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Essence The Gel Top and Base Coat review

June 30, 2015 By Michelle 14 Comments

essence-the-gel-top-base-coat

First off, let’s get things straight – Essence The Gel Top and Base Coat is NOT a gel product. Gel products have small plastic particles called monomers or oligomers, which link together and form a durable coating when a chemical called a photoinitiator is activated by light. There’s a full explanation of the gel polymerisation process here, but in short, it’s like the monomers are chocolate chips spread over a tray, and the photo initiator makes them melt and harden together as a single sheet. Usually the photoinitiator is activated by UV light from a lamp, such as in Shellac or other salon or home gel products.

polymerisation

Recently though, a few gel products have come out which are activated by exposure to normal light – Sally Hansen Miracle Gel is the most successful one. The top coat contains a light-activated gel – in other words, a photoinitiator and some oligomers. Here are the ingredients:

Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, MEK, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimelliticanhydride Copolymer, Nitrocellulose, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Sucrose Benzoate, N-Butyl Alcohol, Ethyl Trimethylbenzoyl Phenylphosphinate, Etocrylene, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/IPDI/PPG-15 Glyceryl Ether Copolymer, Aqua/Water/Eau, Diamond Powder, Alumina, Methyltriethoxysilane, Platinum Powder, Silica.

The key ingredients here (as far as I can tell, anyway!) are ethyl trimethylbenzoyl phenylphosphinate, a photoinitiator, and hydroxyethyl acrylate/IPDI/PPG-15 glyceryl ether copolymer, which are oligomers that are linked up by the photoinitiator (I think – the FAQs from Sally Hansen say “oligomers”, but it doesn’t say how long any of the polymers are in the ingredients list so this is my best stab). The coloured polishes also contain this oligomer, so when the photoinitiator starts linking the oligomers together, the top coat will theoretically bond with the colour coat too, making the whole manicure more durable.

Essence’s version though, does not contain a photoinitiator, so it can’t undergo a polymerisation reaction to make a plasticised layer. Here are the ingredients for the top coat:

Ethyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Butyl Acetate, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Acrylates Copolymer, Trimethyl Pentanyl Diisobutyrate, Triphenyl Phosphate, Polyester/Polyamide Resin, Alcohol Denat., Shellac, Dimethicone, Benzophenone-1, CI 60725 (Violet 2).

Instead, it’s a normal top and base coat with a “gel look” finish. It’s a little dodgy how prominently they feature the word “gel” and the fact it’s housed in opaque packaging, but it’s a pretty awesome product, and most people would be able to tell the difference anyway.

The base coat dries matte and is a tad lumpy, but flattens out once you put nail polish on top. However, it’s the top coat that’s really got me gagging for more! It dries as fast as a quick-dry top coat (more about those magical quick dry top coats here), but lasts longer than most with minimal chipping and tip wear! Here’s what it looks like after a week of wear, with the matching base coat (please excuse my thirsty skin):

essence-gel-tipwear

Essence The Gel Top and Base Coats are $5.10 each – I think they’re a great, easy-to-find alternative to Seche Vite if you want a longer lasting mani. They’re my go-to top and base combination at the moment!

This product was provided for review, which did not affect my opinion. For more information, see Disclosure Policy.


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Filed Under: Comparison, Nails, Review, Science Tagged With: active ingredients, Essence, nails, review, science

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Comments

  1. nail crazy says

    July 1, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    you’re right, this top coat is really amazing, love it 😀
    nail crazy recently posted…Matching Manicure Sunday – V Shape ManicureMy Profile

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      July 12, 2015 at 2:15 am

      I’m so happy to have a nice quick-dry (ish) top coat available in store in Australia for a decent price!

      Reply
  2. Hayley G says

    July 6, 2015 at 8:32 am

    Gah, your explanation here and science know-how totally rules! I love reading your posts LM, so informative, I always leave with my mindgrapes stimulated and beauty cravings quenched all at the same time!

    Essence truly do some amazing cheapies – the finish of these looks amazing on you, and I’ll be popping out today to grab them! Awesome post as usual. 🙂

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      July 12, 2015 at 2:15 am

      Thank you so much! It’s comments like this which keep me blogging when I get disillusioned 🙂

      Reply
  3. A says

    September 4, 2015 at 12:20 pm

    I have been using the base coat for the past month or so and found that it has a blue tone to it, have you noticed that as well?

    Reply
  4. Jeanie says

    September 25, 2015 at 7:31 am

    I ran out to buy the top coat after reading your review and I agree…it is AMAZING! especially for the price! Thanks for the cool review and I love your blog! 😀

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      September 25, 2015 at 10:07 pm

      Thank you! I’m glad you agree about the TC 🙂

      Reply
  5. Catherine Dream says

    October 5, 2015 at 8:20 am

    As always – a brilliant review. About to cover my pastel galaxies with this top coat, I just got it, and wondered about the dry time (I am usually faithful to HKGirl top coat, but, hey. A good nail blogger experiments ;)))
    Catherine Dream recently posted…How To Survive a Thesis Defense? Snakes.My Profile

    Reply
  6. Angela Valenti says

    January 7, 2017 at 2:11 pm

    I agree…this product is amazing. In your opinion, would using a UV lamp improve the product even more?

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      January 7, 2017 at 4:48 pm

      I don’t think so – there’s nothing in the top coat that would react with UV.

      Reply
  7. Selin says

    February 16, 2017 at 4:00 am

    Hey,

    Can we combine this with uv nail polish? Base coat of essence and the rest uv nail polish and uv top coat?

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      February 17, 2017 at 11:07 pm

      Yep that should work!

      Reply
  8. Alpana says

    May 31, 2017 at 3:31 pm

    I noticed the Essence gel like base coat leaves sticky layer. But when i apply polish or top coat over it, it looks very shiny and smooth. Yet to do wear test.i hope it lasts. have you tried Orly bonder basecoat? What is your opinion about that?

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      July 8, 2017 at 7:07 pm

      I love Bonder! It’s my favourite base coat of all time 🙂

      Reply

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Michelle
Hi! I'm Michelle, chemistry PhD and science educator, and I'm here to help you figure out which beauty products are worth buying, and which ones aren't using science!

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