Essence nail polish remover - coconut + papaya before and comparing all four, Essence is still the one I don't recommend, at all. All three below remove polishes better, smell better and all except KIKO is cheaper than the bad smelling Essence version.

Hi, time for another polish remover review. As I've said before I'm a 100% acetone girl, my nails like that and to be honest, polish remover with a lot of perfume and crap in makes my nails drier than just acetone. From some acetone free polish remover I've actually gotten allergic reactions.

But anyhow, because of my German visit I've tried some nail polish removers. I've talked about

Essence nail polish remover - coconut + papaya before and comparing all four, Essence is still the one I don't recommend, at all. All three below remove polishes better, smell better and all except KIKO is cheaper than the bad smelling Essence version.

I've used multiple bottle of those below so I feel I have quite a good view of how they work. And I'll explain some more under each picture.

Isana nagellack entferner

Isana nagellack entferner (above):

Isana nagellack entferner (=nail polish remover in german) is the cheapest of the bunch because of the large bottle which is 250 ML. (Also found in smaller bottles). The price at Rossman is about 0,8 euro.

The color of the liquid is a muted light green and the scent is mild and pleasant, "mandelduft" is the scent which is almond scent. I don't imagine anyone being annoyed by it.

Isana has oil in it, of all three, Isana has the middle amount of oil. On the fingers the oil isn't noticeable in a bad way and it works for removing polish from stamping plates even though there is tiny drops of fat left (I'd recommend 100% acetone for stamping image plate removal, but at least this works if you don't have acetone available.)

The main thing, removing polish it works fine. It's not like acetone, but it's quite efficient. If acetone is 5-10 minutes this one is about 15-20 minutes depending on amounts of coats, glitter etc.

As you can see above the main ingredience is acetone, then aqua caprylic/capric triglyceride, parfum, limonene, coumarin, alpha-iso-methylionone, ci 19140, ci 42090.

Oversa nagellack entferner

Oversa nagellack entferner (above):

Oversa nagellack entferner is the one coming in second in price range. If I don't remember wrong the price is about 0,8-1 euro at Kaufland and with it's 200 ml it's actually cheaper than Essence (150 ml)

The color of the liquid is light but bright blue. Oversa doesn't claim any specific scent but the scent is close to what clothing smells like after you have washes them (fresh) or slightly like unsweet sherry. So I really like the scent, as Isana it doesn't over take a whole room with smell.

Oversa is the oiliest of the bunch, which it also claim on the bottle to be. I don't recommend this one for cleaning stamping image plate (it removes the polish but leaves a lot of fatty residues).

Oversa is pretty much the same as Isana and removing polish it works fine. And again, it's not like acetone, but it's quite efficient. If 100% acetone is 5-10 minutes this one is about 15-20 minutes depending on amounts of coats, glitter etc.

The main ingredient is acetone, then aqua caprylic/capric triglyceride, parfum, ci 42090. Which means the same stuff as above, but less in the list.

KIKO nail polish remover

KIKO Nail polish remover - Express (above):

KIKO Express is the most expensive of these three (also more expensive than Essence) with 125 ml and a price tag of 3.90 euro. This one is bought in a KIKO store, and can be found on their website but not in regular stores (of my knowledge).

This is the acetone version from KIKO, which they call "Express" and the color is light blue. There is also a pink "Universal" remover and a purple "Gentle remover which both are acetone free. The scent is an indefinable quite mild chemical acetone scent, which doesn't smell bad but there isn't anything else to say either. It's okay.

I'd say that KIKO Express it the least oiliest of these three, or maybe the same as Isana. Some small oil residues on stamping plates, it works for it, but 100% acetone will always be best for that.

And again, about removing nail polish from the nails, it's not like acetone, but it's quite efficient. If 100% acetone is 5-10 minutes this one is about 15-20 minutes depending on amounts of coats, glitter etc. I actually for a while thought it was better than both Isana and Oversa, but I recently bought a new KIKO Express and removing wise it's the same or even less good than Isana (but that would be knitpicking).

The ingredient list is the longest for KIKO with a lot of interesting stuff (Some of the ingredients is for example found in Seche restore): Acetone, aqua, parfum, benzophenone-1, ethyl acetate, methoxymethylbutanol, hydrolyzed keratin, tetrametyhyl acettyloctahydronaphthalenes, ethylene, brassylate, acetyl hexamethyl tetralin, cis-3-hexenyl, salicylate, pentamethylcyclopent-3-ene-butanol, acetylcedrene, ci 61565 (green 6)

Final thoughts: 

Thought that this would be a short post. LOL. Of all the three I can recommend all of them, they are pretty equal. But if I had all three in front of me I'd pick Isana the first. Isana is the chepest and has a pleasant and mild almond scent and is efficient. After Isana I'd pick Oversa, just because of the price over KIKO. I'm still not recommending Essence at all, there is cheaper and better alternatives (sorry for that people ;) ).

What do you think? Thoughts about something?

Read More

Essence nail polish remover - coconut + papaya, review

I've been thinking that I should add a new label here at the blog, which is nail polish remover reviews. :) When being  nail polish geek, it's not only nail polish we uses, as you all know we have our cotton balls/pads and our remover. Personally I prefer 100% acetone, it's cheap and works with any polish or glitter in no time and also I've had no problems with dry cuticles/nails like some people does (I guess my genes are on the good side since my nails are hard and grows). But being here in Germany I decided to try some regular removers. First one out is Essence nail polish remover - coconut + papaya.

Essence nail polish remover - coconut + papaya is a remover in a 250ML bottle with a blue color which also contain acetone. The price was like 0,5-0,8 euro at Kaufland. The description on the bottle says: "Highly effective nail polish remover, removes all kind of nail polishes without dying out the cuticle or nail surface."

However I don't recommend this remover to any one, like ever.. The simple reason is that it barely work or work poorly, even with 3 coats (1 base coat+2 coats creme) it's an endless rubbing leading to nothing.
I realized that the trick was to change cotton more times than usual (like 5-8 times more cotton than usual), always having an "unrubbed" surface on the cotton. After only one use 1/4 of the bottle was gone which makes each use quite expensive when you think about it. I haven't even tried removing glitters and I won't as it's hard to remove cremes.

If that wasn't enough, the smell is awful. I usually don't mind strong scents (I don't mind Kleancolor which some people has complained about and I don't mind scented candles) but this scent is so strong that I suspect it would give most people headache. The scent also doesn't disappear from the nails despite washing the hand like 5 times+ with soap.

Needless to say, I wont be buying this again..

This picture is taken after I have used it ONCE. It's like 3/4 left!

About moisturizing it's hard to say. I generally don't have a problem with dry cuticles. My cuticles doesn't feel dryer or less dried as with pure acetone than this.

Being a polish which contains acetone it's the worst I've tried actually, even though I'd tried removers without polishes which has been less good than this one. Have you tried this remover or any other remover from Essence?

Read More