Ready for some Spring-y colors from Essie?! The Essie Garden Gala Collection is a 6 polish collection of Spring pastels. All 6 polishes are shimmer/pearl finishes that are opaque in 3-ish coats. I was much more excited by the looks of these polishes in the bottle than on the nail. Check out my video below for some live swatches, or keep reading for swatch photos.
Coming up Roses
‘Coming up Roses’ is a beautiful rose/peachy polish with fine shimmer. I did 3 easy coats for the swatch photo. I think this is a really nice, soft color for Spring. I compared it to quite a few rose toned, peachy and pink polishes in my video, so check that out if you’re curious about comparisons.
Garden Gala
The next pink from the collection is ‘Garden Gala.’ ‘Garden Gala’ is a brighter, more cool toned pink that applies like butter. This is another 3 coater, but the coats are easy to apply. It’s very similar in tone to Zoya ‘Tweedy’ from the Zoya Spring Collection, but with the added shimmer. I compared this to quite a few pinks, including ‘Kissed by Mist’ and ‘Fiji’ in my YouTube video.
Dressed for the Part-y
My least favorite polish from this collection is ‘Dressed for the Part-y.’ It looks like a stunning baby blue in the bottle, but transfers as a very light pearly blue on the nail. This polish was a 3 – 4 coater, and very disappointing. I never say that about a polish, but this one sadly deserves that description.
Poppy of Color
On to better things… ‘Poppy of Color’ is a beautiful peach with gold shimmer. I love this one! This is another 3 coater, but the 3 coats are totally worth it. I compared this one to quite a few peach shades, and found that ‘You’re a Catch’ from the Essie Sunny Business Collection was pretty similar (but without the shimmer).
Talk of the Gown
If you love pastel purples, this one is for you! ‘Talk of the Gown’ is the only 2 coater, and is so pretty on the nail! I compared this one to quite a few purple shimmers, but did not find any dupes. This one is a must have!
Blossom into Style
Another polish that looked much prettier in the bottle than on the nail. ‘Blossom into Style’ is a pretty pastel green with shimmer. This is another 3 – 4 coater. I really wish this one was more opaque. You can check out my comparisons in the video, but I did not find any dupes.
Final Thoughts?
If you’ve been wishing for an Essie collection to pass on, this is probably going to be it. The Essie Garden Gala Collection looked amazing in the bottle, but definitely left much to be desired on the nail. If you’re in to pastel shimmers, ‘Garden Gala,’ ‘Poppy of Color’ and ‘Talk of the Gown’ were a few of my faves.
This collection is currently available in store at Walgreens. I’m sure they will be more readily available at other stores soon!
Let me know your thoughts! Do you plan to pick any of these up?