Essie Luxeffects

How have your Christmas holidays been?

For the last 8 days we've either been hosting family for Christmas or been travelling to see friends and today was my first day back at home with no company. I took some photo's last week of my favourite nail polishes I wore in December, but as I sat down to type up that post, the shining sun outside and the many Luxeffect polishes I borrowed from Austrian were calling me to swatch and photograph them. I decided to scrap my December favourites and post about these glitter toppers before New Year's Eve, since this is the absolute prime time to wear them. With the exception of the brand new Fringe Factor bar glitters that were released about a month ago, I have every single Luxeffect swatched. I decided to do them all over black because sometimes when I see glitter topper swatches, my opinion of the glitter changes based on the polish/glitter combination the blogger decided to choose. Black shows them all as they really are. I also used only one coat of each over the black so you can see how dense the glitter is.

Set In Stones

This was my first ever Essie Luxeffect. It's a mix of small and medium silver glitters with larger hex glitters. It's very easy to apply with even glitter coverage.

Stroke of Brilliance

I found Stroke of Brilliance at the dollar store months and months ago, and this was my first time using it. I love the colour! This is the exact same glitter effect and application as Set in Stones except in this beautiful periwinkle platinum blue shade.

A Cut Above

This is the pink version of Set in Stones and Stroke of Brilliance. I can tell Austrian has had this Luxeffect for a few years and she's used it a lot because a third of the bottle is gone. Because of this, the clear base is thicker so the glitter went on more dense. I couldn't get it any thinner than what you see in the pics. I actually used to own this glitter but gave it to my friend Janine a few years ago because I just never wear glitter. I also found it difficult to find a polish pairing that I liked; since then I've seen a few people top it over Angora Cardi and I'm in LOVE with that combo!

Summit of Style

Essie just released this burnished bronze glitter in 2014 and I really love it. Again it's the same style of glitter as the previous ones and it applies the same as well - easy with good glitter coverage.

Rock at the Top

This is the gold version of this glitter and the formula would be the same as the others, except I must not have closed the bottle properly the last time I used it (probably months ago) so the clear base has dried up. I had to scoop the glitter out with a tooth pick and mix with a clear top coat to be able to swatch. I also had to do the same for my Bordeaux sandwich. So here's a quick tip: Close your polish bottles tightly! I think I've gotten all the swatches I can get out of this bad boy and he needs to make a trip to the garbage can :(

Jazzy Jubilant

Jazzy Jubilant has a mix of turquoise green and copper small glitters with larger silver hex glitter. It's easy to brush on and comes out fairly evenly. While the others like this apply very glitter dense, I found this one to be a bit more sparse with more clear base that needed to be brushed off. This wasn't a bad thing. I actually liked how minimal it looked, but if you want it to be more glitter dense it will need a second coat.

Pure Pearlfection

Probably my all-time favourite Luxeffect because of how easy it is to wear. It's subtle, yet adds the perfect amount of pizazz to any manicure. It's very easy to apply and puts an even amount of purple/blue fine shimmer all over the nail. My bottle is half gone because of how much I've used it and it hasn't gotten thick or goopy or difficult to apply. It looks good over ANY polish you put it over.

As Gold As It Gets

This is another one of my fave Luxeffects. Its full of fine gold sparkles and gold shards instead of the kind of tinsel hexes in the other toppers.  Again, it evenly covers and I find it looks great over any dark shade of polish.

Sparkle on Top

I think I'm just saving all my favourites for the end because I also love this top coat. It's full of these blue/green iridescent shards that look amazing over blue, black and green polishes. Because of the iridescence, sometimes I see pink in there so I'm now curious to try it over a pink polish. Like the others, this is easy to apply with even, dense coverage. 

Carnival

This isn't actually a Luxeffect but I thought I'd give it an honourable mention because it SHOULD be in this line! This came out years and years ago (not sure the actual year but it's SE number is 270...so the 1990's is my best guess). It's not one that you easily find on the drugstore shelves but I tracked it down on nailpolishcanada.com. It's full of small silver glitter with holographic glitter the same size that has this fun rainbow effect when the light catches it. It doesn't need to be in the sun to have that rainbow holographic effect either. It's just as pretty in indoor light. 

These were first released in the 2011 Holiday collection and it consisted of only 5 Luxeffects: Set in Stones, A Cut Above, As Gold As It Gets, Pure Pearlfection, and the coveted Shine of the Times. Shine of the Times was this incredible flakie topper that was everyone's favourite when it was released but for some reason, Essie discontinued it. I don't own it but I do own Color Club Snow Flakes that I think it is fairly similar. Each year during the Holidays, Essie releases a couple more Luxeffects which is why the line now has 9 glitter toppers in it. I'm loving that Essie has a polish with holographic glitter in it and would be over the moon excited if they decided to make a Luxeffect made entirely of fine holographic glitter dust. 

Which is your favourite Luxeffect? What is your favourite way to wear it?