Chester's Drawers

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Mon, 26 May 2014 09:38:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

It's just what the title says. Chester's Drawers will go on hiatus from today on.

The reason is, I lost my motivation for nail polish blogging. It's been gone for a couple of months now. I fought my way through hoping it'll come back but it never came.

Chester's Drawers has always been my little baby, my side kick to nail polish. I have invested a lot of time and energy into it and it feels like it never pays off. At the moment I'm frustrated and everything I do for the blog feels like a chore.

Chester's Drawers will still be on-line since it also serves my personal archive. But I won't post anything new for the time being.

In all honesty I have to think about whether I still want to continue this adventure, under which conditions and in which format. It's all very up in the air right now.

So as not to end this post on a sad note, I want to thank my loyal readers and commenters. Thank you for your loyalty, your time and comments and the love you showed my blog! I love you!

[Sunday Stamping] Dragonflies

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sun, 25 May 2014 21:44:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today I won't participate in the Adventures in Stamping challenge. I'm visiting my parents for the weekend and didn't have time to prepare something. Instead I want to show you an awesome mani with an even more awesome base color.

base color: Dance Legend Roz
stamping color: Essie Good As Gold
stamping plate and image: essence stamping plate - dragonfly (single image)

China Glaze Orange You Hot?

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Fri, 23 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Happy Friday! Today I want to show you China Glaze Orange You Hot?, a polish I can't wait to wear more often in the coming months.

China Glaze Orange You Hot? is one sexy nail polish. It is a bright, almost neon orange with faint pink shimmer. The almost neon effect freaked out my camera (hence why the pictures are slightly blurry). Also the shimmer got a bit lost in the pictures and while it was not straight-up pink the overall shimmer effect was visible with the naked eye. Despite its thin jelly consistency it is well pigmented. Shown here are 3 coats because of some VNL at only 2 coats. China Glaze Orange You Hot? is from the Summer Neons 2012 collection.

Have a lovely day!

[Review] VividLacquer VL009 and VL015 stamping plates

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Wed, 21 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today I want to give you a closer look at the VividLacquer stamping plates I recently bought. I got VL009 and VL015 during a sale and paid 4,49€, plus shipping.

The plates measure 7x8cm and come with a cute VividLacquer logo backing.

The measurements for the motives differ. The regular full nail images are 2x2cm and single images are 1x1cm maximum (music symbols on VL15). VL009 has some XL full nail images that are wider: the water marble image is 2,5x4cm and the spotted image is 2x6cm. The fingerprint on VL009 is 1,5x2cm.

Both plates offer a nice variety of motives, including some reverse motives which are nice for an accent nail. They are well etched and came out crisp and clear on the first try.

I found the reverse images (those that have a lot of black space) need to be scraped slower to allow the stamping polish to get into every nook. This worked well with Konad black (Konads dry a bit slower) but I wouldn't use these images with a regular metallic nail polish as the stamping polish (these dry super fast).

For the stamping test below I used Konad Special Nail Polish in black, the Fab Ur Nails double sided stamper (big side) (firm squishy) and Fab Ur Nails rectangular stamper (firm squishy) for the small images in VL015.

Much to my delight the musical symbols on VL015 are all correct but could have been spaced a bit wider apart. It's difficult to pick them up without also picking up parts of the image next to it. No big deal if you use a slower drying stamping polish (like Konad). But with fast drying ones you will hardly have to time to scrape away the unwanted parts.

VividLacquer stamping plates and nail polishes can be found in her etsy store. You can also connect with her on her Facebook page and on Instagram.

You can also read a fabulous interview with Anni, the creator of VividLacquer on Lacquer Lockdown.

I hope this review was helpful for you!

catrice Berry Potter & Plumbledore

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Mon, 19 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

I hope you had a great weekend. After almost 2 weeks of rain we finally had sunshine again and I spent a lot of time outdoors soaking it up and reading.

Today I want to show you catrice Berry Potter & Plumbledore from the current core range.

catrice Berry Potter & Plumbledore is plum with a soft duochrome shimmer. The shimmer shifts from turquoise to blue and looks lovely in the contrasting base color. Unfortunately it was hard to photograph. Even with my duochrome hand pose it was barely visible in pics :( You just have to take my word for it. BP&P has decent pigmentation and a nice formula. 3 coats shown here. For once I found the brush was no nuisance. Yay!! Berry Potter & Plumbledore is part of the current permanent range.

Happy Monday!

Sunday Stamping - Over a Pink Base

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sun, 18 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Wow, two challenges in a row! After last Sunday I had hoped for something more to my taste. Because, let's face it. I'm a girl but not a girly-girl. Frills? Lace? Pink? Nope. Nope. And nope.

Fortunately I had bought Orly Cheeky a few weeks ago and it's the perfect base for today's challenge.

base color: Orly Cheeky
stamping color: Konad black
stamping plate and images: MoYou Pro 01 - big dots and medium-sized dots (both full nail images)

I love stamping with black. It always makes for interesting contrast :)

[Top 5] Purple Nail Polishes

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sat, 17 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

In order to continue with my Top 5 series I want to show you my Top 5 Purple Nail Polishes today. It was really hard to choose just five of them since purple is my most favorite color, as in I Can't Leave Anyone Behind!! So, let's take this as a momentarily Top 5. If you ask me tomorrow the list might look dramatically different because I can't make up my mind on this color.

Chanel Taboo
How could I not? :D Many purple vampies live in my stash and Chanel Taboo is more a stand-in for all the others that didn't fit onto the picture. Creamy, richly pigmented and shimmery always gets to me so of course this nail polish is a great representative.

catrice Heavy Metallilac
Besides this nail polish many more could have been named that are also purple shimmers. But it wins my heart for three facts: the electric purple base color, the gorgeous shimmer and the name.

OPI Lincoln Park At Midnight
This is the single most beautiful purple nail polish in my stash. It easily fits into the vampy category but it will always be my #1, the one I'm afraid to use because I might run out and not get a replacement. It was my first purple crush and came at a time when I was heavily submerged in Linkin Park music. I hold on to it for sentimental reasons as much as for its deep, almost hidden shimmer.

Color Club Eternal Beauty
The second How Could I Not Include it? This one is the best purple holo. I love how the holo enhances the purple. It takes an already fascinating effect and makes it even more gorgeous when you mix in my favorite color.

Barry M. Silvery Lilac
And another one of these How Could I Not? If you read Chester's Drawers for a longer time or remember my 500th post you know that I go berserk when I see a purple to green duochrome nail polish. This specific color is more of a stand-in for all the others.

Nuff said. Otherwise I'll drag out the other 274865934193621734 purple polishes for pictures.

What are your favorite purple nail polishes?

Barry M. Arabian

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Fri, 16 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today I want to show you Barry M. Arabian, one of the three nail polishes that I bought from the Aquarium collection.

Barry M. Arabian has a sheer grey base with warm lime green to turquoise duochrome shimmer in an overall metallic finish. It has a thin consistency ands floods side walls and cuticle area easily. Personally, I'm ok with that since I have never seen a duochrome with a rich and creamy formula. It must be the trick to let the duochrome effect do its job. Arabian also develops brush strokes during application but they level out when it dries. 2 coats, no undies. Barry M. Arabian is part of the Aquarium collection.

Happy Friday!

[Stamping] Holo Waves

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Thu, 15 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

And now for the third stampicure I created with the catrie Luxury Lacquers holo nail polishes. This time it features catrice Holo Manolo as the base color :)

base color: catrice Holo Manolo
stamping color: a england Dragon
stamping plate and image: Winstonia W111 - overlapping concentric circles (full nail image)

This stampicure is very similar to the Holo-Centric stamping so I guess I must have been on some kind of roll at that time. In hindsight I would've used ... I don't know. Maybe a blue stamping color? What do you think of this combo?

[Stamping] Holo-Centric

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Tue, 13 May 2014 08:16:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Over on my Scotty Loves Holo post Soraya expressed her interest to see the other two stamping manicures I created with the catrice Luxury Lacquer holo polishes so today you get to see the one that has catrice Holo In One as the base color :)

base color: catrice Holo In One
stamping color: Essie No Place Like Chrome
stamping plate and image: MoYou London Suki 04 - spirals (full nail image)

This mani is something simple yet it strikes a chord in me. I love circle images just as much as I love straight lines (geometric affection maybe?). Especially those that remind me of prompter boxes, those old-fashioned, seashell shaped ones that sit at the edge of an opera stage. Love :)

Dance Legend Just Another Star

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Mon, 12 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

It's Monday and that means that my Stamping Week is over :( But we're back to regular program which means today I'm going to show you a gorgeous nail polish :)

Dance Legend Just Another Star is a violet holo nail polish with chunky holo pieces. I say chunky because the holo pieces are not nearly as fine as in regular linear holo polishes. Still they create a linear prism that is neither scattered nor glittery. It is well pigmented and has a great formula that allows for easy application. Shown here are 3 coats although 2 slightly thicker coats would also suffice. Just Another Star is #30 in the Wow Prism collection.

Unfortunately my camera wanted to give me a hard time about this nail polish. Pretty much every picture I chose is of the best it picked up and it picked up only about 50% of the holo effect. To the naked eye Dance Legend Just Another Star is very in your face holo-y and has more 3D depth.

Happy Monday!

Sunday Stamping - Spring Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sun, 11 May 2014 14:18:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Oy, what a challenge. I'm so over spring since the Easter holidays and wearing neons and brights a lot lately. But it wouldn't be a challenge if it were easy, right? So, let's get to it.

base colors: catrice C(h)ome, Leon!; Essie The More The Merrier
stamping color: Konad white
dotting color: essence Tip Painter white
fimo flowers: Rival de Loop Young Nail Fruits

In the end I'm suprised by how much I liked this mani. The soft colors of the butterfly nails contrast the stronger colors of the dotted nails nicely. This mani is about as spring-like as it'll get for me this year. Hope you like it :)

[Stamping Week] Tonal Peas

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sat, 10 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

The last post for Stamping Week has to include one of my favorite nail polishes, right? How could it not? It stars OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me and a phenomenal catrice nail polish that I almost didn't buy. I was able to snatch up the very last bottle. :)

base color: OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me
stamping color: catrice Ex Pistols
stamping plate and image: MoYou London Suki 04 - graphic stars (full nail image)

in sunlight

Tomorrow I'll continue my Sunday tradition and show you my Sunday Stamping challenge mani.

[Stamping Week] Blazing Circles

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Fri, 09 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today's stampicure is a rather new one I did last month when I received my small Orly order. I had to try Orly Ablaze asap and it did not disappoint :)

base color: Orly Ablaze
stamping color: Konad black
stamping plate and image: Cheeky CH17 - circles (full nail image)

One thing I'm especially proud of, though I don't know how I managed to do it, is my pinky nail. It's like one gigantic circle on this small nail, evenly following the curve of my lunula.

Happy Friday!

[Stamping Week] Scotty Loves Holo

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Thu, 08 May 2014 08:38:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

With all the holographic nail polishes I've been wearing this spring it's no wonder I also have a holographic stampicure for you this week.

base color: catrice Plum Me Up Scotty
stamping color: catrice Royal Blue
stamping plate and image: Cheeky Jumbo 5 - hearts on strings
fill-in color: Color Club Eternal Beauty

I'm sad that Eternal Beauty is not that obvious on the nails. I think the surface was to small so all the holo goodness stayed hidden. :(

I also stamped on the other two catrice nail polishes from the Luxury Lacquers collection. Let me know if you'd like to see them :)

[Stamping Week] At the Circus

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Wed, 07 May 2014 12:36:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today's stampicure dates back to August 2013. Can you believe it? I couldn't keep it under wraps anymore. It just reminds me of circus tents and I couldn't get the image out of my head. So here it is!

base color: essence Me & My Lover
stamping color: Essie Penny Talk
stamping plate and image: Konad m89 - swirled flowers (full nail design)

In hindsight a true golden stamping polish would have been a better fit to the theme but I only saw the similarities after I was done.

[Stamping Week] Lady in Red

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Tue, 06 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today's stampicure is an experiment that went well fortunately. I desperately wanted to know whether I had any red stamping polish (though I don't recall why I needed to know that). Let's start!

base color: Rival de Loop Young Silver Line
stamping color: essence Magic Red Carpet
stamping plate and image: Konad m83 - fern image (full nail image)

The pairing of base color and stamping color was not very fortunate because of the similar finishes. Thankfully essence Magic Red Carpet worked really well for stamping. So I still count it as a good stamping mani although I've also had way better ideas in the past.

[Stamping Week] Baroque

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Mon, 05 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

This week is Stamping Week here on Chester's Drawers. I noticed an abundance of stamping manicures in my Still-To-Post folder and thought it is high time they get to see the blog light of day. So let's start with a Baroque stamping mani that I did last month.

base color: Essie Mamba
stamping color: Essie Good As Gold
stamping plate and image: Konad m83 - lily flowers (full nail image)

This very lovely image just barely fit my thumb nails. After playing with MoYou London images so much in the last weeks I seem to have forgotten how small Konad images can be :(
Another downfall was that I absolutely had to clean the plate after every scraping. If I didn't remember I had slimer lines, like on my middle finger.

Apart from these two minor irritations I'm absolutely in love with this plate. It's gorgeous!!

[Stamping] Friends that encourage you

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sun, 04 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today I won't participate in the Adventure in Stamping challenge because my parents are still on visit. I'd rather spend as much time with them as possible. After all I don't get to see them as often as I'd like.

But I still have some stampicures for you. I did these for two friends last weekend, just for fun. Let's start!

This is the mani of one of my friends. As a base I used Manhattan 78T, a metallic blue, and stamped with Konad white. The images are stylized flowers and lollipops, two full nail images from the BundleMonster BM-306 plate.

And the second stampicure:

This is the mani my best friend requested. Here we used Orly Blaze as the base color and stamped with Konad black. The image is a reversed swirl, a full nail image from the Konad m89 plate.

A close up of my best friend's nails. The above mentioned friend with the blue stampicure requested this image for her graduation ball in June.

Happy Sunday!

Rival de Loop Young Red Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Fri, 02 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Today I want to show you Rival de Loop Young Red Dragon. Rival de Loop Young revamped their entire line-up this spring and I bought several nail polishes from their new permanent range. This beautiful nail polish was one of them.

Rival de Loop Young Red Dragon is a bright firetruck red nail polish with red and golden shimmer. It looks luscious! It has great pigmentation. Two coats are needed for opacity although one coat is already covering my nails well. It leaves just a tiny bit of Visible Nail Line hence why I applied 2 coats (shown here).

One thing I really like about the new Rival de Loop Young nail polish line is their incredibly easy to use brush. It is a cat tongue brush - flat, wide and with nicely rounded edges - and makes applying the nail polish a breeze! It even fans out well with just the right amount of resistance. Well done, RdL!

I love this type of red so by default I love Rival de Loop Young Red Dragon, too. It's an instant feel-sexy color :)

April haul

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Thu, 01 May 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

In my last haul post I told you I was still waiting on a few things that I bought in March. Well, they turned up at the beginning of the month and I have been happily playing with them ever since. These packages pretty much satisfied all cravings of new shiny things so I didn't buy anything at all this month. :)

Dance Legend 43 (Shining Rainbow collection)
Dance Legend 30 Just Another Star (Wow Prism collection)
Dance Legend Top Sahara (Special Effects Top Coats)
Dance Legend 175 (Termo collection)
Dance Legend 92 Roz (Chameleon collection)
Dance Legend 94 Boo (Chameleon collection)

China Glaze Orange You Hot?
China Glaze Flirty Tankini
Barry M. Mango (Gelly Hi-Shine collection)
Barry M. Pomegranate (Gelly Hi-Shine collection)
Barry M. Arabian (Aquarium collection)
Barry M. Caspian (Aquarium collection)
Barry M. Mediterranean (Aquarium collection)

Orly Cheeky (Blush collection)
Orly Tropical Pop (Baked collection)
Orly Ablaze (Baked collection)

Here are the swatches so you get a better preview at what they look like.

And lastly I purchased two VividLacquer stamping plates. How could I resist the treble clef and staff image? I don't have anything like it! :D

VividLacquer VL09 stamping plate
VivicLadcquer VL15 stamping plate

I have already made plans to show you a couple of these nail polishes. There will also be a closer look post at the stamping plates this month.

If there is anything you'd like to see first please leave a comment below :)

Butter London Dosh

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Happy May Day eve! What are your plans for tonight? Will you do anything fancy and frolicking? I'd love to get in on the fun but my parents come visiting for a few days tonight. On May Day we will go hiking. I'm not sure whether I'll be glad or not. I really like hiking but the tour starts at 10 in the morning. I'm so not a morning person so I think this might be fun one way or another ;-)

So today I want to show you Butter London Dosh, a lovely green shimmer nail polish.

Butter London Dosh has an apple green jelly base that is filled to the brim with gold glimmer. It looks a bit dirty when it's fully dry but I like yellow-y greens too much so I will just deal with it. The golden glimmer is really pretty though! Dosh has decent pigmentation, I needed 3 coats for opacity. Consistency is on the thing side but it behaves well. Dosh was part of the spring / summer collection 2011.

I'm also a bit sad that my parent's dog can't come visiting with them. Mr.Max has been with us for just 4 short months and we don't know how he'll react to an intruder in his home. But look at the adorable Malamut dog that belongs to my parents:

With his relaxed pose I wish you a sunny and laid back May Day.

Peacock Eyes mani

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

It's been almost 3 months since I last participated in Cyw's Motto Month nail art challenge. And I almost didn't make it this time again because I lack the time to bring my ideas into fruition. But: I got a few leftover packages this months that I ordered in March, and one of those packages contained the Barry M. Aquarium polishes. Boy, are they great or what? I really had no excuse to not do this mani. This month the theme of the Motto Month challenge was "Birds & Feathers". I drew my inspiration directly from Cyw's peacock mani.

base color: Barry M. Arabian
stamping color: Konad black
stamping plate and image: BundleMonster BM-212 - peacock eyespot (full nail image)
glitter: Magno Nails - purple hex glitter, 1mm

Did you know that the eyespots on a peacock's tail feathers have the same function as the nazar amulet - to ward of enemies? And did you also know that these eyespots don't contain any color? The iridescent effect is a result of interference of light. Pretty cool!

Sunday Stamping - Bad A$$ Heavy Metal Mani

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

This challenge mani is a true case of "inspired by your stash". Before I opened my stamping plate binder I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do.

You see, the theme "bad a$$" is wide open to interpretation and I had no place to start. I just browsed my binder, pulled out plates here and there and went from sex'n'drugs to tattoos to bikers (called rockers in German).

And then it dawned on me. Once upon a time I was bad a$$ too. Well, kinda. At the tender age of 11 I started listening to Heavy Metal. In secret. So my parents wouldn't know. Any music that wasn't played on the radio was a no-no. In other words, it was bad.

And so I present you my Bad A$$ Heavy Metal Mani.

base colors: Essie No Place Like Chrome; catrice Stardust
stamping color: Konad black
stamping plates and images: Cheeky Jumbo 5 - mano cornuta, "Rock!", guitar; BundleMonster BM12 - chains (all single images)

My best friend taught her 3-year old cousin the mano cornuta by calling it a "fries fork" ;)

Btw, the image on the Cheeky Jumbo 5 plate is incorrect. In a trv sign of the horns the thumb is tucked into the hand on top of the middle and ring finger. With the thumb splayed out like this it's the "I love you" sign in American Sign Language.

I must begin to wonder whether we will someday see a music theme stamping plate with absolutely no errors. I don't thinks so - unless a knowledgeable musician designs it.

[Review] Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat

noreply@blogger.com (Chester) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Hey lovelies!

Before I start there's one thing that you probably already noticed: I tweaked the look of the blog. It was overdue, I wanted something fresh and clean, and I think I accomplished that. How do you like the new look?

Onto the review!

I had bought the Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat a few weeks ago and I had lots of time to test it. Now I feel I can give you a well-rounded review on what this top coat delivers and where it falls short.

* Product Claim *

The translation starts at the pink part because the part in black is about color nail polishes. (More on that later.) Translation by me:

"LACURA BEAUTY QUICK GLOSS TOP COAT dries your color nail polish lightning fast und delivers a distinctive shine.

"For an optimal result and long wear of color nail polishes we suggest the use of LACURA BEAUTY QUICK GLOSS TOP COAT as top coat. Let the color nail polish dry for 30 seconds minimum and apply a thin coat of the top coat. Within a short length of time both the color nail polish as well as the top coat are dry."

* Product Details *

The Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat comes in a big, shrink-wrapped box where it sits in a flimsy plastic tray. The box is their standard packaging for any kind of nail polish Lacura Beauty sells (hence why it has information for both color nail polishes and top coats). The thing that differentiates one from the other is the sticker "803 Quick Gloss Top Coat" in the front.

The nail polish bottle itself is made of sturdy glass with a bulky screw top. The brush is made in a flat paddle style with a straight edge. It contains 12ml.

For those of you who are concerned about ingredients, here is the ingredients list:

Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Adipic Acid / Neopentyl Glycol / Trimellitic Anhydride Copolymer, Acrylates Copolymer, Benzophenone-1, N-Butyl Alcohol, Trimethylpentanediyl Dibenzoate, CI 60725

You can look up at codecheck.info what all of these ingredients mean.

The Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat is manufactured by pam - perfumes and more GmBH, an Austrian company.

* My Thoughts *

Let's start at the very beginning *snicker* The outer packaging is excessive and a waste of resources. I do understand why Aldi Süd (the store where you can buy Lacura Beauty) sells them like this though. Aldi Süd is a discount store for groceries though they ventured out into other "supplementary" stuff a long time ago. The prices are quite cheap there and the idea that every customer *possibly* has bad intentions of shoplifting sits up-front in their corporate heads. *le sigh* Since their store politics are not part of the review I'm just gonna stop here.

I'm gonna dive right in and say, yes this is actually a quick dry top coat. Apart from the sticker on the box and on the bottle it only says "clear nail polish" (Klarlack) everywhere on the box, and people are unsure if it's a quick dry or a regular top coat. So, yes, it is :) It takes about 1-2 minutes longer than essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer to become resistant to impact. The manicure is fully dry in about the same time as the essence one - which is 10-15 minutes (depending on how many coats of nail polish I applied).

It smells just like any other top coat - chemical but not in the non-Big3 fashion. In terms of consistency it is fluid, neither runny nor goopy, and so far didn't thicken over the time I used it. The brush fans out nicely, the straight edges do not hinder the application, and the top coat smooths out bumpy manicures well. The result is a nice polished feel on the nails and high shine.

I also found that the bulky screw top lies comfortably and securely in the hand. No awkwardness!

* Price and Availability *

Here is where it gets tricky. As I mentioned earlier, Lacura Beauty is the home brand of Aldi Süd discount stores.

On one hand this means the Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat is cheap, it retails for 1,99€. A great price for such a quality product!

On the other hand it means that it is not available all the time. Some stores run out faster than others. Some stores receive more stock than others. Some stores don't receive stock for a couple of weeks.
My tip: Stock up while you can! Because the next time you need a fresh bottle, there's no guarantee you'll be able to buy one. Which is also sad given that the Lacura Beauty Quick Gloss Top Coat delivers such great results.

Overall this is a great product for a small price! It has the potential to replace my beloved essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer when I run out of back-up bottles.