Essence Gel Nails.

One of my friends owns all the necessities to do gel nails the Essence way, and let me borrow all of it to give it a shot. I'd never tried anything of the sort so it was fun to give a go.

The colour I used with the process is this gray/lilac from Essence's Crystalliced LE. It's '01 It's a Snow-Woman's World', and I haven't used it since 2012. Sorry, Snow-Woman's World.

One of the details I really love about it (which is a pain to get to show up on photographs, unfortunately) is the little detailing of snowflakes around the brush handle.

I think it went decently for a first try, but I have many of the same hang-ups with this technique as I do with water marbling. Those mainly being that it requires a lot of products (four separate bottles of stuff, and a lamp!) and the time it took (in this case) is disproportionate to the quality of the mani (though I imagine with a little more experience that'd be a lower ratio). During the drying process the mani also creeps away from the cuticle a bit further than I'd like.

 

I had a nice time playing around with an unfamiliar process but I don't think I'm likely to try it again very soon.

The peel-off base is both a blessing and a curse. I really loved being able to remove it so quickly and easily without the use of any additional products and messiness, but on the other hand it leaves your nails reasonably damaged. That alone makes the gel nails not something I'd recommend doing too often.