Essie

It should take approximately 15 minutes for your nails to dry after you've applied a base coat, two coats of polish, and a topcoat. Drying times may vary based on environment or temperature, so using a fan in warm or humid climates can speed up drying time. Allow your nails to dry for two to three hours before doing anything with your hands that could cause the nail polish to smudge. One coat of Essie polish takes between 30 and 60 seconds to dry, so make sure you wait for at least one minute between coats.

To use Essie Gel Couture, start with clean, dry hands and nails. Apply two coats of Gel Couture in your desired color to your nails. After both coats are dry, apply the Gel Couture top coat to give your nails a smooth, gel-like shine. You may remove this product just like you would regular nail polish with an acetone or non-acetone remover. No harsh scrubbing, soaking, or scraping is required to remove the gel polish.

It's currently unclear whether or not Essie is cruelty free. The brand is owned by L'Oreal which does test on animals. Essie follows the same animal testing policy as L'Oreal, which may indicate that these products are not completely cruelty free either. Both companies claim that they do not test on animals, but many of the products are sold to countries where animal testing is mandated by law, although Essie claims that they do not sell their products to China or in China.

Essie has recently reformulated all of its products to be 100% vegan which means that the brand no longer uses animal products or animal by-products to manufacture its line of nail polishes and other products.