I know from experience the importance of choosing the exact same dye lot number when it comes to knitting or sewing to ensure your colours aren’t slightly off (that’s the grandma in me) – but who ever knew that there was such a difference in the lot number of your cosmetics? Shades and blends are incredibly important, so when you find your colour you know exactly what you’ll be getting each and every time you purchase and repurchase the same name and number….or so you’d think.

This assumption of mine left me quite disappointed recently upon a re-purchase of an Essie polish. Now it’s not like it’s a foundation that didn’t match my skin tone (that would be tragic and an instant exchange); nail polishes are still usable and great in varying colours, that’s what makes it fun! But when I went to repurchase one of my favourite Essie shades, I was sorely disappointed in the obvious colour difference between my old bottle and my new.

It’s Essie Mint Candy Apple, which I believe is one of their most popular shades. It’s (supposed to be) the perfect blue-ish/minty green pastel shade – you know, the kind everyone loves this time of year. My first bottle (seen above on the right) was on the blue end of the spectrum. A light blue polish with a slight green tinge. And I loved it! So when I repurchased last weekend (about three years after my first bottle was purchased), I was shocked to see that the new bottle (see above on the left) was obviously a very green polish with a slight blue tinge. I stomped back to Shoppers to check out the rest, and even on the shelf you could see an obvious difference between several polishes claiming to be the same shade – so I can’t even put it down to the fact that they’ve changed the shade in the last three years. They have two different colours on the self at the same time….both claiming to be Mint Candy Apple.

So what’s the dealio Essie? Has anyone ever had this issue with their cosmetics?