I have been using double duty for quite a few years now and really should've reviewed it earlier as I cannot sing it's praises highly enough. Double duty is a clear polish which can be used as a base coat, top coat and it also strengthen your nails preventing peeling and tearing which can be a real pain. The polish is contained in a glass bottle which holds 13.3mL of the product and the brush it comes with is just the right size for the typical 3 stroke application of polish. Boots currently sell Double Duty at £5.25 but it is quite frequently on offer as a 3-4-2 which is when I purchase it.

My nails have an annoying habit of peeling on my middle and fore-finger when left without any varnish which is irritating as they snap off leaving me with nails of various lengths which ultimately all have to be cut to the same length. Since I started using this product my nails are all of the same length and it works brilliantly as a base coat preventing staining as I tend to use bright colours and have made the mistake of missing the base coat step and ended up with bright green nail beds which is never a good look.

The application of this top/base coat is really easy provided you have cleaned your nails properly beforehand with nail polish remover, the result is smooth and shiny with the brush covering the whole nail in 3 strokes and only one coat is required. The polish takes approximately 2-3 minutes to totally dry and I like to ensure it is totally dry before applying my coloured polish as the results last longer. Unlike other varnishes of this type e.g. OPI, Jessica etc the scent isn't very strong and is not at all noticeable after the polish has dried.

I must admit that as a top coat I really find it too time consuming to dry as it takes approximately 10-15 minutes to dry on top of 2 coats of polish and a base coat so just use it as a basecoat/varnish alone. I generally tend to use Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Anti-chip Topcoat (Red Bottle) which is excellent and leaves the polish shiny for days without any chips for at least 2-3 days and considering I type on a daily basis and really put my hands through a lot that's not a bad result.

I really recommend Sally Hansen's Double Duty for anyone with nails that have a tendency to chip/peel and have found it to be as good if not better than OPI which is much more expensive and smelly. The bottle lasts me about 4.5 months without becoming gloopy and considering I like to change my polish 2-3 times a week that really isn't bad.