So I just started using Seal Glaze and I wanted to do a side by side to see just how much of a difference it makes with some of the polishes I've had trouble with, and wanted to share my results. The polish I'm showing here is Baroness X – Inner Balance (Nov '25 PPU), and is one I've had some issues with because it disperses after quick dry top coat a LOT. So I did an experiment on a couple swatch sticks.
The first photo is the polish on its own. First light coat, no magnet. Second heavy coat, no magnet. Third another heavy coat, magnetized for 60 seconds. Then I applied a QDTC (Essie Gel Couture top coat), magnetize for 60 seconds. The photo was taken immediately after pulling the magnet away and putting the top coat on.
The second photo is similar. First a light coat with no magnet, second a heavy coat with no magnet, and third a heavy coat with 60 seconds of magnet time, then I pulled the magnet away and let the polish sit for five minutes. Seal Glaze requires a drier polish than a standard QDTC as I have found it will pull polish quite easily if it's at all wet still. Then I applied the coat of Seal Glaze, and immediately took the photo. Because it sat a bit more before putting Seal Glaze on, you can see it did disperse slightly compared to putting the QDTC on. After ten minutes for the Seal Glaze to dry, a coat of the QDTC was applied.
And then the third photo was taken about three hours after the first set was taken, and you can see how big of a difference there is. The traditionally applied polish has dispersed a LOT, especially around the edges, and you have to get the right angle to properly see the magnetized line. But the one with Seal Glaze looks almost untouched. The silver only dispersed out towards the very edge where the coats of Seal Glaze and the QDTZ were probably thinner. And while it doesn't look as razor sharp as the first photo, you could try doing 2 minutes of dry time with a magnet instead of just 1 (I'm buying a set of Manimod magnets for this) to keep it sharper and have better results later on.
by CaptainYaoiHands
1 Comment
Also it occurs to me that if you did 2 minutes per nail of dry time with a magnet after your final coat, you’d just be drying for the same amount of time as the traditional method anyway just as 2 minutes after the coat of polish instead of 1 after polish and 1 after QDTC. Then you could just do your other hand, then Seal Glaze the first hand, give it a couple minutes, Seal Glaze the second hand, then go do other shit for like 10 minutes and come back and QDTC (Seal Glaze IS NOT a top coat! don’t make the same mistake I did the first time I tried it!).
Also I’ll post another pic tomorrow of the two swatch sticks to see if they move any more at the 24 hour mark.