Thursday, April 27, 2017

Review: Seche Vive

Last year Seche came out with a new top coat: Seche Vive. It's considered a gel-like top coat but no light needed. I've been trying it out over the past year and have a few thoughts to share on it.

Seche Vive Top Coat

I've been using it over regular polish, thermals, holographic polishes, and stamping to see how it performs. Here's a photo of a manicure I just did using China Glaze Fresh Prince-ss as the base, Bow Thermo Top Coat Red over that, and then Powder Perfect Hathor over that on the accent nail. I really like how the red tip still shows through a bit on the accent nail making it look almost like a gradient. I finished the manicure with Seche Vive as the top coat.

You can see a previous manicure with stamping here.

On stamping, this top coat does NOT smear! It's awesome. I'd say the polish feels thicker than normal Seche Vite (which I also love, but can smear stamping easily if you don't float the top coat). The polish spreads like butter, goes on so smoothly on the nail and dries just like Seche Vite with that wonderful glassy finish. Over the cremes it also performs wonderfully.

Something I know a lot of people worry about is how a top coat will work over a holographic polish. The stamping manicure linked above also has a holographic polish and the Powder Perfect in this look has those very sparkly microglitters in it. The top coat did not dull these finishes. It also did not mess up the Bow thermal top coat. In the Bow polish, there are holographic super-micro-tiny particles and those shine right through.

Overall, I am very impressed with this top coat. It performs wonderfully and has all the best things I like about Seche Vite in it. The one thing I don't necessarily like is that it isn't in a clear bottle. I like seeing how much I have left and obviously it's hard to be able to tell the fill line in this bottle. But, I guess if that's the worst it has then I can live with that!

Have you tried this top coat? What do you think?

16 comments:

  1. Okay. I adore Seche Vite. It's my HG topcoat of life and leige. This version sounds amazing and I have to try it.

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  2. Okay. So I had to run to Amazon and order it.

    Evil enabler.

    *grumble lol

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    1. You're gonna love it if you like Seche Vite already!

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  3. Does it dry quickly? Can you apply it over wet nails? Does it make manicures last longer than Seche Vite?

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    1. It dries quickly, seems to be the same as Seche Vite does for me. I applied it over my wet nails for this manicure that I show at the top of the post and it worked fine.
      The stamping manicure I linked to I applied it over a dry manicure.

      I have manicures that last a really long time on me (we're talking like 3 weeks or more) so I don't know how it would work with everyone else's nails on wear time.

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  4. I've never used Seche Vite before, but I would be curious to know all of the things Jen asked about.

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  5. Does it get thick and gloopy like Vite does?

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    1. I've not had that problem with Seche Vite and didn't with this either. But it might be because of the rate at which I go through bottles?
      I've had this bottle for at least 6 months because I'm always trying out different combinations and it stayed the same consistency the whole way through it.

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  6. I've heard conflicting reports on this. One day I'll try it.

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  7. A non-smearing topcoat? I need! I'm so sick of my painstakingly-done stamping smudging as soon as I apply topcoat.

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  8. Great review. Wedge Vite has been my go-to topper for years and I may give this a try.

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  9. This sounds really interesting! Does it shrink at all?

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  10. I hadn't heard of this!! A new Seche!! How have you been?

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  11. I've seen it but haven't tried it..my Wal-Mart just started carrying seche vite and I saw the gel like top coat there. I love seche vite! It's my go to top coat.

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  12. I've seen it but haven't tried it..my Wal-Mart just started carrying seche vite and I saw the gel like top coat there. I love seche vite! It's my go to top coat.

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