Top Coats Vs Clear Coats

I started the draft for this post on feb 2, the same day I did the mani with the holographic glitter. I have six different top/clear coats. I’ve now tried them all and they are so different. Here’s a pic of the six I own, then I will tell you what I think of them.

First, the Sinful Colors Top Shine #903 and Clear Coat #1064. Nothing special about either one of these. They both go on thin, easily smear any nailart and have an average shine to them. They took many, many coats to smooth out the surface over a glitter polish and neither dries quickly. They cost $1.99 usd for a 15 mL bottle. If all you are wearing is a clear coat and have time to let them dry then these are ok but for anything else I suggest not bothering to spend money on them.

The NYC Extra Shiny Top Coat #271 I have talked about before. It has good shine and dries quickly, not as thin as water but not real thick either. It also takes several coats to smooth out the surface of glitter polish but not near as many as the Sinful Colors did. It cost $0.99 usd for a 13.3 mL bottle. The worst problem with this top coat is that it cracks after a few hours. If you have almost no money and need your mani to dry right now and only look good for say, 4-6 hours, then buy this. For a once a week mani this stuff is just no good as the cracks cause it to chip very quickly.

The Rimmel London 60 Seconds Clear #740 is one I use a lot. I have 5 bottles of this stuff. It’s a bit thicker than the NYC, dries quickly to a nice hard surface, has excellent shine, doesn’t smear my nailart and never needs more than 3 layers to smooth out my glitter polish. It costs $1.69 usd for a 8 mL bottle. I love the wide brush of this brand of polish, 3 swipes and the whole nail is covered. When I use this as my top coat my mani lasts up to 8 days without chipping. The only drawback to this one for me is the smaller bottle.

The Out The Door Top Coat for Nails was something I found at my local grocers. I’d never heard of this brand before. It goes on almost as thin as the Sinful Colors, doesn’t smear nailart and takes 3 coats to smooth out glitter polish. It cost $3.99 usd for a 15 mL bottle. For me this one is the worst of the lot as the label clearly states “super fast drying” and “dries in seconds”. I guess I define the word “dry” differently than they do. It does dry to the touch very quickly but it stayed soft for hours which meant my mani had dents in it. It never got super hard and my mani started to chip 3 days later. While it is way better than the Sinful Colors or the NYC, I will not be giving up my Rimmel for this one.

And lastly the Seche Vite. I put off buying this as it was $10 usd for a 14 mL bottle at wally world, then I found it at my local grocers for only $5.99 usd so I got some. Everyone I have come into contact with on the net loves this stuff and I can see why. It was really thick, went on easy, didn’t smear the nail art and only took one coat to provide a glass-like finish over glitter polish. It dried hard as a rock in just a couple of minutes and my mani never chipped the least little bit until day 9. Only 1 tiny chip even then so I could have patched and gone on if I wanted to. This is a great product and I will buy it again as long as I can get a decent price on it.

There was a lesson learned for me while testing the Out The Door and the Seche Vite. I used both of them at the same time to compare them, one on each hand. When I decided to clean my nails and do a new mani I made a nasty mistake. The seche Vite was so thick and I had no patience that morning so I decided to peel off the polish since it was thick. I used remover to clean one nail on each hand and yes it seemed to take forever to get it all off. Then I peeled off the polish from the remaining nails. They both peeled easily but omg my nails got damaged.

I have never had this happen to my nails before when I peeled off a really thick mani so I have to assume it was due to the top coats I used. They both evidently bond really, really well with the nails. There was no damage on the two nails that I used polish remover on. So my advice is if you use either of these products, take your time and remove the polish properly!! I am still waiting for the damaged nails to grow out. They are almost paper thin in places. It will be at least 2 more weeks before I can feel confident about painting my nails again. They really need to recover from this.

If I can find some pics of mani’s I have done in the past but not blogged about yet then I will post them, otherwise there will be no mani posts until my nails have fully recovered from my stupidity.

Have a happy!
TT