It’s been several months since I’ve bought this nail polish set from Essence. I usually never paint my nails and if I decide to do so, I always go with a clear coat. Mainly because of one reason: You’re not able to see very good if it’s chipping. However, last weekend I gave this nail polish a try. Let’s be prepared for a none beauty review…
The product series is called the “gel polish” and is said to be a very long lasting nail polish. The system behind this gel nail polish is that you use the base coat before applying the coloured one and finishing by sealing it with the top coat.
The base coat is really easy to handle as the big soft brush will cover your entire nail in only three strokes. The consistency is smooth but as it is only a base coat you’ll hardly see any changes in shine on your nails.
The second step is applying the coloured nail polish. I’ve chosen a pastel pink colour (05 Sweet As Candy) which is not too dominant but still there’s a touch of colour on your nails. And exactly with this step the problems started. It is not covering at all. You need to apply in total three layers in order to achieve the same colour it has in the bottle.
Note: If you’re not aiming for a slightly transparent colour then you may want to, before applying the coloured one, apply a white nail polish to intensify the colour. I’ve not tested that yet, but I guess it should work.
The third step would then be applying the top coat in order to seal it. And before I applied it I waited at least for ten to twenty minutes that the four layers (one base coat and three coloured ones) could dry a little bit. This top coat gives your nails a really nice and shiny finish. And like with all other nail polishes the brush is smooth and covers a lot with one strike.
The last step which was on my list was dripping some droplets from the Essence Express Dry Drops. I’ve used them before and I was so excited about the good results. The nail polish dried within 10 seconds. The texture of this product is more comparable to an oil than to a liquid or a nail polish. You really just need two drops for each nail but it’s important to use it right after you applied your last layer of polish because it has to be still a little bit wet.
I was aware that I had in total FIVE layers of nail polish… Therefore, I waited over three hours. Almost four hours and you have to know that I’m a very impatient person. I hate just sitting and doing nothing. Even just watching television gets very soon boring for me.
But what happened after almost four hours? Although I was extremely careful I had huge dents on two nails. How’s that even possible? I have no idea. It was around seven o’clock in the evening as this happened and another thing you should know about me that I’ll be bitching around when I’m hungry. I get very aggressive and moody. And how would I be able to cook if I’m not able to use my hands? Therefore, there was nothing else left for me but to remove mine over four hours work including the waiting time within a minute with nail polish remover. You may think that this would never happen to me again, but sadly this was about the 9th time I invested hours for my nails and ended up with frustrating feelings in the bathroom, rubbing the cotton pad soaked with nail polish remover vigorous over my nails.
But there’s one really positive thing about this Essence nail polish series – it’s indeed a very long lasting one or I probably should say it’s hard to remove it… And the end result is pretty but only if it stays on your nails…
Philosophising About Nail Polish
While removing my nail polish I asked myself why do I even bother? I’m not and I was never the girl wearing painted nails, lipstick or make-up (my profile picture is another story concerning the eyeliner 😉 but this will be for another post). So why do I torture myself with this procedure? To be honest, I’m not sure. Probably because other women wear nail polish and I think it looks good on them. I once tried painting my nails red and I didn’t like it. I just felt that it was not me. Not quite sure if it’s not suiting me or if I’m not accustomed to such strong colours on my nails. But still, about twice a year I give it a try and whenever I reach out for a coloured one, I either don’t feel comfortable or it ends smudging all over the place.
Now some questions for my readers:
1. Do you paint your nails? How often? Or only for a special occasion?
2. Which colours do you prefer?
3. What are your tips/hacks?
4. Why do you paint your nails?
And I’ll be definitely waiting some months before I’ll give painting my nails another try 😉
afortnightaway 
I suggest just apply the nail paint 2 coats it would take 15 mins to dry and stay for good 4-5 days. No waiting and hassles
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Will definitely give it another try. Thank you for the advice 🙂
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☺
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The quick dry drops won’t work on this, because the top coat reacts with the color coat and it needs to react for it to work the right way, so you just destroyed it with the quick dry drops. That’s why it chipped so soon and you were disappointed. Try it another time without the drops 🙂
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I’m years late wandering in from a google search! But I think the reason that color took so many coats is that this is a purposefully ‘sheer’ polish. You do one, *maybe* two coats and it’s meant to just be a sheer pale pink on your nails, with the whites showing through. If you google ‘sheer pink nail polish’ you’ll see what I mean. It’s not meant to be built up to full opacity/coverage.
All the extra coats meant none of the coats under them had a chance to dry before being sealed in with the next coat, and in the end you were left with a spongey layer on your nails that would dent really easily, even a day or two later I’d think.
If you try again, use a different color, or embrace the pale pink, especially if you normally favor a natural-looking clearcoat only. You might find that you really like a sheer pink nail.
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Hi afortnightaway,
FYI: This is going to be a really long comment.
Guess I’m 2 years late but I have to say I like this brand a lot, essence. And I use their products very often. I recently started to use this product that I’m reading your review on.
I have to say that I’m very much like you. I also do not like to paint my nails neither do I do it often, sometimes the same goes with makeup. Very minimum on the dolling up looks department. But after I started working and I work in a beauty line which means I need to doll up, have painted nails, apply darker tones and shades of makeup, I have discovered some information to share with you with regards to painting nails.
When you paint your base coat, the thickness matters means when you dip the brush into the bottle and it comes out, is it very thick does it drip? And when you apply the first coat, you must always give it time to dry. So every layer that you apply E.g. Base coat you just painted it, you gotta give it some time to dry. The more time u give each layer to dry and when it dried up completely, the longer it will last. When you accidentally hit your nail against a hard surface, it won’t dent so easily.
I am a right handed person and I use my thumb, index finger and middle finger the most. So I will paint those 3 fingers first all the time. And they will also dry first.
Every layer that you just paint, I suggest giving it about 10 mins to dry. If you are not sure, gently use your finger to touch the surface of your nail, usually when it is not dried it will have a bit of lines but it’s okay because it’s not fully dried but it will settle then I think you need to give it another 10 mins more or 20 mins. This is really depending on the thickness of the liquid of how much you have painted on your nails. Bear in my mind that you have to do this for every layer that you apply on.
Like you, I am also a very impatient person. (LOL!) But I watch movies, dramas, TV 📺 to try to pass time while drying my nails. I even read books or play on my laptop those games using your mouse 🖱 .
I don’t really use express drip dry. I try to use quick drying base coat and quick drying top coat. The brand that I supplies this that I use is OPI. You’d be surprised. Almost instantly it dries right after application and you can literally feel it drying too. So it’s no surprise my favourite nail polish brand is OPI but the quick drying base coat and top coat is really good! Unfortunately, I do not think OPI normal nail polish colour has any quick drying qualities. However, the only complain I might have for OPI’s quick drying base coat and top coat is that OPI’s nail polish brush is not as easy to apply as (the GEL nail polish) brush application. The GEL nail polish brush application is rather easy and good. I pretty much like it.
I have been told by my colleagues that another brand that has quick drying nail polish colour is essie. I have not had any privilege to test out their product yet. But you may want to try essie. I have been told that it dries almost as fast as the OPI quick drying base coat and top coat. Maybe you or someone else has had the privilege to try essie out already?
I hope this information helps! 😘
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Excellent review post. I identify myself very much with you. Unfortunately I haven’t read your post before I had a similar experience with the same nail lack set, same brand. The pink nude bottle looks different (2024), but the experience is the same. Worst quality I have ever used! Good luck with your experiments 😉
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