opi top coat VS seche vite

Its official that Seche Vite is the most popular

freakin top coat out there at the moment.

Either you own it or want to own it. 

If you are into nail art that is...

But what about OPI ? 

The Start to Finish was my favorite for the longest time.

We dont have Seche Vite here but we do have OPI.

But, as soon as I bought some in NYC , I 

quickly abandoned my old OPI.

Why ?

Well, Seche Vite is a thinner formula - it dries the

polish thoroughly.It seals in the polish giving it a

glossy protected covering.

It does not dry polish as fast as people exaggerate

on youtube but it surely does set the polish 

amazingly well. 

Now, OPI top coats do not take that long to dry itself.

Much better than those cheap drug store ones.

Those take FOREVER to dry. I hate most of them ! 

But, OPI's do not really aid in the setting of the polish.

Mind you - Im talking about polishes other than OPI.

If you are using OPI Nail Polish and then a

OPI Top Coat there will be no problem

as OPI Nail Polish dries relatively fast anyway.

OPI Start to Finish is thicker than the Seche & actually

kind of 'reconstitutes' the polish in a way

(for lack of a better word) 

what the heck is the opposite of 'set'  ?   >.< 

Basically if your polish is dry to the touch and you

place OPI top coat over it it will become kind of wet again. 

If you touch something you may get smudges. 

But - this is also a plus. 

If you are doing nail art with rhinestones usually

you paint your nails, put on a top coat and then place

the stones on the wet tacky top coat.

But, seche vite is so thin and sets the polish so well 

that you dont have the time to carefully place your stones

one by one. It dries up - does not get tacky and doesnt allow

you to push the stone right down into the polish 

like you can when using an OPI top coat.

Side Note: 

I lovvve Sally Hansen Diamond Strength for a base coat

But I havent used a drug store top coat for years. 

Thats why Im comparing these 2 pricier 

ones if you were

wondering. 

I hope you get what I mean...haha.

Basically both are good for different reasons.

Overall I prefer Seche Vite but its crap for

applying rhinestones.

So, in the end I still need my OPI ! 

: )