Speaking to Daily Star Online, Nicole said: "On Ex On The Beach I was able to be more myself.
"I don't think TOWIE gave me a chance to actually get my character out there, it was more like what they wanted.
"On Ex On The Beach we're not told what to do and nothing's planned, you just go with it. We do our own thing."
She had a bit of a fiery time on TOWIE thanks to her relationship with Lewis and flirting with Mike Hassini.
And the drama followed her onto the MTV show, on which she arrived as an ex of Love Island's Joshua Ritchie.
She doesn't class Josh as an ex though, as she told us: "I'd never slept with him or anything. It was just a couple of dinners, he was just a friend."
Another of her exes, Adam Oukhellou, had told her he'd seen Jacques being unfaithful and Nic wasn't happy, naturally.
Waiting on the beach for him, she told us: "That time was a bit more gut-wrenching because I had a feeling it was going to be him.
"He was the only one I think I got nervous about. That one I knew was coming and I got that whole feeling like, ugh, I knew it was him."
Jack was also an ex of Harriette Harper on the show, though Nicole doesn't class him as an ex either.
"I was with him in an on-and-off thing," she revealed. "I wasn't even with him when I was 18, so the only two exes in my eyes that I actually did have were Adam and Jack."
She explained: "Adam I was with for two years and Jack I've been on-and-off with for over a year now."
Nicole teased a lot of upcoming drama and admits that was her only regret with the show.
Ex On The Beach girls have ultimate bonding experience as they compare vaginas
She told us: "Towards the end of the show I was giving someone a bit too much time, but it's where I was hurt. I just wanted to get back at them."
And it sounds like the twisted dating show actually taught the Essex lass something.
Nicole told us: "I was quite trusting before I went on there and I'm not so trusting now. I think it changes you as a person."
A representative for TOWIE had no comment on Nicole's suggestions.
