essence colour & go Shade 39: Lime Up! Review

 Summer is here (well, at least the heat is), and what screams summer more than bright lime green nails? To be very honest, I'm not much of a nail polish lover. My toe nails are perpetually painted, but I find that painting my finger nails are too much of a hassle. The paint chips off way too quickly, and I never have the patience to re-paint my nails every other day to match my outfit. But seeing my colleagues everyday with gorgeously painted nails made me wanna do my finger nails too! So I picked out the most summery colour I could find in my small selection of nail paints - Lime Green!

What's on the Bottle: nail polish with flat brush - quick dry: trendy nailstyle within seconds! 

Price: $ 1.99 (approx Rs. 121) for 5 ml

Well, since the nail colour is named colour and go, the quick drying claim is pretty obvious. I'll cut right to the point - this nail paint does everything it claims (which is not much to begin with). It's quick drying; it dries in under a minute. It's a trendy colour - the bright neon is definitely eye-catching. It's also got a super-glossy finish, so a top coat is not really needed; especially if you're one to change your nail colours everyday (I am however wearing a top - and bottom - Etude power lasting coat.) So what's the issue? 

1. Consistency-wise, though the paint looks pretty thick, it was actually a tad bit watery. If you look closely, you'll notice a slight bit of unevenness of colour on my ring finger. The consistency makes the nail paint difficult to apply. It's a highly pigmented colour (I'm wearing a single coat in the picture - did NOT have the patience to wait for a second coat to dry :P ), but the consistency makes it difficult to get even colour on the nail the first time around, hence demanding a second coat. I do have a whole bunch of essence nail paints though, and I've never noticed this before. So maybe I just got a random defective bottle? 

2. The nail polish's lasting capability is a bit strange compared to other nail polishes. It chipped away slightly on the tips of my finger nails the very first day (the picture was taken after a day - notice how the edges of the paint have chipped on my index and middle fingers); this despite having used a top coat (I am pretty careless with my nails though - I don't think twice before furiously lashing out at the keyboard - maybe that played a factor?). However, it pretty much stayed put after that for a good 2-3 days after which it continued chipping some more. Normal nail paints stay put first and then chip later but this one was different! Personally I prefer normal nail polishes (as would everyone else - what's the point of it chipping first?). Overall, you can use it for a good part of a week on your finger nails if a little chipping is fine with you. A week is the approximate staying time of most polishes on my fingernails, and there's nothing special about this one. On my toes - I applied it about a month ago, and it still shoes no signs of budging. I usually have to take my nail paint off my toenails when they've grown too much, so nothing special there either.

Thumbs Up:

• essence cosmetics are always affordable 
• Very glossy finish 
• Summery neon eye-catching shade 
• Dries in under a minute
• Super pigmented 

Let Downs: 

• Watery consistency 
• Chips extremely quickly (less than a day)
• Shade will not suit very dusky skin tones (technically this can't be considered a flaw for essence - there are always colours that will suit some skin tones and won't suit others) Availability might be an issue
• It's an absolute pain to get the paint off (despite the base coat). It gets sticky and requires a lot of the remover

My Verdict: 6/10 (I think it's clear where this paint lost out points)

Will I repurchase it? No, mostly because I don't think I'll be able to find it in stores even if I want to. Neon shades are not really my colour - I generally go for subtler/classic shades on my nails. However, I did get complimented by a really cute guy because of this colour, so maybe I'll be using this for a while :P You should buy it if you like the colour and love neons. It's a very loud bold colour, so be sure to pair it with a subtle black where your nails can do all the talking. Also, ensure that you test it on your nails before buying to make sure it goes with your skin tone (and of course, that it's not watery like mine)!