I recently won a set of the Essie Summer 2017 collection in Intense Polish Therapy’s bloggiversary giveaway so will be sharing them with you this week. The collection is inspired by the sweet pastels and glittering sugar confections of Paris’ most opulent cafes and a great mix of shades. Starting with Sweet Souffle which I have to share today.
“rise to any occasion in this iridescent sugar white. topped with a sheer kiss of candied violet, it’s confection perfection”
The flash in Essie Sweet Souffle is more gold with a hint of pink than violet is most lighting conditions but still beautiful. Sadly, not quite as noticeable on the nail as in the bottle. This also has the sheerest formula of the six polishes in the collection and needs three coats to build opacity.
Essie Sweet Souffle Swatches
You can see a hint of colour in Sweet Souffle, especially in the closeup. It is much more noticeable in sunlight though. I had a little trouble with the formula on this one. It is a little streaky so allow each coat to dry fully before doing the next. I noticed that ManiGeek said she used a wider brush with this and it applied well so I may try switching out the brush. It is still a beautiful white for a nail art base. Not too bright and a little special rather than that chalky white look of many polishes.
Trying The Gradient Stamp on Creative Shop 71 (Lina Make Your Mark 3 Alternative) with Essie Sweet Souffle, Sil Vous Plait & Blue La La
I had planned to try a gradient with these anyway. Then I remembered that I got Creative Shop 71 at Indie Expo Canada which has a gradient stamping image similar to the one on the Lina Make Your Mark plate. Honestly, going back to sponges unless the Lina one is much easier to use? Admittedly, Essie polishes are not exactly stamping polishes but so many tries to get five fingers stamped. It required 2-3 stamps of each nail to get decent opacity, especially of Sil Vous Plait which is more foilish and should stamp better than the other two.
Gradient of Essie Sil Vous Plait, Sweet Souffle & Blue La La using Creative Shop 71 Gradient Stamping Image
Unlike using a sponge where you can see the line from the previous polish and get an even gradient, the stamp is more eyeballing. It also does not work well with a clear stamper, it just doesn’t seem to lift the polish well so the amount of each colour on each nail is uneven. Especially when you have to add additional coats for opacity. I might try this again with stamping polishes but for regular polishes, clean up time is no more than the wasted stamps that did not transfer properly.