You’ll have the best (manicured) hand at the casino when you have the Essie Retro Revival Collection! Get the royal flush when it hits stores across Canada on January 5th, 2016.
Stop bluffing, and don’t hide that ace up your sleeve. Play your cards right by painting your nails with what I consider to be the ace of spades in the Essie Retro Revival Collection – the sparkly blue, Starry Starry Night. It’s one of the six shades that Essie is relaunching to celebrate their 35th anniversary!
These are the six shades that will be re-released:
- Starry Starry Night
- Life of the Party
- Bikini with a Martini
- Sequin Sash
- Birthday Suit
- Cabana Boy
I can’t keep a poker face because I’m most excited about wearing Essie Starry Starry Night. It’s a colour that’s been on my nailphile wish list for several years. And although I’ve seen it for sale on eBay, I was never going to pay hundreds of dollars for any nail polish. [The most expensive polish I’ve ever purchased was Clarins 230 (also known as “Unicorn Pee” to nail junkies) back in 2011.]
PR really outdid themselves because the beautiful box, goodies, and all six nail polishes put a huge smile on my face! So much thought and care went into the package.
Aside from the nail polishes, they included a full-sized, Essie-branded deck of playing cards with an adorable nail-polish design. Also, there were white poker chips to tie the whole celebrate-your-birthday-in-Las-Vegas-style together.
Stay tuned because the first colour from this collection that I plan to wear is Essie Starry Starry Night. Of course I’ll also do a full review with lots of swatches on here.
In the meantime, see the rest of this post for additional photos of each of the nail polishes, quick swatches, and a closer look at the thoughtful extras!
Essie Retro Revival Collection Pictures
The collection came in this beautiful box from PR!
The press booklet
Left-Right: Starry Starry Night, Life of the Party, Bikini with a Martini, Sequin Sash, Birthday Suit & Cabana Boy
An Essie-branded deck of cards – how cute!
Adorable nail-polish themed playing cards!
Even the jokers in the deck are blinged out!
Essie Starry Starry Night
Originally released in 1997 – Twinkling midnight blue
“You’re not dreaming! This beloved, legendary midnight blue, twinkling with silvery stars and glittering like the night sky, is back. Time to celebrate!”
Essie Starry Starry Night
Click here to see my Essie Starry Starry Night Swatches & Review!
Essie Life of the Party
Originally released in 2002 – Pinot noir pearl
“Mixing it up at the club. Working the room. Posing for the paparazzi. This pinot noir pearl is everywhere – and everything – right now.”
Essie Life of the Party
Essie Bikini with a Martini
Originally released in 2006 – Frosted iridescent pink
“Want to shake things up? Head to Vegas, hit the pool and cut loose in this frosted iridescent pink. Bottoms up!”
Essie Bikini with a Martini
Essie Sequin Sash
Originally released in 2005 – Sheer glittery bronze
“Tie one on. This sheer glittery bronze nail polish with silver flecks adds just the right amount of shimmering glamour to any ensemble.”
Essie Sequin Sash
Essie Birthday Suit
Originally released in 1981 as part of the original 12 polishes – Cheeky delicate nude
“Who needs cake? This cheeky, delicate nude is so irresistibly delicious, just light some candles and you can be the dessert.”
Essie Birthday Suit
Essie Cabana Boy
Originally released in 2005 – Ultra-cool pearly white
“Walking straight out of your fantasies and into your pool party, one flash of this ultra-cool pearl white sets hearts racing.”
Essie Cabana Boy
Essie Starry Starry Night
Click here to see my Essie Starry Starry Night Swatches & Review!
I have some poker chips, so I threw a blue one into the mix. (When I was little, my dad and I played poker at home for fun during the summer. Good memories!)
Whoa – the first version of Essie Starry Starry Night was being sold on eBay for a crazy-high price! (This is from the press booklet.)
In the little press booklet, there was part of The New York Times article featuring Scrangie wearing Essie Starry Starry Night. There’s also part of her interview there. (Scrangie is the first nail-polish blogger who I ever found and followed. Love her!)
Essie Retro Revival Collection Swatches
All swatches:
- Have 3 coats of nail polish
- Don’t have any top coat
- Are photographed in artificial light
Normally, I would use nail wheels for quick swatches, but since I ran out of nail wheels, I painted my own nails.
Left-Right: Bikini with a Martini, Life of the Party & Starry Starry Night
Left-Right: Cabana Boy, Birthday Suit & Sequin Sash
Essie Retro Revival Collection Press Release
35 Years. 6 Shades. And One Starry Starry Night
Introducing the Retro Revival Collection celebrating 35 years of Essie
What do you do when you celebrate your birthday? Grab the friends you rarely get to see and head to Las Vegas to party like it’s…1981. For Essie’s fabulous 35th, we’re gathering a few of our nail polish besties and re-launching them Vegas-style, in honour of that ultimate party town where it all began. When Founder Essie Weingarten kicked-off her debut collection 35 years ago, there was no better place to create a splash than in Vegas where the stakes are high and the glitz and glamour play for keeps. Showgirls and chic card dealers fell instantly in love with the game-changing assortment of original shades. For them, a beautiful manicure was a winning hand!
It’s so fun getting into a retro mood: just bet on diamonds and over-the-top nails to complete your throwback eighties moment. That’s why we’ve embellished our signature white cap with gold starbursts for this one-of-a-kind collection – a nod to the iconic vintage sign of the Stardust Casino that lit up The Vegas Strip.
Opening the colour vault of Essie’s legendary archive was a thrilling glimpse into the brand’s dazzling history, and Essie is channeling that exhilarating moment in this highly-anticipated collection of six shades. With pearls, sheers, frosted and iridescent effects, each shade promises a sparkling night of thrills.
And, yes…the rumours are true: we’re bringing Starry Starry Night back! It wouldn’t be a party without a coveted colour, essential to completing any Essie addict’s collection. Featured on blogs as one of the most desirable and difficult to find polishes, this scintillating shade is all aces.
The Retro Revival 2016 Collection will be available in beauty destinations across Canada as of January 5, 2016.
Disclosure: The nail polishes, playing cards, and white Essie-branded poker chips were provided to me by PR.
Do you have the original Essie Starry Starry Night? Will you be grabbing a bottle or two or three of the re-released version of Essie Starry Starry Night? Or are you more excited about another shade in the Essie Retro Revival Collection?
I really like Starry, Starry Night and Life of the Party is quite pretty. The rest I find a bit meh – just as well that polish has moved on since 1997 (and fashion, music etc!). Still, the idea is nice to have a proper retro collection, which will no doubt appeal to serious Essie fans!
Hey firegirl!
The others are quite sheer and needed the three coats, whereas I feel that Starry Starry Night and Life of the Party could get away with just two coats.
Interesting thing is that way back in the day, I wasn’t much of an Essie nail-polish fan because they used to not have too many bold shades. The majority were soft colours, nudes, reds, and sheers. But then Mesmerize came onto the scene, and from that point on, I was in love. (I consider Mesmerize to be a part of nail-polish history because it was unlike anything they had done before. Bold move forward to embrace the modern nailphile!)
So happy that they’re bringing Starry Starry Night back! It’s been a lemming of mine for ages. 🙂
Hey Nailtastic!
Same here – I could never pay hundreds of dollars on it, no matter how much I loved it. Now that it’s coming back, more people will be able to get it at a reasonable price, and eBay sellers won’t jack up the price to insane amounts.
I’m liking these colors, especially cabana boy and birthday suit. Thanks for sharing this cool retro set with us!
Hey Melissa!
Thanks for checking it out – I’m always excited to share with you these novel kits that I’m fortunate to receive from PR. 🙂
As a forewarning about Cabana Boy and Birthday Suit, they are on the sheer side, so you’ll need three coats to get decent coverage on them.
I agree with firegirl as the same choices and I love Stary Stary Night and Life of the Party to be the most favorite of the Retro collection. I have always Essie polishes from the beginning.I believe Downtown Brown was my first Essie polish I have used. I love the brown color with the red undertones. However, for this post I need to purchase those two colors.
Hey George!
Oohh, Essie Downtown Brown, you say? Hmm, I don’t think I have that one in my collection. (I looked up some swatches, and it appears to be more of a maroon than a brown. Very nice for autumn!)
A detailed review of Essie Starry Starry Night is coming in tomorrow’s blog post, so stay tuned! 🙂 Hint: I love it!
I wish they would bring back Ruby Slippers…
Hey Lori!
That was a classic glittery red! I remember it was very popular.
Do you have Essie Leading Lady? While it’s not a dead-on dupe, it’s quite close in terms of finish. As for the hue, it’s slightly different, but comparable. I think it was from a collection back in 2012 or so.
oh my god, absolutely stunning – life of the party needs to be in my life and look at the press pack! Totally gorgeous! xx
http://www.iridescentplaces.blogspot.co.uk
Hey Caroline!
Essie’s PR really did a fantastic job with the presentation. Even before I opened the box, it impressed me to see how much thought was put into it, from the design to the branded poker chips and cute playing cards. I feel very fortunate that I can enjoy these and share photos with readers like you! It’s fun to share the excitement over polish! 🙂
So stinkin’ excited!! I wish I could find what time the US presale starts today. I am like you – had SSN on my lemming list for a long while but never willing to shell out that kind of cash (my priciest bottle was RBL Aqua Lily). I’ll be picking up a bottle or 3 if I can today. : )
Hey Carolyn!
Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily is so beautiful – good call on snatching that one up while it was still available! (I can’t believe that Ji shut down the company. It was incredibly sad to read her posts, but I fully respect her difficult decision.)