Essie "The Best Dressed Nails" Set

My first Essie Purchase. I got Essie's "The Best Dressed Nails" set. I had HIGH expectations. Did Essie live up to them?


Top L-R: Essie Ballet Slippers Nail Polish, Essie Bordeaux Nail Polish
Bottom L-R: Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil, Essie First Base Coat, Essie good to go! fast drying top coat.
Essie smoothies hand lotion.

Swatch of first base coat, 2 coats ballet slippers.

So i recieved my order and was SUPER excited, it was packaged nicely and clearly so i could see everything. I couldn't contain my excited! As soon as i got home from work, i opened the package.

This is where i started to get frustrated!!!!

So Each bottle is nestled in the packaging nice and sturdy. Well each bottle has a SUPER STICKY glue on it to keep it in place, except that it isnt even holding it, the packaging holds it fine by itself, so the glue is USELESS!! And you CAN NOT get it off the bottles! So annoying.

Ok ill get past that. So i start to use all the stuff in the set, and i first apply the cuticle oil.

Hmm, ok wont say it was the best. I guess i expected it to be more oily? but its like a dry oil. But it was ok because then it didnt sit on my fingers.

The smoothie hand lotion is great! i really love it! Made my hands soft and soaked in quickly.

What i DIDNT like about ANY of the polishes, base/top included are the brushes. They seemed very cheapy and almost plastic like. So applying the polishes wasnt that simple. And the top coat was VERY thick, yet it WAS fast drying, so i like it.

The bottles are VERY tiny as well. I knew they wouldnt be full size, but they are SMALL!

Overall: The 2 polish colors are beautiful. Ballet slippers is a very pale pink, yet still flattering, and Bordeaux is like a deep red wine, but not vampy, just very red, like blood red! But, i dont like the brushes at all! And the packaging with the sticky glue is really annoying. I honestly cant say if i will spend the money on a full size bottle, just because of the quality and price of the sets, but i would try it if i got it as a gift.

I am giving this a 3 out of 5! Beacause the colors were nice, the top coat was fast drying, and i love the hand lotion!