But I'm here, sharing my review on Glisten and Glow's HK Girl Fast Drying and Super Shiny Clear Top Coat!
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| (One coat Essie Grow Faster, one coat nicole by OPI in I Do De-Claire, one coat ILNP MEGA, and one coat HK Girl) |
I received this from Glisten and Glow to review, and I'm so in love.
My first thoughts was excitement. I had been using Seche Vite for a couple months now, and really, the only reason I use it is because it was ten bucks, and it's fast drying. I have noticed shrinkage and thickness in the SV, and it's been driving me a bit nuts. I've heard great things about this top coat, so I was super excited to try this.
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| My St. Patrick's Day mani |
For my St. Patrick's Day mani, I used HK Girl on all my fingers on my left hand, but on my right hand, I used it only on my first finger and my ring finger. I used Seche Vite on my middle and pinkie. Within two days, my middle had chips and my pinkie experienced shrinkage. Nothing wrong on my first and ring fingers though, not for five days! My left hand's mani actually lasted 8 days total with very minimal chipping! I truly wish I had remembered to take pictures, because that was crazy. I'm right handed, and my first finger is the one I use most. But HK Girl Top Coat is so fabulous it didn't matter.
Oh. Em. Gee. The loveliness of this top coat knows no bounds. First off, you can use this top coat with tacky or dry polish with no problems, and the amount needed is so much less than what Seche Vite needs. Comparing the two, it seemed HK Girl took a little longer than SV to dry to the touch, but dried fully sooner than SV.
I also like the way the brush in HK Girl handles. The brush on Seche Vite is very thin, and while the bristles might be longer, that's pointless in a top coat like SV, because directions say to use the tip of the brush to best do your mani. The bristles on HK Girl are shorter, and also wider, which I love, because it makes it so much easier to distribute the top coat. Plus you can use the whole brush in the mani.
I swear I'm finding it harder and harder to use up my SV. It's not even halfway through and should not be as thick as it already is. This HK Girl is too good for me to go back to SV. Mayhaps I'll just use the Seche Vite on my toes and keep this HK Girl for my fingers. :)
I went ahead and tried to find a bunch of different types of polishes to try this fabulous top coat over. I have the pictures and a list of all the polishes I used. I also only covered half the nail with the top coat, so you can see the difference the HK Girl makes.
Left hand:
Thumb - Darling Diva Polish in Ringer
First finger - China Glaze Texture in There's Snow One Like You
Middle - Sinful Colors in Nirvana
Ring Finger - Mariah Carey OPI Liquid Sand Nail in The Impossible
Pinky - Essie in Penny Talk
Right hand:
Thumb - Modern Family Nicole by OPI in I Do De-Claire!
First finger - Sinful Colors in Irish Green
Middle - Lacquered Bliss Polish in Deck Your Holos
Ring Finger - Wet n Wild ColorIcon in Frosted Over
Pinky - ORLY in Voyeuristic Adventure
Please excuse the awful cuticles in some of these photos - when I get stressed, (or bored) I take it out on them. The close ups below feature each nail in sun and/or clouds.
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| There's Snow One Like You in sunlight, top coat covers right side |
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| There's Snow One Like You with clouds, top coat covers right side |
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| Nirvana in sunlight, top coat covers right side |
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| Nirvana with clouds, top coat covers right side |
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| The Impossible in sunlight, top coat covers right side |
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| The Impossible with clouds, top coat covers right side |
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| Ringer with clouds, top coat covers leftt side |
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| Irish Green in sunlight, top coat covers left side |
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| Irish Green with clouds, top coat covers right side |
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| Deck Your Holos with clouds, top coat covers left side |
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| Deck Your Holos with clouds, top coat covers right side |
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| Frosted Over in sun, top coat covers left side |
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| Frosted Over with clouds, top coat covers left side |
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| I Do De-Claire with clouds, top coat covers top/right side |
You can see that for some of the polish finishes, the top coat didn't make too much of a difference.
And now for what you may not be able to see in the pictures.
I adore how smooth and bright the top coat made Frosted Over and The Impossible, (ring fingers on both hands) for Frosted Over, it seemed like the duo chrome actually intensified to where it was almost like I had matte-ified the other half. They looked like two different polishes! It was the same with The Impossible, but that polish is a liquid sand, and is partially matte. I like the texture of The Impossible, but I love how it looks with this top coat over it. It looked so vibrant!
For Deck Your Holos, I noticed that the scattered holo in it was easier to catch in light with the top coat over it than not. Same with the duo chrome in Ringer.
For the polishes like Penny Talk, Voyeuristic Adventues, and I Do De-Claire, it didn't seem to make too much of a difference, although, naturally, I ended up with chipping happening on the unprotected areas.
On Nirvana, there's not much of a difference, although there should have been. (not the top coat's fault) Sinful Colors labled this polish as "matte" and you can flipping see in the picture that it is not matte. I hadn't used it until this mani, so I guess - yet again - I am disappointed in Sinful Colors. Ah well.
On There's Snow One Like You, you can see how it seems to mute the randomness of the texture, mostly because the texture is such a mix of matte and shiny and glitter and whatnot, that a top coat just takes away from it. So I suppose a super shiny coat isn't always best on everything. lol.
Irish Green acts like a matte jelly, so adding HK Girl made it super shiny and lovely-ful.
Overall, this is my new absolute fave top coat. It is equal parts amazing and magical. I am so very glad to have had the opportunity to review it! I'm hoping to pick up the Glisten and Glow Nail and Cuticle Balm sometime in the future too. I hear it's fabulous!
Ways to check out Glisten and Glow HK Girl:
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