For today's test I applied silver mirror chome powder over Dance Legend Glitter base in black as well as holo powder over Dance Legend Glitter base in black. I tested four different top coats.
- Seche Vite
- Aqua top coat
- Gel top coat
- Essence Gel look top coat
These top coats provided a good coverage across range of quick drying and slower drying, compared with water based and gel.
First, have a look at the photos and choose your favourite, because there is a very clear winner here in my opinion.
Ok, index finger has seche vite quick dry and it is the one that lost the most of it's mirror finish and went sparkly. The middle finger, which retained most of it's mirror finish is Born Pretty Store mirror top coat that comes with the mirror polish set. It is a water based polish that provided great results as a base coat for the BPS mirror polish, but dulled the BPS mirror polish when used as a top coat, as can be seen here. Other water based polishes like this that I know of are Picture Polish Revolution, FNUG Aqua base, Nfu Oh Aqua Base and Little Ondine Secret.
The ring finger is a gel top coat. I was a bit disappointed with this, it was still the second best one to retain it's mirror finish but no where near as good as the aqua top coat. Although, this could also have been because this was over the peel off glitter base, rather than over gel. Maybe the gel top coat would not have made any sparklies over a gel base?
Finally, the pinky finger has Essence gel look top coat. It went sparkly too, but not as base as Seche vite, but certainly enough to say that it no longer looked like a mirror finish.
Now onto the holos.
I'm pleased to say that the top coats made less difference over the holo powder. There was still a clear winner, but all top coats put in a good showing here.
Same story here, index was Seche Vite, middle was the BPS Mirror polish aqua base, ring was gel polish and pinky was Essence gel look top coat. The Essence retained the least holo finish and the aqua top coat retained the most, in fact I'd say the aqua top coat didn't effect it at all.
I also did do this single macro to show you the close up difference using Seche Vite. The left half of the nail has seche vite and the right half has no top coat. you can see the delineation mark if you look closely and you can tell the flame isn't as tight any more.
In other news, my holo powder from Daily Charme arrived in the mail today, which means I can do a holo comparison with various brands, including JOSS, Daily Charme and the holo powder from Spectraflair4U.
Still so sign of my Born Pretty Order. LOL.
See you next time on the Polish Chrome Wars.
I got my refund from BPS today so perhaps your powder isn't far behind. :) I'm curious about the wear of the aqua topcoat, but please don't do another test if you don't already have this information. I'm really looking forward to the powder comparisons!!
ReplyDeleteSo the BPS refunded you and you didn't get them at all? That really sucks. I'm emailing them at the moment about my order. Tracking on my package says it got to Australia last thursday, so it shouldn't be far away now. What annoys me is that it too 18 days for them to even ship my order - what happened to their 24 hour turn around.
DeleteThe aqua top coat wear is great, but mainly because once you have that aqua top coat on you can apply other normal top coats and they don't effect the finish at all. I've been wearing one of the holo powders on my nails with aqua top coat and then seche for the last 4 days and it's still going strong, but I'll change my nails shortly cause I'm bored with them.
Sorry for the slow response! Disqus failed to notify me that you replied. It was kinda my choice not to get anything. I didn't feel they deserved my business anymore after blowing off my order for a month. The problem is that they are selling items they don't have in stock and they have no process to handle backorders/customer notifications/partial shipments...I could go on. I did mention that they need a new header for their site because NOTHING. SHIPS. IN. 24HRS.
DeleteIt didn't even occur to me that you would/could apply another topcoat over the aqua. DUH! You did an amazing job with this series! I'm catching up on the final installments now.
is the holo a powder?
ReplyDeleteHi I have a question, I'm going to get chrome nails done over gel nails. My friend puts regular nail polish over her chrome nails then removes it when she's bored with a color and the chrome stays put underneath, is this possible? Can I do gel then chrome then use different nail polish covers over the chrome and remove the colors and have the chrome still look good?
ReplyDeleteSo is the middle finger aqua? Or is it born pretty?!
ReplyDeleteIlona, my guess is your friend uses uv gel polish over her chrome nails (it's the best over mirror powder anyway) and then paints whatever color she's feeling that day... idk why no one seems to know that you can put regular nail polish over (cured) uv gel polish, and also remove using 100% acetone... I like white gel nails, because neons and pastels look great over a white base. And if I get bored with a color, I just remove it and my smooth gel nails are still perfect underneath:)
ReplyDeleteCan I use OPI gel color pro health top coat, if so how do I use it? I'm clueless!
ReplyDelete