Essence

Essence Nail Polish Thinner Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - February 24, 2025

Now this is something different! This is the Essence Nail Polish Thinner!
 

I must confess – I’ve got way, waaay too many nail polishes. I cannot help myself, I just like to paint my nails all sorts of colours (mainly neutral)... but this can lead to a problem: drying out. See, I cannot possibly use up all my polishes before they start to dry out, so a few of them have fallen victim to this. Normally, I would just throw them away, but I kept searching for something that might save them... like a nail polish thinner. And would you know, Essence just happened to launch one as part of their spring/summer refresh! What perfect timing – I just needed this! Now, let’s see if this thing even works!
 
 
 
 
 
Packaging: a small glass bottle that feels sturdy. There’s a nice pink sticker going all around the bottle that has instructions how to use this thinner, PAO and all the other necessary information. The cap is black and closes extremely tightly to prevent the liquid from evaporating. It’s got the same type of cap that essential oil bottles do, which can be a bit hard to open. Pretty simple design, but it doesn’t need to be extravagant or anything.
 
 
 
 
 

Source: www.essence.eu
Ingredients: just solvents, alcohol and a bit of perfume. Ethyl and butyl acetate are solvents used in nail polishes that allow the polish to form a film on nails once they evaporate; it becomes problematic when these evaporate inside the bottle, that is why nail polishes become clumpy and goopy after a long time. So this thinner should be able to replace the solvent that had evaporated. Truly a lean ingredients list, just what is absolutely necessary. The scent is quite interesting! Normally, it would smell chemical, but notice the addition of perfume – this gives this thinner a distinctly fruity scent. It smells like tropical fruit, like mango and maracuja... I think. It’s definitely very sweet and fruity. I love it, although I don’t know how useful it is to have any perfumes in this when it’s going to get mixed with nail polishes anyways? But it’s nice to have. The expiration date is 18 months after opening.
 
 
Colour: colourless, clear liquid. I expected this to be the case. No reason it would be coloured.
 
 
The formula of this is completely liquid, not one bit oily. If you didn’t know this was a nail polish thinner, you might mistake it for water. It makes sense for this to be clear and non-oily; it has no oils in its ingredients list, after all.
 
 
Does it work? Much to my surprise – yes! I don’t know why I was skeptical, but I just didn’t believe that it would actually work. I noticed that a few of my older nail polishes had become goopy so I decided to test out this thinner and it actually made them liquid again! I mean, it makes sense, I just added back the solvents that had evaporated over time. I am not sure whether I added enough drops because there are no instructions on how many you should add. I added 3-5 drops to each nail polish, which seemed to help immensely, so a little goes a long way! Of course, larger bottles will need a couple more drops. I know that this isn’t a permanent solution, the nail polishes will dry out again eventually, but it rescued them from being thrown in the bin. 
 
 
 
I didn’t notice any changes to their scent, so yeah, the fruity scent is, more-or-less, useless. But it works so I don’t care! And since it’s so simple, there is little that can go wrong! Wow... I am actually astonished! 
 
 
 
In conclusion, this works! Really, there’s not a whole lot more to say because it does what it says on the tin bottle. It’s a nail polish thinner that works extremely well; only a few drops are needed to revive old goopy nail polish. And, since it doesn’t contain acetone, it is much gentler on the nail polish – and there’s less of a chance to mess things up! It’s easy to go overboard with acetone and ruin nail polish, but this is so easy to use and you don’t have be careful with it because the bottle is super precise, able to dispense a single drop of thinner. This is pretty much the same type of bottle essential oils use, so if you use those, you’ll know how precise they are. I dispensed a couple of drops into a few nail polishes that had become goopy and the quickly became liquid again (after some vigorous shaking). So, like, it works, what else can I say? Maybe add that it smells like fruit? Yep, it smells like tropical fruit, which, while it’s very pleasant, is mostly useless because, once it mixes with nail polishes, it will be lost. But I appreciate the gesture. Seriously, I was so doubtful that it would ever work, I thought that it would do precisely nothing, so imagine how elated I was when it actually saved my nail polishes! And it was released in the nick of time, just when I needed it! Plus, it’s easier to acquire (at least in Croatia) than Orly, Seche or OPI thinners. And much cheaper – why pay a lot for something that is just as effective but much more affordable? Oh yeah, this absolutely gets my recommendation! It’s a must-have for anyone who has a vast collection of nail polishes, I just hope Essence don’t discontinue it soon...
 
 
 
Rating: 10/10
 
 
Would buy again? Absolutely YES


 

  • Share:

0 comments