I’ve never had loyalty to a base coat like I do to my beloved top coat. I sort of just pick up whatever tickles my fancy at the time, and use it until I need a new one. A base coat has to be really bad or really good for me to notice any kind of difference between brands. Since I’m writing about this base coat, that has to mean it falls under one of those two categories.
Drumroll!!
It’s REALLY GOOD!!
I bought this on sort of a whim during the Sephora Friends & Family sale a few weeks ago. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel on my old bottle, and I was looking for something well reviewed that wasn’t too expensive. This Nails Inc. Kensington Caviar base coat easily fit the bill. I’ve been wearing it for nearly two weeks now, and it far exceeds any expectations I had.
I wore it under a highly pigmented, creamy black polish last week, and my manicure looked chip free for nearly the whole week. That’s pretty good. Through dishes, lots of typing, thoughtful/nervous/compulsive head scratching, and all my everyday dog and husband stuff, it held on. It also lasted through my cuticle chewing. Between the spit and the teeth scraping, most base coats give up the goat there, so the tops of my manicures are usually the first places to show chipping. I know that’s gross, and I’m sorry. It’s just one of the best ways I can illustrate the strength of this base coat. It’s also the reason why I think I don’t catch common sicknesses very often. I always have my fingers in my mouth, so I think I’ve built up an immunity to, like, the germs that are on escalator handrails. OR, that could be how I caught Whooping Cough a couple year ago. I don’t think so though. I’m pretty sure I caught The Whoop from a coughing hooker who sat on the bench next to me inside a laundromat in Hollywood. She was not big on covering her mouth when she coughed.
Anyways. I didn’t mean to take you guys on a guided tour of my medical history there. You know how these things go, set out to write about a great base coat, end up telling everyone about the time you got Whooping Cough! That old chestnut.
Besides the great grip this base coat had on my polish, it also kept the color from staining my nails way better than my old base coat did. The black I was wearing stains like crazy, but it didn’t touch my nails. The skin around my nails was a mess when I took the polish off, but my nails were pretty clean.
Since I removed the black polish, I’ve been wearing the base coat alone. It dries really shiny, and it has a light pink color that looks pretty without anything else.
If there’s a way to photograph your fingers WITHOUT them looking like sausages, I haven’t found it.
Lovely! As you can see, my nails are pretty long and strong right now. I’m chalking that up to this base coat too. The consistency of it is unlike other base coats. It isn’t thin, it’s sort of thick and almost gelatinous. I like that! It makes me feel like my nails are getting a good treatment. After making sure my nails were good and clean, I used two coats of base coat, and put it underneath the tips of my nails, too. I don’t know if it’s the caviar element, or what, but my nails aren’t splitting on the sides like they usually do when they get this long. I keep accidentally jabbing them into things, and I feel them bend, and I think they’ll for sure have a tear on the side, but I’m always wrong! It’s great! Despite the relative thickness of the formula, it goes on easily without any dragging or unevenness. It dries quickly to a super smooth finish that really makes a great, even base for your manicures.
Base coats are important if you want to maintain your at home mani. Don’t skip this step! If you don’t use a base coat, start using one. You’ll see a difference!
I love this base coat. I think you’ll love it too, especially if you have problems with nail breakage. I’m totally going to buy it again!
