essie gel couture Nail Polish Review

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background

Updated 2024.10.07. This page contains affiliate links and this site earns from qualifying purchases made through these sponsored links.

essie gel couture nail polish is essie’s 2-step long wear nail polish system. You need only a color coat and a top coat to get a long-lasting manicure or pedicure.

The gel couture bottles often cost more per bottle when compared to their standard wear bottles and essie does not give a promise of how long manicures and pedicures using gel couture will last.

Using the instructions below, though, we have found you can get at least 7 days of wear out of gel couture colors, spare a little tip wear and loss of glossiness over that time.

Before we get to those though, let’s look at a few essie gel couture swatches:

essie gel couture fairy tailor swatch

essie gel couture fairy tailor swatch

essie gel couture fairy tailor swatch

essie gel couture fairy tailor swatch

essie gel couture fairy tailor

fairy tailor is a sheer, milky light pink-beige neutral nail polish that gives even coverage in 2 coats.

essie gel couture rock the runway swatch

essie gel couture rock the runway swatch

essie gel couture rock the runway swatch

essie gel couture rock the runway swatch

essie gel couture rock the runway 

rock the runway is a bright, warm-toned red jelly sheer nail polish offering even, medium coverage in 2 coats.

essie gel couture bubbles only swatch

essie gel couture bubbles only swatch

essie gel couture bubbles only swatch

essie gel couture bubbles only swatch

essie gel couture bubbles only

bubbles only is a vampy elegant and rich, warm cherry burgundy with an awesome formula. When applied, it evens itself over the nail (self levels), offering full coverage in 2 coats.

With this color, as dark as it is, it is impressive in that you can go at least 4 days wearing it before minor tip wear appears. With many regular wear formulas, you need to take it off 4 days or less due to chipping.

So these are swatches of three best selling gel couture colors. They all are nice colors, offer impressive wear and could be staples in any collection.

You can identify the gel couture bottles from the other lines essie makes because as mentioned above, the price point, and visually they are in a twisted rectangle shape.

essie’s original formula bottles are squarish, and the expressie bottles are elongated rectangles.

For best results with essie gel couture:

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background

essie gel couture instructions

1 - Buff out your nail beds with the fine-to-medium side of a buffing block before applying the polish, then wash your hands. 

2 - Roll the bottle of color to evenly distribute the paint particles.

3 - Apply the color to the nail by dotting a bead of color at the top center of the nail by the cuticle edge, then lightly pull the brush downward over the nail to the tip. Repeat on each side of the nail.

4 - Wait a minimum of 5-10 minutes between coats. 

5 - Apply the essie gel couture top coat.

6 - Wait 5-10 minutes for the gel couture top coat to dry completely before cleaning up your manicure area.

7 - If you notice tip wear or glossiness diminishing while wearing, top off your nails with one coat of color on the tips and one layer of top coat.

essie gel couture dry time

essie gel couture is a regular dry polish. 

On average each coat takes 5-10 minutes to dry, however depending on your climate and temperature, each coat can take up to 20 minutes to dry.

Finally, is essie gel couture worth the price?

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background with text overlay essie gel couture review

essie gel couture bottles on white marble background with text overlay essie gel couture review

Although the gel couture bottles are usually more expensive than essie’s other formulas, if you like to keep your nails painted, essie gel couture ends up being quite an economical nail polish choice.

Achieving at least 7 days of wear, you can do your manicure on Sunday and it will last until Saturday. This saves you the time and energy during a busy week, not having to reapply your manicure on Wednesday.

This wear time, which may be longer for you, also slows down the burn rate of your nail polish lacquer usage, giving you a longer time between bottle refills, saving you money.

Because you only need a color and a top coat, not an additional base coat, the gel couture line also reduces the number of bottles you must buy to get a classy long-lasting manicure.

This deletion of the base coat prevents clutter, decreases environmental waste and cuts an additional expense from your personal overhead.

So to end, yes, essie gel couture is an impressive line that can be worth the price for time, resource and money saving reasons. 

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