Hey my dear ones,
How is your weekend going? Since I am so lucky to study in Japan at the moment I finally got access to the Etude House stores around Japan which is why you’ll be seeing quite some reviews soon I think 🙂 Today I want to share my thoughts with you about the Help my finger topcoat by Etude House.
The first thing of course, as always with Etude House: The packaging! I just love the packaging of this! It’s cute but not totally over the top. I personally think the packaging is also really clever: You can see on the very first look what the product is all about: a gel topcoat which protects your nail (polish). Even with zero Japanese/Korean knowledge every customer can get what they search for – smart design. Nive done, Etude House.
I picked this up at the Etude House store in La Foret Harajuku; it’s at the 0.5 floor if you’re thinking about visiting (Yes they do have half floors here.) I was searching for some nail polish and was surprised how cheap the polishes were so I bought two for 380 Yen (2,50€ maybe?) and this topcoat for about 600Yen if I remember correctly. I didn’t have a chance to try out so much products from this brand but the packaging totally sold me.
The topcoat itself has a very minimalistic design and surprisingly, it is bigger than their normal nail polishes from that range. I already used the topcoat twice to make up my mind about this product. You use it just like any other topcoat: Whatever you do to your nails, finish with this topcoat to get a gel like finish. But does it work..? Here is a proof picture how my nails looked after five days of wearing:
Went for a very minimalistic design last week with only one glittery fore finger. You can see a little bit of chipping where the glitter polish was and also a tiny bit on the middle finger. I was really impressed with how long my nails looked decent! I am very clumsy and active; so usually I have badly chipped polish around day two or three. With this topcoat however, my polish could last up to a week which I personally think is really impressive, also regaring the price of this product! Also, which is not as visible in this picture, the nails really are shiny and look a bit more, professional(?) than just regular polish. (BTW have you noticed how amazing that glitter nail polish is I am incredibly in love with it. It’s a lot more sparkly in real life.)
The downside, however… yes, sadly there is a downside. This product takes forever and ever to dry. Like I literally waited for over an hour for this to dry which is ridiculous. As much as I like the results with this a topcoat should never take so long to dry (and no, I did not use a superthick layer.)
Summary:
Price ★★★★★
Lasting power ★★★★☆
Shine ★★★★☆
Time to dry ★☆☆☆
Overall ★★★★☆
Would I buy this product again? Sadly no, I wouldn’t and only because of the really long time it takes to dry. I am incredibly inpatient when it comes to nails and I don’t see why I should wait 2 hours+ when doing a simple nail art like this. Maybe I’ll find a way to make this product dry faster – other than that this really gets the job done and has everything I look for in a gel topcoat.
I will keep my eyes open next time I come anywhere near Etude House – their products seem to be promising and I just die for that cute packaging. Do you have any favorites from Etude House? If you do, please tell me! 🙂 Thanks for reading and talk to you soon!
Love,
Sam
