Hey everyone!

I tend to ignore the staple polishes in my collection. Safe color, good formula, trusted brand? Eh. Crazy color, troublesome matte formula, random bottle I grabbed while impulse shopping at Ulta?? Gimme!

But, as we all know, there are usually gems in the Essie collection. Like this ignored pink. Is it as flashy as some of my other Essies, like Blue La La? No… But the formula and color of this one REALLY surprised me!

This glorious pink shade is called Mod Square (not Mod Squad. Although my notes totally say Mod Squad. The human brain loves to make assumptions! What’s a mod square, anyway? 😂) Mod Square is about to leave the ranks of ignored polishes, and you’ll see why!

THE COLOR:

Essie describes this polish with some pretty exciting words- they call it a high fidelity electric pink, and an eye popping retro color. I don’t know about all that, Essie. This is a polish your mom buys at Target and then you steal from her stash cause it actually looks p. cute. It’s a basic pink. But it’s got that girly girl realness!

THE FORMULA:

This is why Mod Square is leaving the bench and getting in the game. It had a nice first coat- not streaky or sheer. It has a light, jelly-like formula, which is fun, but I’d still call it a creme polish. And then it was perfect in 2 coats! Whoa! What a dream! I’ve been having good formula luck lately, like with this surprising Orly blue. I did a third coat just to cover some lines, and then added a top coat. Like with all jelly-ish formulas, a shiny top coat really made this one pop.

OTHER NOTES:

This classic girly pink photographed really well, which is always fun. I can’t wait to post the swatches of it on my nailstagram. It’s for sale on Amazon and Target, so it’s easy to find, although it’s definitely dupeable (even within Essie polishes). A mid-toned blue based pink like this is not exactly rare, although the formula makes it special. Glossy and jelly and excellent in two coats makes this one harder to dupe.