Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My 2 cents on 2 top coats

So everyone in the nail polish world raves about Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  For anyone who doesn't already know, Seche Vite (pronounced sesh veet) literally translates from french to english as 'dry fast'.  The only place I've seen this available in Canada is at Sally Beauty and it sells for about $9 at regular price.



I picked a bottle for around $6 when it was on sale.  I was previously using an old L'Oreal Quick Dry that wasn't really all that quick.  So I've used the Seche Vite about 7-8 times now and pretty much had the same results every time.

1. This stuff reeks so bad my dog has to leave the room.

2. It goes on so thickly that I usually get little raised ridges of clear polish near my cuticles.

3. It does not extend the wear of my polish at all, in fact it shortens it because...

4. It peels!  Now before you all tell me I'm using it wrong, trust me, I'm not.  I've tried this over wet, semi-dry and fully dry polish.  I've tried thin and thicker layers and it peels every single time.  Now when I say that it peels, I mean the clear coat layer actually peels right off my coloured polish!  Never in my life have I seen anything like that!  It doesn't matter what basecoat or brands of polish I'm using underneath.  I get the same results every time and usually it starts after about 24 hours.

There are two positives to this top coat however - it dries fast and it's super glossy.  Due to the above points, the negatives outweigh the positives and this top coat is not worth my money or my time.  Oh and one last point on the Seche Vite...apparently from what I've read once you get halfway through your bottle it's too 'goopy' to use and so you NEED to buy their thinning product in order to finish the bottle!  To me that's absolutely ridiculous that you need to purchase another product in order to use it fully.  If this is such a common problem, then the company should either provide you with a bit of thinner when you purchase it or fix the formula to begin with.

But no worries, don't waste your money because I've found a better top coat.  It's N.Y.C. In A New York Minute Quick Dry Top Coat.  You can buy it at pretty much any pharmacy, Walmart, Zellers etc. for $2 or less.  In comparison to the Seche Vite it's not as 'glossy' but it definitely dries faster!  For 4x the price this one's an easy choice for me!  Sorry I couldn't find you a picture of it.  Honestly, I'm not even going to bother testing out Poshe or Out The Door etc. because none of the others could possibly compare at $2/bottle.

I suppose I should reiterate that this is only my humble opinion and I'm just a simple nail polish junkie who purchased all these products with her own hard earned cash.  I'm also a bargain hunter so I hate paying top dollar for products that you can get much cheaper that will work just as well.  And as for branding, well don't even get me started on that but I will guarantee that you will never ever see a Chanel polish on these hands!

Anyways, I couldn't stand the gold tips on the mani I did on the weekend, so I did a fresh one last night...my m32 series will continue tomorrow.

Later
P

1 comment:

  1. Aha, finally, someone else who finds the smell of Seche Vite awful! I was starting to think there was something wrong with me. I switched to the NYC one for a while, but then started using another which I love and which costs $6 for 2oz, is 1/4 the cost of SV, and still dries pretty quickly and is shiny. I'm glad you've found a topcoat that works for YOU!

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