Best nail products on the market: (1) Seche Vite, (2) Orly Rubberized Bonder, (3) Formula X: The System, (4) Essie Good to Go, (5) Pink Armor Nail Gel, (6) YSL, (7) Estée Lauder, (8) Dior, (9) OPI, (10) Essie, (11) Zoya.
Hi everyone, my friend and nail-expert Eila Shargh is back in Part 2 of this guest series to talk about the best nail products on the market, from polishes with the best formula to top coats that will give your manicure serious chip-free lasting power. She’s tried almost everything on the market (she owns over 200 bottles of nail polish!) so she knows what she’s talking about. I love gel nails but after getting them for a couple of months my nails became thin and weak, so I’m back to regular polish and I’m following all of Eila’s suggestions. I purchased the Formula X: The System per Eila’s recommendation below, and I can honestly say I’ve never had an at-home manicure that looked so professional. I was very impressed with the staying power. This girl knows her nail products! Read Part 1 for DIY manicure application tips and tricks. If you have any questions for Eila, ask in the comments below!
Best Clear Coat
Pink Armor Nail Gel. I know. I know. An “As Seen on TV” product? WHUT!? I promise, it works! This is a really thin clear coat that makes the whites of your nails white and the pink so bright that it almost glows blue. You add a coat to your nails every day for about 4 – 5 days before removing it and starting the process all over again. If you have thin nails like me, this works wonders to help them stay thick enough to grow long. Also, people will ask if you got a french manicure done and you can just stick your hand out like everyones favorite sassy emoji.
Best Brush
YSL, Dior and OPI – I’ve found that a flat brush with rounded edges makes for the easiest applications. If you don’t have surgeon hands and tend to get a little paint on your cuticles or skin, these are the best brushes to work with.
Best Formula
YSL, OPI and Estée Lauder – These tend to last the longest for me. Note that, even in the same brand, the formula for one color is totally different than the formula in another. These brands tend to be the most consistent in terms of an easy to apply formula, long lasting wear and shine.
Best Color Selection
Essie, Zoya and OPI – The people who name nail polish have the best jobs ever. They have such fun names! I guess at some point these companies had to get creative because they have every shade of ever color with every kind of sparkle and glitter known to man. They’re like the giant box of Crayola crayons you probably wished you had in elementary school.
Best Top Coat and Base Coat
Formula X. Formula X: The System is probably the best combination I’ve ever tried. It’s the closest to a shellac manicure you can get without a UV light. Their color formula works amazingly well too but you can use this system with any polish. On average, these last about a week for me. I usually add a touch up coat around day 4 to extend my manicure to about a week and a half. Just know that, because this formula has some serious staying power, peeling your polish off will cause some serious damage to your nails (take it from someone who clearly has not learned her lesson enough times).
Other base coats I like: Orly Rubberized Bonder – This base coat does a good job of creating a sticky layer between your nail and polish. After applying, you can even feel a slight tacky feeling after it’s dried. It also helps minimize the staining from really deep reds and dark blues.
Other top coats I like: Essie Good to Go and Seche Vite – The Essie top coat dries super fast and doesn’t get as goupy as the Seche Vite top coat. The Seche Vite has some serious staying power but like I just mentioned, it has a reputation for thickening and becoming goupy really fast. They do sell a thinner that you can drop into your top coat to minimize the goup, but I’ve found that to change the formula a little more than I’d like.
What are you favorite nail products? Do you have any great tips you’ve learned over the years? Please share in the comments below!
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