Essence The Gel Nail Polish Review

Essence the gel nail polish.

I ventured further into the marvellous range of Essence products and purchased one of their gorgeous shades of gel nail polish. My shade of choice was Ultra Violet. A beautiful rich ‘Cadbury’ purple, with a shimmer fleck.

Often I’m hesitant with polishes that sparkle as I find them to be too gritty. Regardless of top coat layers, I still seem to catch it on everything. This specific shade is a fine shimmer, not at all gritty.

The gel nail polish is a good consistency, spreads on evenly with the brush. The brush, and bottle, are quite small so I found it took two dips to get full nail coverage. Two layers was plenty to have a lovely even colour. I used the two accompanying gel nail polish items – the base coat and the top coat. So I applied these as directed.

Half way through my day I noticed my first chip. By the time I was home that evening I had multiple little chips on the tips of my nails. I hadn’t done anything excessive to warrant damage to my nails or polish, so I was really disappointed. I’m a student in the health sector, so no long water emersion or harsh chemicals on my hands.

I love the shade, but I’m quite disappointed with the quality. In this instance, you really do get what you pay for. Essence gel nail polish will set you back a tiny $3.60 a bottle. Its accompanying top and base coat can be purchased for $5.65 each. I purchased mine from Farmers, instore as the Essence range isn’t available for purchase online.

Still loving my Essence holo highlighter stick though! xxx

I've been wanting to try the Essence nail polishes for a while now, so bought a couple and had high hopes for them.

Sadly, I was disappointed and gutted because I love their other products in the range.

I'll start with the positives though - beautiful colours that look gorgeous on when you first apply them. Lots of product for a small price tag. Easy to apply and you only need a couple of applications. Doesn't smell chemically which is great because I hate that and the formula (gel) is nice and thick.

Negative - Not long after applying two coats and letting them dry 100%, it had already started to chip off even though the formula is quite a thick one. Its like as soon as you apply it, the formula becomes thin and brittle enabling it to chip easy.

I will continue to use these as their colours are just gorgeous, but I would have to apply a base coat and a top coat in between perhaps to prevent from chipping?

I absolutely love the colour range that these cute little polishes come in however, apart from that, these are just normal nail polishes that reflect their very cheap price. Although the smooth and shiny finish may resemble that of a gel polish the wear certainly doesn’t. Like all cheap nail polishes, I found that my nails chip within 2 to 3 days of application. I think this is a great product for younger people as it is affordable and has such a fun colour range. In saying that, because I really do love some of these colours I would probably purchase these to use on my toes as polish always seems to last longer on toe nails than finger nails.

Have brought numerous shades of these. They are cheap, accessable and come in some really cute and also unique shades! They are average in terms of nail polish, if you don't use a top + base coat these will chip within 10 mins. They dry relatively quickly but can chip easily. Nothing special in terms of results - but great price point and colour range.

Picked this up at Farmers for a couple of bucks. Stoked on the price and colour range that was available in store. I chose a gorgeous baby pink with glitter, it's a lovely colour. Easy to apply, I liked the application brush, perfect fit for my nails. End result is lovely and finished. I had put a base coat down but forgot to put a top coat on. Chipped on the first day, 3ish days later and it looks a bit worse for wear. It is a cheap polish but in saying that it is cheap I don't expect superior duration. I think I would still purchase from the range again, just need to remember to put a top/protective coat on top.

Essens is so afordable and easy to get hold of. So this is a nice cutex to apply on your nails but it really isint long lasting.

My chiped away so fast and im busy with water most of my day so that didnt word well with it al all.

So it a good cutex to put on my tonails ot lasted longer and this is a great summer color aswell

Beautiful colour, and ultra nice finish, my only problem is that it takes long to dry, and that it doesn’t last very long. Not really chip resistant.

I like these nail polishes because I don't like to invest a lot of money in my nails but I still like them to look put together. These polishes tend to last a few days on me before they start to chip which I like. The brush is my favourite part of it because it's so thick and can cover a large area of my nail so I feel like I get an even coverage in a short amount of time. They're super affordable and available at my local Farmers store which I appreciate.

These come in a range of colours to suit anyone's taste. They come in a cute bottle and last fairly well. I buy these for my daughters and they love them. Who wants to spend big money when kids are using these in arts and crafts and creating different designs on their nails.

These polishes are great for the price range. I pick them up at Farmers for around $3.50 which as far as I know is the only place you can get them in New Zealand.

They come in a really wide variety of colours and I am slowly making my way into owning them all. The bottle is fairly small but the brush is nice and wide. The polish itself is a bit thicker than regular polish but still goes on smooth and the wide brush makes it easy to apply. I need two coats of this with most colours but some of the lighter shades only need one. I use this along with the gel base coat and top coat that Essence sells but I think any base/top coat would do and is necessary. It also dries quite a bit faster than a regular polish which is super nice.

This lasts a good 4 or 5 days without any chipping for me. Some of the shades last a bit longer than others but I think that's pretty standard for most polishes. Sometimes I just touch up where it's chipped and it lasts me a couple of days longer. It's very easy to take off with regular nail polish once you want to remove the colour.

The only downside with this product that I've found is that once the bottles are opened it tends to start to dry up and thicken after 3 or 4 months. Maybe this is why the bottle is a bit smaller. It might make a difference if they are stored in the fridge but I haven't tried that.

Overall, this product is a great buy!