Today, I have two polishes from Essie's 2013 Winter release, Shearling Darling!

First, here is Essie- Toggle To The Top:


Toggle To The Top is a blackened red-berry jelly base filled with cool-toned crimson glitter.  I think Essie describes it as 'garnet.'

Artificial light, two coats:


(I have to apologize for my messy edges- I think I had jittery hands when I did these swatches!)

Window-filtered daylight:



This is with two coats of Revlon- Quick Dry Top Coat, and honestly it could've used another coat, or maybe something thicker.

Outside, shade:



Sun:



It's very striking in the sun!

Formula: It's on the thicker side, and has a bit of a grainy/ gritty feeling due to all the glitter. The second coat is opaque, but you will want to be generous with topcoat to smooth this out- and, more importantly, to make the glitter come alive.

Also, this is a bitch to remove, so use the glue base method or be prepared to use foil during removal!


Quick Comparison:

In the bottle, Essie- Toggle To The Top looks strikingly similar to its sister polish, Essie- Leading Lady, but the two are pretty different on the nail, as you can see. Toggle To The Top has a much deeper base, although the glitter particles in each are pretty much the same shape/size/density. (Both of these swatches show the polishes sans topcoat.)
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Next is Essie- Sable Collar:


Sable Collar is a dusty purple taupe base filled with rosy-mauve shimmer.  The base color is similar to many mushroomy taupes we've seen in the past.  We'll take a look at that at the end.

Artificial light, two coats:



Window-filtered daylight:


In most situations, the shimmer mostly gives it  nice glow and really warms up the polish a lot.

Outside, shade:


Sun:



Formula: It's on the thicker side, but self-levels on the nail nicely. The first coat is fairly opaque, I just had thinner patches at the cuticle, and some streakier areas which the second coat completely evened out. It chipped on me very easily!

Quick Comparison:




I pulled some purpley-taupes of various finished for comparison purposes.

In lower light that this picture provides, Sable Collar looks very, very similar to Misa- Well-Heeled Grey (which itself is a dupe for China Glaze-  Jungle Queen, Chanel- Paradoxal, ect.), but the shimmer in the two is very different.  Sable Collar's is more of a muted pink, and Well-Heeled Grey's is definitely purple. The base of those two polishes may well be identical though.