Seche Vite

Ever since I got back into doing my nails I have been hearing rave reviews about Seche Vite, so when I saw it reduced to £5 on Urban Outfitters, along with free P&P this month on all orders, I knew it was time to try it out.  I ordered two bottles, figuring that at only £5 even if it wasn't as good as I'd been led to believe I would still get use out of it, I can't pass up a bargain!

 

 

It's sold as a fast dry top coat and gets great reviews for drying time, chip resistance and a lovely shiny finish so I was looking forward to trying it out.  I recently did a post on my favourite top coats and I do credit fast dry top coats with properly fuelling my nail varnish obsession, without them I wouldn't have the patience to wait for my nails to dry and would definitely paint them less.

 

My initial reaction to the polish was it's fairly strong, strange scent.  It's not horrendous but it's noticeable and quite different from regular polishes I have.  I applied one, relatively thick coat over newly painted nails. 

 

I was obviously a bit too keen to see how quickly it dried and managed to put a massive smudge in my polish when I check after about 30 seconds to see if it was touch dry yet.  I was slightly disappointed at that stage as I know that if I'd done the same to my No7 or Sally Hansen top coats there would have been a slight finger print mark at most but when touching the Seche Vite a huge blob of colour stuck to my finger and lifted right off.  However, I decided to persevere and I'm glad I did as the results got much better after a little while.

 

5 minutes later my nails were all touch dry, and not just touch dry but properly solid.  On top of that they were seriously shiny and smooth feeling, they really did look almost like gel polish.  I think my initial mistake was to assume the polish would be dry in 30 seconds or so, it's not, but it doesn't take too much longer. 

 

I think part of the reason for that is that Seche Vite apparently soaks through all the layers of your polish and then sets them hard rather than a regular top coat which just sets hard on top of the other layers.  I must have touched my nail just as the formula had soaked through all the layers which is why a tiny touch caused such a big hole.  On the plus side, I whacked on another layer of colour, another layer of Seche Vite and 5 minutes later it was good as new.

 

I've heard some reports online of shrinkage when using Seche Vite but so far I haven't noticed this.  A tip I picked up was to make sure you leave a little space all round the edges of your polish and to then cover that space with the Seche Vite, so if it does shrink at all it just pulls into the area where your polish is rather than shrinking the polished area (does that make any sense?!) meaning you can't see any shrinkage even if it's there.

 

I would definitely recommend this top coat from my initial use, it's fast drying, super shiny and seems to make my polish last really well.  I'd also recommend you don't test your nails to see if they're dry for a good 5 minutes after application, or you may end up making a hole like I did.  5 minutes isn't long to wait and it's definitely worth it for the finish!