Essie Luxeffects are a series of high-shine & glitter topcoats. Usually glitter and sparkle aren’t something I think of when I hear Essie so I was anxious to try these out. At $8 a bottle they are definitely cheaper than the Deborah Lippmann glitter polishes I own so I figured why not try them out?

The store display in Ulta. So shiny and pretty!

I skipped the gold colors as they were too ‘yellow’ and on my cool-toned skin they would look like poo. Instead I opted to purchase Set In Stones (varying sizes of round and hex silver glitter), A Cut Above (a warm pink variegated glitter) and Pure Pearlfection (a gorgeous white shimmer).

From left: Pure Pearlfection, A Cut Above, Set In Stones

Unlike with my higher-end glitter polishes like Deborah Lippmann and Rescue Beauty Lounge, Both A Cut Above and Set In Stones have that annoying habit of the glitter not going on smoothly. You have to do some maneuvering of the glitter on the brush to get it to go and stay here you want it to go. It’s more of a brush and ‘push to position’ rather than one swipe and done so make sure your nail color is dry before putting on this glitter. Once it dries, the glitter looks very pretty and is very eye-catching.

For me personally, A Cut Above was too warm of a pink so no matter what I wore under it the glitter looked great but the color looked absolutely awful against my skin. Performance-wise I had no issues with it.

Essie Luxefffects: A Cut Above over SpaRitual Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Set In Stones didn’t have that problem as it is a very cool-toned flashy silver and looked great against my skin. The various shapes of glitter in this polish reminds me of Deborah Lippmann’s Today Was A Fairytale. I don’t own it myself but going by pictures I’ve seen it looks very familiar. The darker the base polish coat you use the more it pops out against it for a stunning effect. I used Esssie School of Hard Rocks (Winter 2011 collection), Trophy Wife and Dive Bar (permanent, Christmas 2011 repromote) as bases in the swatches below.

Essie Luxeffects: A Cut Above over Trophy Wife

Essie Luxeffects: A Cut Above over Sexy Divide (flash)

Essie Luxeffects: A Cut Above over Sexy Divide (no flash)

Essie Luxeffects: A Cut Above over Dive Bar (flash), my favorite!

Pure Pearlfection has to be my absolute favorite out of the entire collection. Best suited for use with light colors, Pure Pearlfection gives a ‘fresh fallen snow’ effect across the nail color. The closest thing to this that I own (but haven’t swatched as of yet) would be Deborah Lippman’s Bring On The Bling. I would definitely wear this in conservative office settings, and I also think it would look amazing on the nails of winter brides.

Essie Luxeffects: Pure Pearlfection over butterLONDON's Lady Muck

Essie Luxeffects: Pure Pearlfection over Cocktail Bling

Essie Luxeffects: Pure Pearlfection over School of Hard Rocks

These are nice topcoats but they’ve been done before by various other nail polish companies. If I had to recommend one to purchase, it would be Pure Pearlfection. It is extremely versatile and well worth the price. When I first purchased these they were only available at Ulta. Now they are starting to show up in Target alongside of the Resort 2012 colors.