Base Coat and Top Coat: What’s the Difference?

When you go to a salon to get your nails done, chances are that the nail technician has a whole bunch of little bottles that she’ll use during your manicure, but what are they? If you go to the drugstore, you’ll find tons of bottles of clear polish — some marked base coat and some marked top coat. But what’s the difference?

A base coat will most likely have a little bit of a rough finish. It’s important for two reasons: one to protect your natural nail from staining from the color polish, and the other to create a slightly rough surface for the polish to adhere to.

The top coat should be smooth and slick and act like a glaze on top of the color polish to keep it in place and make the nails shiny! I’ll admit that I usually use my top coat as a base coat as well, but that probably explains why my at-home manis don’t last as long! Oops!