Essie Fall 2013 “For The Twill of It” Nail Polish Swatches & Review
If there’s one takeaway from my encounters over the years with Essie founder, Essie Weingarten, it’s that she loves fashion and color. Of all her seasonal collections, it’s the Essie Fall color palettes that express that best. Inspired by the textures and fabrics of the season, the Essie Fall 2013 “For The Twill of It” nail colors are rich, chic and utterly Essie.
Essie Fall 2013
“I love the idea of creating polish that’s like the proverbial boyfriend sweater – in this case, a blazer borrowed from the boys,” says brand founder and Global Creative Director Essie Weingarten. “Creating nail color with a warm and fuzzy feeling can be tricky,” Weingarten explains. “But when you get it right, it really is like putting on your favorite sweater.” Transferring the soft volumes and rich woolens of the fall runways, essie offers six seductively tactile shades that radiate beautifully tailored warmth.
Formula & Application: Essie is a 3-Free brand. The square bottles are embossed with the Essie logo and the smooth plastic caps include an embossed ‘e’ on top. The brushes are thin, round and shorter than most. The bristles are very flexible, allowing you to easily fan out the brush to cover your nail width.
The Essie formula has a squishy, watery texture that glides on the nail allowing for precise application. One of the major benefits of the Essie consistency, and a reason I’m a fan, is that it self levels. So even when you think you jacked up a nail with uneven application, give it a minute and the polish will settle out.
Even though this collection contains a range of finishes, from creme to metallic, they are all pigment-rich providing full coverage in two coats. In the image below, Twin Sweater Set shows a bit of VNL (visible nail line) but, in person, it’s not there.
Essie After School Boy Blazer is an inky, navy blue creme. Unlike a lot of blues, where you see either black or teal in the base, this one is pure blue. Unfortunately, it dries REALLY dark. We’re talking almost-black territory.
Essie After School Boy Blazer
Essie Cashmere Bathrobe is a charcoal grey filled with crystal glass flecks. It’s a pretty neutral grey in that it doesn’t have a strong green, blue or brown pull in its base. The finish is similar to what I swooned over in the Essie Summer “Naughty Nautical“ collection. The glass flecks are even more prominent in darker shades and I LOVE that!
Essie Cashmere Bathrobe
I would say that Essie For The Twill of It is a unique flower if it wasn’t an exact match to OPI Peace & Love & OPI. We are talking IDENTICAL. This multi-chrome, shade-shifting metallic flashes teal, magenta and a silvery brown. Because it’s a metallic, brush marks can be an issue so use careful strokes.
Essie For The Twill Of It
Essie The Lace Is On is a vivid fuchsia shimmer peppered with smooth glitter. The pearlescent finish has the depth of car paint. It literally glows.
Essie The Lace Is On
Essie Twin Sweater Set is a cool-based crimson creme. You can see a lot of magenta on the first coat but it deepens and becomes more red on the second coat.
Essie Twin Sweater Set
Essie Vested Interest is a greyed teal creme. To me, it’s the blue version of Essie Sew Psyched and sure to be a big hit this fall.
Essie Vested Interest
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Saran Wrap Manicure and For The Twill Of It is too fun not to experiment with. I thought the teal in Twill would play well off of Vested Interest for a subtle version of this marbled style.
How To
1. Apply two coats of Vested Interest and let it dry completely. 2. Cut pieces of plastic wrap into squares and ball them up, creating a textured surface. 3. Apply cuticle oil or lip balm to surrounding skin for easier cleanup. 4. Apply a coat of For The Twill Of It and tap the plastic wrap ball on the nail to create the texture. 5. Let dry, then seal with top coat.
Marble Nail Art with Plastic Wrap
Saran Wrap Manicure with Essie Fall 2013
For a different take on the look, use a matte top coat, like Essie Matte About You.
Saran Wrap Manicure with Essie Matte About You
Bottom Line: I can see myself sporting Vested Interest a lot this fall and For The Twill Of It is gorgeous and a total must-have. That is, if you don’t have the OPI version, of course. The subtle sparkle in Cashmere Bathrobe is my favorite Essie finish of late and even though it’s not my normal style, I can’t get over the glow of The Lace Is On. Twin Sweater Set and After School Boy Blazer are fine but not special enough to recommend buying.
Essie Fall 2013 “For The Twill of It” is available now at salons and mass retailers nationwide and online at Beauty.com, Nordstrom.com, Target.com and Zappos.com (with free shipping). Essie nail polish retails for $8/ea for a .5oz bottle.
So, what do we think of these new Essie colors? Are any of them going on your shopping list? What do you think of my Saran Wrap Manicure? Is this a look you would try?
Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for Essie. Affiliate links appear via rewardStyle and Skimlinks. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
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On the bottle, I thought this collection wasn’t particularly special, but now that I’ve seen them on your nails…. I agree, the glass flecks in Cashmere Bathrobe looks so good!! Swoon!!
I’m right there with you. The bottle color doesn’t do them justice.
For The Twill of It is lovely, so lovely. And completely with you on Cashmere Bathrobe. I may just have to bite the bullet and buy these.
Do it! You won’t regret it
Very pretty! Love the duochrome!
Thanks!
I fell in love with For the Twill of it and brought it home, only to discover that it also has another dupe besides the OPI! It was identical to Julep Blakely, so back to Ulta it went. (I would have kept the essie, as I prefer their brush, but the Julep was from a Maven box and non returnable.) It looks like it would be such a unique polish, too!
A Vested Interest is very “me”, but I feel like it’s probably similar to School of Hard Rocks…. ?
Twin Sweater Set is calling out to the squishy jelly lover that I SO am, but again I have Jelly Apple, so I don’t know… Oh Essie, you keep making polishes that seem so similar to previous ones, but they still draw me in! Something about that essie bottle makes it hard for me to refuse!
Thanks for sharing your dupe find. I have a feeling it’s going to be a heavily duped pigment like when OPI Catch Me In Your Net, Zoya Charla and Orly Halley’s Comet all came out at the same and then even more brands duped it.
I just found out that Kohls carries Essie nail polish! And a large variety of colors. Which is awesome because they are always having those 20% off coupons!
These colors are really pretty!
Oh, I didn’t even think of that. Thanks for sharing.
Michelle, I just love these colors! And your photos are excellent! I have to admit that my jaw dropped at After School Boy Blazer. Wow.
Thank you Susan! I’m flattered
I recently reviewed “For the Twill of it” and “Cashmere Bathrobe” on my website — not typically colors I would wear, but I agree with you — they are fantastic! Vested Interest is next on my wishlist – can’t wait to try it, and LOVE your saran wrap manicure!
Thank you! It’s not as big of a contrast as most saran wrap manis but I like it.
Cashmere Bathrobe looks so much more interesting in your swatch than I imagined. Disappointing that After School Boy Blazer is so dark. I am hoping to add some more blues to my collection.
Yeah, I had hoped it would be lighter as well.
Nice pictures, this is a really good collection from essie
Thanks Terri!
Essie totally nailed it with For The Twill Of it. This is THE color of fall 2013. I got mine, get yours!
I agree!
I’m mostly into OPI, so I only have 2 bottles of Essie polish so far. I saw a couple of these new colors at Walgreens the other day and was tempted to get “For the Twill of It”. But it looks so similar to the OPI “Peace Love & OPI” polish I just bought recently from their Fall 2013 San Francisco collection. Can you possibly do a comparison of the two?
haha! I just noticed that you already mentioned the fact that the two are dupes. I was only looking at the photos before.
Some of the other colors might be possibilities though….
No worries! I’m happy you found the answer.
I just got done doing my nails with the twill of it and I love this color!!!! I have to say I wasn’t super impressed by any of the other colors at the store. However, now seeing the swatches I’m gonna need the lace is on and cashmere bathrobe.
Yeah, Cashmere Bathrobe does itself no favors in the bottle.
After School Boy Blazer is hot. I’m going to have to track that one down.
Do it!
With all of the positive reviews for “the twill of it ” I’m beginning to wonder if I got a bad batch. I thought it looked gorgeous in the bottle. I expected it to look just like your nails. However, after very careful application, I can honestly say that I’m disappointed. Not only is it not multi-colored at all..it is a really ugly purple color.
I’m sorry to hear that Lorrie. I know that sometimes a bad batch of polish goes out or one that is inconsistent. OPI Bubble Bath is a great example of that. There a multiple versions of that color. OPI My Private Jet as well. I would take it back and see if you can get another bottle.
Michelle
Thanks for your reply! I’m going to take your advice!
You’re welcome Lorrie! Let me know how it turns out
awesome review and pics!! I got the entire collection at Kohl’s several weeks ago. I wasn’t gonna buy the twin sweater or lace is on bc i don’t really wear reds or pinks.. But i’m SO glad i got them! I love them all! It opened up a whole new world to me! Lol boy blazer is very dark…. But it looks true blue in daylight. I love your nail art idea! Will hafta try that!
Thanks! I’m so glad you like them. I keep forgetting that Kohl’s carries Essie.
I saw these in a magazine ad and really liked For the Twill or It. It looks great with Matte about you.
Thanks! I’m loving the matte nail comeback.
I actually love “after school boy blazer”. I just purchased it today because I’m going to a party tomorrow where I will be wearing a fuschia shift dress and the color combination with the dark navy on my nails and my fuschia dress is amazing. I think it’s the perfect dark navy. I agree that twin sweater set isn’t all that special though, and I wouldn’t purchase it. I’m going to have to snatch up the rest of the collection though. I’m pretty pleased with Essie’s fall collection this year. Also, I really love what you did with the matte look and vested interest, it looks really pretty.