essie Original Nail Polish, 13 Mademoiselle, Sheer Pink Nail Polish, 13.5 ml

Product Information

The Essie brand has hundreds of nail polish shades in its collection, some of which look incredibly similar. Their sheer pink neutrals, for instance, are quite challenging to tell apart whether you look at them through the bottle or applied on the nails. At two coats, the color of ballet slippers intensifies, acquiring a milky undertone to the nude pink. On the other hand, Mademoiselle develops a slightly warm tone with a second coat but retains its nude pink color. Next, apply the first coat of your selected Essie polish in three swipes starting at the center near the cuticle and filling in the sides. However, Essie ballet slippers have a paler pink color than Essie Mademoiselle’s. Moreover, it looks more opaque than sheer at three coats. One general rule about applying nail polish is to apply a coat and wait for it to dry before putting on the next one. A dry coat is easier to paint over and has no risk of getting smudged.

As a result, they are more challenging to apply and require special nail coatings to make them perfect.This shade should still be available everywhere: ‘Russian roulette’. Essie calls Russian roulette ‘a fiery, exciting classic bright red cream polish with subtle orange undertones‘. To me, Russian roulette looks like a neutral bright red with a bit of orange. The formula is not as creamy as Fifth avenue but more a jelly, it is, therefore, a bit less opaque. However, it was still very nice to apply. On my shorter nails, I needed two coats for full opacity, but on longer nails, you probably need three. This shade did stain my nails after I removed it, so doubling up on basecoat would be a good idea! In case you are wondering about Russian Roulette’s original collection: Russian roulette is apparently so old that I couldn’t even find the collection! It was probably released early 90’s or late 80’s. Essie Geranium belonged to the first 130 Essie colors ever produced, and is still part of the permanent collection in the US. To me, that says everything you need to know about this shade! It’s a true classic that will look great on (almost everyone). Sadly, it got discontinued in Europe, but it was shortly available as part of Essie’s Advent calendar for 2022. In 24 hours, it was chipped and had already started to peel off. It took me some time, but I finally learned how to apply this nail polish with the help of some friends. It’s quite a list actually! And spoiler alert: some shades are extremely close, and you don’t need them all! Considering I’m living in Europe, some of these shades were quite challenging to find, but I’m happy to report that I now own all of these shades. I’ve swatched most of these shades below, but I will be updating this post over the next coming weeks with the shades that I haven’t swatched yet! You can immediately skip to the comparison if you don’t want to see the individual swatches! Essie Handmade with love Essie Handmade with love

Mademoiselle #112 is pink and similar in color to Essie ballet slippers. On the other hand, #384 is also pink but has a slight beige undertone that makes it warmer. Nevertheless, the beige tones are not overwhelming; and the shade maintains its pink allure. What is the Difference Between Essie Ballet Slippers and Mademoiselle? In terms of formula, I was really amazed by Lacquered up. It was basically opaque in one coat, but I had to do two coats to cover up the visible nail line on some nails. It was really easy to work with, and it is so shiny that it almost looks like I’m wearing gel nail polish!

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The popularity of Essie’s ballet slippers is mainly attributed to its pale pink color and Queen Elizabeth II. You read that right. I usually leave my manicures at two coats when I apply Essie ballet slippers to maintain sheerness. Even though Essie designed it to be sheer, I noticed that a three-coat application of ballet slippers looks too opaque on my fingers. There was no difference in the color or shimmer of the nail polish. However, I noticed that #096 is a little harder to find online and in local drugstores. So, considering that Essie regularly tweaks its product formulas, #096 could be an older version of ballet slippers.