Essie Leading Lady Nail Polish: Review & Swatches

I do realize (and apologize) for the extreme delay in posting this review, considering this polish was in a collection released nearly a year ago. There's always a way to get older polishes, but Essie is a brand that's a little more elusive in finding shades gone by. Now you might think that this a polish from the current Winter 2013 collection of Shearling Darling, but don't be fooled. This polish is Leading Lady.

To continue reading and see swatches, click the link below.

As I was perusing the Esssie Shearling Darling winter collection, I came across Toggle to the Top, which very much resembles Leading Lady. That's why I felt the need to dig up the old swatches I never used of this polish. For all of your that wished you got your hands on this last year, you have a chance again. Now I don't have Toggle to the Top for comparison swatches (and I don't want to knowingly buy two of the same thing). However, go to this post here, of the Shearling Darling collection (as well as a quick Google swatch search), and these polishes look nearly identical in the bottle and on the nail.

For the actual Leading Lady description, it's a dark red (almost maroon) base with bunch of glitter in it that sparkles through. It ends up looking almost like a sparkly ornament. I don't quite know if the glitter is silver and appears red from the base color, or if it's just red. I'll leave that philosophical question up to you all. It's a fabulous holiday shade that begs to be the sparkle on your nails. It's a little gritty in texture once applied though. The glitter does make it chunky, but top coat will tone down the texture for the most part. Average lasting power on the nails.

Swatches

The following swatches are two coats of Leading Lady polish with top coat. As you can see the texture is a little gritty and rough (but not over the top). I guess I could have put another layer of top coat, but I was lazy.

Flash Pic

Natural Pic

Bottom Line: I know this is beyond late in terms of posting, but I just wanted you all to have a reference. If you own Leading Lady, it seems highly unlikely that you'll also need Toggle to the Top. It's an interesting, festive color, but it does have a chunky texture. It adds a pretty sparkle, but not my go to polish.