Press Sample of the Anchor & Heart
Nail Care Essentials

Happy Wednesday! I actually had to look at my calendar real fast and make sure I had the right day of the week. It’s been one of those weeks already!

I have 5 products to share today – and all 5 make up the Anchor & Heart Nail Care Essentials line!

I received these nearly 2 months ago, and I’ve been testing them out and 3 of the 5 items are at the halfway point already in my bottles.

Have I had them awhile? Yes. However, my review isn’t late. When it comes to certain types of nail products – some need to be tested before a stamp of approval is added. Wouldn’t be much of a review otherwise… right? I wore each of these on my non-swatching hand for an extended period of time, simply so I could tell you how they preformed.

So what have I been testing? A matte top coat, a 5-free top coat, cuticle oil, deep nutrition base coat and a strengthening base coat. Each one that I received are scented, but they are available in unscented as well. You can also select the strength of the scent if you wish to.

Let’s jump in and take a look!

Anchor & Heart Lacquer | Sea Glass Matte Top Coat

Sea Glass Matte Top Coat is pretty much the matte top coat of the year. I own a lot of mattes, and this gives the most matte appearance of all that I’ve tried so far.

If you picked up the flakey matte top coat Taryn offered for Polish Pickup – it’s the same amazing matte effect, minus the flakes.

Wear time for mattes is notoriously short, and I honestly didn’t find this much different – so I did play with it a bit. Wearing the polish and matte topper alone, I went 2 days before a significant chip happened. Then I tried polish, Ferry Fast (we’ll talk about that next) top coat and then once dry, I applied Sea Glass. I got 5 days of wear before a significant chip. So I prolonged it, but matte toppers aren’t known for longevity.

If you are looking for that super matte look – this is it. But wear time is what you expect from a matte top coat.

Anchor & Heart Lacquer | Ferry Fast 5 Free Top Coat

Ferry Fast Top Coat is a 5 free top coat that dries fast and is incredibly glossy. This is what I used to assist Sea Glass for longer wear time.

Testing it as a top coat alone, I was able to apply it and it dried to the touch for me in 5 minutes and I was able to go about my normal things (like laundry) within 25 minutes without any dings or smudges. Obviously body chemistry can alter these time frames, but I found this was what worked for me.

Longevity wise, I got a solid 8 days of wear before anything chipped. There was minor tip wear, but that’s common considering my job and how much typing I do.

I did attempt nail art and if I completely float the top coat, I got very minimal smearing. It had to be floating though (which is when the brush doesn’t touch the nail at all, and you only use the brush to lightly manipulate the drop of top coat). I found lighter colors (white and pastel like shades) were the ones with minimal smearing while darker shades stayed put.

As a normal top coat though, I got a high gloss, beautiful finish. I’m below the halfway mark on my bottle and it still has not become stringy or thick either.

For some reason I didn’t take a photo holding the bottle, not sure why. We’ll blame mommy brain, but I did use it for this swatch.

Anchor & Heart Lacquer | Mermaid Tears Deep Nutrition Base Coat

Mermaid Tears Deep Nutrition Base Coat is probably my favorite item in this lineup. It makes for a wonderful neutral base for glitters and flakes, but also works as a stand alone wash of color or a normal base coat.

Mermaid Tears is a deep nutrition rehab treatment for your nails and can help weak or brittle nails. It has a moisturizing formula that contains a smoothing complex to seal down Keratin cells, while amino acids help stimulate the formation of new Keratin cells.

My nails have never been a problem for me personally, so I cannot test if they help weak, brittle nails. I’ve always had strong, healthy nails – so I cannot confirm or deny if the base coat helps those issues.

As far as a stand alone base coat, it worked very well for me. I used it with Ferry Fast Top Coat and got 8 days of wear out of it. I also wore it as a base coat and color (3 thin coats) with a flake topper and got another 8 days out of it.

Below shows it in 1 coat of Mermaid Tears, and the second photo shows a closeup of 3 thin coats with a flakie topper (which will be in a future post)

Anchor & Heart Lacquer | Iron Anchor Strengthening Base Coat

Next up is the Iron Anchor Strengthening Base Coat! It contains garlic extract which is know to be an antibacterial/antiseptic and works against bacteria and fungus – often the culprit of peeling and brittle nails. 

Again, I don’t have issues with peeling or brittle nails and my nails are fairly strong (I could take someones eye out cutting my nails cause they shoot across the room at a high speed) so this is purely a longevity review.

Between this base coat and Mermaid Tears, I prefer Mermaid Tears for the milky look and the fact it doubles as a base – but longevity wise, Iron Anchor is the clear winner. I got 11 solid days of wear. After 7 days there was visible tip wear (again, I type at my day job and while blogging – but I also play video games on the PC) and at 11 days the tip wear was incredibly visible and nail growth showed too much – so I removed it. But I had no significant chips that made me cringe seeing my nails.

Anchor & Heart Lacquer | Vitamin Sea Cuticle Oil

The final item is Vitamin Sea Cuticle Oil! This is a custom blend of lightweight yet nourishing blend of oils picked for their high levels of skin-loving essential fatty acids and Vitamin E.

This isn’t a super heavy oil, which I like. I do apply oils and creams at work often – so I need oils and creams that do the job without taking forever to soak in or that are so thick they just sit there on the skin.

Vitamin Sea Cuticle Oil applies easy with a roller ball applicator, soaks in and massively hydrates. If I’m at work, I apply a thin layer and massage it in. I do work a lot with my hands and I found after using this for a month straight, my cuticles took to it incredibly well and they are happy, healthy cuticles.

Anchor & Heart | Nail Care Essentials

So there’s my semi lengthy write up for all 5 products from the Anchor & Heart Lacquer Nail Care Essentials! As I mentioned, each one is lightly scented – but you can select unscented as well, or if you want scented – there are strength options.

I had a few different scents – but Cucumber Mint was my favorite. Light, refreshing and invigorating. Fruit Salsa was a close second.

You can find all 5 products now in the Anchor & Heart Lacquer Shop. My top 3 products are: Vitamin Sea Cuticle Oil, Ferry Fast 5 Free Top Coat and Mermaid Tears Deep Nutrition Base.

Where To Buy: Anchor & Heart Lacquer Shop

Anchor & Heart Social Media: Facebook | Instagram

Hope you enjoyed this review!