Best Nail Polish Base Coats
3 Best Nail Polish Base Coat bottles
This page contains affiliate links and this site earns from qualifying purchases made through these sponsored links.
They can protect the nail from stains and water damage, directly deliver beneficial ingredients to the nail bed and provide a clean slate for a smooth finish on your manicure or pedicure.
Over the past several years, Lots of Lacquer staff has been testing various base coats, from many different brands, in many different formulas.
There are a few formulas that have been memorable and purchased more than once.
The memorable base coat formulas that we’ve purchased are the formulas we currently consider the best base coats on the mainstream market today.
Below we’ll show you three top base coats - an overall winner, a best base coat for ridges and a best base coat for weak nails.
Let’s start with the overall best:
best overall base coat: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
Best Overall Nail Polish Base Coat
OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
The OPI Natural Nail Base Coat provides a smooth foundation for your color, prevents staining with deeper toned polishes, dries quickly, and it is easy to find.
You can get it from a variety of retailers in rural and urban areas, which saves you time and money. If you run out and urgently need to get more - there is a high probability you’ll be able to find this locally.
It mixes and matches nicely with other brands and it's one to reach for when trying out new colors from indie brands that don’t make their own base coats.
best base coat for ridges: essie smooth-e base coat
Best Nail Polish Base Coat For Nail Ridges
essie smooth-e
essie smooth-e does a great job of concealing heavily ridged nails, it can ensure that even the sheerest, most-streak prone nail polishes go on smoothly.
It also dries quickly and blurs any imperfections and stains on the nail bed.
Available at a wide range of retailers, this is another one that’s abundantly available and easy to pick up in a pinch.
best base coat for weak nails: Beauty Secrets Hardener
Best Nail Polish Base Coat For Weak Nails
Beauty Secrets Hardener
Beauty Secrets Hardener is from Sally Beauty. It comes in a gorgeous round bottle and lasts for a long time. The bottle you see above is over 2 years old and it has experienced consistent use.
It dries quickly and maintains an easy glide on thin consistency over time.
This is one to reach for if you’ve broken a nail or simply want to protect the nail when it doesn’t have color polish on.
Best nail polish base coats, L to R: OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, essie smooth-e base coat, Beauty Secrets Hardener
To recap, the best nail polish base coats are:
All in all, these base coats are what we consider the best of the best. And while we haven’t tried them all, we’ve tried a lot.
To get more content like this, like and follow us on Instagram!
Other Articles You May Enjoy:
As an Ulta and Sally Beauty Affiliate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
