I purchased a whole bunch of the 'new' Essie Gel Couture polishes a while back so today I'll be doing a mini review first and swatches in another post soon.
The Essie Gel Couture nail polishes claims to last for up to 2 weeks of wear with gel-like shine. Nail polish chipping has always been an issue for me since I wash dishes and cook almost every day so I really wanted to see if this polish can hold up for me.
Disclaimer: the two before and after photos are of 2 different colors. I ended up succumbing to my habit of peeling off my nail polish after 1.5 weeks so I had to repaint them and wait another 2 full weeks... -___- but the 2nd pic is pretty much exactly what it looked like at 1.5 weeks before I peeled it. lol... More on this below.
This is what it looks like after a fresh 2 coats of the color "Touch Up". I put on the top coat and it took about 1 hour before it was fully dried. This color went on very smoothly and opaque.
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| Essie Gel Couture Polish - "Touch Up" |
And this is what it looks like after 2 weeks of wear for the color "Pinned Up". I have to say that I am very impress with how well it held up! The empty space is just how much my nail grew over 2 weeks. There's very minimal chipping despite being very hands-on everyday. The tips of my nails did wear off a bit since I type a lot at work. The back part of the nail (where the polish ends) looks pretty much when I just painted it, with some chipping. Sometimes when I shower, a strand of hair gets caught under a loose part of my nail and pulls it off, but this didn't happen as often with the gel couture polish.
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| Essie Gel Couture Polish - "Pinned Up" |
You can also see that there are scratch indentations on the polish. I don't notice it too much unless I'm examining it up-close since it is still quite shiny. Of course, not as shiny as when I first applied it.
WARNING: nail polish peeling picture below.
Now, for all my fellow polish peeling friends out there... this may satisfy you a bit. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that I ended up peeling off the nail polish the first time around. I know, this is terrible for your nails and especially this one because the gel couture polishes actually cling onto your nails harder than regular polish. I DO NOT ADVISE DOING THIS... but sometimes old habits just kick in.
So here is a gross picture of how 'well' it peels. LOL. It did take off some of the top layer of my nail and leaves a much whiter cast where the polish was, compared to the regular Essie polishes. This was after 1.5 weeks of wearing it as well. Normally for regular polishes, it would've started cracking all over, preventing it from peeling like this.
So what do you think about this? Is this worth the extra money for you? I definitely would pay the extra price for these because I'm too lazy to remove and repaint my nails after a week. This has lasted me 2 weeks and I think I would be able to get away with longer if my nails didn't grow out so fast...
It does help a lot that it barely chipped so it's not as noticeable from far away that I haven't redone my nails in a while. haha,
That's all I have for today! Swatches for all the colors that I purchased will be coming soon in a future post. :)
Thanks for reading,
Angela
