Editor Vetted: Chillhouse's New Long-Wear Nail Polish Is The Perfect Gel Manicure Alternative—Here's My Review (2025)

I swore off gel polish years ago after a particularly botched DIY removal job that resulted in the peeliest, flakiest, most brittle nails of my life. Ever since, I've tested just about every nail polish in existence, searching for the best long-lasting nail polishes. I'm talking glossy lacquers that are resistant to chipping and dulling, but come off easily with nothing more than a little nail polish remover and a few cotton rounds. My holy grails are Dazzle Dry and Essie Gel Couture (both are excellent and worth trying if you haven't already). Recently, though, I discovered a new, lesser-known option which has quickly become a favorite in my line-up: Chillhouse's Forever Wear.

Forever Wear is a regular nail polish, meaning it cures without an LED or UV nail lamp and comes off without any tedious soaking, filling, or buffing. It's a two-part system, consisting of color (Chill Paint) and a shiny top coat (Magic Finish) that's incredibly easy to use. You don't need a base coat. Just two coats of color followed by one quick layer of the top coat. Ten minutes later, your nails are completely dry.

My first experience with Forever Wear was at the Chillhouse flagship in NYC. They invited editors to get manicures and test out the new polish at their salon. At my appointment, I played it safe and opted for Rose Milk, a soft pink, which is honestly the most beautiful neutral. It reminds me of Ballet Slippers, just a bit more opaque, so I only needed two coats instead of three to mask the ridges on my nails. My nail tech did a flawless job, and my mani lasted a whopping 12 days before it started to show signs of wear, mainly around my cuticles and the tips of my nails. This is a personal record for me—with Essie's Gel Couture I usually get eight days of wear and with Dazzle Dry I get ten.

I tried my Forever Wear luck again, this time with a DIY manicure, and to my surprise, I got the same amount of chip-free wear time. I thought the polish was really easy to apply too—the brush head is the ideal size in that it's large enough to cover a lot of your nail plate at once, but not so large that it makes a mess on your cuticles.

One thing to keep in mind if you're DIYing with Forever Wear is that the Chill Paint color does not work without the Magic Finish top coat (per the brand, the top coat is what bonds the color to nails). That said, I did experiment with using Magic Finish over an OPI nail polish and it worked totally fine. So know that the top coat plays nice with others, the color does not.

Speaking of colors, I'm obsessed with the Forever Wear shade range too. There are 20 options in total, a mix of pastels, brights, neutrals, and eye-catching chromes. Inspired by the butter yellow nail trend, I recently tried Cool Colada (see pics below). I predict this shade will sell out as summer gets closer; it's honestly the perfect warm-weather nail polish color.

All in all, Chillhouse's Forever Wear nail polish is an excellent gel alternative if you're looking for a manicure that lasts, but don't have the patience for real gels and their annoying removal process. The color and top coat are $12 each, which is a great value considering your average salon mani costs nearly double that these days.