Essie Winter 2011: Luxeffects Collection

The Essie Luxeffects Collection is, in my opinion, the most exciting nail collection to hit stores this holiday season. It features five top coats of shimmer, flakies, and chunky glitters guaranteed to spice up any polish already in your collection. These are so. much. fun. If there is only one nail collection you look at this winter, I fervently hope this is it.

L-R: A Cut Above, Set in Stones Shine of the Times, Pure Pearlfiction, As Gold As It Gets

Productivity is all about hitting as many birds as you can with one stone, so I used one of my new Le Metier nail acquisitions as the base color. I'm glad there really is nothing new to add to the conversation in terms of the formula. It's everything you want in a nail polish. The only difference from my usual routine is since Je N'ai Se Quoi has a slightly thicker formula, I left my application at one coat instead of two. 

Je N'ai Se Quoi

Size comparison. Incidentally, Jaded Love (bottom) is an exact dupe for Je N'ai Se Quoi

Je N'ai Se Quoi

Now, the stars of this post. Please ignore the atrocity that is my ring finger and the injured pinky! I botched up my application on the ring finger and was in the process of fixing it, and I... fell down and scraped my pinky while I was coming out of the subway. Um, concentrate on the sparklies!

Set in Stones

Set in Stones

A Cut Above

Set in Stones and A Cut Above are top coats containing different-sized chunks of glitter. These are designed well in that the glitter spreads out evenly in one coat. In retrospect, the blue-green base is perhaps not the best to show off A Cut Above, but I hope you get a sense of how it performs on the nail. A friend of mine tried these on and worried that they made her look like a twelve year old. While I personally don't think so, I can see why she would be worried about wearing it to work.

Pure Pearlfiction

Pure Pearlfiction

As Gold As It Gets

Pure Pearlfiction and As Gold As It Gets are my runner-up favorites of the collection. After all, you know my love of layering! These two polishes are like silver and gold snowflakes, featuring tiny bits of shimmer to add some very interesting dimensions to your base color.

Shine of the Times

Shine of the Times

Shine of the Times is my favorite of the collection, featuring a top coat of copper/gold flakies! Again, the blue-green base is not the best to show this off but I can't stress how great they look, not to mention super fun! Shine of the Times was my first experience with flakies and I have to admit, I might be hooked. I need more of these.

Essie nail polishes retail for $8 at physical retailers, but you can get them at a lower price from select e-tailers. I bought all five of mine as a set from Amazon.