Last month, Essence’s Mountain Calling collection finally made its way to Canada. I always want new Essence collections because they are amazing for the budget price tags and always such cute colours, but this collection came with socks, so I stalked my local Shoppers Drug Mart stores until my favourite cashier said they were in the back to be put out that day and would grab me one of everything.
Essence Mountain Calling – Snow Alert!
I already mentioned Snow Alert! in my comparison of white polishes. It is a nice bright white polish that does not have that chalky look that many white and pastel polishes suffer from. It is not streaky either and applies well so is great as a base for nail art.
Essence Mountain Calling – Today Is Fun Day
Today Is Fun Day is a beautiful bright icy blue colour. It definitely needs two coats for opacity. The first coat looked quite streaky and thin, but it leveled well with the second coat.
Essence Mountain Calling – Let’s Climb Mount Beauty
You can never have too many red polishes and Let’s Climb Mount Beauty is a decent red at the price. Not too bright and not too dark, this deep red is almost opaque enough to be a one-coater but deepens with the second. It dries quickly and is not that in your face red that is so obvious that your nails arrive before you do.
Essence Mountain Calling – We Love Winter Holidays
Finally, We Love Winter Holidays is the last for the four regular creme polishes in the Mountain Calling collection. This dark forest green reminds me of evergreens and Christmas trees when they are still bagged up in netting. Like the red, you could get away with one thick coat of this but the second coat deepens the colour.
Dry time for all four is excellent, as with most Essence polishes, but wear time is about a day less than Zoya and similar brands.
Essence Mountain Calling – Snow Alert! Effect Top Coat
The Mountain Calling LE collection also comes with a snow effect top coat. Just because Essence likes to reuse names, this is also named Snow Alert! like the white polish in the collection. It applies evenly and has lots of round flakies that are easily smoothed with one thick coat of Essence The Gel top coat.
Essence Mountain Calling Nail Art
A base of Today is Fun Day with white snowflakes stamped over it, snow covered trees and snow Snow Alert! effect top coat for snow on the first two fingers.
Using up the other three colours in this one, this winter sweater design nail art includes
- Pointer finger: We Love Winter Holidays with white stamp polish
- Middle finger: Snow Alert! stamped with a gradient of We Love Winter Holidays and Let’s Climb Mount Beauty
- Ring finger: Let’s Climb Mount Beauty with white stamp polish
- Baby finger: Let’s Climb Mount Beauty with Snow Alert! effect top coat (thumb has effect coat with We Love Winter Holidays)
As always, Essence Mountain Calling is available at Shoppers Drug Mart, but is a limited edition collection.