Thursday, January 26, 2017

Essie Gel Coutour Collection - Swatches

press sample

Hey, friends! Hope everyone's week is going smoothly and as you all hoped! Today I have a brand I have known and loved for ages, but this is the first time reviewing it - Essie! This is their "new" line, Gel Couture, which is a no-cure gel collection.

Essie claims up to 14 days of wear with these polishes when combined with their top coat and there are 48 polishes available in the line. While I did not wear any of these for 14 days, I did wear Flashed for about 4 days with the top coat and it latest fairly well, though not without chips and pealing. I also found that the top coat took AGES to actually dry which, coming from someone who is used to a quick dry top coat, found this mildly infuriating.

That said, I absolutely love the brush and handles that these new bottles boast, and the application for each of these polishes was beautiful - easy to use on both the dominant and non-dominant hands. I did receive 2 packages of these for review...however, the first arrived with a broken bottle. I decided to still swatch all of them, but you'll notice some of the bottles have polish all over them, and I wasn't actually able to open some of the bottles that had polish on them.

Since all these pretty much applied the same, I'm just sharing the polish number, name, and number of coats needed for each shade. Let's take a look!

40. Fairy Tailor - 3-4 coats with time between each coat.

50. Stitch by Stitch - 3 coats, thin

140. Couture Curator - 3 coats

150. Haute to Trot - 3 coats

160. Zip Me Up - 3-4 coats

200. Labels Only - 2-3 coats

245. Take a Walk - 3-4 coats

260. Flashed - 2-3 coats

290. Sit Me in the Front Row - 2 coats

320. Find Me a Man-nequin - 2 coats

350. Gala-Vanting - 2-3 coats

380. Off Duty Style - 2 coats

390. Surrounded by Studs -  2 coats

400. Caviar Bar -  2 coats

420. Wrap Party - 2-3 coats

So while I'm not sure I believe the claim that this polish will last you a full 2 weeks, I do think there are great color selections in this new line, and each of the formulas are incredibly easy to work with. I absolutely adore the brushes (they're trimmed to an nice rounded edge which makes applying close to your cuticle line really easy) and the bottles are a fun take on the classic Essie bottle.

These are available now from many major retailers (think Target, CVS, etc.), but be sure to check out the full line on Essie.com.

Be sure to follow Essie on your favorite social media site to stay up to date with the latest collections and promotions.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | @essiepolish

What do you think? Have you tried this new line?

Happy Polishing :)