re.commend: Top coats

A little review of my selection of top coats for you today! 

Seche Vite ('sesh veet') is my top coat of choice if I'm rushing to get ready, or more likely, I'm painting my nails in front of the TV before bed. It is a gloopy-textured nail varnish that does as it says - dries quickly! It does also give a nice gel-like shine to the nails, but I'd say that if this is your primary goal that there are other cheaper top coats available that will give you a good shine (see below).  

Seche' on the other hand, is for speed. I recommend applying it onto nail varnish around 30 seconds-1 minute after you have applied it, so for me this works out that I will paint my nails on one hand, paint the others, then repeat with a second coat before applying Seche Vite over them. This is because it sets the nail varnish underneath - I've found that if I wait for 5 or more minutes and my varnish is too dry underneath, it becomes a bit brittle and will chip easily. 

I would also recommend applying fairly liberally. When you lift the brush out of the bottle there is a small globule of product formed on the end of it that usually we might wipe away back into the neck of the bottle before swiping it across the nail. Well, in this case I would just pop this bead onto the nail and smooth it gently over its entirety. This seems to seal in the nail varnish (and any nail art, coincidentally) for a good week on my nails with only a small amount of wear at the tips because I type so much at work. 

If 'shine' is what you want and you usually paint your nails with plenty of time to spare, you can look at some cheaper alternatives. I really like the Revlon top coat at the moment (I own this but forgot to take a picture!), along with the Collection (2000) top coat and the Miss Sporty Glossy Tech (see my odes to Miss Sporty nail varnish in other blog pages!). These three have excellent wide brushes that allow me to get a good thick coat brushed on in seconds.

Another top coat that I use frequently is this Essence nail art special effect topper in 'soft touch'. It's a matte-finish top coat (don't ask me how this chemistry works, it's magic as far as I'm concerned!). Applied over any other varnish it gives a lovely soft matte finish. It's particularly beautiful over black and darker colours, or over any accent nail as a sleek alternative to glitter or nail art. It's cheap too! I don't buy any matte-finish nail varnishes because I can transform them into matte myself. And if you don't like it, simply use one of the above glossy top coats over it again and voila!

Seche around £10 here, Collection around £3 here, Miss Sporty around £2 here, and the Revlon around £8 here! (There looks to be a Revlon quick-dry  one but I haven't tried this!)