Review - Revlon Base Coat

My first review! I'm sorry it took me almost a whole month.

So a few weeks ago, I got Essence's 'Let's get lost' nail polish. It's a gorgeous bright blue colour, I really love it. Unfortunately it badly stained my nails and fingers when I removed it! I normally get some light staining, but this was severe. No amount of scrubbing would help, so I had to repaint immediately. I decided it was time to invest in a base coat so that I'm not discouraged from using my new favourite colour from Essence.

I bought the Revlon Base Coat for around €9 in Boots. There was a 3 for 2 offer on Revlon cosmetics, so I also picked up a some Colorstay Lip Butter for my sister and I (I'm a BIG fan of these lipsticks, expect a review in the near future). There wasn't a particular reason that I chose the Revlon Base Coat, I just got a good deal!

The product itself is packaged nicely. You get 14.7ml for your €9. It's just a little pricey since I normally buy Essence nail colours at €1.25 per 5ml bottle, but not unreasonably so.

The text on the bottle makes the following claims:

• Prolongs nail enamel wear
• Fills in ridges
• Protects nails from staining

The brush is a good size, and coats your nail in just a few strokes. The base coat is clear, goes on smooth, and dries quickly. I always give each coat of polish 5 minutes to make sure it's completely dried, but this stopped being tacky in 1-2 minutes.
Next step is to apply polish! The first time I used it I applied an Essence polish in 'Black is back', as I experience some staining with this shade too. Polish seems to stick to the base coat, so you can't really spread it around the nail as easily. It can get weird and streaky if you try. I found it easiest to apply a thicker coat than usual.
Finished with Essence's 'Quick dry' topcoat, I got 3 completely chip free days. On the 4th day there were chips, and later in the day noticeable wear around the tips and cuticle, and so it had to come off. This isn't bad longevity considering I'm quite hard on my nails, but it's no longer than usual. So no, the base coat did not prolong my nail enamel wear.

It did, however, fill in the ridges on my nails very nicely. One of my little fingers has more pronounced ridges, since I got it caught in a door when I was little. I turned black and fell off, and grew back ridgy. I'm always conscious of it looking different than my other nails when I wear shiny polish.This base coat completely smoothed out that nail, and I am so impressed with that. No more worries about my odd fingernail!
Finally - no staining! The base coat completely protected my nails from any kind of staining. My nails actually feel quite smooth, as if it preserved the buff I gave them before this application. That's a surprise, because they always feel dry when I remove polish. I'm very happy with this result.

Overall it's a good product. What impressed me most was the ridge smoothing and stain prevention. I'd be happy to purchase it again, as it did what I needed it to do.