A Christmas post in summer?! Yep, indeed! Because I never showed this pearl on my blog, although it’s still available online, and it lacks proper representation from nail polish swatchers. So let’s change that! Today I’m showing you Essence Deer Me, Keep Sparkling!
Merry X-mas, My Deer! was Essence’s 2023 holiday collection. It consisted of a few different make-up products, including one nail polish (unrelated, but when did brands stop having a full line of nail polish in their LE’s?). Don’t let the press photos fool you: the antlers are actually a rather bad quality cardboard. Boooo! The full “cap” is made of cardboard, that falls apart the moment you touch it. Cosnova can do so much better, as we have seen with their Hop Hop Hooray collection. That one also did include cardboard (the bunnies’ ears), but they were part of the plastic cap. This is just something shoved over the white, plastic cap, waiting to be tossed away. Which is also exactly what I did after I shot these pictures.
But! The topcoat is a beaut! This is one – I repeat: ONE – coat over a black OCW by Park Avenue. Holy moly, it’s PACKED with flakies. They’re all iridescent, in different colours. Somehow the combination of colours remind me of shells. I’m not sure why Essence went with this topcoat for their holiday collection, as it does not scream “winter” or “Christmas” to me, but rather “beach shells” or even “summer”.
Point in case: the topcoat on top of blue. Someone please tell me it doesn’t look like mermaidy, because it most definitely does! This picture also shows the biggest issue with the polish: it doesn’t pop on lighter polishes. It almost makes the polish look bubbly. However, I do love the variety of sizes, shapes, and colours!
All in all, I do like this polish a lot. But weird choices were made my Essence’s team in regards of the packaging, as well as the theme of the nail polish. But I’m most definitely not complaining, because it is a stunning topcoat.
