Nail Care Series: Base Coats

Hello lovelies! Today I'm continuing with my nail care series and today I'll be talking about base coats.

When I first got into polish I thought the concept of using a base coat was ridiculous. I thought it was just a gimmick and that I didn't really need one. But now I know that that is NOT true and a base coat does make a difference to your manicure!

Some benefits of using a base coat are:

♥ They can prevent staining of your nails from various polish colours (usually reds or blue/greens). Some base coats are better at this than others.

♥ Provides a smooth surface for your coloured polish to adhere to. It can help with polishes that show every imperfection (ridges etc) in your nail to give a smooth and flawless surface.

♥ Some base coats are also treatments to help with nail problems such as weak, peeling, brittle nails.

♥ Base coats will prolong the life of your manicure and make it last longer.

Here are a few of my favourites, and popular base coats:

Duri Rejuvacote

Rejuvacote has become very popular among nail girls so you may have heard of it. It is my holy grail nail strengthener! I wish I had this when I had first removed my acrylic nails almost 1.5 years ago because most ladies who have tried this after removing acrylics have AMAZING results pretty fast, and I waited months and months for my damaged nails to grow out! Rejuvacote is marketed as a nail growth system for damaged nails but even if your nails aren't particularly "damaged", you should still give it a go if you're having trouble with your nails not growing fast. My nails started growing like weeds when I started using this! And my nails became so strong. I don't use it under every manicure now since my nails are quite strong and I don't need it as much but I do use it maybe once or twice a week. I always wear it when I'm wearing my nails naked too (so technically I never wear them naked lol).

I purchase my Rejuvacote from eBay. Aussie ladies, you can also purchase this at Messy Mansion and Drama Queen Nails.

Revlon ColorStay

Revlon's ColorStay base coat is probably my favourite 'regular' base coat. I bought this when it was 50% off at Chemist Warehouse and I probably would never have tried it otherwise, it's so expensive here (what isn't?!). The ColorStay base coat is really awesome. It dries really quickly which is a major factor for me - I hate when base coats take too long to dry!

When I've done other people's nails with this base coat (and Seche Vite top coat), the manicure has lasted over a week with NO sign of wear. CRAZY right?! :D

It does go very goopy after using about half of it, however, so you'll need some thinner for this one.

CND Stickey

CND's Stickey (yes that's how they spell it) is another good base coat. I haven't used it for at least 6 months so I don't exactly remember how it was.. I do remember that it dried very quickly, but it dries to a 'sticky' finish (hence the name), for your polish to adhere to which is a cool idea. I would repurchase this one when I run out of my other base coats. :)

I bought this from a beauty supply store in Sydney when I was on a holiday but you can find it on eBay.

OPI Nail Envy

Nail Envy by OPI is a very popular nail strengthener. I had two mini bottles of it and did find it really nice! They have a lot of different formulas of the Nail Envy, such as ones for brittle, weak, peeling nails etc. They also have a matte formula so you can wear that if you want to look like you're not wearing any polish (or maybe you can't, for school/work) but want to protect your nails.

Nail Envy is a bit expensive here unfortunately (as everything is - ugh!) so I probably won't be trying it again any time soon. If I did, I'd be buying it on eBay, lol.

PVA Glue

PVA glue is my current favourite base coat. You might be thinking what the heck.. is she a freak or something... (ok, you were probably already thinking that I'm a freak LOL) but do you remember in primary school when you'd put PVA glue (or Elmers glue in some places) on your hands and then peel it off when it dried..? Just me? Lol! Well, when Essence released their peel off base coat in the Ready for Boarding TE, some clever ladies figured out that the peel off base coat was actually just PVA glue disguised. ;) You can read more about that HERE on LabMuffin and HERE on PrettyPurplePolish.

I mostly use it under glitter manicures, but I found out that it actually works nicely under cremes too.

***Please keep in mind that I usually only wear my manicures for 24 hours, so I can't really vouch for the staying power of most base coats.***

Hope this helps any of you who may be looking for a new base coat or strengthener to protect your lovely nails! :)

Remember: base coats aren't optional. ;)

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