nails | the quickest way to dry your manicure

I feel like I spend an unholy amount of my evenings waiting for nail polish to dry; I decided to buy a selection of products to test out in the hope of finding a solution that works for me..

if you're painting your nails in a hurry don't be fooled into thinking one thick coat will do the job, it'll take even longer to dry through and even if it seems touch dry once you apply pressure it'll smudge so badly you'll have to start all over! paint 2-3 thin coats, each layer dries through much quicker and you'll find you have a much better manicure for it.

so here's some of the rapid dry topcoats and products I've tested:

elegant touch rapid dry spray 

simply spray onto your wet nails (approx 10cm away) and this will help to dry your polish quicker. It's not foolproof but it definitely seems to help speed up the process and at £3 is one of the most affordable sprays on the market. I'm happy to carry on using this!

sally hansen insta dry

this is simply a speed dry top coat to me. you can't really apply it over wet polish (well you can but it takes longer to dry throughout!) you have to wait at least 2 minutes for your base colour to dry and even then I found the polish underneath indented with pressure applied after the 30 second dry time. it does dry very quickly but as a top coat it doesn't seem to make my polish last for an extended amount of time, it's ok but I wouldn't repurchase!

opi rapid dry top coat

this is a nice top coat but you'll still have to wait for your mani to dry before you apply. it dries fairly quickly with good high gloss shine and a cool feeling on application, the only downside is if you don't have enough product on the brush it'll streak on application- gah! 

 seche vite 

quite simply my hero I've tried a lot of top coats but this is the only one that I can paint onto wet polish so it really cuts down on the wait time! this dries quickly and its finish is hard, shiny and chip resistant. I've found not only does this eradicate the dreaded smudges but it makes my polish last days longer.. hands down my favourite nail product ever. I've heard some negatives about seche- slight cracking after a few days and occasional 'shrinkage' but I've not had these problems myself. I do find that when you get towards the end of the bottle it becomes quite gloopy and harder to apply but this is my only gripe with an otherwise fantastic top coat.

nails inc: kensington caviar 45 second top coat

a good all round topcoat that leaves a wet look shine to your nails. I've used this a few times and although I like it it doesn't beat seche on keeping my nails chip free.

for me the combination of the elegant touch spray and seche vite are the most effective at drying my manicures. I haven't yet tried out any of the drops (like essie quick-e drying drops) so if you've experimented with them let me know how you got on!

have you used any of these before?

caroline x