Essence

Essence Gel Nail Colour [13 - Bingo Flamingo] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - March 30, 2023

And onto the next nail polish! This is the Essence Gel Nail Colour, shade 13/Bingo Flamingo!
 

So, I had a coupon for extra loyalty points in DM for nail polishes. That is why I bought so many of them at once! This nail polish is a revamped version of Essence's old (and pretty beloved) gel nail polish. I had read that it is a significant downgrade from the old ones; while the old formula was great, most people said that this one is rubbish. So I wanted to challenge that opinion, see for myself: is it really that bad? Now, I didn’t let that influence my opinion, I went in with a neutral mindset. But there was one little problem: I wanted a greige-ish brown shade, but all the DMs that are nearby didn’t stock that colour or any colour similar to it. So I stood there, looking at all the colours, and I finally decided to buy this shade because it’s named Bingo Flamingo and I seriously love flamingos! It’s definitely not a shade I’d pick usually, but I wanted the coupon to actually give me decent points, so I went and bought this polish anyways, despite being iffy about the colour and knowing what people are saying about this new (and improved, supposedly, at least according to Essence?) replacement line of nail polishes. So, let’s see what it’s like!
 

 
 
 
Packaging: a clear glass bottle with a bulbous cap that closes super tightly. The cap matches the colour of the polish perfectly. It’s an interesting, if retro, design for a nail polish. I love how heavy and robust it feels.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Source: essence.eu
 
Ingredients: vitamin E for nourishment. No harmful ingredients (parabens, DBP, toluene, formaldehyde). The scent is just your regular nail polish scent. The expiration date is 24 months after opening.
 
 
The colour of this nail polish is extremely vibrant and intense! This is a true paradise pink, a bright reddish pink with a lot of red pigments. It does kinda look like the feathers of a flamingo, when they eat plenty of plankton and become vividly reddish pink! And since I love flamingos I also love this colour! Though I don’t usually wear red or intensely pink or magenta nail polishes, I really like the way this colour looks on pale skin; it’s just so vibrant and a real head-turner! I really think it looks best on lighter skins, especially pale skintones. It’s a real wow colour!
 
 
 
The brush is a flat brush, medium size. The brush picks up sooo much polish, like, you really need to tap off the excess, especially since a thin coat is more than enough with this type of formula. The brush is extremely easy to use and applies the polish perfectly evenly and thickly. Essence say that this is their patented “double-touch” brush; I don’t know what that means exactly, I just know that I adore this brush! It’s as good or perhaps even a bit better than Catrice’s nail polish brushes, which are among the best. I also love how wide this brush is, it makes it so easy to apply polish on your nail in just a swipe or two.
 
 
 
 
The formula is definitely a gel nail polish, no doubt about that! It’s a very gelly, almost rubbery formula that, surprisingly, doesn’t feel gooey and goopy. It’s actually super smooth and incredibly easy to spread across nails. Perhaps it’s just this shade, but, I didn’t have any problems whatsoever with uneven colour! The first coat was perfectly even and felt incredibly light for its thick gelly formula! One coat is already pretty much opaque (I’d say about 90-95% opaque, depending how thick the coat you applied was), so you could definitely stop there. I decided to apply a second, very thin, coat and... it pretty much made no real difference! Sure, it made the colour a tiny bit more intense and it made the polish look a bit thicker, but it doesn’t really improve the opacity too much because it’s already opaque from the first coat. 
 
 
This formula dries very fast, though I use nail drying drops anyways, So I couldn’t tell you actually how fast it dries. When I first saw the formula on the brush, and it was all goopy and gelly, I thought I would hate it. Instead, it is surprisingly lovely to work with and feels quite comfortable! And it’s perfectly even! The texture is incredibly glossy!
 
 
Longevity: There was some very minor chipping on one nail on the second day. It unfortunately only got worse over the next few days. The chipping became much worse, with bigger flakes of nail polish falling off. It looked rather bad by day 3 of wearing it, significantly chipped on the free edges despite not using any harsh chemicals by that point. I had to wash my turtle’s terrarium the next day, and since that requires using harsh disinfectants, it ended up ruining the nail polish. Not like it was in good condition anyways by then, but this is what finished it off. Again, another nail polish advertised as being long-lasting that starts chipping by day 2. Either I have cursed nails or a ton of them are overselling their longevity, and I really can’t tell which it is.
 
 
Removing this nail polish was extremely easy! I just pressed a remover-soaked pad to my nails and it was gone! Barely any rubbing necessary, which helps keep your nails in good condition (rubbing nails with nail polish remover tends to damage them). Despite being so vividly magenta it doesn’t really stain nails. I thought it did, at first, as my nails seemed a bit red, but another pass with remover removed it completely. This is superb!
 
 
In conclusion, an alright gel nail polish. Now, is it truly worse than how it used to be? I couldn’t tell ya, this is my first Essence Gel Nail Colour from their standard range. What I can tell you is that, while it is gorgeous and eye-catchingly bright, and the formula is a dream, the longevity (you know, the most important thing for a “long-lasting” nail polish!) is poor, sadly. Let’s cover the good, first. The colour is a gorgeous bright fuchsia that is perfect for summer! I love it! And the formula is divine: it’s creamy and kinda rubbery but it glides so easily across nails, and is perfectly even with just one coat. And that one coat is enough to get total coverage, two coats barely look different from when it’s just one. And the brush! Man, the brush is absolutely phenomenal! It applies polish absolutely amazingly, and it is big enough to apply nail polish across the entire surface of the nail with only a stroke or two. The bad is really bad, though! Long-lasting, yeah sure! It starts to chip off within a day and gets so, so much worse with each day! It also does get scratched up, although not nearly as some other nail polishes. You really have to apply a good top coat if you want this "long-lasting" nail polish to last more than a day or two before looking all ugly and damaged. Such a shame! I was kind of looking forward to proving that this new formula is excellent in spite of what people are saying, but it seems that they are right, in the end. I will still continue to use it because, well, flamingo! Haha! But I really cannot recommend it, sadly, no matter how much I wanted to. It's just disappointing.
 
 
 
Rating: 6/10
 
 
Would buy again? Maybe NO (I really don’t know honestly)







 

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