The bottom row is basecoats: Glitter A-Peel (from Nail Pattern Boldness), Orly Bonder, Colorstay, Butter London (Nail Foundation), Sinful Colors, and Zoya Get Even..
I talked a bit about the Sally Hansen nail-care products in the entry where I showed all my SH polish, but only very briefly. I like their nail-care products, generally, and my grocery store, which likes to have in-store coupon sales, has such sales on these products pretty regularly, and I use up enough of this stuff that I usually use those coupons to get more when I run across them. I bought Nail Nutrition Growth first out of these four, and I've used it a lot. I'm not sure it actually helps my nails grow, but it makes the bed of my nails feel better, I'm sure of that. I just started using the cuticle oil lately, and I think I need to be using it more often, but certainly it helps. VitaSurge also has a nice feel on the nails, once it's on, but it's got little bubbles in it and you're supposed to sort of massage it into your nails, so it's not actually something you just put on like nail polish. And I haven't tried the Nail Nutrition Strength Formula yet; I'm saving it for after the others have run out. (I've more or less given up on ever getting really long nails, so really the strength one is probably more what I should be using. Good, strong, and maybe sort of medium-length is all I'm shooting for. I think long nails are unrealistic for me.)
Like the topcoats, I use my basecoats pretty interchangeably without having any really clear favorites. I've used the Butter London a lot (and like the topcoat, have barely made a dent in it) and I've used Get Even a lot since I got it for Christmas. But I've used Orly Bonder a ton, too - I tend to just use whatever's handy really. I am sort of thinking that ridge-filling basecoats might be what I ought to be using in the long-term, though - I don't have terribly uneven nails, but I have some visible ridges. I also used to use Sally Hansen - I know I used up at least one bottle of Insta-Grip, and I might have had Complete Salon Manicure at some point, as well. I do think basecoat is something it's important to use, but I have never established in my own mind whether one is superior to another, to speak of.
I've used Glitter A-Peel a couple of times, and if I have a gripe with it, it's that it works a little too well. It's intended to allow you to peel thick coats of glitter off without damaging your nails, and it does that. I've had a little problem with it coming off sooner than I want it to, but I suspect that this is similar to my general chipping problems in that it's more or less self-inflicted. I'm just hard on my nails, and that's certainly going to affect what Glitter A-Peel does!
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