Essie’s A Cut Above is another topcoat from the new Luxeffects line.  This one is a clear base with rosy pink hexagonal and small glitter pieces.  I don’t wear glitters very much, but something about the swirly pinkness of this in the bottle got me.

I also grabbed a bottle of Essie’s Marshmallow that was conveniently displayed with the Luxeffects polishes, because I thought A Cut Above would be really pretty just peeking out of a layer of white jelly polish.  The first picture below shows two coats of Marshmallow with a layer of A Cut Above on top.  Marshmallow went on a little streaky but evened out really well as it dried, and was more opaque than I expected with just two coats, so I was happy with it.  I would wear it by itself at this opacity, you could see through it just a bit so that it wasn’t too stark looking.  I really liked A Cut Above on top of Marshmallow – the pink glitters have a light, glinty feel and aren’t too girly.  A Cut Above also went on really well and the glitters spread out nicely with just one coat, no dabbing and bald spots to contend with.

But, instead of leaving well enough alone, I tried another layer of Marshmallow on top.  I wanted to try a glitter sandwich – sandwiching layers of glitter between layers of translucent jelly polish, so the glitter peeks through.  I found that Marshmallow is too opaque for this application.  The glitter is almost covered up so that you can’t really see it, and the result is kind of diseased looking.  It somehow reminds me of some kind of nasty candy, all artificial fruit flavor, weird speckly color and powdery texture.  I thought I had read that Marshmallow was a jelly white, so I wonder if the newer retail version is a little different?  Or is this opacity normal?  At any rate, this was better off without the extra white layer on top.

The Essie Luxeffects are available now in retail locations like Walgreens and salons.