Essence ‘The Gel’ nail polishes {swatches & wear test}

Hi lovelies,

Did you have a good weekend?  It’s been nice and cool which I love! We popped into the dealership on Saturday to see what the progress was on my car and we ended up not hearing what we wanted to hear.  I am a little annoyed but in the next day or two I will make sure to get some final answers. Luckily this weekend is another long weekend so yay for that.

In the post on Friday I mentioned some of the recent Essence range updates and I mentioned that probably the biggest change was the new Essence ‘The Gel” polishes (I promise that will be the last time I refer to them as that, from here on out it is just Essence – xxxx).  I did pick up a few of them to swatch and I also did a bit of a wear test.  So let’s get cracking on the swatches.

Essence – Wild white ways

The reason why I am showing you this one first…..because white.  It has been near impossible to find Sinful Colors – Snow me white or Black on black in the last few months.  I use a lot of white and black polish in general but add in the Tuesday Stamping posts and I easily go through at least a bottle a month.  Needless to say, not finding a decent white is a problem.  This here is 2 coats with no topcoat.  It is so white that it almost looks fake right?  Great formula and perfect opacity.  This is my new favourite pure white nail polish. Well done Essence!!

Essence – Electriiiiiic

*swoon* This is 2 coats with no topcoat.  Look how shiny! For me, this was a bit darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle but it is still a gorgeous blue with a great formula and opacity.  This one caught my eye immediately on the shelf and it did not disappoint at all.

Essence – Hey, Love! 

I have another story with this one.  This was wasn’t as great to photograph but I think I know why.  On my ring finger I have 1 coat of Essence – Fame fatal with 2 coats of Hey, love! over it.  On all my other nails I have 3 coats of Hey, love! I think the reason why my ring nail looks good on the photo compared to the others is because after 2 layers of glitter it just becomes a lot when you look up super close like on a photo.  BUT I do think you can still see how amazingly beautiful this polish is.  This is a red glitter in a very sheer red jelly base.  The base is really sheer.  On the first coat I was sure the base was clear but on the second coat you can definitely see the tint. That being said, it builds up really well and is completely opaque in 3 coats.  I could not see a difference between the nail with red undies or the nail without.  This is SO gorgeous and sparkly and shiny and blingy.  It’s a great addition to the range.

Essence – Wonderfuel

This is 2 coats with no topcoat.  At first glance it looked like a beautiful purply shade.  On closer inspection I knew I had to have it.  This is a beautiful purple polish packed with blue shimmer.  This gives it an almost duochrome feel.  The shimmer makes the purple come alive and is absolutely gorgeous.  This is one that will look even better in real life, I promise.  Great formula and opacity too.  LOVE!

Essence – Prince charming

This is 2 coats with no topcoat.  This was a sneaky little surprise polish.  I grabbed it as I walked past the shelf because it looked like the perfect minty turquoisy creme but I didn’t really look at it very much.  When I applied it, that shimmer!!  Where the heck did that come from?  Excellent formula and opacity, this is almost a one coater.  This immediately reminded me of Sinful Colors – Mint apple but amplified.  The shimmer is really gorgeous and transforms this into something stunning.  I also did the wear test with this colour.

The wear test:

As I said, I used Prince charming for the wear test.  I applied this polish and set a reminder of my phone for 24 hour increments to take photos.  So every day is exactly 24 hours laters.  I was looking forward to doing a wear test but I did not consider the fact that I would not be able to paint my nails WHILE doing an actual wear test.  Shock horror!!!  Anyway, As I mentioned in this post, this range does come with its own ‘recommended’ base and topcoat.  So not only did I want to do a wear test on the polish but I also wanted to see if using the base and topcoat made any difference to the look and quality of the polish.  So on my ring and pinky I am using my normal base coat (Tip Top – Miraculous results) and topcoat (Seche vite).  On my middle and index I am using the Essence ‘The Gel’ base and topcoat.. Keeping in mind that I am pretty hard on my hands and nails in general.  I sometimes use them as tools, I definitely use them when I wash my hair. They are always being washed (there is that OCD streak) and then I won’t even mention chores or dog playing.  During this wear test I also went through hair washing, vigorous dog playing and even some unpacking of cupboards and boxes (:/).  Knowing all this, let’s see how it went.

Day 1:

At this point I was still completely loving the colour and the shimmer.  It was also weekend which included an almost ALL DAY shopping outing.  And I mean all day.  By the end of day 1 I didn’t really see any noticeable wear or issues at all.

Day 2:

Right, by now I was starting to get a little antsy about not painting my nails.  I was considering ditching the wear test but when I realised I had made it to day 2 it seemed pointless to stop now.  Also, no issues so far.  Everything still looked great to me.

Day 3:

I broke a nail!  I had to exclude my pinky from the photo because my nail broke.  I also didn’t want to remove the polish so I could ‘fix’ it because I didn’t want to bring remover near my nails to affect the results in any way.  The good news is that even with a broken nail the polish didn’t move.  There was a slight edge of polish off where the nail broke but everything else stayed intact.  I was also seriously struggling with not being able to do my nails.  The fact that the polish still looked great didn’t help.  By this point I was worried this polish would never come off.

Day 4:

I couldn’t do it any more.  I knew that by the time the 24 hours were up I was going to call it the end of the wear test.  I was simply missing doing my nails way too much.  I did however last another 4 hours longer because I ended up going to Zumba and all the other stuff before I could do my nails.  By this time I could see some very slight tipwear.  If you look at the right of my middle nail you can see it there but it was pretty much the same on all my nails.  It’s really light though and I am sure by the next day it might’ve been a little more visible with the naked eye.

All in all I was really impressed.  I did however not see any difference at all between the different base and topcoats.  They looked the same and lasted the same for me.  I am not sure if over more time the difference would’ve been more obvious.  I am more than happy with 4 days chip and tipwear free days.  I very rarely go that long with the same polish on unless I am away or on holiday etc.  I am also 100% that you I could’ve worn that for at least another 2 days.  At least.  I don’t really do wear tests because I don’t wear polish for long but I was really impressed.

So, that is that.  Let me know what you think.  What do you think of the colours I showed you?  What do you think of the results of the wear test?  Do you wear polish for more than a few days?  Have you tried any of these yet?  Do you want to see a comparison of any polishes?

Thanks for reading,