Saturday 19 July 2014

Essence - Me and My Lover

My friend Lorraine tipped me off that Wilko's is currently stocking Essence polishes, so today I toddled off to check them out. I've seen Essence on blogs, but not tried any, as I'd never seen them in actual shops. 


This is what I got! They were on 3-for-2, and they're all dirt cheap (£1.75 or £1.80, that sort of price). What I don't understand is WHY the bottles are all different shapes! That's already 4 different sorts of bottle, and possibly 5 if you look closely.


The first one I tried is the red one, Me and My Lover. This is a "sparkle sand effect" which I suppose is the equivalent of the Zoya Pixie Dusts, the Barry M Textured Glitters, and the OPI Liquid Sands. The brush is really nice - it's a flat handle and a wide, flat brush with a rounded end. It's not so wide that it's like a paddle (like some Sally Hansen brushes!) but was just the right size for my nails. 


Me and My Lover is a glittery red textured polish. This is two coats. 


I'm not thrilled with the texture to be honest. It's a pretty colour, and applies really evenly and easily with no pooling or need for cleanup. However, I think it's a bit ordinary as texture goes. It's not really textured enough in my opinion - if it wants to be textured it needs to be much more so, like the Zoyas or the OPIs. It's neither one thing or the other at the moment, I feel. It's a nice colour though.


Then I used the XXL shine gel-look topcoat to see what it looked like glossy. Nice! I like this a lot more with a glossy finish. It's much sparklier and brighter.

I've heard a lot about this topcoat, so I was pretty excited to try it. However, it was just an ordinary topcoat in my opinion. It was nice and glossy, but not more than many other topcoats. And I can't see much of a gel effect, it's just a glossy topcoat.  And I have to say - these nails did take quite a long time to dry, and with only three coats, I think that's not great. 

I'd say it's definitely worth checking out the Essence polishes in Wilko. They're cheap, and it's nice to see a different range to the usual high street polishes. But I'm not blown away by excellence. And I suppose at that price, it's fair enough.

Oh, I meant to add! My camera broke! I'm having to take photos on my phone for now til I can either get my very beloved camera fixed, or buy a new one.

6 comments:

  1. Oh wow! I got some of the Essence polishes too! I heard about Wilko and ordered them online as they are available there too! I need to get into a shop soon.

    I got a good few as they are 3 for 2. I'm such a sucker. This is one of the ones I got! I'll need to try it soon. The texture looks okay - by my oh my that top coat sure is glossy :-O

    The others you have look good too - I didn't get any of them! I'll look forward to your posts :-) The glow in the dark one sure looks interesting... hehe :-)

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    1. From a quick test, the orange is fabulous, the glitters are really sparkly (and the paler pink one has a really pretty greenish shimmer in there too). The glow in the dark really really glows! It's an... *interesting* colour/effect in normal light though. :/

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  2. Must take a trip to wilkos, I just started to like these when Sally Magpie stopped selling them. Fingers crossed for camera.

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    1. You must! There were a lot of empty spaces in mine, so I'm not sure what other colours they had, but it had clearly been a big range. There were some really nice looking cremes, plus things like very cheap tip guides, and a very reasonably priced uv gel range.

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  3. I got the glow in the dark one to try out! I have held the bottle to the light and then looked at in the dark and it's so bright... haven't tried in on my nails yet though

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    1. The first blob I dropped onto a nail as a trial looked quite revolting! But yes, it glows like mad doesn't it! I need to try it properly asap.

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