For this week’s manicure, I tried another new product, Essie Gel-setter top coat. I found this at Target and got a good deal on the top coat in a package with an Essie polish (about $15), but you can also buy it by itself (for about $9). It says you’ll get the effects of a gel manicure using this top coat with “any Essie polish.” (Does this translate to ANY nail polish? I’m assuming. I’m going to try it next week.)
So, the manicure:
It looks like a gel manicure. I’ll give them that. Very glossy and smooth. And they were dry pretty quickly after using the top coat. That’s a plus.
Did it last like a gel? No. I didn’t take daily chip pics this time, because I touched it up daily. Yes, it needed it. Daily.
And I’ll warn you. You do actually have to let the polish dry fairly well before using the top coat. And I suggest putting the top coat on thick. Very thick. And it’s thick anyway, so that’s kind of just what you have to do.
If your polish isn’t dry, it smears with the top coat. And it’s not like a normal top coat where this happening gradually turns your top coat colors. It actually “activates” the polish in the top coat bottle and does this:
Which is kind of cool. But I’m not sure the long-term viability of using it after this keeps happening.
In it’s favor, it looked nice and smooth by week’s end, despite all my touch ups. And by touching up, I made I actually last a full week.
All in all, I give it four sparkles on my totally made up five-sparkle rating scale.
