Saturday 13 October 2012

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!



10 comments:

  1. i have been using seche vite for a while now...i thing it must be my 4 or 5 bottle :P
    i do love how fast it dryes and love the shine but it does not make my polish last any longer.

    http://whitebutterflydreamss.blogspot.pt/

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  2. Yeah its good right now, I loved it at first but after using 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottle it goes all gloopy and hard to work with. Yes you can use seché restore but for me it was more trouble that it was worth and the bottle is a pain to get to the end of the product with. Much prefer my Sally Hansen insta dri. :)

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    1. I'm hoping I can just use my regular thinner on it, I do that with Sally Hansen and No7 and they both take it fine so I'm hoping the Seche will be the same.

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    2. yeah should be fine. I think i had overly high hopes for this as it seems to be everyone's holy grail top coat. Still you got quite a bargain there :)

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  3. If you find you are using Seche Vite all the time you can pick up a salon sized refill bottle on ebay. I bought the equivalent of nine bottles for £22.50 - huge bargain.

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    1. Top tip! I'll look out for something like that if I decide to keep using it, thanks. x

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  4. So I just saw this and instantly brought if for that price its amazing I've wanted to try it for the longest time! Thanks for the heads up!

    Jazz x

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    1. Yay! I'm glad people are benefiting from the deal.

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  5. oh brill i was sent a bottle in a swap last year and i loved it but £10 a bottle was way out of my budget for a topcoat so i ordered 2 bottles many thanks for sharing :) :)

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    1. I'm loving it so far, and as you say it's a really good deal at the lower price!

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