A beautiful manicure is a great finishing touch to your look. But it loses its glamour when it starts to chip. Consumer Reports tested seven nail polishes, including several that claim to last a long time.

All were applied with a base and top coat if the brand had one. Ten panelists tried the polishes at home, while ten panelists received a series of professional manicures. Those were checked at seven, 10 and 14 days.

The Chanel Le Vernis polish is the most expensive tested at $27 for the colour plus another $52 for the base and top coat. But it chipped so quickly, most of the home panelists removed it early.

Surprisingly, the hands-down favourite was a $2 polish called Sinful Colors. The base and top coat together are just $8. The polish still looked good after seven days, but it took slightly longer to dry than others.

Another winning polish was the $10 CND Vinylux Weekly Polish,which lived up to its name and still looked good after a week. It doesn’t need a base coat, and the top coat is $10.

The $6 Revlon Colarstay polish promised to last 11 days, and it still looked okay when testers checked it on day ten. The base and top coat cost $13.

If you want a quick manicure and don’t have time for the whole base coat and top coat routine, Consumer Reports found some one-step polishes that looked pretty good at the end of a week. They were Sally Hansen complete Salon Manicure for $7 and Covergirl Outlast for $5.