Essie - Dive Bar

Essie - Dive Bar (2 coats)
base: Essie - Grow Stronger, top coat: Seche Vite

I saw this at Walgreens in Vegas a while ago and picked it up. Essie is a few dollars cheaper in the states than it is here in Canada so I bought this on a whim. Usually I will look at swatches/reviews on my phone before purchasing but since I was on vacation I didn't want to use 3G since it would be really expensive with roaming. In the bottle, this looks like a beautiful dark teal shimmer with a purple duochrome shift. Unfortunately, the purple duochrome shift does not show up at all on the nail. You can see it in the bottle shot below.

Next time I wear this I think I'll try Orly Royal Velvet on top to get a purple duochrome. Although I was disappointed that the polish didn't have the purple duochrome shift I was hoping for, I still really like this polish overall. It is a nice shimmery dark teal that can look a bit black at the edges but glows in the middle of the nail when the light hits it. It is not so dark that it is almost black though thanks to the shimmer. It can look more blue or more green depending on the lighting which makes it more interesting. 

As with all other Essie polishes I've tried, application was excellent. The polish was the perfect consistency - not too thick or too thin and very easy to control. They also have an amazing brush that is not too wide or too thin for me. I think I only had to do clean up on 2 nails! 

Wear time with this polish was insane. I've been wearing this for a week now and I still don't have any chips! (I accidentally smudged my pinky while it was still wet if you were noticing that spot). There is a teeny bit of tip wear but much much less than usual. It has lost most of it's gloss and the shimmer is not very noticeable anymore. Reapplying top coat would probably restore the gloss and shimmer. However, I think if people didn't know what polish you were wearing they would just think that the polish was always that way and wouldn't know that you've had it on forever like me. I've been feeling like I'm starting to get sick so I've been really tired and just way too lazy to change my polish. I am getting bored of this one though (I usually change my polish every 3-4 days) so I will probably remove it in the next few days even if it doesn't chip by then.

How long do you usually wear a polish before changing it? What is your personal record for most time with the same mani? Any other recommendations for long wearing polishes?

Thanks for reading! :)