Essie Belugaria Holiday 2013 Encrusted Treasures Collection

Unlike Essie’s Winter 2013 Collection, the Encrusted Treasures Collection has received somewhat mixed reviews. The collection features six new textured glitter shades that will truly make you remember why I bolded ‘texture’.

I only sampled four of the six shades in the Encrusted Treasures Collection but will hopefully get the other two soon.

The six new colors in the Encrusted Treasures Collection include: Belugaria, Peak of Chic, On a Silver Platter, Lots of Lux, Ignite the Night, and Hors D’oeuvres.

Belugaria is described as a “holographic jet black lace.” This shade was probably my least favorite of the collection based on how difficult it was to apply due to it’s thickness and heavy mash up of various textures. You’ll see what I mean in my failed attempt of applying it below.

I actually only applied one coat because it was so thick already that I couldn’t imagine the mess I would make with two. I didn’t keep the polish on after applying it, but I read that other beauty bloggers got their hair and foundation residue stuck in the crevices of this polish. It’s unfortunate that it’s so thick because it looks beautiful in the bottle and could of had great potential.

Lots of Lux is described as a “shimmering lapis lazuli with a superfine matte finish.” I was immediately intrigued by this color and it is hands down my favorite of the collection. I found this formula to be much easier to work with compared to Belugaria. It has specks of gold shimmer and has a more matte finish as opposed to textured. You could probably get away with one coat of this, although I ended up doing two.

Although the formula was thick, I made sure to use less on my brush so I wouldn’t apply it too heavily at first. It dried perfectly and came out with an evenly spread glitter finish which is all I could ask for from a polish like this.

Overall, I give this polish an A+ and highly recommend it.

Ignite the Night is described as a “sparkling hematite with a superfine matte finish.” This color is a grey silver glitter with a somewhat dense formula (more so than ‘Lots of Lux’). One blogger compared the formula of this shade to last years release, “Beyond Cozy.”

Unlike Lots of Lux, Ignite the Night definitely required 2 full coats, if not a third for a few translucent spots. I found it more difficult to apply a full even coverage without having to go back in and add more to random places the glitter wasn’t distributed to. I’m starting to wonder if maybe these colors need to be shaken more before applying so the glitter doesn’t start to settle towards the bottom. I would recommend doing this because with this color in particular, I found it more glitter-saturated in some dips, and less in others. Another way to avoid an uneven distribution of glitter would be to layer it over 1 coat of a plain color. This way, there will not be any translucent spots on the nail and the glitter will look more uniform.

Peak Of Chic is described as an “alpine white holographic rainbow fringe.” This color is best worn over a solid color first since it is composed of a clear base. There is a mixture of white and silver bar (vertical) glitter that have a matte finish. This polish was surprisingly very easy to work with, and the glitter was very cooperative and laid flat upon application.

I can’t speak for the entire collection since I still haven’t tried Hors D’oeuvres and On a Silver Platter, but so far I am loving Encrusted Treasures! This collection couldn’t have come out at a more perfect time because all of these sparkly shades are great for a New Years Eve manicure.

My advice for some of these colors is to layer them over another color so your nails will have a more uniform distribution of glitter-without having to glob on the glitter. Check out imabeautygeek for multiple ways to layer these shades over other colors.

What did you think about the Encrusted Treasures Collection? Was it a hit or miss? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🙂