Hit The Bottle Top Coats Review

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Hey there!  Today I have a top coat review for you.  Hit The Bottle has been on the stamping polish scene for awhile and I happily accepted when Michelle asked if I wanted to test out her top coats.   I was sent all three of her top coats: ASAP Fast Drying, Shining Armour and Satin Finish.  These are all 5-free - a rare quality amongst quick dry top coats.  I've tested them all out for dry time, wear and stamping-compatibility so keep reading for my complete review.

Dry time

In the photo below I painted my nails with white polish and then added the top coats as labelled.  I did two nails with the Satin Finish top coat since my middle nail had a patch on it and I wasn't sure how it would affect the results.  I dented my nails and marked the spots with a dot at the times listed below:

1 dot = 1 minute

2 dots= 5 minutes

3 dots = 10 minutes

4 dots = 20 minutes

5 dots = 30 minutes

As expected, ASAP, the fast drying top coat dried the quickest.  At 5 minutes it was almost 100% dry (I had to push quite hard to get the little dent that I did).  Shining Armour wasn't far behind it as it was dry by the 10 minute mark.  The Satin Finish top coat did take longer to dry but was wearable by 20 minutes.  

Stamping streaking

Here I, again, started with a white polish and then stamped with Hit The Bottle Paint The Town Violet and then immediately applied top coat.  Even with floating the top coat, I did find that both ASAP and Shining Armour did streak the stamping.  The Satin Finish top coat, however, was great and didn't streak the stamping.  I know that not everyone stamps but, for those of you that do, waiting a few minutes before top coating could fix the streaking issue.

Wear time

Lastly I wanted to see how the top coats would hold up to numerous days of wear.  This time I wore one coat of base coat, 2 coats of A England Camelot stamped with Hit The Bottle Blue-tiful and Paint The Town Violet.  Again, ASAP and Shining Armour streaked the stamping and Satin Finish did not. Because Satin Finish takes longer to dry I did manage to dent my middle nail before it was dry so you can see that in these photos.  Overall I felt the wear time on these was amazing, with barely even tip wear showing after 3 days.  The almost-matte finish of Satin Finish is mostly gone after a day but that could be remedied by adding another coat of top coat if that's important to you.  

Each of these top coats are available at both Hit The Bottle (Australia only) and Beautometry (USA/Canada)  for a very reasonable price.  At Hit The Bottle the 9 mL bottles are $4-5 and the 12 mL are $5.25-6.50.  At Beautometry the 9 mL bottles are $5 and the 12 mL are $6.  While I might not recommend these for stamping, I know not everyone stamps and these top coats are stellar when it comes to wear time and dry time (for ASAP and Shining Armour).

You can also check out Hit The Bottle's Facebook page or Beautometry's Facebook page for all the latest news from both of these companies.  

'Til next time...