which do you like better? who has better color? formula? im a essie girl all the way when it comes to formula. but i like opi's colors. so i guess im all about essie when it comes down to it.

I've not used Essie other than the 3 way glaze, so I can't really judge. That certainly isn't anything amazing, it gives a lovely shine but it didn't prevent chipping any more than any other top coat, and it smells really perculiar, like curry >< Though I had a job that was very hands on, required moving furniture about and so on, and no varnish survived without chipping very quickly. I can think of just one time when I got through a whole day with fresh nails and didn't get any chips, and that was with a complete Opi mani; base coat, 3 coats of polish, and top coat.

I'd have liked the chance to road test Essie in the same way, but I had to clamp down on my polish purchasing >< Oh wait, I do have a twinpack of minis; Braziliant and Super Bossa Nova, and a blue that I can't remember the name of, but was a bit disappointed in colour-wise. Something to do with sailing...it didn't look as nice on as it did in the bottle, anyway. But I guess I'd say that from my limited experience I prefer the texture of Opi, though I know the formulas are different depending on the polish's finish. I had this creamy aqua colour that I gave away because it was too thick for me to be able to apply it with any level of success. I never progressed beyond novice with application skills, wasn't quick enough, so a thick polish is liable to end up with drag marks if I'm not careful.

So kind of typical that I fell in love with dark blue shades, nothing quite like a dark colour for highlighting every little mistake that you made putting it on ><
My total fave shade Blue My Mind

It went all thick and gloopy and took about quarter of a bottle of top coat to get it back to a usable consistency, I've not looked to see how it's behaving now >.>
Oh! I found the pic I took when I was playing with the Essie polish. This was only on that one nail, lol, just to see if I could do it, I used a Post-it for the straight line.


I've just not have enough experience of either brand to have had a chance to form a preference, so in conclusion, if some rich benefactor wanted to provide me with a wide selection of both produce ranges to test, I'd be happy to do that.

I don't have much experience with OPI and no experience with Essie. I chose to try China Glaze instead of Essie. I always see people raving about China Glaze, but it chipped off REALLY fast. I'm not used to my toenail polish chipping off, but with China Glaze, it chipped off within a couple days. OPI is good. It has a nice consistency and somewhat nice lasting power. However, I've been buying Sinful Colors lately. It's only $2 a bottle at Walmart. I bought a rose gold shade this past week, and it hasn't chipped at all. I've had it on since Monday. It also only took one coat instead of two to not be opaque.