Love it or leave
it: Pretty Nails in a Flash
When it comes to looking polished, not all products
are created equally. Putting aside all debates
about nail polishes and how “green” their
ingredients are, we tested several dozen quick dry polishes
to see how they measured up. Here’s the
tale of the talon…
 Love
it! China Glaze’s Fast Forward Top
Coat was a favorite, quickly drying to a glossy
shine that protected the color underneath. While some
of the fast drying top coats we tested insisted that
all layers of polish be fully dried before applying
(what’s quick about that?), Fast Forward Top
Coat penetrated all layers of lacquer to dry nails
in about a minute. Get it for $5 at Sally
Beauty Supply stores.
Leave it. The Out
the Door Top Coat For Nails bottle claims that
the product inside “Dries in seconds.”
And while that could mean almost anything -- we suppose
seconds do add up to minutes – we assumed that
meant it would dry very fast, say a minute or less.
The product in fact ran long in drying time, about five
minutes, and short on quality, chipping quickly.
 Love
it! The Dazzle Dry System
from VB Cosmetics promises to air dry “amazingly
fast” and we truly were amazed at how quickly
and thoroughly these polishes dried to a firm, high-gloss
finish. It bears mentioning that the top
coat also happens to be free of formaldehyde, toluene
and other nasty chemicals and features oh-so-summer
friendly UV protection. Not cheap but well worth it,
the six piece kit sells for $54 at vbcosmetics.com
including Nail Prep, Base Coat, Quick Drying Top
Coat and three nail lacquers of your choice. Those
that don’t want to spend this much dough on nail
care should opt for another one of our recommended products.
As the name implies, this system only works in concert.
Leave it. Sally Hansen’s Mega
Shine Top Coat perfectly illustrates what seemed
to be the problem with several less expensive quick
drying top coats we tried. The product dries quickly
as promised but the nail polish color applied beneath
begins to chip almost immediately as well. Leave this
one on the shelves of your local drugstore and put the
five bucks you’ll save toward buying one of the
pricier polishes on our love it list. It will save you
– and your manicure -- in the long run.
 Love
it! Zoya’s Anchor Basecoat,
Armor TopCoat and Hurry Up Speed Dry Drops
combine to create the ideal quick-dry system for those
in search of polishes that are free of harmful chemicals
such as toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate
(DBP). The system has stood up to tons of field testing
by your truly and, true to its promise, polish dries
fast and stays freshly manicured for days and days.
Zoya’s Hurry Up Speed Dry Drops
are the crowning jewel of the system, simply apply drops
to just lacquered nails and they dry in record time,
prevent polish bubbles, condition cuticles, and provide
UV protection while enhancing polish color ($16 at local
salons). Log on to Zoya.com
to shop online or locate a salon near you that carries
the collection.
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