Disclosure: I was given a free product or sample because I’m a Klout influencer. I was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

I was lucky enough to score a Klout Perk from Essie for a bottle of their new(ish) line of glittery top coats called luxeffect.  I got the blue one named Stroke of Brilliance which was the one I was hoping for.  Unfortunately, the only color I had that would show off the glitz was Essie’s Blanc, but this was mainly for testing purposes as I was heading to a four day horse show, I figured it would probably get ruined anyway so whatever.

The first issue I came across was that it was thick. I know that was because it’s actual pieces of glitter but it didn’t make it easy to put on.  Take too much polish off and you ended up with no sparkles, too much and you have clumps of color.  When/if I use it again I’ll probably use a paint brush instead of the bottle’s brush.  As it dried, the glitter also seemed to migrate and it became condensed in some areas.

Click for a larger picture

You can see some of the clumping on my ring finger.  I think it would have looked way better with a light blue or gray but unfortunately out of my big tub of polish, I had none.  (Side note: I did paint one nail tonight with Essie’s Midnight Cami which is a dark blue, and it really didn’t do much.) I totally expected the glitter to be falling off left and right over the weekend but it didn’t. At. All. Which was good, until I had to take it off.  I use acetone and not “nail polish remover” for reasons I’m not getting into in this post, but the point is not even THAT would take off the glitter. The white base came off just fine, but left all of the blue behind. The cotton balls I was using kept getting caught on the glitter and pulling.  I ended up dipping each of my fingers in the acetone and going in the shower and manually peeling it off, which totally does a number on ones nails.  It was freaking super glued on there.

So my overall take on it? It’s all right.  Kind of hard to work with and I wasn’t a huge fan of the look, but I will try it with other base colors in the future.  Next Essie freebie will be from their Mirror Metallics collection.  Looking forward to it!