Essie Sexy Divide

Don't tell Illamasqua Baptiste (my one true love), but I decided to try out a new shimmery purple.  Essie Sexy Divide had been on my wish list for quite some time, so when I finally brought it home in a swap, I was itching to try it!  Plus, let's be honest - I really like the name.

Sexy Divide is a deep red-leaning purple with fine red and purple shimmer.  The red shimmer seems to be a smidge larger than the purple shimmer and stands out more in the sunlight.  The color is gorgeous, but the shimmer is almost a "secret shimmer," as it gets a little lost on the nail.  It shows up nicely here in the photos, but in most lighting it just looks like a creme.  No complaints on application - just two easy coats!  As with any purple, it was impossible to photograph, so I had to color correct these photos (Hence the orange skin.  Sorry guys, I promise one day I'll figure out how to take more color-accurate photos!!)  I think this is pretty close to actual color.  :-)

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And here it is compared to Baptiste herself (Swoon!).  You can see the difference here.  Sexy Divide's base is almost...cloudier?  Murkier?  Either way, I think it's the reason that gorgeous shimmer doesn't really show through.  Show her how it's done, Baptiste!

(L) Essie Sexy Divide, (R) Illamasqua Baptiste

Sexy Divide is a lovely polish, and even though it's a close cousin to Baptiste, the shimmer doesn't show quite as much, so I was ready to keep this one in my stash as my Perfect Deep Purple Creme...until I saw the wear.

I don't comment much on wear in my posts, because for the most part, I don't have huge issues with chipping from any polishes in particular.  Sure, there's always your standard tip wear, but usually if I get chips, it's because I did something stupid that caused the chip.  Sexy Divide on the other hand, was a complete nightmare in terms of wear.  I applied it Tuesday night.  By Wednesday morning I had some pretty significant tip wear.  I thought it was strange since all I had really been doing was sleeping, but I shrugged it off.  By early Thursday morning, I had four GIANT chips.  Really unusual for me.  I'm not quick to point fingers, but since I used the exact same base coat/top coat combo and wasn't doing anything stupid to cause chips, I gotta blame this one on Sexy Divide.  Sigh.  Baptiste, you really are my one true love!

If you want to give it a whirl, Sexy Divide is part of Essie's core collection, so you can find it at Ulta, Wal-mart, etc.  Due to my less than stellar experience, I can't whole-heartedly recommend it, but the color is nice.  :-)

What do you guys think?  If you've tried Sexy Divide, how was the wear?  Maybe I just got a dud?