It is almost a year ago since I last posted about the Essie Expressie Dial it up collection. When it comes to new collections of the Essie classic line, Europe is sometimes quite fast. But this Expressie collection is just an example of how long we sometimes have to wait before other things come to Europe!
In July I came across this collection at a DM in Germany. I guess it had already been there since June, and it is now replaced with the ahead of the gamer collection. While I was in the store, I did remember the Dial it up collection, but it was so long ago, that I didn’t really remember all the fine details. I just grabbed the shades that I liked and moved on.
The original US collection consisted of ten new Expressie shades:
- Turn up the century (a translucent medium pink)
- We don’t mesh (a yellow with green undertones and a pearl finish)
- Dial it up (A purple with a pearl finish)
- In the modem (A sage creme)
- Millenium momentum (A beige creme)
- Sh00k (a yellow creme)
- What the tech? (A black with a pearl finish)
- Skip the track (A lavendar with translucent finish)
- Mall crawler (A light pink with translucent finish)
- Up up and away message (a turqoise crème)
The European ‘Dial it up’ collection that I found in Germany looked quite different. It was a six-piece collection with four new shades and two shades from Expressies regular collection:
- Dial it up (the purple with a pearl finish)
- Up up and away message (the turqoise crème)
- What the tech? (the black with a pearl finish)
- Millenium momentum (the beige creme)
- Crave the chaos (a juicy pink crème, originally released in the first colors of the Expressie line)
- Taxi hopping (an acidic yellow crème/jelly, originally released in the first colors of the Expressie line)
This ‘adding old shades in new collections because no one will notice’ is something Essie has been doing in Canada for a while now. I hadn’t seen it before over here in Europe.
In Essie’s defense: “Crave the chaos” and “Taxi hopping” hadn’t been released in Europe before, since only 20 Expressie colors were released in Europe in the first collection including the topcoat ‘always transparent’.
I picked up two shades of the ‘Dial it up’ collection ‘Up up & away message‘ and ‘Taxi hopping‘. Whenever I look at the collection, I still want to buy them all, but I’m also annoyed that it took so long before the shades were released in Europe. Therefore, I will probably stick with the two shades that I picked up.
Swatches of Essie Up up & Away message
Up up & away message immediately stood out to me when I saw it. Back home, I understood why, it’s very close to some of my favorite shades. Essie calls it ‘a teal with yellow undertones‘. It covered nicely in two coats. I think I finally start to understand how to use the angled Expressie brush! It was really a joy to use this polish. (If you want to see the brush, I posted an example over here)
Back home I immediately saw that Essie Up up & away message was very close to OPI Suzi-san climbs fuji-san. ‘Suzi-san climbs Fuji-san’ was the only shade that I picked up from OPI’s Tokyo collection (although I really loved the collection and Tokyo). The polish has a special place in my heart, and it is probably the only shade I had been wearing in the summer of 2019 (I wasn’t very active on my blog during that time, so I never posted it on my blog). I was a bit relieved and a bit disappointed that it is so close to that shade. OPI Suzi-san is probably slightly darker and a bit more saturated.
Essie Garden variety is obviously quite a bit darker and Essie Ruffles and feathers is a lot greener.
Swatches of Essie Taxi hopping
The reason I originally bought Essie Taxi hopping, was that a lot of you asked me on Instagram whether I could compare this shade to Essie My happy bass. Next to this, I also think Taxi hopping is a unique color, and I was very relieved that it is released in Europe too now. Taxi hopping is a bit of a strange shade compared to other shades I own from the Expressie line. It has more of a jelly finish, but it still covered in two coats. The brush in Taxi hopping was very bad. I know that the Expressie brush is supposed to be angled, but the bristles of this brush were all over the place, making the polish difficult to apply. I asked around on Instagram, and this is apparently a problem more people have with the Essie Expressie polishes!
This is a comparison picture, that I took when I was taking pictures of the Essie fall 2021 collection. Essie Taxi Hopping is very similar to Essie My happy bass. Do you need them both? No, only if you really enjoy this color. Taxi hopping seems to be a tiny bit warmer compared to my happy bass. I find Taxi hopping a bit easier to wear, but that’s about the only difference.
Essie’s Zest has yet to come and China glaze Autumns up! are obviously very different from Taxi hopping.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed the two shades I picked up. I can’t help but be a little bit annoyed though. The first thing that annoyed me is that it took so long for this collection to reach Europe. The second thing that annoys me is of course that six shades were just ignored and two random shades from other collections were added. The third thing that annoyed me is of course the brush of Taxi hopping. Finally, sadly the Expressie shades do not last as long as Essie’s regular nail polish on my nails (about three days for expressie, about 5-7 days for Essie’s regular polish).
The conclusion maybe sounds a bit negative, but I quite enjoyed the shades. At this point, I’m just grateful every time we get a new collection!
Availability
Essie says the Dial it up collection will be available for a limited amount of time. By the time that you are reading this, the collection will probably not be in stores anymore.
The entire ‘Dial it up’ collection is available on Beyond polish over here (affiliate link). Essie Taxi hopping is available over here (affiliate link). If you use my code NOAENAILS, you will get 5% off regular-priced items.
The Dial it up shades are also still available on Amazon over here (affiliate link), and Taxi hopping is available over here (affiliate link).
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you buy a product through one of these links, I might receive compensation at no additional cost to you. I label all affiliate links with the label “affiliate link”. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
These 2 look okay. I’d happy wear them 😀
Hopefully that is me back to blogging now, missed over a month!
Welcome back! I already missed you!!