essie Gel Couture Swatches

As most of you know I recently bought ‘Zip Me Up’ from the essie Gel Couture line in order to do a wear test and see if this line stood up to the amazing reviews it has been receiving. My polish ended up lasting for five days and for those who aren’t as hard on their hands I’m sure that it would have lasted even longer. With that being said these polishes are a big win for me and I decided that I would go out and buy some more to add to my collection! I ended up getting five new polishes so that I now have six in total! Below I swatched and compared each polish with a polish from the core essie line that I deemed similar!

From left to right: ‘Couture Curator’, ‘Haute To Trot’, ‘Style In Excess’, ‘Zip Me Up’, ‘Beauty Nap’, and ‘First View’. I took this photo outside in natural light so that you could see the true color of each polish.

The first polish that I swatched was ‘Couture Curator’, an appraising coral pêche. This color is super gorgeous once on but definitley was a bit of a pain to apply as it took me four coats to reach full opacity.

 

Here is ‘Couture Curator’ compared with ‘Van D’ Go’ from the core essie line. These two colors are almost identical and you can barely tell the difference. However, ‘Van D’ Go’ only took three coats and is a tad bit brighter than ‘Couture Curator’ in real life. (CC is on middle and pinky finger, VDG is on ring and pointer finger).

 

Next is ‘Haute To Trot’, a handcrafted lavender rose. To me this isn’t a great explanation of the polish as there is no lavender in my opinion at all in this polish. To me the color is a true bubblegum pink that looks gorg on the nail! It took me three coats but could have been done in two depending on application.

 

I chose to compare ‘Haute To Trot’ with one of my all time favorite essie pinks ‘Need A Vacation’. ‘Need A Vacation’ ended up being much lighter and more of a jellyish formula than ‘Haute To Trot’. I have much love for both polishes and think they are both a must for any avid essie lover! (HTT is on middle and pinky finger/NAV is on pointer and ring finger).

 

‘Style In Excess’ was one of the polishes that I knew I had to pick up right away when @chromanails posted a photo of it awhile back! This polish is an opulent icy steel. It only took me two coats to reach full opacity, which was a pleasant surprise since it is a lighter color. It is definitley a gray toned purple and truly is unlike any of the other purples that I already own. 

 

I decided that I would compare this to ‘St. Lucia Lilac’, which to me is also a gray toned purple. I was definitley off the mark on this one as ‘Style In Excess’ was much darker and almost looked like it would be closer to ‘Warm & Toasty Turtleneck’. In the bottles they looked much closer in color then they do on the nail! (SIE is on middle and pinky finger, SLL is on pointer and ring finger).

 

The next polish is ‘Zip Me Up’, a slinky satin mint. This was actually the first Gel Couture polish that I purchased and the one that stuck out to me the most when trying to decide what one to take home with me first! It has a slight shimmer and looks a bit matte in photos but in real life it is a shiny polish.

 

I compared ‘Zip Me Up’ to ‘Absolutely Shore’ and they are most definitley not in the same playing field. ‘Zip Me Up’ is much brighter and mintier, while ‘Absolutely Shore’ is more of a muted cooler green that does not have shimmer. (ZMU is on middle and pinky finger, AS is on ring and pointer finger).

 

Next up is ‘Beauty Nap’, a dreamy gray-moss. This is quickly becoming my favorite from the Gel Couture Line as its unique formula is too beautiful for words. This is one of those polishes that makes it hard for me to stop staring at my nails! I do not really have anything like ‘Beauty Nap’ in my collection as it is a bit more jade then anything else I own.

 

I compared ‘Beauty Nap’ with ‘Turquoise & Caicos’ and was surprised at how different they were. They are both blue/green polishes but ‘Beauty Nap’ is much darker and only took two coats to cover, while ‘Turquoise & Caicos’ is lighter and needs three coats to become opaque. (BN is on middle and pinky finger, T&Q is on ring and pointer finger). 

 

‘Last but not least is ‘First View’, a baby cashmere blue. I saw @laurenslist post a swatch of this color awhile back and immediately fell in love! The formula is amazing to apply and has a slight shimmer that adds beautiful dimension to the polish itself.

 

I compared ‘First View’ with ‘Truth or Flare’ which ended up being much darker. This polish isn’t really even in the same realm as ‘First View’ as it has no shimmer and is more of a denim blue instead of a baby blue. (FV is on middle and pinky finger, TOF is on ring and pointer finger).

 

Overall none of the Gel Couture polishes that I purchased ended up being dupes to any of the core essie polishes that I have in my collection! What Gel Couture polish do you have your eye on? Let me know on Instagram what you think of these colors and what colors you would like me to buy in the future from this line!