As with Chirara, I am incredibly impatient with waiting for the nail polish to dry and harden and very often I end up smudging my nails - which seriously irritates me to no end. The top coat dries about 30 seconds after applying it but one has to wait at least 2 minutes before applying it to wet nail polish, once the top coat is try the coats underneath are dry and hardened. As far as long lasting goes, the claimed 10 days doesn't seem realistic to me. If you don't do any housework then maybe you'll get a week of no chipping, but I chipped the polish off my one nail after the first day. But when used with other Sally Hansen products this does protect much better, that's obviously because the products are formulated to work together to get the most out of the products. This is great when you are on the go and need to get your nails done in a hurry.