Dive Bar is a charcoal based polish, with teal-to-purple duochrome shimmer. It looks amazing in the bottle, but sadly the color shift doesn't translate very well on the nail. The shimmer itself it a bit hidden. The formula is ok, a bit thin but still good, and the drying time is average. I still think it is a nice polish for fall and winter, but I just wish it looked like in the bottle, so that's why I won't buy it again.

I was super excited to get a "fall" nail polish color and since the other one I wanted (a less darker green) was sold out I got this one since it looked beautiful. It looks black. Like maybe "off-black" if that exists. But the shimmer is nearly invisible and I only notice it if the light is right and because I know it's there. Pretty disappointing but it's less offensive than an actually black polish. Meh. Will not buy again.

NOT true to bottle color. Dive Bar, like Midnight Cami, is a dark shimmer polish that looks incredible in the bottle but just doesn't deliver. The shimmer isn't dense enough to really shine through the dark base, so it just gets overpowered. You need to be out in the sun for this color to look anything like teal: the rest of the time it's muted, murky -just a vague dark color. Much darker than the bottle shows.

I have mixed feelings about this product. I don't know if I got a bad bottle or something, but this colour was nothing like what I thought it'd be. I Google Imaged it and it was a ver pretty metallic greeny-blue. On my nails after the required 2 coats, it's a flat warm navy colour. It still gets three because I like the colour anyway, but I have to admit that I'm surprised and disappointed that it was in no way like the bottle or picture colour. As well as the colour issue, the application was terrible. I don't know if this is a common Essie thing, because this is the first Essie polish I've ever used, but the texture was thick and sticky. All nails now have tiny bubbles in the paint (no one else would notice them, but it's not ideal for me), and the polish did that annoying thing where when you try to put the second coat on and use enough to make it opaque, it does that thing where the texture is like gum or something. For a polish that cost about $12, I found that pretty disappointing.Overall, I still like this product because the colour is like nothing I have had so far and is a nice vampy kind of navy, but just be aware that if you're expecting that metallic, duochrome colour, you may be disappointed. Perhaps keep it in the fridge first or something so that you won't have the annoying texture issue I did, too.Update: I became more satisfied with the colour over time as I saw it in different lights. It's pretty much a very deep, metallic teal. It's nice! Also, somehow the bubbles in the manicure seemed to go away, so all good. I updates my rating from 3 to 4 because of these developments.

Dive Bar is a hidden gem from Essie. It's a sexy blackened teal in a sea of endless Essie pastels, light colors, and pinks. The application is great; the polish glides on the nails, looking great in one coat, but needing a second to even it out. Recommended if you like dark, slightly metallic, or vampy polishes and near-black shades.