Welcome back to What I’m Wearing Wednesday, the way we show off our mani and review it at the same time! We love our polish but sometimes just showing you a picture of the latest office mani isn’t enough! So in this feature we endeavour to give you a mini review of our current mani. Today I’ll be reviewing a new purchase of mine, Essence ‘Winter Wonderful – 002’. This polish is part of their limited edition Winter range and boasts a ‘semi-matte’ finish which immediately caught my eye. So read on to find out my thoughts and whether I rate it!
The formula of this polish is a ‘semi matte’, which is matte with a hint of glitter, think ice princess! I really like this finish as it’s quite unique. I would class it about 50% matte, that is it’s not completely matte but it isn’t glossy. This isn’t for everyone, my sister called it a try-hard matte, not exactly a glowing review. I do like that the subtle glitter shines through the matte. The color is an icy blue, which would go well with a tan in summer but has been created with winter skin tones in mind. The pale blue colour looks lovely on short nails, which mine are! Apologies for the lack of manicure picture, my nails look terrible (read on to find out why)!
The polish applies nicely but if you don’t wait long enough between coats the layer underneath gets scratched as the brush goes back over it. I think it must be something to do with the semi matte formula, as it’s a problem I’ve never encountered before. Once the polish dries it’s also quite thin, meaning if you have uneven nail beds you will need an evening base coat underneath. The wear was something I was nervous about with this polish, as it doesn’t need a top coat (that would destroy the semi matte effect). I was surprised that it lasted less than 24 before chipping. I’m not even kidding. Three days after painting my nails and they are half chipped off, absolutely terrible!
The formula was nice and created a nice effect, but clearly needs improvement. It took a few coats to achieve opacity and even then it was a little bit streaky. I love the color and the semi matte effect but just wish the formula was better! I don’t know whether the extreme chipping was because of no top coat, or if the formula is just bad but I would not recommend anyone purchase this polish!
My Thoughts:
Dry Time- Quite quick, but you do have to make sure your coat is dry before going over it otherwise it gets scratched, which does slow down the dry time. But then again you don’t need a top coat, so swings and roundabouts I suppose.
Opaqueness- You definitely need two coats, potentially three depending on how streaky/scratchy they are.
Chip Free– Ha, what a joke. My mani didn’t even last one day before chipping and peeling off in flakes. Not good!
Overall, this polish is really meh. The color is pretty and I really like the semi-matte finish, but the formula needs improvement! I am interested to see if using seche-vite as a top coat would improve the overall look and lasting of the polish, even though that would defeat the purpose of a semi-matte finish. What do you think? Comment below and let us know!
Until next time!
Mette
xx
