Essie Poppy Razzi “Lights” Review

By Nicole

Hey Everyone,

Maybe it’s just me but I absolutely hate when my nails are a little old (we’re talking like 2 days) and they start feeling all creepy… like I can feel the beginning of tip wear on my nails. Ick. I hate that slightly scratchy, non-polishy, raw nail feeling. I was at the grocery store last night and felt the edge of my thumbnails with my index fingers and felt that familiar “not smooth like polish” feeling and was like “EW. Time to re-do my nails.” I had on some neon orange polish which you’ll see shortly but when I decided to repaint I went for another neon. This time I tried my newly acquired Essie Lights. Let’s have a look:

Essie Lights:

All pictures have Essie Feed Me basecoat, ChG White on White as underwear and 3 coats of Lights with Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat.

Color:

Lights is labelled as an “electric pink neon” but to me it’s more of just a regular ol’ hot pink. It’s bright but just not bright enough. The interesting thing about neons is that they’re so bright they seem to just about glow in the dark, and this one does not do that. It’s a nice hot pink though.

Formula/Application:

Here’s where it gets a little weird. This polish was SO goopy!! I bought it yesterday afternoon, applied it last night and was kind of appalled at how goopy it was. It was goopy and all stuck to the polish brush like often-used old polish. I added thinner to it immediately and that helped a lot. Als0 the polish dried darker than in the bottle and darker than when freshly applied which was a little disappointing. In good news once it was thinned it went on smooth and was opaque in 2 coats although I opted for 3 just to be extra safe. (I just like my polish thick!! Leave me alone. ;p) It also did not do the weird uneven-first-coat-or-two thing like most neons do.

Yes, Please! or No, Thank You:

For me I was a little disappointed with this polish because I wanted it to be NEON! But if you like pink, which I don’t particularly, you will like this polish a lot. With a little thinner, the formula is good and it’s much more opaque than what I think of when I think of neons. For me this is probably a toss up. I’d trade this polish for a better neon, but I can see myself using it ocassionally in the future.

Do you wrap your tips? I recently found out that one of my favorite nail blogger friends never wraps her tips! I thought EVERYONE did so now I’m wondering… do you all?? Also- how do you like this polish? Do you think it looks like a true neon? Now that I’ve seen them in-store, I’m kinda underwhelmed by the Essie Poppy Razzi collection. There are three colors that are pink-corals and pink and idk… it’s just kinda like I’ve seen it before. Everywhere. Let me know what you think! Till next time, Happy Polishing! 😀

24 thoughts on “Essie Poppy Razzi “Lights” Review”

    • It’s not just me then! HaHA! ;p

      By wrapping your tips I mean when you make sure the front edge of your nail is covered with polish as well as the top. Maybe you call it something different. I always do that cuz a) I don’t like when you can see some of my naked nail at the front and b) it keeps your nails from chipping cuz the polish is wrapped all the way around your edges. Do you do that?

      • 🙂
        Ahhh yea now i know what you mean…i do do that from time to time but not always. I am not sure why i don’t always do it prolly bc i just plain forget, lol!!

        • Well as you can see not everyone does. Haha. But it’s just part of my routine. It drives me nuts when I don’t do it. 🙂 I have seriously painted my tips even after I’ve painted the rest of my nails before. If I’m just messing around or swatching I don’t always do it but then if I decide to wear those nails I gotta go back and do it.

    • I’m not alone! Haha. I don’t even look at the top of my nails to see if they’re getting busted. I look at the underside cuz if that little ridge of polish underneath is getting spotty I know a chip is imminent! Dun dun dunnnnnnn. (horror music :))

  3. I’ll admit…I usually don’t wrap my tips. I used to never, but now I just do when I remember…which isn’t often. Or I’ll remember when I’m done and its too late. Oh well, I don’t wear my polish long enough for it to matter anyways. Thats too bad Lights isnt as bright as it looks in the bottle. I bought Camera and Action the other day, haven’t tried them out yet but I can totally see them drying darker than in the bottle. Even if they arent true neons, at least they are still somewhat bright (I hope).

    • You too!!!??? Aghhh you’re killin me! Haha. I don’t do it necessarily for the wear cuz I prefer to do my nails every night but I just can’t stand seeing that little strip of nail at the tip! Haha. I’m a little neurotic. ;p

      • Lol, I don’t like that strip either, but I don’t notice it really unless I actually look for it. I wrapped last night though! I change my polish just about every night too :/ I’m so glad you do too…I feel slightly embarrassed when I tell people that haha.

  4. I lurve you! Thank you for putting up this review cause I was really impatient about it. 🙂 So, since it’s a neon does it dry matte or like satiny? Maybe my nail guy was right that these aren’t nothing fancy. However, I think that this pink looks pretty friggin amazing on you. It looks like a rather common pink so I don’t know if I will buy it. I’ll have to see Frosso’s swatches of the ones she got before I make up my mind! I almost bought some nail polish today. I am thinking that maybe I’ll start on my no-buy thing on Saturday. LOL

    And don’t knock me for not wrapping my tips! 😛 I never considered it since I don’t need longevity from my nail polish and that free edge doesn’t bug me.

    • Hahaha you’re welcome! I had no reason not to post it now so I was like hey, why not? 🙂 You ask and you shall receive. 😀 It dries satiny. And you’re totally right- its nothing special. I do actually like it on me- even tho it’s not like “neon” neon it’s still bright enough to make me look super tan. Paired with just getting my hair done I’m feeling VERY sun-kissed. 😉 I’m anxious for Frosso’s too cuz they def looked mehh in the store but you just never know till you see em done right on nails.

      Speaking of neons, I just ordered a (hopefully) shocking green neon so when it gets I’ll be trying it ASAP and reviewing it. I can’t wait!! I also ordered Essie Jelly Apple, some nail art brushes and some striping tape. Yayyy! I say you start your no buy Saturday so long as you don’t go nuts and buy EVERYTHING to make up for the next month or so. 🙂
      PS: okay okay I’m off your back. I’ll shut up before you and Frosso band together against me! ;p

      • All I needed is for ONE person to tell me it’s ok to start Saturday. LOL

        I am going to go to my nail places tomorrow and will only get something if I really, really want it. Hopefully I will be able to contain myself and just buy a couple of things. I could always leave all my cash and cards behind and just take however much I want to spend. That sounds like a plan to me. I think the main thing I want to buy is a professional size thing of Posche. Believe it or not, I think I am completely over Seche Vite. Posche is amazing so far and it doesn’t smell as disgusting.

        What green neon did you buy? I am a huge fan of CG Turned Up Turquoise cause it’s a neon and it still applies really well. That is so weird that you ordered that stuff because I just ordered some supplies too on ebay…only spent like $7 so I didn’t feel bad. I got some striping tape, beads and a set of dotting tools.

        Ever since you mentioned the free edge feeling weird, I’ve been noticing it! Ugh! It’s kind of like when I become very aware of my tongue in my mouth and it just feels weird and uncomfortable. Or is that just me? O_o

        • Ahhaha! Now you’re gonna realize how creepy that raw edge feels! That’s exactly why I wrap. Haha. Sorry about that but now I’m noticing my tongue and it’s making it water a lot. I feel like I could just drool! Ew.

          Moving on!! Did you really think I was gonna uncharacteristically NOT enable? Psshhh. I say take the money you wanna spend and go. 🙂 I should try poshe. I see it all the time at Sally’s but I don’t mind the toxic fumes too much so it’s not a big deal for me. Guess I like killing brain cells.

          Now- about the neon, it’s…. uh… Wow I seriously ordered it like an hour ago and can’t remember the name. Oh- its kiwi-something. It’s not “in the limelight” which I heard had some shimmer and sounded gross. I saw some swatches of it when I googled it and the person didn’t know how to apply a neon at all but I’m sure it’ll be fine. ChG is always good to me. 🙂 With your striping tape did you get it to leave it on your nails or to paint over? I actually didn’t know that you’d even EVER leave it on but they were selling em in all these dif colors and stuff. I was like whaaa…? I clearly got mine to paint over and remove so I can have some super thin little lines.

    • Oh good!!! Haha. It definitely helps with wear but even if you don’t care about that I just prefer how it looks. It looks like it’s always on the verge of chipping if you don’t. Glad you like this color!! I’m feeling very into neons after this one! 🙂 Sorry the pictures are kinda weird.

  6. Eek I just ordered this collection and I hope I’m not too disappointed! I was really looking forward to some NEON colors! 😀 I guess we’ll find out. The yellow neon I have is really thin. Hopefully the consistency of this collection isn’t too goopy for me.

  7. You sound just like BFF who was horrified to find out I didn’t wrap my tips. I always keep fresh polish on my nails but I never wrap my tips. I leave that for a special treat if I get a manicure at the salon. If a polish doesn’t chip and lasts me 4-5 days I get antsy and bored and want to remove it. Plus I think it’s more of a hassle removing polish from under my nail if I wrap my tips.

    • Hahaha I think I would like your bff! 🙂 I take my polish off daily most of the time, but I just can’t stand the feeling of that rough edge! Also, I just like how it looks when I look at my nails and the polish goes all the way to the underside. But… I suppose I can learn to live with your decision, much like I’m sure you friend has. 😉 Seriously though- thanks for reading and chiming in! 😀

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