This is a black cream polish; basic, but a great staple to have in my collection and fantastic for nail art. It is not the most opaque polish, so two coats are required, sometimes three when covering the whole nail or using a striping brush. But it works really well with nail art when using a dotting tool to apply, no second coat/dot needed, just clean the tool off every so often so the polish doesn't get too thick. Like all Essie cream polishes it has great staying power and no chipping. It does have a tendency to smear when top coat is applied, more so than other polishes. But when I need a new bottle of black, I'll get this again.