Chip Prevention: Basecoat or Topcoat?

Chips. No, not Lay's. I'm talking chips in your manicure. Is there anything more unsightly? I can't stand when I see manicures on others in bright blue or fuschia and they're chipped all to hell. If you're wearing a nude or neutral color, lucky you - your chips are less noticeable to the rest of us, but I'm sure you notice and it drives you crazy.

Most brands have a nail treatment product that claims to help prevent chips, either in a base coat or top coat. Which is better to use? I have no idea. So we're going to do a wear test here at Polish & Tonic.

The Challenge: Wear a manicure for 5 WHOLE DAYS and see which mani chips the least - the mani with a chip preventing base coat, or the mani with the chip-hating top coat. Least chipped mani wins!

The Manicure:

For this manicure, I'm making my maiden voyage with a new brand - Butter London. Butter London is on the line between salon brand and designer brand polish (read: it never goes on sale at Ulta), and from the chatter I see on the interwebz I'm not sure that there really is a difference in quality between designer vs. salon brands. So I picked up my first bottle this weekend to try it out. The color is Butter London Macbeth, a bright pinky coral creme that I loved at first sight. I also borrowed some great advice from another blog, All Lacquered Up, and practiced wrapping my tips for this mani to help delay tip wear.

The Contenders:

On my left hand we have Orly Bonder base coat. Orly Bonder is a rubberized based coat that claims to grip your polish to your nails like a leech and hold on for dear life, giving you extended wear with your manicure.


On my right hand we have essie No Chips Ahead top coat. essie No Chips Ahead doesn't promise to adhere to stick to you like white on rice, but instead puts an armor around your fresh manicure and protect it from those things that would do your pretty nails harm - mainly dish detergent, keyboards, and cleaning supplies.

You didn't actually think there would be a visible difference to the naked eye, did you? Doh!

So who will win this battle? Stay tuned! I did this manicure Monday afternoon, so check back in over the weekend to see which coat is last nail standing. (Or Friday, in case I go crazy and can't handle looking at the same nail color for so long!)

Do you have a preference between basecoat and topcoat to prevent chips? Sound off in the comments!

Last Night's Nails: Orly Space Cadet - Matte-ified!

Drink of the Night: Ketel One Vodka & Soda
Nail of the Night: Orly Space Cadet & Essie Matte About You

Last night's plan was to stay in, relax, and catch up on TV season finales (a bittersweet entertainment, for certain). However, around 11pm I decided - coincidentally, around the time I ran out of wine - that I didn't want to stay in for the night, and so decided to head on over to my local watering hole. My nails were naked, though, so I needed to throw some polish on. Enter Orly Space Cadet!

I had seen swatches over the interwebz of Space Cadet, and was intrigued by the duochrome nature. For those who don't know, I would describe duochromes as polishes with 2 distinctive complementary colors. Based on lighting and angle, one color or the other will shine through. There really kinda cool, and FYI, when you're at a bar, make you look 'special' when you keep looking at your nails with a wide-eyed look. Space Cadet is a duochrome with contrasting green and purple colors, and also shimmery to boot. However, I also received in the mail yesterday my essie Matte About You, a top coat that instantly gives any polish, no matter how shiny, a matte (muted) finish. So I wondered - if I put Space Cadet and Matte About You together, what kinda manicure would I get?

Here's the answer:

Indoor lighting, no flash

Indoor lighting, with flash

This was not my favorite manicure; let's breakdown why. First, Space Cadet was a slight pain to apply - I guess I just have the fattest nail beds ever, because other than OPI, I feel like every manufacturer - Orly included - makes the smallest friggin' brushes and it takes me several strokes to get full coverage on one nail. For Space Cadet I applied 3 coats and still had VNL (visible nail line). You can especially see it in the first pic, where my nail tips show the blue/green color. I'm not sure if I'd ever wear Space Cadet a) in bright daylight or b) on a regular basis because VNL seriously bothers me.

However, the parts I did like about this manicure mainly had to do with Matte About You. Matte top coat is not forgiving and so you can see some streaking on my nails and that mangled middle finger because I was in a rush to apply the polish and get to the bar before closing time. I love matte finishes, and expect to go through this bottle of Matte About You quickly. I'll give Space Cadet a second chance to make a first impression in the future, but after this initial mani, it's definitely got some 'splaining to do.

What do you think? Did you pick up any of the duochromes from Orly's Cosmic FX Collection? Do you prefer your finishes matte or shiny? And just what were you drinking last night? Sound off in the comments below!

My Collection, or, This Obsession Is As Bad As I Think It Is

I love looking at pictures of other polish lover's collections! It's so comforting to know that I am not alone in my obsession. After going crazy this past weekend with my essie haul, I thought this is probably a good time to take pause and look at my collection to-date. So, here we go!

My OPI lovelies:




I'd like to say I love all of my children equally, but as any actual parent will tell you, that's so just a lie - this OPI collection gets my blood pumping more so than the others. None the less, there are still some jewels in here - essie, China Glaze, and Orly:




So many polishes, so little time! Either way, I'm putting myself on a diet - going to try to avoid buying any more polishes until June. Shouldn't be too hard, as I have plenty to keep myself busy!

Last Night's Nails: Orly Viridian Vinyl

Drink of the night: Arrogant Bastard Ale
Nail of the night: Orly Viridian Vinyl


I was out last night in Santa Monica celebrating my friends' birthdays, and really wanted a bright, NSFW (not safe for work!) polish to help celebrate the festivities. You know me - I'm all about keeping it conservative during the week, and busting out the fun and vibrant colors on the weekend! After browsing the options, I settled on Orly's Viridian Vinyl. VV is a part of the Orly Plastix Collection released last summer and has a satin finish.



I am in LOVE with this polish! The polish dried super fast and the color was really bright and vivid and stood out. I used the Orly Bonder as a base coat and had no noticeable chipping after 1 1/2 days; I think I could have gotten at least another 1-2 days of wear if I had wanted to. This is definitely a fave, and will be making an encore appearance in a manicure soon!