Rant & Rave: Quick Drying Top Coats

Date: Monday, September 6th, 2010 Author:

This Week’s Topic: QUICK DRYING TOP COATS (for nails)!

Your Mission: Tell us what you love, hate, or are otherwise indifferent to about quick drying top coats and all that those entail.

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76 thoughts on “Rant & Rave: Quick Drying Top Coats

  1. Maria says:

    I’m going CRAZY! I really want to try Seche Vite, because of all the reviews i’m reading – but every place I go is sold out! Blargh!

    • lia says:

      aww! have you tried ordering online?

    • Cat says:

      I suggest you try Poshe first since you haven’t tried Seche Vite yet. IMO, it is better because it is big-three chemical Free (B3F). Like SV, it does get goopy, but you can refill it from a larger bottle or get some thinner and it will be good as new again.

      I am really surprised there isn’t more love for Poshe. It is amazing! It dries in just a couple minutes; I have even washed my hair only twenty minutes after doing a mani and it stayed glossy and perfect! It’s super shiny and I never get shrinkage.

    • Denise says:

      I was dying to buy seche vite,I got it, loved it for a few days…then started to realize it just shrinks the polish and it peels right off. Sad to say I do not like it anymore. Only good thing about it for me is it drys fast and I have twins who will be turning one in the next few days so I need fast drying. but i dont care much for the shrinkage :(

      By the way I’m in Canada and bought it at WINNERS for like $7 ish? or maybe $8?

      If anyone knows any other really quick drying top coats I’m dying to find one!
      xo

  2. Michelle says:

    Sally Hansen’s Insta Dry (comes in red bottle with white cap)
    I have purchased so many of these and have tried so many different others but always come back to this. It dries so quick and leaves a great finish to any nail color I am wearing!

  3. Wendy M. says:

    I love how quickly Seche Vite dries my nails but I hate how goopy it gets after a while. :\
    I know they sell that thinner… but too lazy for that. ^^;

    • Charlotte says:

      You should really get some, you can use it to thin regular polish too so you’ll never have to throw a polish away for being too thick!

  4. Kat says:

    I love them, but the I’ve yet to find a good one. Though I’ve heard great things about Seche Vite.

  5. Rachel says:

    I picked one up a couple months ago. I’m loving the lack of dents because usually I’m running around using my palms for everything for about a half hour until my polish dries completely enough to avoid dents.

    Unfortunately, it seems like when I use it, the tips of my nails seem to peel.

    • Etaoin says:

      Hey, I heard that you are meant to put seche vite on when your nail polish colour is wet to avoid this! Hope this helps!

      • Rachel says:

        Do you happen to know how wet? Like just barely applied wet? Or “sat for a minute and is now a little tacky” wet?

        Thanks though. I’ll have to try this.

        • Cherry says:

          I love Seche Vite. It’s best used like a minute after you’ve finished applying the nail color. The colored polish should be tacky not wet when applying the SV. If it’s too wet, the brush of the SV will just pull the polish all over the place.

  6. muffingrl says:

    love them! it is so awesome to be able to do your nails right before bed and not wake up to ugly sheet marks!
    seche vite is a lifesaver!

  7. Roxanne says:

    OH MY GOODNESS! I was just browsing the webs, looking for a good top coat. A blogpost sent from heaven!
    I’ve used SV & OPI Rapid Dry but they turn goopy after a while :(
    SV is great but it makes your n/p peel off which is a pain. OPI RD is also good (the brush makes it easier to work with) but it chipped lik crazy for me! Still on the hunt. Might try ChG’s next!

  8. Ashley says:

    Seche Vite is a life saver!! I love never getting imperfections!! No more pushing nail polish around or dings in it! And I can Konad on top of it almost right away!

  9. Labelle says:

    I got Seche Vite because of the good reviews, but it’s really not all that great. I really don’t like it because of the tip pull. I’ve been using Sally Hansen Insta Dry for months & I’m really loving it!

  10. Laura says:

    I love Poshe topcoat. It’s big 3 free. It’s shiny. The only downside is when you get to 1/2 a bottle it can get goopy and you need to add nail polish thinner. I love how fast it tries. But it will bubble if you try to use it when it is goopy.

  11. Pam says:

    i also got Seche Vite because of all the reviews. Been using it for a few months now… then one day, i read this on the container “This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm.” When i read this, i flipped out :( i really don’t know what to think of this and why it is only from the State of California (i’m from Canada)… not trying to scare anyone but this really freaked me out.

    • Maggie says:

      It’s because California has much, much more stringent criteria of what constitutes “dangerous chemicals”, and in what quantities they’re permitted in a product without a warning, than any other state. Seriously, don’t worry about it. That warning is on practically everything in California! Usually it’s because there’s a tiny possibility that there is a tiny tiny trace of some chemical that once made a rat have weird babies :P

    • Jenna says:

      Honestly don’t even worry! They have those signs everywhere in California. Airports.. restaurants.. seriously they are just so much more strict there.

  12. Kathy says:

    I would NOT be able to have polished toenails without Seche Vite! I can do my pedi in the evening and go right to bed and wake up with perfect polish! It leaves them so shiny and my pedi will last 2-3 weeks.

  13. Kim says:

    I used to have such the hardest time doing my nails because they would never dry. There were ones so bad that I could do it at 7pm one night, go to sleep at 11pm, but wake up at 6am with sheet marks! It would drive me crazy, until I read about Seche Vite and Lippman Addicted to Speed. They saved my life and I saved so much time and effort since I started using them.
    Lots of people love Seche Vite, but commonly occurring problem are:
    1. cannot be used as refresher top coat (all your nail polish will peel off)
    2. shrinks as it dries, must tip wrap (so you get shrinkage if you put on too think a layer and you get tip wear faster).

    Lippman Addicted to Speed is double or more the price of Seche Vite, but it doesn’t have these problems. It also dries *slightly* faster and lasts longer on me, I’m willing to spend the extra money for it. However, most people are happy with the much much cheaper Seche Vite.

  14. Jennifer says:

    Seche Vite is great on drying, horrible on wear. It shrinks my nail color. I’d rather spend a couple of hours a week using a good topcoat that LASTS, than to have it dry quickly but last not two days. I’m going to try other fast drying topcoats.

  15. Andie says:

    I would never have the time nor patience to do my nails as often as I do if it weren’t for quick dry top coats. Seche Vite is my favorite quick dry, I can do my nails and go to bed 20 minutes after without worrying about sheet marks or I can go to my computer and not have to worry about my cats jumping up my lap and ruining my mani with cat hair. The only downsides with Seche Vite is that it gets thick after a while and you have to thin it with crazy amounts of nail polish thinner to make it good again, and the NP wont last that long without chipping.

    China Glaze Fast Forward is also a really good quick drying top coat, actually even faster drying than Seche Vite (I’ve accidently slammed my nails into something like 3-5 minutes after putting the top coat on without any marks on my nails), but the horrid smell is a huge minus and it can be a bit unpredictable since it wrinkles some polishes.

  16. Marian says:

    I love Seche Vite! It’s changed my life! It really is incredible.

  17. Rosamaria says:

    Seche Vite is my HG top coat!

  18. Anitacska says:

    Love ‘em! I’ve recently discovered Seche Vite and love it. My nail polish dries so quickly! Before then I used to mess it up after painting my nails every time. :(

  19. MarionneB says:

    I’ve used Seche Vite, but as mentioned in other comments it turns goopy really fast. I live in Holland so I always had to buy online, with the shipping costs not so cheep!!! I’ve also used the Seche restore, but I must say the price then is quiet high for a topcoat, even if it is still considered the holy grail of topcoats….

    Since I discovered INM Out the door topcoat at my local beautician, I’m in love with this last one. I’ve compared the drying time of these two and must say that I haven’t noticed any difference between them, maybe the Out the Door dries a itsybitsy slower, but it’s a must be a mather of seconds. Whitin 10 minutes my nails are dry and hard nails. And OTD never gets goopy, even when I have to almost turn the bottle upside down for the last drops!!!! The shine is definitely more brilliant with the OTD, even days after application, whereas I found the SV to get somewhat dull after a few days but I don’t know if others have experienced that. The most remarkable difference between the two is the lack of shrinkage in the OTD. I’ve had lot of nailpolishes with shrinkage with the SV in the past, but since I started using OTD no more shrinkage YEAH!!! Oh… and the last bigbigbig advantage from OTD above SV is the sice of their bottle. Here in Holland it’s available in 15ml bottles but in 75 ml bottles as well, yes 75 ml!!! If i can think of any negative points of the OTD then it must be the durability… when i’m only wearing the nailpolish one day old and I have to remove it for some reason, my nailpolish is still really strong, and takes some effort to remove, but well… is it a real disadvantage? For those days I will try the Sally Hansen speed dry drops in the future, but there sold out here all the time!!!
    Sorry for the lenght of my comment, but I’m a real topcoat junky ;-)

    • Roxanne says:

      No goopiness? Is it possible? I’ve heard a lot about INM & I hope this is true! Thank you so much for your cmt!

    • Heather says:

      I am with you on INM Out the Door! It dries my polish super quick, keeps nails looking great for at least a week, and doesn’t get goopy at all!

  20. Kacey says:

    I love and live by Poshe super fast-drying topcoat. It does what it says it will and it’s very very shiny. I shudder to remember the days of manis without quick-dry tcs! I’d go to bed with a perfect mani, only to wake up with scratches and marks…*sniffle* I do like to layer Poshe over a non-quick-dry tc sometimes, for extra strength and longer wear.

  21. Margot says:

    The only one I have tried (so far) is the OPI one and it made my polish peel away after a day (sometimes even less !) did the same thing with my sister’s nails. So frankly, I’m not impressed with this one. I wouldn’t mind trying Seche Vite to make my own opinion of the product.
    I do like the concept ! I’m a very impatient person by nature and really like my nails to be done in no time hahah

  22. Eliane says:

    I absolutly hate Seche Vite. It turns so goopy and even with the restore it doesn’t come back to what it was. It also make my nail polish peels very quickly.

    I’ve also tried the Sally Hansen’s one and I’m not really impress. Plus the compagny does animal testing which is a big NO for me!

    So I’m curently using the OPI Drying Drops. It does dry my nails but there’s no shine…I might get another regular topcoat.

  23. Karen says:

    I have tried both Seche Vite (found at CVS and Sally) and Poshe (found at CVS) and I have much better results with Poshe. However both are great.

  24. Katy says:

    Been using the topcoat found in this post
    http://theedgeofsanity.org/?p=2654

    and let me tell you- it is amazing!

  25. Brittni R says:

    Seche Vite is by far my favorite top coat. It dries very fast to a hard finish. A lot of girls say theirs gets thick and gloopy, and this is very true, but girls please keep in mind it can be easily fixed by adding 5-10 drops of nail polish thinner before every other application. :)
    I dislike ‘fast dry’ top coats that take forever to dry. About the only top coat I’ve ever used that dried rapidly was Seche Vite.

  26. em says:

    Barielle! I’ve tried Seche, Poshe, OPI…Barielle is way better than any of these.

  27. CeeBee says:

    I like OPI Drip Dry drops (though they are ridiculously expensive here in NZ) and Sally Hansen Intsa-Dri in the red bottle is half the price and just as good. I do get tip wear and chips after a day or two (though my nails do get a bashing) so I usually put a layer of Orly top coat on first, then do the Insta-Dri top coat. It works for me!

  28. Pam says:

    Love, love, love Posche…works the best for me.

  29. Jess says:

    No ranting from me…I love love love Seche Vite – it makes life so much easier and I also change nail colours a lot more often thanks to it. I have my current bottle for 2 months now and no goopiness yet …

  30. Nicole says:

    Everyone seems to swear by Seche Vite, but I don’t know if it can be found in drug stores in Canada. I wouldn’t bother ordering it online, just for a top coat. Right now I am using Essie’s “To Dy For” top coat, and it has worked perfectly so far. My polish has been lasting a week without chipping! :D

  31. Ula says:

    I love quick dry top coats, but they need to harden the nail polish perfectly. Because I really hate when my polish after hours is still kind of soft.
    My favourite top coats are Seche Vite and Essie Good To Go. ;)

    • Ruth says:

      I agree about Essie Good to Go. I only have a mini size bottle, but it’s lasted me 3 months so far, re-doing my nails every 2-3 days or so, and I have more than half the bottle left! :)

  32. Mary says:

    Nubar Diamont Seal & Shine is my favourite because it dries polishes fast, I don’t get any shrinkage, and it makes my manicures last so long. Plus it doesn’t get goopey as fast as Seche Vite.

    • Kira says:

      This and CND “Air Dry” are my HG quick dries. A 3-free thinner works well when these finally begin to goop. Air Dry tend to last longer (up to 7 days) while Nubar tends to dry quickest on me.

  33. Janet says:

    I hate how they get all thick and goopy after a while… I prefer a nail polish that’s too thin rather than all thick…

  34. Amy says:

    I truely love INM Out the Door top coat. I used to have to choose if I wanted to paint my nails or actualy get some sleep. The only reason I use Seche Vite at all is because it is far better on top of glitter polishes then even my beloved Out the Door. It’s slightly thicker formula makes for a smoother suface.

  35. jess says:

    ORLY WON’T CHIP TOP COAT,
    it’s amazing.

  36. Torrie says:

    I’ve tried a few…Oh So Wet!, Seche Vite, Poshe and Out the Door. Seche Vite was my first love but can get goopy towards the end of the bottle, but I keep thinner on hand just in case. Oh So Wet! bubbled like crazy no matter what and Out the Door didn’t seem to dry as fast as I’d like. Poshe seems to be a winner so far…so I’ll stick with that or SV. Quick drying top coats saved my life!!! Wouldn’t be a nail diva without them :)

  37. Tiffany says:

    My favorite top coat that is also fast drying. Is Seche Vite. You can get anywhere nail poilsh are sold. I get mine from Walgreens and/or CVS. It has to be the best one, I have never tired.

  38. Jenna says:

    Definitely Seche Vite.. once is gets a little thick i just add a little bit of polish remover.
    I’m sure there are better out there but I am a creature of habit =)

  39. Hilana says:

    Sally Hansen. Works like a charm.

    • MAChostage says:

      I agree, if you’re talking about Sally Hansen Mega Shine Top Coat! Love the quickness of the dry, the shine, and my mani lasts.

  40. Currently, I’m using Poshe’s Fast Drying top coat, and I love it.

  41. Thincspot says:

    I never could understand what and extra coat of polish would do to help my nails dry faster or make them last. After years of ruining manicure after manicure and spending money on so many colors just to be afraid to put them on, I took the plunge and bought a fast drying top coat. I’m happy to say that I’ve “graduated” from Sally Hanson to OPI but I’m currently loving Essie. Who knew more layers meant shorter wait time to use freshly manicured fingers?

  42. Ashley says:

    Seche Vite Fast Drying or Out the Door Fast Drying

  43. Robyn says:

    I love Poshé Fast Drying Top Coat. It’s the best I’ve tried!