Essie Spring 2014 Nail Polish Collection – Swatches & Review
My office, aka The Polish Room, looks out over the backyard and given that we live on a close-knit street filled with active little kids, it’s common to see them running by, playing games after school. Especially now that spring has finally sprung.
Seeing them streak across the yards reminds me of building forts and endless games of Tag with my neighborhood friends. With names like Fashion Playground, Hide & Go Chic and Truth of Flare, the Essie Spring 2014 collection takes me right back to childhood, making me nostalgic for summer days of playing from dawn to dusk.
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. Bottles at mass retailers have stickers rather than embossing on the bottle. 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.
In this instance, the consistency and opacity of each shade varied greatly so I will address that in each individual review below.
Essie Fashion Playground is a true mint green with those subtle crystal flecks that I love so much. The problem here, is that the color is so light that the flecks are barely noticeable. Also, the formula was a “challenge” aka a PITA. It’s streaky so you need to apply three pretty significant coats to get it opaque and smooth.
Essie Fashion Playground
Essie Hide & Go Chic is a deep azure blue creme bordering on teal. The high pigmentation and silky smooth, squishy texture makes it the best polish in the collection in terms of application. Two easy coats gets it done!
Essie Hide & Go Chic
Essie Romper Room is a pale petal pink creme. It’s kind of difficult to work with given it isn’t the best at self leveling and has a somewhat streaky application.
Essie Romper Room
Essie Spin The Bottle is a creamy beige and a pleasure to apply. I needed three coats but the signature squishy Essie consistency made even coverage a breeze to achieve.
Essie Spin The Bottle swatch
Essie Style Hunter is a saturated raspberry creme with a pink berry base. Like, Hide & Go Chic, its packing a lot of pigment and a nice smooth texture so I only needed two coats.
Essie Style Hunter
Essie Truth or Flare is a sandwashed denim creme. It has such a great consistency but the pigmentation is seriously lacking. While I managed to get it opaque, it took three medium to thick coats to get it there.
Essie Truth or Flare
Bottom Line: It’s not normally my style but I’m into Style Hunter. Something about this rich glossy shade is calling to me. And I will never kick a teal out of bed for eating crackers so Hide & Go Chic is another winner. Obviously, I’m a fan of Spin The Bottle after naming it one of my Top 10 Nude Nail Polishes. The rest get a pass given the formula issues plaguing them.
The Essie Spring 2014 Hide & Go Chic collection is available now at salons and mass retailers nationwide and online at Essie.com, Beauty.com, Kohls.com, Nordstrom.com, and ULTA.com. Essie nail polish retails for $8.50 for a .5oz bottle.
What was your favorite game to play as a kid? What do you think of the Essie spring collection? Which shades do you plan to pick up?
Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for Essie. Affiliate links appear in this post. When you purchase through an affiliate link, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
i love this collection :))
I love those blues, very pretty colours.
Essie Hide & Go Chic is my favorite out of the entire collection.
Great selection of colors in this collection. There perfect for the season.
I picked up Style Hunter and have been wearing it for the last few days. The formula is Essie at their best: thin but not watery, perfectly pigmented, an easy self-levelling two coater. And I LOOOVE the color: bright red raspberry. Against my pale, cool skin it actually reads like a blue-based red, which is a rare treat!
Help! I’m looking for a true (not teal, not navy) cobalt blue: Hide and Go Chic or Mezmerize??
I don’t know that either one is what I would call a true cobalt but, if choosing between those two, I would go for Mezmerised. Butler Please is a much better Essie choice for cobalt imo.
Are you looking for a cr
I probably will only pick up Hide and Go Chic. I generally have a problem with the Essie formula (may just be me) – either not pigmented enough or just plain cuticle-flooding, so unless I am completely bowled-over by a color I tend to avoid them.
I doubt it’s just you. Everyone has their preferences and thankfully there are tons of brands for us to choose from.
Loving the blues, especially Hide and Go Chic. Might have to get this on my next pedicure.
Do it! I’m considering it for my next pedicure as well. Though I do love sparkle on my toes when it’s finally sandal season.
I love Style Hunter!
Style Hunter is gorgeous! The richness of the shade makes me think of wild berries. This one is an instant classic for me! I wish Truth or Flare easier to apply as I love the shade. Your swatches are beautiful as always and I find your descriptions of the application and texture of each polish invaluable!
Style Hunter seems to be calling out to me. How do you feel Romper Room compares to Zoya’s Dot? I have Dot, and am actually wearing it now… Your pic of Romper Room looks like a lot of pics I have seen for Dot, though Dot seemed to be just slightly darker pink than I expected after the photos.
Hi Amanda! Dot is darker than Romper Room and the consistencies are different. Dot is more squishy and jelly-ish and not as pigmented. RR is thicker and more creamy
Ah ha, ok so it IS lighter. I feel like Dot was a little streaky-ish on the first coat too, but then after a thicker second coat it seemed to even out pretty nicely. I am not a big fan of the color pink in general, but there was something about Dot that I liked the look of, plus I figured I should have a pale pink polish since it seems like a basic color. I’m rather tempted to get Romper Room just to see which application and what not I like better.
Spin the bottle is gorgeous ! I need it in my life !
I was immediately drawn to Fashion Playground and Style Hunter, so I’m glad I looked up this review before I bought Fashion Playground. However, I love Style Hunter, I’m wearing it right now and it makes me so happy! I immediately thought of watermelons when I saw it, which are my favorite fruit to eat in the summer time!
I love Essie’s colors but I seem to be the only person in the universe who has a hard time keeping it from chipping within just a few hours of it drying.
I have tried many different methods and products, I make sure my nail beds are buffed with a white block, was, and then use polish remover either regular non acetone or straight acetone.
I even have attended manicure school YEARS ago so I like to think of myself as knowing a bit on how to give a good manicure!
One thought, should I use my UV light to cure them??
Thanks for any advice!
Hi Kiley, I’m sorry you aren’t having luck with Essie. Some people’s skin/nail chemistry just doesn’t mesh with certain brands. I personally don’t buff my nail beds. I feel it weakens the nails. And if you’re polishing the nail plate, it could prevent the base coat from adhering.
A UV light won’t really help unless you’re using a product that is activated by UV rays, like Seche UV Top Coat. If you have a light, maybe try a top coat like that or try switching up your base coat. I like tacky base coats like CND Stickey or Orly Bonder. Nubar Foundation Base Coat is another great one.
These look so good. Loving the colours, i need all of these! x
Hi, just wondering if Romper Room was lighter or darker than Fiji – i have seen conflicting pictures and I am looking for a shade just a tad lighter than fiji. Thanks – love the swatches they are always very helpful