A couple of months ago Essence released these five new polishes, part of their The Gel collection. I love Essence's The Gel polishes and these are made even better by their absolutely adorable bottle designs. Each of the polishes has a stick figure character on the bottle. When I first saw photos of these online back at the beginning on the year I assumed that they were a new collection and not just a part of The Gel line because these designs aren't on the rest of The Gel polish bottles. I've tried to find out online why these are different, but can't seem to find any information as the why these have these characters on and the rest don't (if you do, please let me know, because this will bug me for the rest of time haha).

Anyway, onto the actual polishes themselves...

(all swatches are two coats)

Pure-fection

This is a creme nude polish, and is probably my least favourite of the five. I am not the biggest fan of the application of this shade, it is very streaky on the first coat and I could still see a few streaks on the second coat (but this may be me just being fussy). This is a beautiful shade though, I am not one to usually wear subtle or natural looking shades on my nails but if you are then this might be a great addition to your collection.

Flamingold

This is a metallic brown/bronze shade packed fulled of silver glittery shimmer, this was almost a once coater for me, but I put on a second coat anyway of good measure. It's a unique shade to my collection as it's not really bronze but it's not really brown either, I love it. Although it doesn't really fit it's name in my opinion (Flamingold for some reason seems like it's would fit better with a rose gold shade or a pink with a golden shimmer - just my opinion).

My Highlighter

This is a neon yellow polish with subtle golden shimmer. This is a very bright polish, very fitting to it's 'highlighter' name, and is definitely a stand out polish on the nail. I was expecting this to be a pain for streaking (like a lot of yellows, and neons are) but the formula is fantastic and it only needed two thin coats to be fully opaque. This polish, like most neons, is incredibly hard to photography true to life, and even the second photo (with the flash) doesn't do the brightness justice.

Rockablue

This is a pale, almost grey-toned, blue polish, with a subtle silver shimmer (similar formula to My Highlighter). I love this polish, I have a few polishes close to this in shade, but none have the bonus of shimmer like this one. It makes a great base for nail art and is a lovely muted pastel shade.

Fairytale Gone Pink

Lastly is my favourite of the five polishes, this is a bright pink polish with silver shimmer (the same formula type as the last two). This is a great shade for the upcoming summer months and I am already wearing this polish a lot while enjoying the sunshine. The formula is great and is almost a one coater, I do two thin coats but you might be able to get away with one thick coat.