Hey everyone! Today I'm back with another 'which is best?' post, this time on base coats. I will be comparing Orly - Bonder, Zoya - Get Even*, Barbara Daly - Goodbye Yellow, OPI - Matte Nail Envy, and Dior - Long Lasting Base Coat. I've had a few comments asking why I chose the things I chose to compare, it was either because they were there, because they were provided for review or because they're what I love to use. Before I start I just want to say that I only use one coat of base coat, and this is what these comparisons are based off, I read somewhere the other day that sometimes people use up to 4 coats and I don't know what is the usual amount but I always just use the one.
Comparison No. 1 - Smoothness:
- OPI - 10/10, may just be because it's matte but definitely feels smoothest
- Dior - 9/10, smooth and shiny
- Orly - 8/10, feels quite sticky (in order to bond). but definitely dry and smooth
- Barbara Daly - 8/10, smooth but picks up any bumps in the nail (although 2 coats of it sorts this out)
- Zoya - 3/10 doesn't really do what it claims to do, feels very sandy. My little finger was the least smooth nail and continued to feel that way
Comparison No. 2 - Drying Speed:
They all dried at pretty much the exact same speed so there's not much comparison there
Comparison No. 3 - Does it do what it says?
- OPI - 10/10 yep definitely, my nails were very brittle from years of biting and this did wonders for my nails, they're now really strong
- Orly - 10/10, definitely good at 'bonding', it's impossible to peel designs off when using this (something I have a bad habit of doing) and it definitely doesn't chip, I love this base coat just as much as OPI - Nail Envy, which is saying something
- Dior - 9/10, just claims to be a base coat so it definitely is that, it's also long-lasting which it claims to be, although not as much as the Orly
- Barbara Daly - 8/10 - i've never used it for a prolonged period of time so I don't know if it does end up whitening the nail, but it does give the immediate appearance of white nails when it's on, so as a base coat it would be good for negative space nails if you usually have quite white nails
- Zoya - 2/10 nope, doesn't even out, in fact makes it more bumpy if anything (quite a rough texture)
Comparison No. 4 - Overall thoughts:
- OPI - 10/10 lasts forever, I've been using this for over a year about 60% of the time and it's barely made a dint in it as you can see. It's also a brilliant base coat and does what it says
- Orly - 10/10 great base coat, does what it says, dries quickly and is very smooth, also seems to last forever, it may look unused but i've used this a good 20-30 times
- Barbara Daly - 8/10, never had any problems with it but haven't used it for long enough to determine whether it permanently makes the nails white, definitely does a good job at making them appear so
- Dior - 9/10 does what it says and dries quick and very smooth, if it wasn't for the price I'm sure this would be an incredibly popular base coat
- Zoya - 2/10 dries white so wouldn't be good for a base for negative space nails, dries quick, but aside from that isn't really that great, doesn't do what it says and is quite annoying to use (pretty thick)
