I have heard soooo many bad and harsh reviews on this and thought ok, gonna avoid it. Then my curiosity got the better of me when I came across ONE blog that said she loved it. I picked it up finally after a year of ignoring it.It is stunning. Its one of those polishes that you LOVE or HATE. there is no inbetween with this. I get it. It's very textured, which i LOVE and it's VERY unique. With the amount of polish I own and love, I want unique and different. I like new and weird and edgy things in all life.This is her. She is very textured to the point of being sandpaper ish, she sparkles like a hidden diamond in the rough, and she is gorgeous. I had ZERO application issues. I keep reading about people having so many problems, but I had none. She is opaque in 2 coats and she dried super fast and is very sparkly. She is a serious top coat eater so be ready.Definitely looks like caviar with diamonds on the nails. Mine did come out like the swatches Essie advertized and I am very pleased.

I actually love the matte texture with holographic sparkles. Kinda grungy, kinda sparkly, absolutely one of a kind. I truly have no other polish like this in my collection. Yes, it does NOT apply like a normal polish but i think that adds to the uniqueness and beauty of this polish. Love.

what a great way to switch up black nail polish!cool sparkley sand finsh.works great on an accent nail (when you paint your ring finger nail a different colour, for example)I saw some torrid pictures of people glooping it on... FYI: those people just don't know how to paint their nails. with this polish, less is more xoxoxoxoxo

I can definitely see this polish being polarizing. It is so pretty, but so high maintenance. THE GOOD: Belugaria is a chunky "sand" finish black polish with large holo glitter. There is nothing else out there like this color (that I have encountered.) It is a really cool color. It also dries extremely quickly. THE BAD: This polish has a TON of glitter. I saw a quote from an Essie spokesperson who said Belugaria was 50% polish, 50% glitter. This, combined with how quickly it dries, makes the formula difficult to work with. It is really easy to use too much and have the polish build up too much on you. Or not work quickly enough and have the polish dry before you're done shaping it. Both options make you end up with overly chunky, amateurish looking nails. IMO, 2 coats is the most you can use of this polish without it looking overdone. So I would NOT suggest using several coats of this polish by itself. I would suggest using a regular black polish underneath, then one coat of Belugaria as a topcoat. If you aren't satisfied with the glitter coverage after one coat, I would suggest touching up just the parts that you think need more glitter, not the entire nail. So one or two coats of black, one coat of Belugaria and spot touch-ups as needed. ETA-OK, I think I've cracked it. I was playing with Belugaria on my nail polish wheel to try out different techniques. I was noticing that you have to be careful to clear the black off of the holo hex glitter while you're working. If the holo glitter are covered, it doesn't look as cool. I was thinking that if you could use topcoat, you could just put it on while the NP is slightly wet to clear off the glitter. So I touched some topcoat on the tip of each Belugaria nail. This technique cleared off a lot more of the holo glitters and the end result was much better looking. Belugaria with TC doesn't look as striking, matte (obvs) or chunky as it is supposed to. But just wait 10-20 minutes, because, like most glitter polishes, Belugaria is a serious topcoat eater. After enough time has elapsed, the topcoat will be absorbed and you will be left with a lot of visible holo glitter. ETA 2-All of the above is correct, but I have found that this technique will leave you with a semi-gloss finish even after the TC has been absorbed. Part of what makes Belugaria so cool is how flat of a matte finish it has. To that end, I would probably skip the TC and maybe wipe the polish off of the glitter with a clean brush. I gave Belugaria only three lippies, because the formula is such a PITA to work with. Maybe that's harsh, but the formula can be such a turnoff that I would be surprised if it is the big seller it deserves to be. Just based on the color, it would be four lippies for sure. So I will revisit that rating if I find ways to work with it better. It really is a cool, unique color and I would definitely buy it again. It could be such a showstopper, if managed correctly.

Its black and glittery, which is cute but when Essie emailed me the ad for this I thought this would be a lot cuter. Yeah its realllllyyy textured, which is trendy, but this chips way too easily and is not actually too flattering. Plus I needed three coats which is just unneccessary