31 July 2012

Nail Care Challenge #3 - Top Coats

Oh, I'm so late with this one...but I had to pack to come to my parents house for the month of August and I was left with no time to blog.


This week's theme is top coats. Being honest, I don't have that many, and for a long time I didn't wear any, but my nail polish would never dry and lots of times I would paint my nails in the morning and wake up the next day with some awful bed sheet marks.

These are the only top coats I have:


Claire's Top Coat - My first top coat. It is plain awful! It never fully dries and I would wake up every day with marks and dents on my nails.

Mavadry by Mavala - My second top coat and the first of the fast drying kind. It's really really good! My nails would dry in less than a minute and all my problems with bed sheet marks were gone. I used 2 bottles of it and the only downside on it is that it gets really tick and hard to apply once it gets around half full, and it's price... :S It would cost me about 13€ a bottle, which is a bit too much for my wallet.

Seche Vite - The holy grail of top coats, my favourite top coat ever, the best thing ever invented! xD Ok, seriously, I love this! It dries sooo fast, as soon as I finish applying it on my right hand, the left one is already completely dry, it gives my nails a tick and shiny look and, as Mavadry, it doesn't drag my nail art when I apply it. I get it for $4.25 a bottle (if my memory serves me right) on transdesign.com. Good thing about it is that as soon as it starts to get goopy and tick, you can add a few drops of Seche Restore (sold seperately) and you're good to go.

Kiko 3 in 1 Mat - My matte top coat of the moment. It's perfect! Works wonders on making your nail polish completely matte and it can be even used as a base coat for matte or pastel colours (makes application a bit easier and less streaky). I used to have Gosh matte top coat (mine is nowhere to be found, I have no idea of how I lost it), but it didn't work this good, it would only leave my nails with a rubbery look.

Purple Super Dry - This is a new one for me...I was looking for an alternative to Seche, wanted something a bit easier to get and cheaper if possible. This cost me 3€, it is available close to me, and it is fast drying! Sounds promising, no? Well, it did to me...until I tried it...It's not that it's bad, it really isn't, but comparing it to Seche, it just didn't measure up. :S I like that tick and shiny look that Seche gives my nails and this one is lacking on that department. It's thin, not so shiny and I had some dragging while trying it over some stamping.

That is it for now, sorry that I'm so late on this, but I really didn't have any time to do it earlier.

Don't forget to check all the other girls' posts. 

Tuli @ Prettifyournails 
Bárbara @ Betty Nails
Maggie @ Maggie Nails
Leticia @ omeubloggermiasol