like, 50% of the eyeshadow disappears within 10 minutes, leaving just 2 lines where it collected in the crease. This makes me so sad. And so disappointed.

I was really looking forward to this pencil, thinking that it would give a nice golden shimmery glow to my eyelids but what I got in the end is a creased up mess... Of course, I have no idea how it lasts on dry skin, but it is likely a similar problem. If not, then... sigh, another item that only oily skin cannot wear – and there’s plenty of us with oily skin, so this is very annoying. I am so pissed off... Oh, I almost forgot to mention: this pencil does not tolerate water at all. Or touching it. Basically, any sort of contact and it will slide right off. And it’s not just that it creases; it fully disappears by the end of the day. All that’s left are two tiny stripes where it creased. Completely unwearable...

This pencil is extremely easy to remove. Yes, it is super shimmery, but the shimmer doesn’t explode everywhere... most of the time. It is equally easy to remove with micellar water or with a specialised remover, the only difference being that makeup remover gel or such remove the shimmer more effectively so it doesn’t spread everywhere. But you can avoid that with micellar water as well, with a bit of care. Also, no staining or any other sign that the pencil ever was on the lids! Oh I do love when shimmery eye products are this easy and painless to remove!

Okay, so this might be a horrible idea. I am going to try to sharpen this pencil because, in the process of gluing back the lead, the tip has become flatter than Earth, according to flat-Earthers. Fingers crossed! Yeah... no. Not because sharpening the lead damages it but because it cannot even fit inside a sharpener! The outer case is too wide to fit a standard wide-pencil sharpener. This might have saved me from making a HUGE mistake. But, unfortunately, this also means that, once the tip becomes blunt, that’s it. Oh well, not like this is meant for precise lining anyways.

All in all, well, this was a wreck. “Surely, it won’t be bad” she said. Yeah, suuure. I don’t like to end on such a bad note. Look, I wanted to love this pencil, I really did. I was giddy with excitement ever since I first saw it, and became even more excited once I bought it. But that all quickly deflated once I actually started using the pencil. When I swatched it for my Reels (here & here), it all looked okay, but literally 5 minutes later, as I was done filming, I looked at the mirror and... oh god, the amount of creasing that had already happened. And remember, maybe 10 minutes had passed! I get that I have oily eyelids but it should be able to stay in at least decent shape – especially if it is applied on a base, not on bare skin. But no, however much I tried, I couldn’t get it to stay crease-free. On top of foundation? Nope. On top of powdery eyeshadow, so that it has a powdery base? Big fat NO. It’s just unusable. That’s the sad reality of it. I cannot even express how sad and disappointed I felt when I realised that I won’t be able to use this pencil. I believe that it’s all due to that creamy, greasy formula that, at first, felt so good to use. It applies very evenly, it is extremely easy to blend out, and it is actually very pigmented (even though the colour doesn’t show well on my skintone). It all seemed well... but, the formula is oily, my eyelids are oily. Ergo, disaster waiting to happen. Oil dissolves in oil after all. It’s also such a shame that this colour barely shows on me... I wanted a nice golden shimmer, but what I get is a barely-there straw-light gold kind of colour with some chunky shimmer. Which is a lovely colour on its own, but it just isn’t suited for pale skin. Which has been a recurring issue for Cosnova recently. Why is it so bloody difficult to make stuff that is suited for more than just tan skin? Oh also, the thing that angers me the most is how delicate and fragile the lead is. I know, makeup isn’t meant to tolerate falls, but for the entire lead to snap off at the first fall? And then be impossible to fully glue back together using a lighter? Like, what gives??? So yeah, this was a misery. I just feel so sad and defeated... the second most-excited-for item in this LE and it is a complete botch-job. Great. Just flipping great. No, I won’t recommend it. I cannot. No matter how cute it is and how adorable the cowboy hat is, it is pretty much unusable, so how can I recommend something like this? Bugger...

Rating: 3/10

Would buy again? Very sadly, NO 😥

[Recommended listening 🎶: Taylor Swift – I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)]

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