Essie Gel Couture Nail Polish Review

This gel polish is a nice consistency not to thick or thin, it applied really nice and the applicator really shaped to my nail to help get good even application. It does have a very strong nail polish fragrance, which was a little over whelming but only smelt while the bottle was open and once it was dried it was gone. This gives great coverage and i only needed 2 coats to get a nice even colour. It lasted so well on my nails i'm a mother and always have my hands in water or cleaning and i got a good 7 days with this, which i would never get out of nail regular nail polish. Its a good full bottle and i will get 13.5ml and i will get a lot for coats out of this bottle and at $18.99 (while a little pricey) i actually think is a really good price for the amount of wear i can get out of it. Its in a sleek glass bottle with a twist though it very minimal and very pleasing to look at, it the type of bottle i will have displayed not hidden in a box or draw. I really like this product and it apples well i did find it dried really quickly and you cant really go over it and make again until it dried otherwise it doesn't apply quite as smooth. Second time i found it easier and it came off easily with no damage to my natural nails. I would recommend this to anyone as an alternative to the salon polish and gel its a quarter of the price and i was happy with the results.

The shade '210 - On The List' is a bright, almost neon coral colour. This is a beautiful colour for spring and like other neon-esque colours makes me look tanner than I actually am. Unfortunately like other bright corals they are not the most opaque, so while 2 coats is okay, 3 is needed for roper coverage.

The application was a little tricky at first as the formula is very runny, but considering this was my first use it is probably good as it will thicken slightly with more uses as it dries out a little. Probably better to paint your nails on a surface rather than on the couch like I tried and almost got polish all over my pants a few times.

While it has the shine of a gel, it didn't have the staying power, although better than other formulas I have used. It should be noted I used the top coat with the colour so cannot comment on the longevity of the polish by itself although it as marketed to be used combined.

The polish dries to a consistency like a flexible plastic, so if you flood your cuticles you may get a bit of lift on the side of your nail like I did. On nails where I didn't flood my cuticles the edges stayed down fine. The polish on the tips started to wear after three days but I only had some chipping begin about 6 days after the application, so decent staying power compared to some other polishes.

Overall there was nothing too special about this nail polish, better longevity than regular polish but nothing really more than other polishes aimed at longwear.

I selected Essie Gel Couture in “Spiked With Style” (#360) for this trial. The polish is bottled in a clear twisted Essie branded glass bottle, and the colour of the deep red polish is visible through the glass. There is no base coat with this gel couture system. It’s designed to be used as a two-step process; two coasts of colour followed by one coat of ‘platinum grade finish’ top coat.

To start, I filed and shaped my nails, pushed back the cuticles, gave them a light buff and then cleansed them well with nail polish remover to remove any natural nail oils before applying the first coat of polish.

The wide, flat, round ended brush mirrors the cuticle area perfectly, making it really easy to get a perfect coat in just four swipes of the brush; one down the middle, one down each side, and then one across the tip to cap the free edge. The polish is well pigmented, gives a good opaque colour in just two coats, and dries in 30 to 60 seconds if applied correctly (thinly). By the time I’d painted my second hand, the thin layer of polish on the first hand was dry and ready for the second coat.

Something I did notice is that this polish has a very cold feel on the nails with each layer. It’s a little strange, but disappears as soon as the polish starts to dry. Any accidental messes on the skin around my nails were easily cleaned up with a bit of nail polish remover on a cotton bud.

The twisted shape of these bottles makes it horribly uncomfortable to roll the bottles before use, and Essie should have considered this, especially since they recommend that polish bottles be rolled not shaken. (Shaking polish introduces air bubbles, which affect both the formula over time and the polish application.) These bottles also don’t fit into each other, the twists and bases don’t line up, so they take up a lot more room than Essie’s traditional square bottles, or round polish bottles do.

After 3 hours of typing the next day, the tips started to show signs of wear on the tips. By day 6, the wear was quite bad on my index fingernails, and on day 7 it began chipping on multiple nails. I removed the polish and reapplied on day 8 and found that my nails had a definite pinkish tinge to them. So, yes, even though this polish is designed to be used without a base coat, the dark red colour of Spiked With Style does definitely stain my nails slightly.

With Essie’s Gel Couture it’s said that you can get up to 14 days wear, but with other enamel polishes I usually end up with wear and chipping after 2-3 days, so 7 days wear before chipping for gel couture is really not bad.

The colour I am reviewing is ‘spiked with style’. A deep rich red colour. I absolutely adore it and it goes with everything!

The formula is beautiful. It paints on super smooth with great opacity, you could almost get away with one coat but a second really brings out the deep colour. I was surprised at how quickly it dried! This was a huge plus for me as it made the painting job nice and quick and I didn’t have to worry about ruining it over the drying period.

The bottle is really pretty with a geometric twisted shape and the fan shaped brush is great.

The trial I did was with the top coat and I haven’t had time to try the polish alone yet so I can’t speak to how it lasts alone. I will try it out and come back to update! Overall I love this polish and will absolutely be buying more shades!

The colour range is amazing. I’ve had comments on my colour! 2 coats provide a perfect finish. So long lasting compared to lots of other brands.

Using both the polish & top coat was definitely a better option. The polish did set slightly strangely, with a blotch in one corner than wasn't there when I painted them, but perhaps just a user error. Took quite awhile to dry. Quite a bit of chipping around the edges but the main body of the nail has stayed put well so may be a result of heavy usage of hands. Colour did clump in some patches.

The colour you see through the transparent bottle is actually the colour that your nails become! The bottle is made of a twisted glass with a white lid and due to the unusual shape it is really easy to spot among the other nail polishes in my drawer. I chose the amazing pink shade called Model Citizen and I am so happy with the colour. It is vibrant and full of colour but doesn't look like a fancy dress colour - it is definitely an every day, bring on summer shade and I love it! I would wear this every single day and probably will. The brush is flatter and larger than I have used before and I loved it! It made application so quick and easy and the nail polish applied beautifully and oh so smoothly - it even smoothed out my ridges! The nail polish dried so quickly I hardly had to wait anytime in between applying layers and for the first time in my life I didn't dent or ruin a nail within minutes of finishing my nails - amazing! There is a very very strong smell of nail polish when applying but it goes away as soon as you put the lid back on the bottle. I am officially in love with this colour, the application and the result and have found my new fave nail polish.

I am currently trialling this Essie Gel Couture nail polish in the shade Model Citizen which is a bright pink colour. It's a darker, bright, shade of pink not a pale, baby pink colour. I have light, tanned skintone and it makes my fingernails look pretty with my skintone. The nail polish bottle is quite cool, it sort of twists in shape, the glass which looks neat. You can see the pink polish inside. The lid is white and twists off easy. I applied this nail Gel polish in an easy, 2-step system. Step 1: Apply two coats of Essie gel couture colour. It went on smooth and the coverage was good on each of my nails. I waited a few minutes in between each layer before I applied the next coat. I didn't have to wait that long for the coats of nail colour to dry. Step 2: Apply Essie gel couture top coat to seal in your colour manicure. This is clear and again went on super easy and dried quite quickly. Afterwards, I was happy with my nail colour manicure. I used to bite my nails which I've managed to grow recently so this Gel nail colour has made my nails look much better. I've also noticed my nails are not so brittle since trialling these products. I'm a Mum of two so I'm always doing dishes with hot water and I have hot baths most nights so my nail polish usually wears off and chips but not this one. It seems to be lastimg longer than other cheap brands I've tried. I had a look online at Farmers at this Essie range, there's about 19 other beautiful, sophisticated Gel Couture nail colours in the range aswell as the Top Coat, all priced at $18.99. Pricewise, these are a little pricey for me but I think they are good quality and they are long-lasting after trying this Essie Gel Couture. I will be using regularly until it runs out to make my nails look pretty.

I have always been a huge fan of Essie's nail polishes and this range did not disappoint!

First of all, its so hard to pick a colour, so many beautiful shades, and iv always been a fan of their natural/nude colour range. The colour I have is in the shade 'Buttoned and Buffed' and it is a beautiful dark nude colour. I loved the shade, quite natural but also you could tell my nails were polished :)

The formula was so easy to apply, it applied smoothly and evenly. The polish gave a nice shine to my nails. It applied relatively thickly and because I was going to apply a top coat, I decided to go with only the one coat as one coat gave enough colour and coverage. The polish also dried pretty quickly too which was awesome!

The brush is standard, but wow the nail polish bottle for these are so beautiful! Its a twisted glass bottle and it looks beautiful on my makeup shelf!

Will definitely be purchasing more.