Review: Poshé topcoat

~ stashy

This post is dedicated to chicandpolished, who requested that I do a review on Poshé topcoat after I raved about it in my Essie gel-setter topcoat review.
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It is by far my favourite fast drying topcoat that I’ve tried!  I push it onto all my friends and they love it too. 🙂

Before Poshé, I used Seche Vite but grew tired of the amount of shrinkage I’d get with Seche Vite.  Shrinkage occurs when the quick dry topcoat is drying so fast that it causes the nail polish layers to pull back from the edges, making it appear as though there is tip wear – this is super annoying on newly applied polishes.  Another annoying aspect of Seche Vite was how it’d turn so thick about half way through the bottle – it would become so stringy and goopy that it wasn’t usable unless thinner was added (it was recommended to only use Seche Vite brand thinner due to the formulation or something – it was a money grab, I tell ya!)  But don’t get me wrong, Seche Vite is a great topcoat and I can understand why it is so popular: it’s fast drying, very shiny and lasts a long time on the nails.  But I wanted an alternative – enter Poshé:
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I read about Poshé from a nail polish blog and it basically retains all the good things of Seche Vite (dries quickly, shiny, and long wearing) but none of the bad (no shrinkage, no thickening, and not super smelly).  I tried my first bottle and haven’t looked back.  It claims to dry polishes to touch in 1 minute (true) and dries completely in 5 minutes (also true) – but I typically wait 10 minutes before doing anything strenuous just to be safe.
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I keep a couple of opened bottles of Poshé – one for lighter coloured polishes and the other for dark shades.  Since it is instructed that the topcoat can be applied over still damp polish, sometimes the polish transfers into the brush so it tints the topcoat a pinkish colour when I’m using reds, but it doesn’t affect the performance (and despite my best efforts, I still tint both bottles!)  Poshé works equally well on all brands of polishes that I’ve tried (except for Zoya – it seems to only like its own brand of base and top coats).
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I love Poshé so much that I bought a salon-sized bottle (480ml) which I decant into the small polish bottles.  I ordered this bad boy off eBay years ago and it’s only down to the top of the purple line (not visible in the photo).  The bottle will likely last me another 10 years!  The only place I’ve seen Poshé sold locally is at Sally Beauty Supply ($10 for 14ml) – it is also sold online from NailPolishCanada.com

This is what Poshé topcoat looks like over Essie Limited Addiction, about 10 minutes after application – this is 1 coat of Orly Bonder basecoat, 2 coats of Essie and 1 coat of Poshé.  I used a dark polish colour to show how truly incredible the wear time is on this topcoat:
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And this is after 6 days of wear (sorry I couldn’t do a full 7 day wear test this time due to the need to change my polish for Thanksgiving weekend):
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Some minor tip wear, slightly dulled shine, a tiny chip on my thumb but overall, still in amazing shape! I definitely could have gone the full 7 days.  Impressed? I constantly am, whenever I wear Poshé!

Pros:
• super fast drying time
• shiny
• chip resistant
• long wearing
• doesn’t thicken up mid-way through the bottle
• works well on all brands of polishes
• does not cause shrinking when drying
• not super stinky

Cons:
• not as readily available as other brands

Stash worthiness: 10/10
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Have you tried Poshé?  What’s your favourite topcoat?

53 thoughts on “Review: Poshé topcoat”

    1. oh you silly, I’ve posted my nails before! Look:
      https://stashmatters.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/review-essie-gel%E2%80%A2setter-top-coat/
      https://stashmatters.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/untrieds-illamasqua-purity-nail-varnish/
      https://stashmatters.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/gel-polish-for-vacation/
      https://stashmatters.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/at-home-gel-polish-removal/
      https://stashmatters.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/untrieds-revlon-colorstay-bare-bones/
      Etc etc…
      😉 But thank you!

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  2. Ooooh, shiny! If the only con is that it’s hard to get a hold of, then I’m in!
    Will have to keep this in mind and pick it up some time when I’m near a Sally Beauty Supply, which is on the opposite end of the city from where I live, lol.

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  4. Poshé is an excellent top coat! I always keep a bottle of that and CND Air Dry or Super Shiney around. I’m not too fussy with top coats – got a few faves and they’ll all do.

    Another one I remember liking was Out the Door, but its drawback was that it left slight brush marks since it dried so fast. LOL! It went on very thinly, too, which was kinda nice. Oh well.

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    1. Well you don’t leave your polish on for more than 3 days anyway so I’m sure it’s not imperative that they are super long wearing. I’ve never tried CND topcoats but now I’m curious.
      And yes, I’ve heard lots of good things about the Out the Door but I can’t seem to find it. I was curious about trying the indie brand HK Girl topcoat – people rave about it. And NailPolishCanada sells it!
      http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/products/glisten-glow-hk-girl-fast-drying-super-shiny-topcoat.html

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  8. Thanks so much for doing the review!
    I like how you have the salon sized bottle, that’s casual hahaha. Never running out of that! I think I’m convinced, next time I’m at Sally’s definitely going to pick this one up and give it a go! Does it work just the same if it’s applied to already dried nail polish rather than wet..?

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  15. Thank you so much for commenting on my post today and telling me about Poshe. Wouldn’t you know I just bought the essie gel topcoat yesterday?! But I will definitely pick this up at Sally Beauty. With a recommendation like this, I can’t resist!!

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    1. You’re welcome! The Essie one is quite good in itself – it’s just not as fast drying as either Poshe or Seche Vite. It is really shiny though. I hope you’ll find Poshe to work for you! 🙂

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  24. I know this is an extremely old post, but just wondering if you’re able to find the huge salon sized Poshe top coat anywhere else other than eBay? Also, are you still using the same products for your manicures? 🙂

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    1. I’ve seen the salon sized Poshe top coat on Amazon. I’m not sure if you’re in the US but there are lots of beauty salon supply places online that sell to the general public, here are a couple:
      https://www.transdesign.com/poshe-super-fast-drying-top-coat-16oz/
      https://max4beauty.com/poshe-super-fast-drying-top-coat-16-ounce/

      Yup, I’m still using the same products for my manicure! I did also discover the new(ish) Essie Gel Couture top coat which is very good. I still prefer Poshe above all else. Here’s a more recent post where I show how I do my manicures and it shows what I use:

      How I Do My Manicures

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        1. Ah ok, I’m in Canada too. 🙂 Here’s the Amazon listing:

          $64 for 480ml is good value considering each 14ml bottle costs $10 (480ml works out to be about 34 of the individual bottles so it would cost $340 if buying the small bottles only!). $64 is a high upfront investment but I think it’s worth it… I’m serious, my big bottle will last me 10 years! 🤗

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