Essie Mink Muffs - A Review

I have long been searching for a nail varnish which is in the taupe/mink/slate type family.  I always think these nail colours look really nice, but the key seems to be in getting a shade that suits your skin tone.

I’ve so far failed to find one where the colour suits me.  My hands are not my best feature, they are quite wrinkly for my age, and get very red and sore in winter.  They can therefore be quite unforgiving when it comes to the more unusual nail colours.  I had tried No. 7’s ‘Beanie’ a few years back, but I hate the consistency of No.7 nail varnishes, and the brush is too thin.  The colour wasn’t bad, but the application was too difficult. 

I’ve found this family of colours tend to only pop up in the higher-end nail varnish ranges.  You’ll struggle to find a decent taupe-based shade in any varnish under the £7 mark. 

On a recent girly shopping trip with my Mum, she randomly ended up buying Chinchilly by Essie for her Christmas parties.  Both of us were a little surprised at how nice the grey shade looked on her nails – my Mum because she thought it would look too “young” on her, and me because we share a similar skin tone and normally the grey based colours look awful. 

Following her success, we then started having a play with different colours and I then ended up purchasing Essie’s Mink Muffs... (on an aside, I recommend playing with colours when you have the time and are with an honest companion.  Like in this case, you often find colours suit you which you weren’t expecting)



Mink Muffs is a pinky-purple based mink colour.  The colour reminds me of one of the colours offered by the Impress press-on nail range, which I have always liked.  It looks a completely different colour in the bottle, almost terracotta-based.  I’d never have picked it off the shelf in a million years, but it looked completely different when I tested it on my finger nail.

The application is typical Essie.  The desired depth of colour is easily achieved in two applications, although it always leaves me hankering after a third application to really give the colour some punch.

After 1 application

After 2 applications

I struggle to describe the colour.  It definitely has warm undertones which I think makes it look a bit less harsh against my skin tone.  It also changes quite drastically in different lights.  In my bedroom last night it looked very taupe based, but when I was walking through town on my lunch break today I noticed it was very purple! (Hence why I had to take a photo – ignore the sainsburys bag!)

In daylight!

Thus far I am a fan of this colour.  It is taking a bit of getting used to, because it isn’t as dark as what I normally use at this time of year.  However it seems to go really nicely with cream clothing, and also offers a less harsh alternative when wearing a lot of black.  I also think it will come in handy for the xmas season.

As usual I am impressed with the actual Essie varnish – creamy application, good shine, good colour depth, decent sized brush.  You can't go wrong for £7.99!  They are also buy one get one half price at the moment in Boots.