The Secret to Shiny, Long-lasting Nails

Do you like shiny nails? Do you like nails that dry fast and don’t chip the same day that you polish them? Do you refuse to baby your hands but still expect your nails to behave themselves? I do! And I think I’ve found the perfect method to get what I want.

You may have read my previous post on how Sally Hansen Mega Shine (SHMS) is my favorite top coat of all time, and how I love it because it dries fast, is SUPER SHINY (which is honestly my favorite feature) and keeps my nails looking great for a whole week. You may also have read my post comparing Seche and SHMS… Well, I have added Seche Vite to my nail repertoire because it makes my nails even better and more durable and also cuts my drying time down crazily.

How I use SHMS and Seche Vite:

• Paint your nails, don’t forget base coat and to wrap your tips.
• Apply Seche Vite whenever you need your polish to dry before a “next step” in whatever type of manicure you’re doing (ie: if you’re doing a scotch tape manicure, apply Seche over the coat that you are going to stick the tape to, it will cut your wait time waaayyyyyyy down).
• After your manicure is finished, apply Seche to help dry and set your nail polish (wrap those tips!).
• When your Seche is dry, apply a coat of SHMS (wrap the tips as well!) to add strength to your nails and provide a super-shiny layer on top of your polish.

Why go through all these steps and use TWO top coats:

• Dry time. Seche Vite is really unbeatable when it comes to drying time. By the time I finish both hands, the first hand is dry to the touch, and if I wait about another 30 seconds, it’s dry enough to apply a little pressure and it doesn’t even move. Haven’t we all, at some point, thought our nails were dry, only to rifle through our purse or something and get a dreaded crinkle or huge gouge in our nail polish? I used to HATE that when I went to the salon and got fake nails. I normally can fix a crinkle by wetting my finger (saliva, water or nail polish remover) and smoothing it out carefully, but a gouge… all you can do to fix that is use your nail polish remover to delete and repeat. 😦 Seche Vite is remarkable at not only drying the top of your polish but also hardening it to prevent previously mentioned catastrophes.
• Durability. Sally Hansen Mega Shine is super fast drying, but still not as fast as Seche. It is also very durable, but the Seche seems to really do an exceptionally good job keeping your nails from getting tip/edge wear. Edge wear is my arch nemesis of the nail polish world. I feel like once the edge goes, the whole nail is on the brink of disaster. Sally Hansen over Seche is like a dream come true for nail protection.
• Shine factor. Seche Vite is shiny, but SHMS is shinier! I am obsessed with shiny nails. So even though Seche is shiny, it dulls too quickly for me and doesn’t give that slick, almost wet-look to my nails like SHMS does.

Is it worth the trouble of using both products?

• Heck to the yeah, people! And it’s really no trouble, I promise! If you spend time to make your nails look nice, spend an extra 20 seconds and make them look fabulous! As I always say, a good top coat covers a multitude of sins. You can have the cheapest nail polish, not even apply it perfectly evenly, slap some Seche and SHMS over it and voila! fancy, beautiful, nails of envy. 🙂