I love my Essie polishes and would recommend them to anyone.
I find the shade range to be good but no better than other brands (OPI etc). I don't really notice any difference between chippage with different brands. The areas that Essie does way better than other brands is the brush and the consistency of the polish. For these reasons alone I'll continue to buy Essie over other similarly priced brands.
I think Essie brushes are a tiny bit smaller than other brushes which allows me way more control when I paint my nails. If I'm using a red or a dark colour, I'll only use Essie otherwise I spent more time cleaning up around my nail than actually painting.
I find that all of my other polish brands get "gluggy" far earlier than my Essie polishes do. I've some Essie polishes for years and the consistency in the bottle is still the same as when I first got the bottle.
Essie have a great selection of colours. One of my favourite light pink polishes is from Essie and although a light colour, i only ever need to apply one or two coats. Always applies super smooth and lasts a pretty long time on the nail. Doesn't chip often'either which is always a bonus.