Essie Advent Calendar

Essie Advent Calendar 2026: 24 doors of polish and nail care

The Essie Advent Calendar 2026 is a nail-only countdown: behind its 24 doors sit 21 polishes and 3 nail treatments, and not a single filler trinket. Essie has pulled from six of its ranges here, from the shimmery Gel by essie line to the summery Glass Nails and the quirky Gourmet Grocery shades, so the box plays as a quick tour through what the brand makes.

What settles the question for most buyers is the format split: 10 of the 24 are full-size, the other 14 are smaller items: 11 mini 5ml polishes and 3 nail treatments. At roughly 42% full-size, that is more real product than a budget nail calendar usually gives you. It’s an exploration set for anyone who repaints their nails often, built to spread you across shades, not to top up one favourite.

What’s inside the Essie nail advent calendar 2026?

Twenty-four products, all for your nails, spread across six Essie ranges. The breakdown is what tells you whether it’s for you:

• 9 full-size polishes (13.5ml): five from the Gel by essie line including the much-loved Diamond Dust Top Coat, two classics in 13 Mademoiselle and 50 Bordeaux, and two US Gourmet Grocery shades
• 1 full-size expressie (10ml), the quick-dry 570 Never Skip a Beat
• 11 mini polishes (5ml) from the Classic, Glass Nails and Special Effects ranges
• 3 nail treatments: a 7ml break fix repair, the Hard to Resist nail hardener and the Stay Longer base coat

The real hook sits in the colours. Five of the shades are US exclusives you can’t buy in the UK outside this box: the three Glass Nails tones (25 Crystal Ball, 0 Blue Light, 20 Cin Cin) and two Gourmet Grocery shades (1017 Unsalted, 1018 Crunch Crunch). For anyone who follows Essie’s US drops, that alone is a reason to look.

Essie hasn’t put an official value on the box, so I won’t invent one. What I can say is plain: divide the £59.99 launch price across 24 products and you land near £2.50 a product, while the ten full-size bottles each retail around £8 to £11 on their own. The full-size count carries the maths here, the minis are the padding. That lands it squarely in the mid-range of nail calendars.

=> The full door-by-door breakdown sits in the SPOILER tab.

A colour calendar first, nail care second

Be clear on one thing before you buy: this is a calendar of colour. Twenty-one of the 24 doors are polish, and only three are treatments (the repair, the hardener, the base coat). If you wanted hand cream, a top-to-toe routine or anything beyond nails, this isn’t it.

The other catch is size. Thirteen of these 14 smaller items hold just 5ml, which on a manicurist’s schedule is a handful of applications before the bottle runs dry. The whole point is breadth: you get to try a wide spread of finishes, from the icy Glass Nails to the glittery Gel by essie top coats, without committing to a shelf of full bottles. Anyone who loves a seasonal winter shade, deep reds, frosted silvers, jewel tones, will have plenty to open.

My verdict on the Essie Advent Calendar 2026

Here’s what wins me over: Essie didn’t pad this box with gadgets, it filled it with actual polish from six ranges, ten of them full-size and five of them shades we don’t get on UK shelves. For a nail calendar at this price, that’s more substance than the box lets on from the outside.

Where it falls short is the narrow brief. Three care items is the bare minimum, and the 5ml minis go fast. If you’re the type who likes to hoard big bottles of a shade you love, you’d do better buying a couple of full-size Essies and skipping the countdown.

After weighing it up, my take is this: ‘As a nail discovery set for December, the count adds up. As a way to stock your favourites, it doesn’t, and it was never trying to.’

• Not for you if you wanted care, treatments or anything beyond colour, or if you’d rather collect full-size bottles.
• Worth it if you repaint often and want to try five US exclusives and six ranges in one box.

Versions of this calendar:

• Essie Advent Calendar 2026 (24 doors, 21 polishes and 3 treatments, ~£59.99)
• Browse more beauty advent calendars on the site.

Essie, salon colour since 1981

Essie was founded in 1981 by Essie Weingart, built on one idea: salon-quality polish you could use at home, in shades with names people actually remembered. The brand is now part of L’Oréal, and that reach shows in a line-up that runs from timeless classics to constant new launches.

This calendar is that split in a box. You get the 1981 classics in Mademoiselle and Bordeaux sitting next to the newer Gel by essie and Glass Nails ranges, and a few US shades the brand doesn’t normally send to Britain. It’s Essie showing its whole hand at once.

Where to buy the Essie Advent Calendar 2026

The Essie countdown is sold through Amazon and larger beauty retailers. No discount code is live at the time of writing. Compare the best offers at the top of this page.

• Release date: available from August 2026
• Retailers: Amazon and selected beauty stockists
• Discount code: none at the time of writing
• Shipping: charged at the retailer’s standard rates