Essie Gel Couture Nail Polish Review

The ted of this is beautiful and bright, would definitely buy for the colour again The brush is a round shape that I found a bit different to use so it bled a bit, bit I'm sure with practice it would work for me.

Lasted well on my toes, not great on kids hands! Smell.is low and bottle shape great!

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 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 really really loved the classic red colour I tried. It was so easy to apply- went on smoothly and neatly. As a mail polish it’s one of the better ones I’ve used, however it definitely didn’t last as long as it claimed

I trialled ‘Spiked with Style’ and am in love with the colour! So rich, deep and just the right amount of ‘vamp’. I found the consistency to be creamy enough to give good coverage while also being thin enough to dry quickly which I also love. The brush shape makes for easy application-in fact so easy that I was able to apply this dark colour without needing touch ups. Although I didn’t get 12 days out of the polish I would use Essie Gel Couture nail polish again just for the reasons listed. I would also recommend it to friends.

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.

First off I LOVED the brush. The tip is slightly rounded helping you get close to the cuticle without going onto it. It spreads well enough to cover nail easily and fast. The colour is amazing and applies pretty opaque with limited product. It is pretty fast drying but i wouldn't say in 30 seconds like it claims, maybe 1 minute or so between coats. I am pretty rough and work with my hands and i did start to notice chipping after one week, which i think is still amazing considering how rough i am. Nearing two weeks whole sections of nail polish peeled off, I'm okay with that normal polish for me last a few days. I liked this polish and will definitely be purchasing other colours!

This really surprised me that I am able to apply without needing a UV light and it dries so quickly. Great range with loads of options of shades to choose from.

Super easy to apply two coats on and the colour really radiates when a top coat is applied.

What can I say! A nail polish only to love. The stylish packaging is very cool, but if a bummer it doesn’t allow you to stack them easily together, but maybe that just my OCD talking. The gel colour went on seamlessly. Very smooth and flawless coverage. I applied 2 coats of the vibrant colour followed by the top coat. On my hands which are always in and out of water between washing them and washing dishes the polish stayed on for about 8-10 days on different nails. I’m sure if you were more care it would last the advertised 12 days. Definitely be using again.

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.