Hey babes! I featured these Essie Gel Couture nail polishes in a recent post, and I thought I’d be good to review them here as well because I have some thoughts! These polishes come with a special top coat, they promise gel-like perfection with a beautiful shine that lasts up to 14 days. I’ve tried these quite often now and I do like them, I just have a few things I’ve discovered that you may find interesting.

The two colours I have are called Pinned Up and Drop The Gown. 

The first thing is that if you don’t like regular Essie polishes, you might like these better. Essie polishes tend to chip quite badly in some of the colours, these gel couture colours are very sturdy and don’t have the same flakiness you see in the regular ones. One of the biggest contributors is of course that after applying two coats and the gel top coat, the layers are a little thicker than usually. The topcoat also adheres to the colour in a way that it doesn’t just sit on top of the colour, it forms one whole.

These gel couture polishes come in 66 shades which I think is amazing for a collection like this, and as I am used from Essie, most colours seem to be very true to the bottled colour which is a must for at home use in my opinion. What you see is what you get. I also love the design of the bottle and they fit into each other when storing them.

My biggest issue with this product is also what makes it a great one. The topcoat is very thick and viscous, applying the topcoat in one smooth motion without smudging or streaking is a must. If you don’t apply this nicely, it will be very noticeable once it dries. The topcoat really forms one whole with the base colour and you need to make sure it coats the entire nail to have that nice, gel like perfection. 

Another thing that annoys me is this takes forever to dry, even when it’s dry to the touch, the polish is so thick on the nail that you can easily mess it up with a little pressure, patience is key! But if you take your time to apply this well and wait long enough for it to set and harden, the result is great and you do get a great manicure. It typically doesn’t last 2 weeks on me, but I manage to mess up actual gel polish so I’m not the best judge of this! They do last longer than most nail polishes! 

If you’re like me and mess up your nails easily by chipping them, I suggest checking this product out. However, if you have no patience or prefer brands like OPI that are streak free, even if you apply it messily; then definitely don’t buy this. The polishes are sold for €10,99 and the topcoat costs €11,99, so in the long run, this is definitely cheaper than gel polish! Even though, gel polish is still more sturdy and just a little cleaner! 

Have you ever tried a gel topcoat? Tell me in the comments! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo Christine

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