In praise of HK Girl: the best top coat ever
I’ve tried a lot of top coats. Nine different ones in total.
Some of them have been completely awful; some really great. And until very recently, I thought I’d found my perfect top coat.
And then I tried Glisten & Glow HK Girl.
And I can now say with absolute certainty that I will never use another top coat again.
These are all the top coats that I have previously bought and tried:
- No. 7 Stay Perfect
- Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip
- Seche Vite
- Essie Good To Go
- Nina Ultra Pro
- No. 17 Double Gloss Top Coat
- W7 Diamond Top Coat
- NYC Grand Central Station
- Tip Perfection (not sure if that’s the brand or the polish name – it came with some Myleene Klass nail wraps)
I used to love No.7 Stay Perfect. It dries quickly and has a good shine.
Then I read about Seche Vite and bought a bottle or three. I loved how it dries even faster and is almost instantly touch-proof. But I hate how it often shrinks my polish and goes gloopy towards the end of the bottle. OK, so there’s Seche Restore, but it’s all a bit of a faff and more money spent too.
My longest-loved top coat has been Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip. It’s the top coat in the red bottle. It’s quick to dry and lovely and runny at first. But it too goes a little thick towards the end of the bottle and needs some polish thinner to keep it going.
The others on my list are nothing special. I know lots of people swear by Essie Good To Go, but I don’t like it much. It takes longer to dry than Seche Vite, Sally Hansen and No.7.
The same can be said for Nina Ultra Pro.
No.17 is quite good – fairly similar to No.7 really, although my bottle has yellowed a little.
The final three on my list – W7, NYC and Tip Perfection – all take an age to dry and are not worth buying when there are other, much better top coats to be had.
But, I’ve finally found my perfect top coat. I had been reading about it for months on US blogs. It’s called HK Girl and is by Glisten & Glow. It seemed really expensive to get it shipped from abroad, so I held off buying it, despite the glowing reviews I read. And then the Royal Mail started destroying inbound parcels of polish anyway, so I didn’t ever get around to buying it.
Then, last month, Rainbow Connection began to stock it. I immediately snapped up four bottles and I will never look back.
HK Girl is the perfect top coat. It dries to the touch really quickly. It’s almost – but not quite – as quick as Seche Vite. I’d say it’s about 30 seconds slower, although I haven’t timed it exactly. And that’s acceptable to me. It’s certainly rock hard MUCH faster than Seche Vite, and it doesn’t shrink my polish. It’s beautifully shiny, and apparently – although I haven’t got that far yet – it doesn’t go gloopy at the end of a bottle. It’s wonderful and I absolutely love it.
The base coat has equally good reviews, but I’ve not bought it as yet.
I’m so glad I bought four bottles of the top coat. It costs from £6.55 from Rainbow Connection – but please don’t buy it all, as I’ll be back for more at some point!
Comments
I never use anything else… It is super awesome!!
It’s fantastic. I’m so glad we can now get it in the UK. I’ve also just read that it doesn’t smear nail art like stamping or dots, so another great reason to use it.
I can confirm that it doesn’t smear artwork like dotting or stamping – fabulous!
Hi Claire!
Believe it or not, I’ve never heard of H.K. Girl. Thanks to your review though I will check it out.
Great post!
It’s fab – you won’t be disappointed.
If it doesn’t smudge stamping I might just have to check it out! I hate it when a top coat smudges my design :c
So far I’ve tried it over taped nail designs, dotting and nail art pens and it hasn’t smudged those, so I have high hopes for stamping too.
I bought a 16fl oz bottle of HK girl a year or so ago for about £33 from a UK trade supplier online. Worth looking for as it works out much cheaper and you can just keep filling the small bottle up. It does go gloopy towards the bottom of a small bottle but top up from your big bottle and its good as new 🙂
Wow – that’s a great price. I know Rainbow Connection sells the 2.5 oz bottles for £21.50.
Do you remember where you bought yours? (No worries – I found it!)
Hi Claire, do you mind my asking where you found the 16oz bottles? I don’t know if they would ship to Canada but it’s worth a try 🙂
I’ve sent you an email with the details.
Glad you found it as I can’t remember offhand lol. I worked out how many .5oz bottles I could get out of my big bottle and it ends up saving over £200!!! 😀
I use a piping nozzle with a long pipe like spout as a mini funnel to fill bottles – works perfectly…