Friday, September 5, 2014

Zoya ~ Monet vs. Essence ~ #23: Million dollar baby



Zoya ~ Monet vs. Essence ~ #23: Million dollar baby
a comparison

It’s been ages since I made a comparison post! So today’s the day where I’m going to compare two iridescent toppers.

Here they are:


Zoya’s Monet is iridescent hexagons in a slightly pink tinted base and Essence’s Million dollar baby is just hexagons in a plain clear base.

Let’s see what they look like on the nails:

From left to right: Zoya – Essence – Zoya – Essence
 
The hexagons are different sizes. The Zoya hexes are smaller than Essence’s hexes. The colour scheme seems exactly the same in the two toppers.

From left to right: Zoya – Essence – Zoya – Essence

The formula is actually quite different. Zoya has a way thicker base than Essence, and even though I usually prefer thick over thin, the Zoya is a bit of a hassle to work with. Essence’s base is thinner, but here you have to fish a bit for the hexes. What you see on the picture is one dip in the bottle per nail.

From left to right: Zoya – Essence – Zoya – Essence

I had to dab the glitters around both with the Zoya and with the Essence. It was easier with the Essence because of the thinner base.

Here’s a bonus picture of the base I layered the toppers over: Golden Rose Rich Color #34. What you see is one coat. Fantastic polish!


Verdict:
The glitters are different enough in size to own both polishes, but Essence’s suspension base is way easier to work with than Zoya’s gloopiness. There’s also the price difference: Zoya retails around $8. I believe I paid around $2 for the Essence. Hmmmm.

If I had to chose only one of them I’d go for the Essence! The ‘six of one, half-a-dozen of the other’ element is overruled by the large price gap.

16 comments:

  1. They are both pretty! I already own Monet though :D

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  2. I had Monet but sold it, I disliked the thickness. If I had to choose, I'd prefer Essence, I think, because it isn't so thick, but I'd prefer the hexes to be smaller.

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    1. Did you try to thin Monet? I've considered that :)

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  3. They are a bit too large for me - but I love the effect - and they are really close!

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    1. They are indeed. And the tinted base of the Zoya doesn't make any difference :)

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  4. I actually prefer the size of the hexes in Monet which I have (a gift from a nail friend) - but I have to agree, the gloopiness is quite a hassle, and the price tag difference surely makes the choice easy if given ;)

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    1. It's weird with the gloopiness, since Zoya usually make really nice polishes with great formulas :)

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  5. I like Monet better. The glitter is finer and a little prettier.

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    1. I think I'll keep them both, mostly because of the difference in the size of the glitter :)

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  6. Good comparison. I was tempted by Monet but now seeing it is kinda similar to the Essence (which I've got) I'll probably let it pass my by! :-)

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    1. I made you save money! Remember to spend them on a really pretty polish :D

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  7. I love these sort of comparisons. As someone on a budget I find them really useful. Thank you. Where do you get your golden rose polishes from? You use them as bases quite often and they are pretty and one coaters.

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    1. You're welcome! I really like comparison posts too :)
      I got some of my Golden Roses from a friend in Turkey, and I also bought some myself in Hungary :)

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  8. Bugger I'll have to google them, they seem pretty useful.

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    1. They can spice up pretty much any mani, so yes :)

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