Sally Hansen top coat - what am I doing wrong?

[FreezerBird]

I bought a bottle of Sally Hansen insta-dri top coat after seeing people rave about it on here .

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The first time I used it, it seemed to dry the colour pretty quickly, but didn't make any difference to how long it lasted - colour was retreating from the ends of my nails by the next day.

Used it again last night, and got dressed 10 minutes afterwards - all the nails on one hand smudged really badly as I put trousers on.

Am I being over-optomistic about its awesomeness, or am I doing it wrong?

IME any quick dry top coat will get your nails touch dry very very quickly, but they still take the same amount of time (an hour or so) to completely dry through all the layers, and you can still smudge it in that time if you are at all rough. I find that if I put on a cuticle oil or greasy hand cream (gently!) a couple of minutes after applying the top coat, the grease stops my nails smudging so easily, as they are more likely to slide over rough fabric etc, iykwim.

I am a big fan of Essie Gel Setter and OPI quick dry drops over the top - the gel setter is a far better top coat than any quick dry one I've come across, but the OPI drops help it get touch dry almost instantly (and have the added grease factor as mentioned above, because they contain some kind of nourishing oil).