Mega Essie Haul: My 100 Bottle Sweepstakes Win

Hey guys! The time has finally come for me to share the mother lode of all nail polish hauls... My 100 bottle Essie sweepstakes win (queue dramatic lighting)! Thanks for being so patient with me on this one; I know I've been promising it for a long time!

Before we get into the polishes I should explain how I won. On essie.com you can upload swatch pictures ("share your #essielove") and after doing so you have the opportunity to submit an entry to win 100 shades. I've uploaded many images, and entered many times, and I guess I just got lucky because back in October I got an email notifying me that I had won and, boy, what a surprise THAT was! I had to send a notarized letter validating my identity within 10 days of winning to claim my prize, I'm guessing because the retail value was $800. Wow! And then not long after mailing everything in I had a package of 100 perfectly packed bottles at my door. There were definitely some shades I had in mind that I was secretly hoping for, and it was just so much fun to unwrap everything and see what colors they they sent! Prior that point I probably owned about 35-40 bottles of Essie, which may seem like a lot to people who aren't into nail polish, but I'm willing to bet that out of my group of fellow Essie addicts on Instagram I probably had one of the smallest collections around, so this haul really filled out my collection nicely! Okay, enough backstory... Let's get on to what you guys really want---The nail polish!!!

While contemplating this post I mulled over the different ways to share everything with you and ultimately decided it might be better to sort them into color groupings, photograph them for reference, and then list them within their color categories. Now, let me just say, sorting by color is trickier than it seems. I didn't want too many categories, so I just used my best judgment, and the Essie website, when categorizing the tertiary colors. So, my whole point here is that these color categories are nothing official, and you may not agree with where I've categorized some shades, but I really just did my best. 

One last thing before we get into it is that yes, I did get some duplicates which I have already given away to several friends. Just for fun I will designate the duplicates with an asterisk (*) and grab my original bottle for the photo. They also sent two bottles of two shades, which I will denote as well. Only one bottle arrived sort of damaged... The cap wasn't on very tight and so some polish leaked out and dried all over the cap and bottle. It's nothing I can't clean up with acetone, but hopefully the formula didn't get too dried out because it was a new color to my collection.

Okay, enough blabbing! Let's get started!

REDS

A-List

Russian Roulette (x2)

Clambake

Fifth Avenue

Really Red

Forever Yummy

With the Band*

She’s Pampered

Maki Me Happy

Bordeaux

Berry Naughty

Wicked (not pictured)

ORANGE/CORALS

Stones N’ Roses

Tart Deco*

Sunshine State of Mind

Sunday Funday

Cute as a Button*

Meet Me at Sunset

Mark on Miami

Gallery Gal

Playing Koi*

GREEN/YELLOWS

Mint Candy Apple*

Fashion Playground

Chillato

Stencil Me In
Turquoise & Caicos

BLUES (AQUA/TURQUOISE)

Udon Know Me

In the Cab-ana

Garden Variety

In it to Wyn it

Pool Side Service

Go Overboard
Beach Bum Blu

BLUES

Find Me An Oasis* (not pictured)

Bikini So Teeny*

Butler Please

All Access Pass

Aruba Blue*

No More Film

After School Boy Blazer
Midnight Cami

PINKS

Cascade Cool

Mod Square*

Madison Ave-Hue

Fiesta

Secret Story

Guilty Pleasures

Bachelorette Bash

Off the Wall

E-nuf is E-nuf

Double Breasted Jacket

PALE PINKS

Vanity Fairest*

Ballet Slippers

Mademoiselle

Sugar Daddy

Fiji*

Spaghetti Strap

Hi Maintenance

Minimalistic

Muchi, Muchi


MAUVES

Angora Cardi*
Ladylike
In Stitches
Mrs. Always Right
Eternal Optimist

PURPLE/FUSCHIAS

Go Ginza*

Lilacism*

Play Date*

Big Spender

Flowerista*

The Fuschia of Art

Splash of Grenadine*

Kimono Over

Merino Cool

Carry On
Bahama Mama*

NEUTRALS

Topless & Barefoot (x2)*

Cocktails & Coconuts*

High Class Affair*

Go Go Geisha*

WHITES

Blanc

Tuck it in my Tux

Marshmallow

Limo-Scene

Adore-a-Ball

Allure

Between the Seats

GREYS

Smokin Hot*

Master Plan

Petal Pushers

Now and Zen

Between the Seats

BROWNS

Mochacino (the damaged one)

Mink Muffs

Imported Bubbly

Buy Me a Cameo

MISCELLANEOUS

Licorice

For the Twill of It

Some of the stuff I was most excited for was the large amount of pale pinks (I finally own Ballet Slippers and Muchi Muchi! Plus I got a new bottle of Fiji, the new formulation), Butler Please, Licorice & Blanc, Wicked, Bordeaux, new bottles of Lilacism and Vanity Fairest (to replace my discolored bottles), Stones 'N' Roses, Ladylike, Eternal Optimist, and For the Twill of It. I realized they also sent the entire Summer Neons and Fall 2016 collections, which is awesome too. 

So that's everything! My plan for storage will be to utilize my 96pc acrylic wall rack for most of my Essie collection (see my review on that rack here), and to keep everything else with the rest of my polishes on an old CD rack I've converted into a nail polish rack (see a picture of it here). Once I get the acrylic up and sorted I'll have to post a picture because I'm sure that'll be a lovely sight!

I am so grateful to have won such an amazing prize, thank you so much to Essie for hosting such a killer giveaway! Now the hard part... Which color to use first!

I hope you enjoyed this mega haul! Did you see any of your favorites? Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you guys again soon. XOXO.