Essie Steel-ing the scene (Winter 2007)

It’s time today for an older Essie nail polish called ‘Steel-ing the scene‘. I believe this shade is discontinued nowadays, but it used to be part of Essie’s core collection. When researching this polish, I found out a funny fact: Steel-ing the scene was originally released in the winter 2007 ‘Pour it on’ collection, but it was repromoted in the winter 2011 ‘Dive bar’ collection.

Steel-ing the scene is a silver metallic, with a bit of gold mixed in. It consists of extremely fine metallic particles, that are a bit streaky. The polish is quite sheer so I had to use three coats for complete opaqueness. What I noticed is that the polish dried slower than other Essie polishes that I have tried (and I have tried a lot).

Essie Jingle Belle vs Essie All you ever beaded vs Essie Empire shade of mind vs Essie steel-ing the scene

Of course, I had to pull out my other silver shades. Essie Jingle belle is from the Winter 2021 collection, it is a true silver and it has larger metallic particles than steel-ing the scene. Because of this, it seems to be less streaky. Essie All you ever beaded has the largest glitter particles and is also the lightest shade in this collection. Although it is a silver, I think it looks really different from Essie Steel-ing the scene. Finally, I own Empire shade of mind, which also is a bit streaky but is a darker shade of silver than Steel-ing the scene.

All in all, I’m pretty surprised that I have to admit Steel-ing the scene is kind of unique in my collection.

Conclusion & Availability

I won’t lie, the streaky finish of this polish and the longer drying time really made me dislike the polish. But I must admit, now that I have been wearing this shade for a while I actually start to like it. From an arms-length distance, it is a really nice polish. I can definitely imagine that especially in 2007 this might have been a very unique polish!

I’m quite sure that this polish is discontinued almost everywhere. I couldn’t find it on Essie’s website. In the Netherlands, there are still some websites that have it in stock, but I ended up picking it up at TK Maxx. If you really want this polish, it is still available over here at Amazon US (affiliate link).

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