Essie Gel Couture Nail Polish Review

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.

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.

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.

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!

I chose the shade Pre-Show Jitters which is described on their website as an 'alabaster white'. I love the colour, it is an off white with a subtle pink undertone that still looks great against my olive skin with yellow undertones. On my nails it just looks white, without being as bright as a true white and in the bottle it almost looks like a pastel pink.

This shade took 4 thin coats to become fully opaque (I did thinner coats so they would dry quicker) and the polish has a slightly thicker consistency than the normal Essie polish. I found this consistency easier to apply. I had to work quickly, as it started to become tacky after if I tried to go over it twice to even it out. Once I got used to this, I painted my nails in two to three strokes and left them alone to self level which worked well for me.

The polish took about five minutes to become touch dry, ready for either another layer of colour or top coat.

The edges were more difficult to clean up than the regular Essie polish, it really did not want to be removed, which shows how long lasting it is but it was still a bit of a hassle. I used a brush with an acetone free remover initially but switched to a polish corrector pen (with the same remover in it), to be able to apply more pressure to the edges of the polish. This worked much better.

Without a top coat, it did not have much shine and it took several hours before it was resistant to dents and knocks, so I would definitely use a top coat with it. It lasted for over a week without chips used with the matching top coat.

Overall, I really enjoyed wearing this polish and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a longer lasting colour with a more gel like appearance than the regular Essie or OPI line.

Wow I absolutely LOVE this colour. It looks so good on my nails and real gives it a nice shine. The texture is so nice and thin and slides so easy when applying to your nail. It dries really fast too so you dont have to wait or worry that its going to take long to dry. You can simply apply the next coat and continue from there and so you can go hang up your washing without it getting smudged in no time.

Let me start by saying that I love wearing nail polish and painting my own nails. I’ve tried multiple brands of polish including gel type polishes so I was super keen to try this Essie one to see how it compares. I’ve only used it for one week but so far I love it. Continue reading below to find out why.

This polish has lasted really well. I have worn this polish for a week now and only one nail has started to chip (index finger on one hand). I’ve washed dishes my hand without gloves and I’m constantly typing at work too. There has been no tip wear or chipping or peeling around my cuticle area either. Please note that I have also worn this in conjunction with the Essie gel top coat.

The colour is really opaque. I only needed two coats and that was enough to get a decent application without streaks. The consistency is slightly thicker than the normal Essie polish but I like it better. I found that the normal Essie polish sometimes is too thin and you need to apply more layers. This polish went on smoothly and like I said did not leave any streaks or bubbles.

The brush is really nice to use. The size enables you to apply the polish on your nail with three strokes. The brush is quite dense which allows you to fan the brush out across your nail when you are applying the polish. The dense brush also means it holds the right amount of polish to deposit on to your nail.

The bottle is a standard glass bottle with a twisted rectangular shape. It’s easy to hold and use.

Overall I really like this polish and would definitely recommend this to everyone else. I am keen to buy more in different colours.

I've been wearing this polish for just over 7 days and it's lasted quite well. There's only a little chipping around the edges of my nails and for someone who works with their hands all day I can live with that! The colour I was using was "fairy tailor" (a light baby pink shade) and looks amazing as a 1 coat sheer nude. Using 2 coats was a hit and miss for me, some nails looked great but most nails the colour was patchy. Perhaps with some practice I would get better at applying this formula, I'm not used to working with a polish that's so thin and sheer. I did end up removing the polish from 2 nails and redoing them because they looked weird with streaky patches of colour, but I at least know that the polish is extremely easy to remove. Just requires standard nail polish remover (as much as I love the longevity of gel nails I just can't stand the loooong removal process), so this is a big plus for me! Overall, I like how this polish has withstood the day to day work I do that usually sees most other polishes chip within 24-48hrs. I think I'll stick to wearing this shade as a 1 coat and maybe look at whether there are less sheer shades in this range because I'd love to try them out!

I received the dark red colour spiked with style, which i absolutely loved. I have been looking for a nail polish this colour for a while now. It definitely lived up to my expectations - this nail polish is designed to last up to 12 days however i put it through a real test while working and being quite hard on my nails and it still lasted 10 days which i was very happy with. It is a super easy nail polish to apply, the brush is a good size and easy to control, and it doesn't take too long to dry.