Hi everyone! Today I have the 6 piece Essie Concrete Glitter Collection to share with you. Essie says, “Conquer the late night scene with new concrete glitters. An Essie first – these six crushed crystal finish nail polishes provide the perfect textured, rocker chic look”.
That’s right, we have a 6 piece textured collection from Essie! I bought this collection from Ebay, they seemed to have the best price and I received them super fast!
I am not affiliated. This is a long post and I do have alot of photos today!!
Formula wise, these are all pretty much the same. They have really good formulas. It’s best to really give them time to dry between coats and thin coats work the best for me. I found they were pretty dry within a few minutes. I tried to give them about an hour to dry before I took my photos as textures will continue to dry down for awhile after application even if they are dry to the touch.
Essie has changed their brush in the US recently. It is much wider and I really love it! I’d pretty much quit buying Essie because I really disliked the thin brush but now I can start to look at them again!
These dry a bit dull and very textured. If you want to topcoat them it will probably take a few coats of topcoat. I did add topcoat to a couple of them and got it really smooth but I didn’t give it time to “sink in” as they usually do over time.
Overall I’m a fan of this collection. I do love textured polish though. If you are not a fan of textures you will maybe want to pass, or just get one or two to try out.
Let’s get started!
As I said there are 6 polishes in this collection. It’s hard to see exactly everything that goes into these, and I don’t have any official descriptions, so I’m just saying what I saw. There is a lot going on in some of them and they look like crushed jewels on the nails.
- Beat of the Moment – This is a salmony pink with gold glitter and multi shimmer. I used 2 coats without topcoat. I didn’t give this much time to dry before taking my photos.
Inside with flash…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in direct sun…
Outside in indirect sun or shade…
- Can’t Stop Her in Copper – This is a golden yellow (butterscotch comes to mind). I think there is just gold glitter and shimmer in this one. I used 2 coats without topcoat. I gave this a couple hours dry time before taking my photos.
Inside with flash. These were taken in two different areas, so lighting and skin tone may look different…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in direct sun (this is late day setting sun)…
Outside in indirect sun or shade…
- City Slicker – This is a berry pink with silver(?) and multi shimmer. I used 2 thin coats without topcoat. I let it dry for a couple of hours before taking my photos.
Inside with flash. These were taken in two different areas, so lighting and skin tone may look different…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in indirect sun or shade…
- Night Owl – This is a green/teal with gold glitter and flakes. I used 2 coats without topcoat. I let this dry for at least an hour before taking my photos.
Inside with flash. These were taken in two different areas, so lighting and skin tone may look different…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in indirect sun or shade…
- Stay Up Slate – This is a blue/gray/silver (like a gunmetal type color) with gold glitter, bright blue glitter and multi shimmer. I used 2 coats and added 2 coats of topcoat to my middle nail. I didn’t give this one much time to dry at all before taking photos.
Inside with flash. These were taken in two different areas, so lighting and skin tone may look different…
Inside without flash…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in direct sun…
Inside with sun through a window…
- Venture to the Venue – This is a champagne color with small copper glitter, and multi shimmer. I used 2 coats with a thick coat of topcoat on my middle nail and a matte topcoat on my pinky nail. The matte topcoat took down a little bit of the texture, but it was still textured. The middle and ring nails dried overnight and the index and pinky nails only dried for about an hour before I took my photos.
I have to explain a bit about this one. I put it on my nails late at night so I could give it overnight to dry down and I was going to take my photos in the morning. I used my regular, favorite basecoat (Nail Aid 1 Minute Artificials) which is tinted a little bit pink. Of course, after painting my nails the dog needed to go for a walk and I ended up messing up my index and pinky nails. I left it alone overnight and in the morning I removed the polish from the two messed up nails and used a peel off basecoat on them and painted the polish as usual. (The peel off basecoat dries clear.)
I didn’t notice any difference when I was taking my inside photos, but once I got outside in the sun I could see the two nails with the pink tinted basecoat look pink and the two nails with the clear peel off basecoat look natural, or champagne. I never thought about how a basecoat could possibly change the way polish shows up. It makes sense, I had just never run into it before. Anyway, that is why the polish looks like different colors in different lighting.
Inside with flash. These were taken in two different areas, so lighting and skin tone may look different…
Inside without flash…
Inside the lightbox…
Inside my bright, naturally lit kitchen…
Outside in direct sun (see above for difference in color)…
Outside in indirect sun or shade (see above for difference in color)…
I forgot to show you the new wider Essie Brush. Here it is compared with the original skinny Essie Brush. What a great improvement!! (Thanks to momlifewithchiari for the reminder!)
There it is! What do you think? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I really like this whole collection. If I had to pick favorites I’d say City Slicker (berry pink) and Night Owl (green/teal) are my faves. Which are yours?
Well, there we have it!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
The polish in this post is from my own collection and was purchased by me.
©2018 RealPolishFanatic / All Rights Reserved
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About Me & My Blog
My blog is a beauty based blog, specifically about Nail Polish: Nail Polish swatches, Nail Polish comparisons, Nail Polish collections, my Manicure of the Day. All content and photos are my own property and cannot be used without my express written consent.
My name is Paula and I live in California right now with my hubby of many years and Chico my “baby”. You will see him featured periodically at the end of a post (the dog, not the hubby).🙂
I would love to hear from you!
Happy polishing!!
♥Paula
RealPolishFanatic 
Thank you for the detailed review with lots of photos!
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Hey you! You’re welcome! Thank you for checking it out!!
♥paula
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Love the polishes! I didn’t know Essie was coming out with a wider brush – that’s great! Is out yet, are the brushes wider now?
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Hi! Yes, this collection has the wider brush!! I meant to take photos and post them in this post. I will update it tomorrow with some photos of the new brushes and comps with the old stick brush. It’s very new, I’m not sure which collection started having them. As it’s transitioning you will probably find core colors with thin brushes still, but any new collections should have the wide ones from now on!! I’ll reply to this comment when I have the photos up tomorrow!!
Thanks for checking out my blog!!
♥paula
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That’s great to know, thank you! I love the Essie collection but appreciate the OPI brush, so easy to use because of their brush. I hope to snag some Essie polishes with the wider brush on my next nail polish purchasing trip. Thank you Paula!
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I have a brush comparison photo at the bottom of the post now. Thanks!!
♥paula
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Great! Thank you Paula!
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What a difference! Love love love the new brush – can’t wait to purchase a polish with the new brush. Just went to my local beauty supply store for some polish. I recently began my YouTube channel – a beginner with a love of polish, https://youtu.be/Vo_o_0gGZpM
Would love for you to follow! 😊
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