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Hi friends! Happy early Easter! I spent the day today celebrating Easter with my family and I feel like it has been so long since we all got together. I forgot how nice it is just getting out of the house and seeing everyone. We brought Sassy with us and she has such a nice time playing with her cousins.
Anyway, so today’s blog post is for a new release from Essie. I thought I was (finally) done with Spring pastels but Essie dropped a new one from their Gel Couture line. This was my first time purchasing polishes from the line but not my first time trying them.
If you are new to Essie’s Gel Couture line, this is their “gel” like line so supposedly longer lasting, shinier and chip/fade resistant than the normal line. I can’t speak on those claims so I treating these as I do all regular nail polishes and my swatches do include both base and top coats.
Official promotion hasn’t yet started on these so I have no information on inspiration or official descriptions. I haven’t seen these pop up in store yet but they are available online. I purchased mine online, as always links and sale deets at the end of the post.
Live Swatches
Essie is a US based mainstream brand. Their polishes are in 13.5ml bottles, 8 free vegan and cruelty free.
Gilded Glitz
Description: a pastel marigold with a very delicate shimmer
Gilded Glitz was pretty streaky but that’s not at all surpring given this is a very pale yellow shade. I had high hopes for this polish since I always appreciate a nice yellow. While I would say it had a bad formula, it also wasn’t my favorite.
As I mentioned, this was pretty streaky so if you float your brush you might be ok in 2 coats. I ended up needing three to cover up dark spots. The shimmer was practically noexistant indoors but I could see it ok out in natural sunlight.
My photos show Gilded Glitz in 3 coats plus glossy top coat.
For comparison, I have Orly’s Golden Afternoon (Spring 2022) and Orly Here Comes The Sun. Both colors are darker than Gilded Glitz with GA pulling more golden.
Gloves Are Off
Description: a dusty medium red with a very delicate shimmer
Gloves Are Off had a good formula. It was fairly thick but self leveled well. That thickness did make this polish pretty much opaque in one coat.
I found the shimmer to again, be barely visible indoors. I was able to see it a lot better in direct lighting.
I would describe this color as a greyed out medium red. It’s lighter than a brick red and has a slight red sand kind of feel.
My photos show Gloves Are Off in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.
I thought this was going to be a lot more similar to Orly’s The Spice Is Right. That polish is more of a raisin than this polish is. I can’t remember why I thought this was going to be similar to Expressie Spray It To Say It but it’s clearly not.
Laced And Ready
Description: a dusty periwinkle blue creme with a barely there shimmer
Laced And Ready had a great but thicker formula. This was the color that I was most looking forward to from the bunch. It’s pretty dang pretty if I do say so myself!
This is a greyed out periwinkle with that same barely there shimmer as the other polishes. I can see it better in the bottle than on the nail but it is still just barely visible.
Coverage was pretty good, a little streaky on the first coat but it evens out nicely on the second coat.
My photos show Laced And Ready in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.
This polish is super close to China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le, it’s just slightly darker. I did notice in my tv room, the colors side by side looked identical so unless you really hate the formula on that polish, you don’t really need this if you have that.
You had see how muted this is in comparison to Essie’s Don’t Burst My Bubble (Feel The Frizzle Spring 2023) which is a vibrant periwinke.
Regal Rebel
Description: a greyed out lavender creme with a barely there shimmer
Regal Rebel had a great formula. I found it was thinner than most of the other polishes but not too thin.
This going to be one of those colors that are hard to pinpoint. Next to a grey, it looks lavender and next to a lavender, it looks grey. I would just call it a super greyed out lavander but I could see someone just calling it a purple leaning grey.
I had hoped that since this was on the thinner side that the shimmer would come out to play. Sadly I think the base is just too light to really see the shimmer well.
I usually love me a grey creme but I am feeling a little burnt out at the moment. Zoya’s Toasty collection did me in.
My photos show Regal Rebel in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.
I pulled out both Crystal and Abigail from Zoya’s Toasty collection. Despite swatching quite a few grey polishes recently, none were exactly the same as this one.
Ruffle Up
Description: a peachy base with that same delicate shimmer
Ruffle Up is a mystery to me. When I did my full hand swatches, I HATED how this polish applied. It felt thick, streaky and very finicky. However, when I went to do my live swatches while it was on the thicker side, it didn’t seem nearly as finicky as I remembered.
I don’t generally like peachy colors like this, looking at my photos I do question the reasoning behind that because I feel like this looks pretty great on me.
This will be a 2-3 coater depending on application and how you feel about dark spots. Careful application should cure you of dark spots an make this a 2 coater.
My photos show Ruffle Up in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. This will be a 2-3 coater depending on your application.
This polish is just slightly and I mean slightly darker than Sally Hansen’s Melon. It’s not nearly as similar to Essie NFTea (Cyber Society collection) as I thought it would be.
Title The World
Description: a dusty sage with a barely there shimmer
Title The World had a great formula. It was one of the sheerer polishes in the release but overall it applied really well.
Thanks to being a bit sheerer, the shimmer stood out pretty nicely. It was still delicate for my tastes, but I was able to see it easily!
Looking at my photos, I feel like I could have used a third coat to add some more opacity. I have some VNL that I didn’t realize I had until I got this polish outside.
My photos show Title The World in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.
The closest polishes in my collection to this one were from Olive Ave Polish. Zinnia was the closest but not quite dupe territory. Sage has a stronger shimmer and a different base color.
Final Thoughts
This was a nice collection. We have a vague rainbow theme which is always a plus for me. My biggest complaint is I just wish the shimmer was stronger. I keep seeing people say the delicate shimmer gives these polishes an inner glow but I just don’t see that. I wish I did but I don’t.
I fully recognize that I am a BOOM in your face kinda girly when it comes to shimmer so I know I am heavily biased on how much shimmer a polish needs. But the shimmer in these was so delicate that I had half the collection swatched before I realized all of the polishes had shimmer in them.
As I mentioned, I am 10000% done with pastel cremes this year. I know I am never actually into pastel cremes but I feel like I gave them a fair shot this year. There were several pastel collections that I did really like but much like how I don’t want to look at another grey creme for a few months, that’s how I feel about pastel cremes.
I will say, I am really confused at why I disliked the formulas on some of these initially. I recorded my live swatches about a week after I did my full hand swatches and didn’t experience any real formula issues during the live swatches.
My top picks are going to be Laced and Ready and Gilded Glitz. Love those colors!
Essie
13.5ml, 8 Free, Not Tested On Animals & Vegan
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Sale Information
I don’t have much info on these other than they are currently available at Beyond Polish for $8.75 for 14ml bottles. If you use my affiliate code, NicoleLovesNails that will snag you an extra 10% off each polish.
Essie Gel Couture is sold at all of the places Essie is sold. So Amazon, Ulta, Target, Walgreens and Walmart to name a few!
