I'm a little late to the party, but hey.. I'm here now! I finally tried out Essie's Gel Couture nail polish that launched last Summer. My nails don't hold polish very well, so any formula that promises longer wear deserves a chance in my book. I tried acryl nails a long long time ago, which was probably the only time ever I could sport the same nail look for multiple weeks in a row. Granted this Gel Couture formula won't keep going on your nails for weeks, but it will at least perform better than most regular nail polishes.


Gel Couture works as a two step system: you don't need a base coat, just apply two coats of color followed up by the special top coat. The formula is inspired by gel manicures, but without the components that need curing by a lamp or UV light. The top coat makes for a very glossy effect, much like you'd get with a real salon gel manicure. The formula isn't too thick though and applies like a regular nail polish does - luckily, as I find that some salon gel manicures can look pretty heavy or thick which doesn't look very natural or pretty.

Essie offers a permanent range of 40 shades, but also releases limited edition collections as with their regular nail polish. I got the shade "Hold The Position" from their recent Ballet Nudes collection. It's a peachy coral pink shade that works quite well on my skin tone - it's a very pretty pale pink that isn't too baby pink. It lasted really well on my nails. I wore it without much chipping for five days, but did end up getting some damage to the tips of my nails after some household chores that evening. I removed the polish after a week as it didn't look neat enough anymore. Keeping in mind that I have pretty fussy nails, I can imagine that those of you with strong nails could possibly make it to twelve days without chipping, as Essie promises.