Mavala Minute Quick Finish Top Coat / Review...

Last spring, some of you may remember, I purchased three Mavala nail polishes which can be seen, here. As an update, I've ended up wearing Paris a few times this summer and really have nothing negative to say about it. Each time it applied easily and lasted a good five days with hardly any tip wear. My guess is that not all colors are created equal hence the bad reputation Mavala seems to have in some circles.

I don't recal if it was a review or a comment made by Gio from Beautiful With Brains but I remember her mentioning a Mavala top coat as being pretty good. At $3.49 a bottle I figured why not give it a try as I did with the nail polishes?

Essie Fifth Avenue / Review

It's a beautiful red orange I didn't even know I had or I should say I can't remember when I purchased it. I admit, this is not the best picture but I'm doing the best I can, I swear! :)

Two coats with one coat of Sèche Vite

The application of the first coat went like a breeze. I waited about 20 minutes and for the second coat and to my surprise, it became streaky on a few nails. I know that with every brand, formula, depending on the shade can be hit or miss and with Essie I've been lucky so far. Still, when it streaks it's usually on the first coat. I guess 20 minutes wasn't enough drying time before going for the second coat. Shown here is two coats with a coat of Sèche Vite.

It lasted a good four days without any tip wear which I find pretty good. I should have removed it yesterday, the fifth day but toughed it out and did that today.

As you can see, it was about time! I rarely wait so long I swear. This is the kind of look I just can't stand, dull with tip wear.

So far I haven't been disappointed with any of the essie colors I've purchased. Good quality for a low price is always nice! This color didn't last quite as long and the streaking was a little annoying but that's when I compare it with the others I own. I've had worse results with more expensive nail polishes.

All in all, this one was kind of average but will not deter me from buying other essie colors.

O.P.I Hands Off My Kielbasa, My NOTW / Review

Here I go with nails!

A word of warning, this is not my forte! 

I unfortunately do not have a picture of my nails due to the fact that the weather was cold and cloudy last week when I wore it and nothing decent was possible. For swatches, google has plenty of this color which you can see here.

Hands Off My Kielbasa is part of O.P.I  Euro Centrale Collection for Spring Summer 2013. I purchased this color a few weeks back and made it part of one of my recent purchases post. It's light and peachy with a bit of bronzy shimmer. Too light and too peachy for me but even if this was not my kind of shade I must say the formula applied like a dream and 2 coats made it streakless. I may try it again this summer but with all the beautiful cream shades out there I doubt it. I just can't get used to shimmer, for now anyway.

How did it perform?

Excellent! I have nothing negative to say about the formula. Like stated above, two coats made it streakless and smooth looking. On top I applied one coat of Seche Vite™ for extra shine and protection. The result, a good six days of perfect looking nails. No chips, I did have a bit of tip wear, to be expected but since this is a medium shade, I could hardly notice.

OPI Euro Centrale Collection

Nail polish drawing made for Icaria's by City Lights Painted Girls who I will properly introduce soon.

Seche Vite™ Dry Fast Top Coat / Review

For years I didn't bother with top coats simply because I didn't wear colors on my finger nails. I always wore a clear or sheer nail polish to give my hands a clean look and that was it. These days my favorite color to wear is Essie Recessionista from their Fall 2012 collection, a dark red with prune undertones. It goes with everything and I just love the shade.

Although Essie's nail polish formula has good staying power, it does lose some of it's shine after a few days and this to me seems more obvious with dark colors. After the fiasco of Essie's no chips ahead chip free top coat, I was using Sally Hansen Mega Shine Top Coat which I already owned. This one did an honest job but I figured there must be something better out there. I was planning on trying another of Sally Hansen's offerings when I stumbled upon Seche Vite™ at one of my local drugstores. This one I had to try!

How does it perform? Beautifully!

I usually do my nails one evening, applying two coats of color and go for the top coat the following night. Somehow I was always afraid if I did all of it in one night, it wouldn't have time to dry hard enough to avoid ruining the finish during the night. With Seche Vite™ I decided to put it to the test and do it all in one night. I applied it over my two coats of Recessionista at about 10:00 p.m., went to bed at around 11:00 p.m. and woke up to perfect nails!

Durability and finish are quite good. My polish has chipped less than with Mega Shine and stayed shiny longer. I reapplied Seche Vite™ on the 4th day to give my nails an extra 3 days of shine. From Thursday night to Thursday night, my nails where good, in fact, I only had a little tip wear which is to be expected.

Would I recommend Seche Vite™? Yes!

If you don't want to have to redo your nails every 3 days or so, this will definitely help in protecting the finish. At under $13.00 for 14 ml (.5 fl oz) which is a little more than your average nail product, it's well worth it.

Seche now makes color nail polishes, I do hope they will be available soon. Given the quality of the fast drying top coat, I would think the colors would be pretty amazing!


Reviews:

Makeup Alley: 4 / 5 lippies for 1414 reviews.
Beauté-test: 4.2 / 5 stars for 64 reviews.


Picture from the companie's website.