Dark Green

Essence Pumpkins Pretty Please! Matte Nail Polish [02 - Autumn Leaves & Pumpkins, Please?] Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - September 14, 2024

The only product I haven't ever used before this week, this is the Essence Pumpkins Pretty Please! Matte Nail Polish, shade 02/Autumn Leaves & Pumpkins, Please?. What a cute name!
 
 
I knew I wanted one of the nail polishes in this beautifully autumnal limited edition, but I really couldn’t decide which one: the bright orange one or this muddy green one. After a lot of thinking I decided that I would probably like this green colour more, even though I don’t use dark nail polishes often. I also don’t use vibrant orange-red polishes often, either. So both colours weren’t really my style, but I really, really wanted this cute little nail polish! And it’s also my first matte nail polish, which made me really excited to try it out! So, is this little pumpkin inspired nail polish good? Let’s see!
 
 
 
 
Packaging: the same style as the X-Mas Wishes Candy Kisses nail polish. That is to say, it is a small, clear glass bottle with a round cap. It’s a very nice design, very cute, and the unique cap just makes it perfect! This time, the cap is rose gold, instead of gold like in the other limited edition. The cap closes very tightly, so much that it can be difficult to open! I love the little pumpkins, they are so adorable! All in all, a really pretty bottle!
 
 
 
 

Source: www.essence.eu

Ingredients: nothing nourishing and nothing harmful (DBP, formaldehyde, toluene). The scent is like most nail polishes, although it is more acidic? I want to say. It’s definitely a bit more intense. The expiration date is 36 months after opening.
 
 

 
The colour of this nail polish is simply amazing! It’s a dark green that is actually a bit darker than it seems in the bottle. But this isn’t your ordinary green! This is a muddy, dim green that is just like the colour of pumpkin vines and leaves! It’s quite the military kind of green, very much like camouflage. It’s the perfect colour for autumn and it looks great on pale skin. I didn’t think I would like it this much!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
The brush is really, really good. This is a round brush that is quite large compared to the bottle. It picks up a huge amount of pigment, way more than you need. You will definitely need to tap off the excess as there’s enough nail polish for 2, even 3 nails. The brush applies the polish wonderfully evenly and richly. You get a nice, thick coat right from the start. But that’s not all, this brush is also precise enough to apply nail polish on the sides of the nails without spilling. It’s a great brush, but not quite as good as the ones Catrice use, those are (almost) perfect.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The formula is absolutely perfect! It’s the perfect amount of creamy while still being thin enough to be easy to use. It’s not very watery, but it’s also not gelly; it’s an interesting formula for sure, but I love it very much. It’s just fun to use and so easy to make it even.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
However creamy this formula is, it is also a tiny bit uneven with one coat. The colour is also pale, not as vibrant as it should be, with one coat. It is almost totally opaque, though, so if you manage to make it even, you can wear it like that. Or, you can do what I did and apply a second coat. It is totally opaque with two coats and looks so incredibly rich. The colour becomes much darker and more intense. It doesn’t even look too thick; in fact, it actually looks rather thin with two coats, but still incredibly intense and opaque. Now, this is advertised as a matte nail polish. And sure, it is more matte than your typical nail polish, but it is not actually matte. There is a waxy shine to the polish that makes it look rubbery. But any kind of shine means that it is not matte, naturally. 
 
 
I like how rubbery it looks in combination with the army green colour, it makes the polish look like some army uniform or tarp. However, a matte nail polish should be matte, and this one is not even close to being that. Disappointing, since that’s what was supposed to make this nail polish different.
 
 
 
Longevity is abhorrent. It starts to chip the same day, on the free edges of nails. On the second day I already had more major chipping all along the edges of nails and even the slightest bump made it chip. By day 4 it already looked very bad, half-chipped off and just ugly. At least it doesn’t get scratched up easily. But I would honestly rather take that than this horrible amount of chipping and flaking. It’s really horrible. As you can imagine, it only got worse while washing my hair. The chipping was so bad that literally half of it was gone. This is also the reason why there aren't any macro shots; I was far too frustrated with it chipping off when I so much as touched anything with my nails so I forgot to take macro pictures.
 
 
 
Removal: very easy, thankfully. There is no need to rub a lot to remove it. There is no staining despite this being a dark colour, and a green one at that. I really thought my nails would be yellow.
 
 
 
All in all, I am very disappointed with this nail polish. I had very high hopes for it, being a different kind of nail polish, a matte one. And the colour seemed like it would be perfect for autumn, which it is; it is seriously a gorgeous muted green that looks like pumpkin leaves and is pretty similar to military camo green. Or like the green you’d find on army jeeps. Striking colour! The brush is excellent, I’ll admit, and it was easy to apply two layers without making too much of a mess. However, the advertising is just plain false, as this isn’t what you’d think when somebody says matte nail polish. It’s got a rubbery, waxy sheen that really makes the polish look like rubber. Does that seem matte to you? Because it does not to me. Even worse still, the longevity is quite frankly rubbish. It starts to chip as soon as the same day and only gets much, much worse as time goes on. You need to be extremely careful not to touch anything with your nails as it will just chip right off immediately. It looked really bad by day 3 already, never mind the next two days, until I removed it. Sure, you could apply a top coat, but then you’d of course needs matte top coat, which aren’t the easiest to find, compared to standard, glossy top coats. Because what point is there to use a glossy top coat on a matte nail polish if you want that matte finish? Of course, it might perform slightly better with a base coat; I did not use one because at that point what am I reviewing, actually? The most honest way is to use the polish on bare nails, and this polish just doesn’t work, period. It makes me sad that it’s this bad, it really could’ve been a cool autumnal nail polish. But alas, it is what it is. And because of that, it will not get any sort of recommendation. And this makes me quite sad...



Rating: 3.5/10
 
 
Would buy again? Sadly, NO (even if it weren’t an LE item, it’s frustratingly bad)



 

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