Essie Gel Couture 2018 Enchanted Collection : Swatches & Comparisons

Hey Guys!
Sorry for the blog silence. Christmas prep snuck up on me during December and I was crazy busy every day trying to get stuff done. Then I got this horrible virus on Christmas day that lasted past New Year's and I feel like I've been playing catch up ever since. It's my goal to get back on track and on top of my life this week, so hopefully I'll have my regular Tuesday/Thursday blog posts for you. I'm already halfway there with this post! Winning, haha.
Where I last left you, I was telling you that there was a new Gel Couture Collection based on fairy tales coming soon. Essie Canada was kind enough to send me the 4-polish Canadian release and my friend Austrian happened to be in the U.S. over New Years and snagged Spellbound for me! The only one I don't have is called Daring Damsel and it's a gold chrome. Let's check out the swatches and comparisons.

Matter of Fiction

This is probably the EASIEST pale pink Essie I've ever applied. It goes on so smooth and my cuticles look perfect. It's still streaky at 2 coats and does need 3 but because the coats are easy to apply and go on nice and self-levelling, I don't even care. Pale pink nails are my all-time favourite so this one is a big winner for me!

Matter of Fiction vs. Peak Show vs. Fiji vs. Romper Room

Out of these pale pinks from the regular Essie line, I have no dupes. The new Fiji is more saturated in color making it look bubble gum pink, the old Fiji is pale like Matter Of Fiction but has a warm, peachy tone. Peak Show is uber pale in comparison. It almost looks white (I hope it's showing in the pic, because it was super noticeable in real life). Romper Room is the same saturation of pale pink as Matter Of Fiction but it's warm-toned while Matter Of Fiction has cool pink tones. This polish is still a winner to me guys! I can see myself reaching for this a lot. If you are curious how Matter Of Fiction compares to other pale pink Gel Coutures, I am too, so I'm planning on doing a separate post on that very soon. Stay tuned!

Princess Charming

Incredible formula! Smooth and opaque and applies like butter. It needs two coats but its almost there in one. This really underwhelmed me seeing it in the bottle but I'm LOVING it on! It's a great muted pinky nude that surprisingly has some purple undertones making it kind of mauve. I think this would be really flattering on a lot of different skin tones.

Princess Charming vs. Lady Like vs. Touch Up vs. Eternal Optimist

I thought it was going to be really close to Lady Like but Lady Like is more brown toned and Princess Charming has more pink tones. Next to Touch Up, Princess Charming looks more nude (and the purple mauve tones disappear) and Eternal Optimist is obviously way more pink. This one is a pleasant surprise! I'm liking it and it stands out as unique in my collection.

Once Upon a Time

This is a really pretty blue-grey. The formula was really nice and opaque in 2 smooth coats. I don't have much more to say about this one, but I like it!

Once Upon a Time vs. Cocktail Bling vs. Petal Pushers vs. Mooning vs. Perfect Posture

Another unique shade! It's most similar to Cocktail Bling but Once Upon A Time is much more blue instead of grey. Petal Pushers is darker and even though Mooning is a blue-grey as well, it's got a completely different undertone.

Good Knight

This polish was a COMPLETE surprise for me. I really did not like the looks of this one in the promo pics and neither did I like it when I saw it in the bottle. But for some reason, a couple weeks ago, I was looking for a new polish to try out and I gravitated to this one. I put it on to wear to my friend's birthday and I thought my nails looked so chic! I absolutely loved this color and it took me by surprise. I left it on for almost a week. I will say that I put this polish on as normal, which is no base coat because it's a gel couture, and I had little tiny chips on the tips of my nails after 1-2 hours. I was not stoked about that and I mentioned it to Jennifer (@chroma_nails) who said she noticed that the crelly gel couture formula chips easier than the cremes. I had never experienced that before, but I was shocked with all the little chips I had so quickly and now I'll be on the look out for that! When I swatched this polish last Friday for this post, I made sure to put a base coat underneath (Essie Grow Faster) and was careful to wrap the tips of my nails with base, Good Knight and top coat to see if that made it last better. It definitely did, so I recommend a base coat with this polish. (I'm actually still wearing Good Knight right now and I've only got tip wear!)

I should also mention that this polish is a stainer on your cuticles! When I polished two weeks ago, I was a bit messier painting my non-dominant hand. Good Knight was SO HARD to clean out of the cuticles, even with pure acetone and a small brush. It kind of just smeared and left a deep red color behind. Also, don't twist the cotton pad around when you go to remove this polish...just pull it off in a straight movement to keep the polish out of the cuticles. I polished way more carefully this time and the round flat brush made it easy to keep the cuticles tidy and I needed absolutely no clean up. I think I rushed last time but this is no polish to rush with!

Good Knight vs. Wicked vs. Shearling Darling vs. Carry On

This comparison really surprised me! I got lots of requests on insta to compare this to Wicked and I completely agreed. I thought this was going to be an exact dupe for Wicked but Wicked is actually MUCH darker. Good Knight is closest to Shearling Darling but it's a bit more brown and Shearling Darling has more red. I hope you can actually see the difference in this comparison, because it was definitely visible in person!

Spellbound

Essie Canada didn't send me this one because it wasn't released in Canada. Thank you to Austrian who grabbed it for me when she was in the U.S. The color is AH-mazing! It's quite a dusty olive green with lots of grey in it. There's also TONS of visible golden green shimmer. The formula was awesome too! 2 easy coats.

Spellbound vs. Social Lights vs. Exposed vs. Sew Psyched

There's no other Essie that compares to this polish. I've heard Spellbound called "the green Social-Lights" but the shimmer is totally different. Social-Lights' shimmer is more of a red-toned reflection. It's very fine and doesn't resemble glitter at all. Spellbound's shimmer is much more defined as individual glitters, albeit, they are pretty micro. I REALLY like this polish! It's too bad Canada skipped out on this one since it's so unique.

I love the way this collection looks together (even with the gold added). It's such a pleasing palette and totally gives off fairy tale vibes. My immediate faves are Spellbound and Matter of Fiction but Princess Charming and Good Knight totally surprised me. I might have fallen for them too!

Which polish are you digging the most from this collection?

As always, I've given you my 100% honest opinions. I always do, whether polishes are sent to me or not! Essie Canada sent me the first four polishes and I purchased Spellbound myself.