Review: Essence The Gel Nail Polish

Hi Hi!! Hope everybody's good.

I'm now the proud owner of 3 new Essence polishes.

Now these weren't on my wish list per se but I've wanted to try the brand for a while. They're all from the Gel line but one's a matte line and I'm going to review them for you today.

I picked these polishes up on a visit to Wilkos. The three I got were Serendipity, Miss Captain and I *heart* my blue jeans.

The Gel polishes are part of a three step system that provides a gel like finish without the UV/LED light. I only picked up the colours as Wilkos had neither the base nor top coat but if I ever come across them I'm definitely picking them up. This brand is currently not available in Barbados.

Serendipity

Serendipity is a lavender greyish colour. The pigmentation and formula on this polish is amazing, smooth like butta as I like to say. It's definitely got the feel of a gel polish. What I would say as someone who likes products to last is the polish seems as thought it may thicken over time and require some thinners. Other than that no complaints.

In the pics below I used two coats but this polish could be a one coater if you're careful. The brush is also amazing in my opinion. It's got those brushes I like, similar to the brushes from the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. It lets you get that nice perfect line close to the cuticle.

Serendipity

Serendipity

Miss  Captain

Miss Captain is one of those hard to describe colours. By my eye it's a cross between a dusty teal and a slate grey. Might be a bit hard to visualize but the pics below are pretty true to colour. The formula was just like that of Serendipity, creamy perfection. This could also have been a one coater but I used two again. This colour is unique to my collection but I'm not really a fan of it.

Miss Captain

 I *heart* My Blue Jeans

I *heart* my blue jeans (no idea how to get a heart here) is also from the gel line but it's a Matt (Essence's spelling not mine). It's a beautiful navy blue polish, perfect fall colour if you live somewhere where the seasons change. The formula and brush on this one were like the two. This one surprisingly is also unique to my collection. I intended to top coat it but the matte had me good. Drying time was ok, my two coats took about 30 minutes to dry completely.

Roundup

Overall I'm impressed especially for the price point. The formula and pigmentation was great. The brush was amazing in my books, and I say in my books because most people don't seem to be fans of this type of brush, particularly people with small fingers. Drying time on Serendipity and Miss Captain was good; when I say drying time I mean dry to touch because I go over with my topcoat before everything is completely dry. I can't speak to longevity as I change my polish every two days but from all reviews they last. These are my first three Essence polishes but they definitely won't be my last.

Until next time...

Haulin' - Another Year, Lots of New Babies

Hiii

I recently got back from visiting the queen, officially it was called vacation but I returned more exhausted than I left. This is why I didn't fnish the September Nail Challenge I started. The rush to get things together at home and at work before travelling took some time and energy. And I know it's not necessary to have things in order but for me it is. 

Anywhosie, as I was gallivanting through London I made sure to pick up some new babies. I got 16 in a total, a resounding 10 down from last year's haul if I remember correctly. Let's hear it for self control and a diminished wallet- YAYYYY!!!

So I'm here to share the new babies with you and I'll do a review on each in separate posts.I tried to group brands together so this post wouldn't be too picture heavy.

As I said over the next few weeks I'll have separate posts on each.

Until next time...

Shop The Stash!!

Hi Guys,

How's everything? I'm back from vacation and trying to get back into the swing of things.

A few weeks ago I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed out and I don't know about you but when I'm feeling that way, I need one of two things: a snocone or new polish. So I left work in search of one or the other to cheer me up but my snocone man was MIA and I couldn't find any polishes that jumped out at me. This gave me the idea for a new blog series: Shop The Stash!!

Basically this is a challenge to myself to keep out the people's stores and make use of what I've got. It's by no means a no-buy 'cuz we all know how those go. What I noticed is that I've got a few un-trieds and several polishes that have only been once or twice so I'm putting them to work.

To start off the series I pulled out a baby that hasn't been used in a while: OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI and did a simple mani. I added some gold studs to make it blingy and top coated with Old Faithful. For the newbies that's my Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Do you guys have any untried or once-used babies lying around? Feel free to join me and shop your stashes too. Let me know in the comments. 

Until next time...