Essie Gel Couture Top Coat Review

Love the addition of the top coat on top of my Essie Nail Polish! Applying this top coat over my nail polish, gave me that completeness that my nails had that manicure salon finish.

The clear top coat applied to my nails easily (the brush is standard) and it dried really quickly which was awesome! It gave my nails once dried that manicured salon finish - they definitely felt like thick gel nails which I love!

My nails had a lovely glossy shine as a result.

I tried Essie Top Coat on the Beauty Review Trial Team along with the Essie Gel Couture Polish 240 in the colour Model Citizen, a pink shade of nail colour. The glass bottle, jar it comes in is a cool, it's white so you can't see inside it and it's a twisted glass shape. It's white with 'essie' embossed on the front. The lid is a cylinder shape with a silver label that says, 'platinum grade finish' on it It also has a label with 'Top Coat' on it. This is applied after the 2 coats of nail colour to seal the Gel Couture. I applied it to my nails once I had applied the colour and it went on easy, didn't smell and it dried pretty fast. It's clear in colour like a clear coat of nail polish. This coat of Top Coat did seal the nail polish on well. I've had it on for a good few days now and my nails are still looking pretty even after having hot baths, hot showers, doing dishes in hot water aswell as other things that usually make my nails brittle and fragile. Usually, my nail polish has chipped off by now but this Top Coat is making my nail colour last.

I will use this until it's empty as I'm liking my results so far. I don't think I would buy it myself as it's a little pricey for me but if you're wanting to spend some dollars to stock up your manicure supplies this and the collection would be the go. I had a browse online at Farmers, this is priced at $18.99 along with the 19 colours in the Essie Gel Couture range.

Like the nail polish the top coat comes in a glass bottle that has a twisted shape which makes it easy to spot in my nail polish drawer. The glass bottle is a non transparent white which I also found handy as I knew automatically that it was my top coat because I do not have any other white bottles. The smell is intense on application but goes away as soon as you put the lid back on the bottle. The brush is flat and larger than I have used previously and I loved it ... it made application super fast and smooth and easy. Drying time was super fast and I didn't dent or ruin my nails within minutes of application like I normally would. I haven't even dented them a week later which usually happens - I am really happy with this top coat. A week down track it is just the very tips of my nails that starting to slightly chip away - but you have to look very closely to notice. My nails have been through everything punishing this week and they shouldn't be looking this good but they are - thanks essie gel top coat! The top coat gave my nails a beautiful shine and when I re-applied a few days later (as recommended) it made my nails look like I had just freshly painted them. They looked fresh and shiny once again! Impressive.

Using both the polish & top coat was definitely a better option, far better results as a combo. Took quite awhile to dry, but has set well. Quite a bit of chipping around the edges after a week (for the nails with just the top coat or just the polish) but haven't been overly cautious of my hands so perhaps 2 coats would have been more successful! Less chipping on nails with both.

This makes your polish long lasting and super shiny. Would not use polish without this top coat from now on. It is fast drying too.

This top coat is so great!!

The formula is lovely and paints on super smooth. It is super high gloss which I LOVE! It really brings the colour to life. The drying time is super fast! And it dries nice and hard leaving your nails feeling protected.

The bottle is a cool twisted geometric shape and interestingly it’s white rather than the usual clear bottle.

I absolutely recommend this top coat and can’t wait to try it over different polishes!

Essie’s Gel Couture top coat is packaged in an opaque white twisted bottle (the coloured polish is in a twisted clear glass bottle). 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 applying two coats of Essie’s Gel Couture in “Spiked With Style” I appliedone coat of this top coat. 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 top coat has a really nice thin consistency that applies really well, and does have a rather cold feel upon application, that disappears quite quickly.

This top coat is better than any other traditional enamel top coat that I’ve used the the past. It doesn’t smudge the colour coats below (like some top coats do), and has a very smooth, glossy looking finish with a vibrant high-shine.

Silly me dinged one of my thumbs before the top coat was dry, and smudged the colour underneath, but it was easily fixed by rubbing a finger dipped in a tiny bit of nail polish remover lightly over the dented polish to smooth it out, and then simply reapplying a coat of top coat after the initial application had dried fully.

After 3 hours of typing the next day, the tops of my nails 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. Essie’s Gel Couture states that you can get up to 14 days wear, and I only got half that. With other enamel polishes I usually end up with wear and chipping after 2-3 days, so 7 days wear before chipping for this Gel Couture range is really not bad.

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. It layered fine on top of previous coats.

While it has the shine of a gel, it didn't have the staying power, although better than other formulas I have used. 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.

Application was smooth and the top coat dried to the touch in only 1 minute. It was already resistant to dents and scratches in under five minutes. In a few hours it was fully set. I'm pretty sure it sped up the overall setting time of the polish beneath it.

When some of the top coat got onto my skin and I wiped it with my finger, the consistency surprised me. It has an almost oil like feel to it and it's very slippery rather than tacky like most top coats and polishes.

I don't know if it is possible, but it sure seemed as though the top coat shrunk as it dried... I noticed the next day that the polish was ever so slightly back from the tips of my nails, about half a milimeter but certainly noticeable up close. I definitely remember painting right to the tips of my nails. I can only assume it also shrunk at the base of my nails and on the sides too. It's not a big issue for me, but it's something to be aware of.

The final result was super shiny, I love how it looks! It lasted nine days without a single chip. On the seventh day of wear my sister asked me if I'd had my nails professionally done, so I would call that a win! It really does give a gel like finish in my opinion. I would recommend this as a long lasting, shiny and chip resistant top coat.

Definitely recommend using a top coat. It makes your nail polish last longer and your nail stronger. It gives your nail and nice shiny/glossy affect. My nails looked as though they were done by a nail salon but happy to say it was just me.