Collection: Essie 2003, Party
Today’s Throwback Thursday polish is about twelve years old and still going strong, as it remains in Essie’s core collection. My bottle is fairly new; I picked it up from Shoppers Drug Mart this year. It’s a color I’ve wanted for ages, but since it’s not super unique, I kept finding excuses to pick up other colors, until now!
A-List (434) is described by Essie as a “award-winning classic creamy red”. It’s indeed a classic red: a shiny, Snow White-apple red cream with a touch of cherry so it leans a smidge to the cool side.
The finish is slightly jellied, so it dries to that gorgeous jellyish shine, but it’s really a little more opaque, so it’s not a jelly proper. This does mean that it requires at least two coats for full opacity. I personally like it best with three coats—gotta ramp up the intensity.
Application is good: it’s smooth and self-levels. There is a little bit of pooling if you’re not careful, but if you use two to three coats, no problem.
I wouldn’t call this a must-have, since it’s not the most unique shade, nor is application perfect, but you can easily do much worse. It’s a fine choice for a go-with-anything red cream that will take you from day to night and spring to winter.
Essie Nail Polish retails for US$8.50 / CA$9.99–$10.99 and is 0.46 US fl oz / 13.5 mL. The polish is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). It is made in the USA.
Essie Cosmetics, founded in 1981, is based in Westfield NJ, USA. In 2010, Essie was acquired by the L’Oréal Group.
I love classic red shades and this one looks so gorgeous
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You can NEVER go wrong with a classic red! 🙂
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Well said
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I love this one but I didn’t know that it was such an old colour. I actually snagged my bottle for a DOLLAR from the SDM clearance bin. It was a good day on May 28th 2013. 😀
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Score! Sometimes they have really nice clearance bins. I love that you remember the date. What?!
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From my cosmetics spreadsheet! I note down the dates of acquisition! 😀
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Haha, I love it! I do the same thing – I hava a database in which I track all personal and household purchases (apart from groceries and stuff). Dates, prices, etc.
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Love the color!
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It’s a pretty perfect red!
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Always love a red polish!
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Same! 🙂
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This is a really gorgeous red. I’m now pushing 4 weeks on a manicure (unread of). I’m embarrassed to go in now and have my nails done!
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4 weeks! That’s some doing! What color is it?
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It’s a dark shimmery burgundy. Doing fine except the 3 nails that snapped off! 😆
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