Five Nail Related Products I'm Loving!

My last nail related review was destroyed by my internet, hence why you guys have probably never seen me talk about nail polish too much.  I wrote this awesome write up on Mayonnaise by Manglaze, but alas, it never saw the light of day.

Tonight, I am far too excited about something nail related to not post, so we are going to do that right now!

1. & 2.  Seche CLEAR & Seche VITE (around $9 each)

I was at CVS tonight because Courtney of Glamourpuss posted swatch photos of the Wet n Wild polished I'd been eyeballing (more on that later) and I caught a lovely little duo pack of these out of the corner of my eye.  The huge $8.99 sticker sold me on it before I even picked it up, because these each run for a little more than $9 individually.  I had heard a lot about Seche VITE; everyone seemed to claim it as a holy grail top coat.  As of tonight, I will never paint my nails again without these two (well, except for swatching).  The base coat dried quickly and applied clear and glossy.  I applied three coats of a glitter polish, and while it was still wet, topped it with Seche VITE.  It dried to the touch in about a minute, and was good to go shortly after.  It made the glitter sparkle like crazy and it smoothed the entire nail out, which will definitely make the polish stay on much, much longer.  I am a fan.  Furthermore, from what I can find online, Seche doesn't test on animals and is almost a completely vegan line (discluding their cuticle cream).

3.  Sephora Glass Nail File ($8.00)

I got mine in pink and I absolutely love it.  It feels fantastic to use, it's easy to clean (just run it under water) and it's going to last, essentially, until I drop it and break it like a clumsy oaf.  I debated getting it for the longest time because I typically get little cheap-y $1 emery boards, and this was pricey.  However, it's been a smart investment and both j0hn & I prefer this file to anything else we've owned.  It's from a company that doesn't support animal testing, and it's going to last much longer than what I'd consider "disposable" emery boards.  Seems like it'd be easy to disinfect with alcohol if you were worried about germs as well.

4.  Wet N Wild Color Icon Duochromatic Nail Polishes ($2.99)

I wanted to link you out to Wet N Wild's site to give more details about these, but as usual, their new products are not listed on the website yet.  This is always a little troubling because it makes it extremely difficult to show the products available, but also to know if they're vegan or not.  I am, however, obsessed with these duochromes and am very happy with Wet n Wild bringing some sort of duochrome to the table to go with the trend.  They apply easily, they're not necessarily thin, but without some sort of color base, I had to use three coats.  They did, however, dry easily so applying three coats took no time out all.  And they're just so dang pretty.

5.  Sephora by OPI Matte Top Coat ($9.50)

I recently had to test out top coats for a client who wanted to know which one was really the most matte.  It was an easy enough challenge, as my store only had two at the time (Sephora by OPI & one by Nails, INC).  Within the first few seconds of application, it seemed as though the Nails, INC top coat was the most matte, and I was a little disappointed.  However, about a minute later I looked down at my nails again and was surprised to see that the Sephora by OPI top coat had dried down to a much, much more matte finish than what we had initially seen.  I chased down the client and showed her the difference, and she was also pleasantly surprised.  Recently, I decided to top an Illamasqua polish with this, and between the two, the polish stayed on my nails longer than anything else I've ever worn.  I was very pleased with it's performance, both as a top coat, and as a matte top coat.  However, for the maximum matte-ness, I recommend touching up your top coat every couple of days.