Move Over Seche Vite! Dior wins the Top Coat Crown

Brand new on left, the last drops on right (hence the pinkish tone from polish colour)

A fast drying topcoat is a must-have in my manicure arsenal and for quite a while Seche Vite was my go-to, but I think my SV days are well and truly behind me now since discovering Dior's Top Coat Abricot.

In the past I've had the old incarnation of this topcoat but Dior's manicure offerings have had a makeover since then so I was eager to try their revamped line. I purchased this last September from duty-free and I have just finished it now so it was well overdue a rave.

As with all Dior's polishes, this comes in an elegantly packaged bottle with the removable cap, and the same type of brush as the colour products. The consistency is medium so it glides over the nail well (almost feels a tiny bit gel like), smoothing any slight imperfections in the polish (which is handy if I've used a less-than perfect formula underneath).

It would get a little annoying when halfway through a bottle of Seche Vite the consistency would become gloopy but as the formula is forgiving I would still persist in using it until I really could not make it work which was usually when it came to the last 1/4. Having used a few fast dry topcoats it seems to be the norm for the formula to thicken up.

The Dior is no exception, but it doesn't get completely gloopy like Seche Vite so even though the formula did thicken up I was able to use up all of it where as with other brands I would throw them away when I still had 1/4 bottle left.

Pros:

Dries fast

Shiny finish

Slightly smooths finish of manicure

Prolongs manicure wear (I get much better wear with this than any other topcoat I've used)

Peeling minimal (depends on the polish but it seems the really thick formulas are more likely to peel. Peeling was an issue I had with SV).

Formula does not get gloopy

Cons:

Not super-duper shiny like Seche Vite

Expensive at £18 (although Escentual seem to stock it for considerably less)

I've already bought a replacement and a back-up for this from Escentual, so I think I'll be good on the topcoat front this year!

Ingredients:

Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Heptane, Nitrocellulose, Acrylates / Dimethicone Copolymer, Isopropyl Alcohol, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Benzophenone-3, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil.