Like any nail fiend worth her salt, I have a bottle of Seche Vite (non-French speakers: pronounce it Sesh Veet, not Seshay Veetay like I did for years) top coat in my nail varnish stash.
Along with at least three other bottles of the stuff.
This isn't because I've been stockpiling Seche Vite in the event that it's suddenly discontinued, by the way. Nope, it's because this fab top coat has a majorly un-fab flaw.
A little over halfway down the bottle, just when you've finally got the hang of how to use it properly and have fallen deeply in love with its quick drying, super glossy ways, it starts bubbling and eventually gets way too thick and gloopy to use. This is acknowledged by the manufacturers, who say it's just an unfortunate downside of the unique viscosity of Seche Vite and is caused by the evaporation of some ingredients in the top coat that are lost over time once the bottle is opened.
Advertised
They advise that Seche Restore, a dedicated Seche Vite thinner, can be used to put back those AWOL ingredients and return it to its former glory, so I was ridiculously excited about giving this stuff a go and magicking all my half-empty Seche Vite bottles back into a useable state. And then... well, then I actually used it. Per the instructions, I initially added a few drops of Restore to my most recently acquired bottle of Seche Vite, rolled the bottle slowly to distribute, and checked the consistency, fully prepared for a "Ta da!" moment.
No joy. Still so thick you could cut it with a knife.
This went on for quite a while as I carefully drip-dripped thinner into top coat, but I eventually just gave it up as a bad job when there was no improvement in texture to be seen. I mean, it changed alright, going from thick and gloopy to thick and kind of stringy, but at no point was it rendered useable again.
Bah!
