Pleasing complete review (drop 1)
I got all of the pre-sale products from Pleasing, so I thought I'd post a review for everyone. Items included are:
The Perfect Polish set - $65 (x)
The Pleasing Pen - $30 (x)
The Pearlescent Illuminating Serum - $35 (x)
Overall:
They all came in one white box with nondescript packaging. Each of the 3 products came in their own box, with a marble design and the words "open here with care" on the side. Something I noticed right away was how much smaller the boxes were than what they appear to look like online. I've included a tea bag in pics for size comparisons.
Yes all products came intact and in perfect condition.
Disclaimer: this review is based on a one time use of each product.
The Pleasing Pen
This product consists of a
refreshing eye gel and
matte lip oil
The pen comes in a recycled material black box with all the information about the product. The pen itself looks sleek and is quite large and just like official pictures. The component is glass, and connects both sides in a plastic closure coated in metal. Each side is labeled with a lip or eye sticker so you know which is which. And they both have a metal roller ball applicator.
The product itself has no scent or taste, and the lip oil is matte once it's on, so it's not shiny and it's virtually invisible to the eye.
The eye gel is indeed refreshening, I could feel it under my eyes for a while after I applied it. It dries down quickly, and is not tacky or oily. I have dry skin, so this isn't enough to give me all the moisture I need, but its design is great if you want to just throw it in your purse and use throughout the day. If you have oily skin this might be good for you as it's not greasy or heavy. Although it is refreshing, it doesn't seem to actually depuff the under eyes, tho it might have that effect with continued use.
What I love:
Easy to use on the go
Fits in my purse
Light and good for touchups
No scent
Dries quick and is not tacky
Notes of improvement:
Since this seems like more of a 'on the go' product, the glass component makes me think that it could break in the bottom of my purse, so maybe a plastic one could be safer? Tho that would cheapen the overall appearance and it may not even be an issue.
The Pearlescent Illuminating Serum
Like the pen, the serum comes in a recycled material black box with all the information about the product. The component is glass and has a plastic light green lid and pump dispenser. It feels substantial and has weight to it. The pearls look pretty inside it, and kinda look like mermaid eggs.
Although it's a 'illuminating' serum, I didn't find it to be shiny once applied. It dries down completely and is not oily either, so even if you have oily skin you could still use it. This product is meant to be added to your skin care routine and is not a substitute for a regular moisturizer, and makeup would layer perfectly on top of it. Because it's a illuminating serum with the pearls inside it does leave some minimal shiny specs throughout the skin, tho its illuminating quality is very subtle compared to a illuminating primer for example.
The Perfect Polish set
The polishes look gorgeous in person, and are the same size as a regular nail polish bottle. The pearl marble tops are removable, tho I could not get 2 of them off because they were on there very tightly. The bottles are very pretty, I will be displaying them on my vanity.
I wanted to preface this by saying that I have been doing my own nails for nearly 20 years, and I use nail polish for that, so this is right up my alley.
The polishes smell like nail polish, tho the scent is actually not strong at all when compared to your regular polish. The applicator is perfect and covers the nails well, and the consistency of the polish itself is also excellent.
The black polish is by far the most pigmented - one coat and my nails looked perfect and really black.
The white and pink polishes need additional coats, tho that is normal - I usually do 2 coats with every single polish I've ever used.
The white polish has a very very minimal blue shift in the shimmer, tho it's not easy to see when it's on.
All the polishes have shimmer to it, except the black one. Although they are shimmery, they dry down more towards matte as opposed to shiny. If you add a regular top coat they'll look shiny.
The Pearly Tops polish is a matte polish with shimmer. When added on top on the polishes it 'transforms' them each differently. The black polish turns into a shimmery dark blue that is gorgeous. The pink gets a pearly coat with barely noticeable specs of blue in the shimmer shift and the white looks like matte pearls.
I used 2-3 coats for each, and found that regardless of that they all dried down exceptionally well and quickly. More so than a regular nail polish. And despite using several layers NONE OF THE POLISHES WERE LUMPY! They did NOT lump, and can be layered very easily! Their formula is excellent in this regard.
The white and pink need 3 layers to completely cover your nail without streaks. If you have any imperfections on your nails like dips, bumps or lines they show through and are difficult to cover. I have that issue, and you can see the natural lines I have on my nails showing through because I didn't want to add a 4th layer.
I added a base coat and top coat to some nails, and left others with just the Pleasing polish for comparison. I'll update later to see how they wear and how long they last.
The black polish is by far my favorite. I mostly only wear black nail polish, so if they start selling this as singles, I will buy this polish from now on.
Things to note about the pics below:
the bubbles on the pic w/ the top coat are from my quick dry top coat (above), not Pleasing. Pleasing did NOT bubble up despite me using several layers.
you can see the natural lines of my nails peeking through the white and pink polish (I used 3 layers for the white and 2 for the pink).
on the pic w/ top coat: compare the thumb and ring finger and you can see that adding the Pearly Top polish adds a lot of shimmer to my thumb.
on the pic w/ just Pleasing you can see how matte the Inky Pearl turns once you add Pearly Tops. The black polish turns into 2 polishes (shimmer blue vs black) and that's quite visible on this pic.
Excuse the messy nails, I didn't have time to clean up the smears or fix the imperfections. And also excuse the super yellow cast lighting, I was trying to capture the shimmer but my living room lights are quite yellow.
Things I love:
The overall look is excellent, pleasing and chic. I'll be displaying them
I can tell this is expensive nail polish, even without considering the packaging. The product itself feels high quality.
The formula is really good, not lumpy, layers VERY well.
The scent is not overwhelming, tho it's still nail polish
The Inky Pearl black polish is a standout 100%. I love that it's essentially a 2-in-1 polish when you add the Pearly Tops and it becomes a midnight blue polish. Overall super high quality and pigmentation is 10/10
Dries fast, not goopy, very easy application
You can layer a lot without it turning into a mess
Notes of improvement:
The white and pink polishes require a few layers to not be sheer or not appear streaky
If you have natural imperfections on your nails they'll show through unless you add 3+ layers (with the white and pink only).
I wish they were sold individually, as I would continue to buy Inky Pearl alone since I mostly wear black polish and this polish is excellent and so beautiful.
I did film myself putting the nail polish on, so if you'd like to see that let me know and I'll try to edit and post that.
Also, if you have any additional questions, let me know and I'll try to answer everything!
I'll do a follow up talking about how long and well the nail polish lasted.
Today's date: Dec 3 2021.