I tend to believe that you get what you pay for, and as a result I tend to be a bit of a brand snob. Well ok, a lot of one actually. But buoyed by my recent ‘wins’ with Ulta3 polish, I thought maybe I should take a more open-minded approach and try some cheaper brands that I’ve not tried before.
So in that vein I was quite excited when, whilst casting about in Target the other day, I came across a mini polish by Essence that had the loveliest duochrome appearance in the bottle. Better still, it was on special for $2.55 AUD so I happily snapped it up, thinking that maybe this would be a wonderful new find. Check it out.
Essence Colour & Go - Where is the Party?
Essence Colour & Go - Where is the Party?
Who wouldn’t fall for that purpley-silvery-green goodness? Le sigh. Of course, for a nanosecond I did think it may all be too good to be true and that none of that lovely duochrome goodness would transfer on to the nail (Etude House BL505 I’m talking about you!). But I dismissed that thought given my new found optimism for cheapie polish.
I was pleasantly surprised though that this was in deed a strong duochrome polish on the nail.
Essence - Where is the Party
Essence - Where is the Party (and dry, dodgy cuticles!)
That, however, is where the pleasantries ended. The formula was utterly horrid. You’d have an easier time applying custard to your nails. It was thick and gloopey and did this weird thing where it would kind of catch itself off the end of the nail and pull back, so you had more polish blobbing at the tips of your nails. I would have said ‘pooling’ but that would suggest some fluidity!!!.
Now at this stage, I should point out that this polish is labelled ‘colour & go’. On the back of the bottle the label says ‘Quick dry: trendy nailstyle within seconds!’ Quick dry my arse! There was nothing quick drying about this polish. Despite a top coat of SV this was still dentable 25 mins later when I went outside in the failing late afternoon light to get better pics of the colourshift. Some may call it PR spin. I call it misleading and deceptive labelling!
This polish is headed for the bin. I wouldn’t bother gifting it to anyone since it would be a waste of their time trying to actually use the damn stuff. The only good thing about this custard was that one of our cats decided to come check me out whilst I was out the backyard taking pics. Meet Esmeralda (or Ezi for short:)).
Esmeralda (aka Ezi)
xx