I was quite excited when I saw the new essence black sand effect polish at my local dm last week. I didn’t get the one from KIKO (stupid me!), so I had high hopes that this might be a good replacement. Unfortunately, it is not.
It’s ok, but definitely not what I hoped for. What bugged me the most was the long (loooooooooooooong) time it took to dry. The sparkle is nice, but it’s multicolored, and combined with the texture this is a bit too much for my taste. I would have prefered only one color of glitter for a calmer and more elegant look. It is also quite thin, and although thanks to the glitter bald patches aren’t that visible, you might need three coats for full coverage. Which would be a pain in the lower back side, I got mad enough waiting for two coats to dry.
You might notice that the accent nail (ring finger) looks a bit different from the other fingers. This was kind of an experiment. When I swatched the polish, the glitter reminded me a lot of the one essence used in one of their toppers, “holo topping, please!”. So what you see on the accent nail is two coats of regular black polish, one layer of “holo topping, please!” and one layer of simple silver glitter for the extra sparkle. The difference is more pronounced in reality, when you move your hands the textured polish reflects the light differently with every move and is of course more matte, but it’s surprisingly close.
I also added topcoat to the middle finger to see how much it affects the sand effect, and thank god, it doesn’t much. So that might solve the problem with the long (again, really loooooooooong 😉 ) drying time.
To sum it up:
Texture: ok, but not as much as the textured polishes from KIKO or OPI I tried so far
Opacity: more jelly than creme, but the glitter will hide bald patches
Sparkle: quite a lot, but multicolored
Brush and application: same as the other essence colour & go polishes
Drying time: bad – safe for careful touch after about 20-30 minutes with two coats, and it’s still prone for dents a while after that
All things considered, I guess it is ok, but you might try using it with a quick dry top coat if you are impatient like me. And I’m still mad at myself for not buying the black KIKO sand polish when I had the chance. *sigh*
Base coat: Essie Nourish Me
Main color: essence colour & go 165 here’s my number (two coats)
Main color (accent nail): essence colour & go 144 black is back (two coats)
Glitter (accent nail): essence nail art special effect! Topper 12 holo topping, please! and Rival de Loop Young Express Colour 14 sparkling princess (one coat each)
Top coat (middle finger and accent nail): Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat
trulla-la(ck) 