For once, I actually wore an Essie color of the month and I am just barely able to share it with you all in time. Happy last day of September! Usually Essie’s COTM picks do not excite me but I do love that they usually reach back into their archives, which can inspire you to pull out a polish you have not worn for awhile. For September, they chose Exposed, which came out last year around… spring? Although I love greyed out colors, I did not purchase any of them at the time. Kind of a weird time of year for a collection featuring several darker neutrals. However, fall is the perfect time for shades like Exposed, so I grabbed a bottle at Fred Meyer during a beauty savings event they had going on (spend $15, get $5 off). Exposed is described as a “mossy green with a slight white overcast.” Hmmm, okay, I think I would call it a muddy olive that has more of a khaki tone than other olives. It also has a greyed out feeling, yet still looks very green. I absolutely adored this color and enjoyed wearing it, even if the formula left a little to be desired.
I used Deborah Lippmann All About That Base as my base coat for this mani.
Essie Exposed, 1 coat
Exposed had okay coverage with the first coat. I do not love Essie’s little brush, but it was mostly workable with this formula. Though I am trying to figure out how to explain what happened on my pinky, yikes. It is a creamy polish and fairly easy to spread out, it just does not want to self-level.
Essie Exposed, 2 coats
I used a medium second coat, which was as thick as I go, and got perfect opacity. Exposed looks a bit smoother here, although not as great as with a good top coat.
Essie Exposed, 2 coats plus Seche Vite
When you pair Exposed with a thicker top coat like Seche Vite, you get a perfect finish (assuming you do not get some random bubbling on your middle finger nail… grrrr). I have to say, I was more impressed with this color than I thought I would be. I know I’m the Queen of Green and all, but in the bottle the browner tones were stronger and I was a bit hesitant about how good this was going to be. Luckily, I found that on my nails it was 100% green in every lighting and I absolutely loved wearing it. It is one of those polishes that made me keep staring at my own nails. Perhaps this is a wake-up call for me to get the rest of the polishes from the Wild Nudes collection I want – Without a Stitch, Mooning, and Streak (such great names, those last two).
Did you grab any of the Wild Nudes? Do you follow Essie’s color of the month?
xx, Ashley
short nail swatcher 
I had no idea Essie did a colour of the month. It’s a good way to entice people to get some of their older / forgotten shades, I suppose.
This is one of those “it’s so ugly but it’s interesting” shades… I think on my skin tone it will pull yellow.
I like “Clothing Optional” and “Without a Stitch” from the Wild Nudes collection – although I didn’t pick up anything from that collection. Maybe I’ll find them discounted!
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I get Essie’s emails, which is how I found out about the color of the month. That’s about all the emails are useful for, I always know about collection releases about 100 years before they notify you 😛
I was afraid it would look more yellow on me because it looks super olive toned in the bottle.
I was hoping to grab more of these at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, but in the US at least, the Wild Nudes appear to have gotten stuck in the permanent collection.
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