Hi!
I am a bit of a nail polish freak (to put it mildly) but I don't really get excited about nail polish releases anymore. Or I didn't, until I heard that Essie were bringing back six of their best-loved unavailable shades for a limited time.
This is Retro Revival!
Top: Bikini With a Martini, Birthday Suit, Cabana Boy.
Bottom: Life of the Party, Sequin Sash, Starry Starry Night.
The one I was most excited about was Starry Starry Night, that blue one. Bottles of that shade have sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars - I've often googled it myself to see if I could find a dupe. Would it live up to my expectations? I googled swatches of the other shades and didn't really want to try them all, so I went for my usual mini kit from Beautyzone2007 on eBay. I think it cost approximately €15 including post for 4 mini polishes, and they arrived within 10 days.
I contemplated buying the missing two colours in full size, but I don't think Cabana Boy is anything special, plus despite looking like a great rose gold, Sequin Sash is actually very sheer.
Bikini With a Martini
This was a colour I wasn't mad about in the bottle, it looked quite sheer but two coats were enough to almost cover the nail. It's nice, and a really pretty colour, but it does nothing for my skintone.
Birthday Suit
This is a milky nude that I was surprised with. I didn't think I'd like it, but I really do. The pictures show two coats, I think this would be a gorgeous Bridal polish. Really, really liked it.
Life of the Party
A deep crimson red that again, took two coats to get even coverage. Very pretty, but nothing special.
Starry Starry Night
This was the one - would it be as special as everyone says? Well, no. It's nice, it covered the nail in two coats, the sparkle is great, but I'm really glad I didn't bother with a full size bottle. I found this quite thick and gloopy to work with, I thought it was just my bottle until I googled - Pointless Cafe has a post comparing this to the original and it's quite different, the formula seems to have changed a lot. It doesn't make me want to go out and hunt the original down, but I felt a bit disappointed that it wasn't a proper revival of the shade.
My surprise favourite of the four is Birthday Suit, it's a lovely clean polish for Springtime and will look great with a gold accent or some rings. As for the rest - meh.
I was mega excited when this was announced, because of SSN, but I did LOADS of research beforehand and certain YouTubers I follow did swatch reviews and stuff and concluded that it wasn't the same polish. That's so disappointing, I think Essie said they couldn't get original diamond dust or something. I'm glad I saved my money though. I do like Birthday Suit too, I have a polish somewhere that something similar (don't know which one but I know I've swatched polishes before and gotta a similar result to your picture above!)
ReplyDeleteBirthday suit is stunning but if it's as hard as Fiji to apply it'd kill me. I love the red 'party' one - love me a hot red nail xx
ReplyDeleteNice swatches of this collection.
ReplyDeleteI agree Birthday Suit looks to be the nicest! I must use your EBay seller for a few sets like these, they're so much better than randomly buying the full size!
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