You may remember a previous blog posting I did about a matte polish I tried.  I loved the way it looked, but it required frequent touch ups throughout the day, and didn't even make it a couple hours before needing its first touch up.  I had wondered if Essie's Matte About You topcoat would hold up better than a standard matte polish.  Essie's Matte About You Topcoat is used over any standard polish to turn it from shiny gloss to matte finish.  I tried it out this weekend over my gray China Glaze polish in a shade called Recycle.

I wore the China Glaze alone for about a day to get a feel for how durable it was on its own before adding the topcoat.  It fared decently well, only chipping some the next day after I did some dishes.  So, I touched it up with a new coat, and then added a coat of the Essie Matte About You topcoat.  It created a wonderful matte look that I just loved.  The best part? It held up really well.  I wore it most of that day before it started to chip.  I can't wait to try it with some other polishes that I know hold up well on their own to see how it fares with a slightly better base polish.

One down side is that it did seem to lighten the color a bit while making it matte.  It wasn't as dark a gray after the matte topcoat as it was before.  A third coat of polish before the topcoat might help that, but it will still probably be lighter than it is when left glossy.

All in all, I heartily give Essie's Matte About You two thumbs up.  Its well worth the price tag, and holds up much better than OPI's Suzi Skis The Pyranees Matte Polish did on its own.  I really love the OPI Suzi... color, so I might do a coat or two of that, do a clear gloss coat to protect it, then put the Essie top coat on to recreate the matte look.  Hopefully it will hold up better than way and still show the great Suzi Skis..color. 

Now, its still not as durable as standard polishes, so it will probably last a day, maybe two if you're careful, but not much longer.  But its still a large improvement from straight matte polishes.  Also, if you haven't tried a matte polish yet, and want to try one before shelling out 10.00 for a top coat matte-ifier, Forever 21 is now selling Matte polishes for about 2.50 in various shades.  I haven't seen them in my local store yet, but they are available online. 

I got my Essie top coat polish from an Amazon.com seller for under 10.00 including the shipping, but the only ones available now are 10.00 beofre adding the 5.00 and up shipping.  Soooo, you can still get it from them, or directly from Essie's website for probably about the same cost: http://www.essieshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=681&gclid=CO-vy-D5jZ4CFSDxDAodB2mSqA  I am not sure who would carry it in store - anyone who carries Essie polish usually would be a good place to start.

That's my take on the Essie Matte topcoat.  I liked it, I find it worth the money, and it lasts longer than standard matte polishes on their own. I can't wait to expirement with my red, purple, and navy blue polishes next!

Thanks for reading!

Amber

* Notes on the pictures*
The picture on the left is my nails before the top coat, taken shortly after my first application of the original China Glaze polish color.  The second two are after the Matte topcoat.  My nails were not quite as dark as they appear in the first photo, and were a darker shade than they appear in the matte polish photos.  The flash really seemed to show through to the bed of my nails, too.  It really didn't show my nail bed as much in real life. Though I do readily admit that I am not the best manicurist ;)  A third coat of color would have probably been a great idea before adding the matte topcoat.

I had been dying to try this new matte nail polish trend, but not feeling like dragging my two kids to the mall, where they would inevitably scream and run about, I decided to order some online.  I was going to go with the straight color matte polishes by OPI that Sephora is selling, but then I found out about the OPI Suede line.  OPI suede is a matte polish, but with a sparkly glittery addition.  I know, it sounds weird, how can it be matte, but still be glittery?!

Not sure the picture I took does it justice, but it really is matte, yet also sorta glittery. BTW, this was the picture after the first coat dried. Was too impatient to wait for 1st to dry a full 2-5 minutes and then wait again for the 2nd to dry before taking a pic :) It does give it a look of texture, which is cool. It does seem to dry really fast, and the brush gets clumpy fast. So, speed is of the essence when doing your nails.  The brush will unclump once back in the bottle for a bit, so no worries there.

   The color I bought is called "suzi skis in the pyrenees", shown in the bottle above. Some websites show it very dark and almost purple, but this pic is a little more accurate to its true color.  They have several other colors, too: a hot pinkish hue, a purplish hue, a navy blue, a mink brown/tan hue... and many many more. I found mine on Amazon here. A couple other places sold it as well, but cost per bottle+shipping, it was cheapest on amazon, and they had this gray shade I wanted as well as the Essie Matte topcoat. There was another place that had it for about the same price overall, but they had some web complaints, (salonsavings.com), and that made me nervous about them. In the end I think I paid about 10.00 a bottle. Kinda pricey, least for what I usually spend on polish.  I also bought some of the Essie Matte About You topcoat from amazon.  That has yet to arrive, but I am excited about experimenting with it with all my other polish shades. 

Now, you may have heard that the matte polish doesn't hold up well.  Sadly, this is very true.  My polish was half gone on my nails by the end of the day.  But I am also hard on my hands with dishes, laundry, etc during the day.  I also only did 1 coat since I was just testing it out.

 An idea I found while browsing OPI's website is to take the matte polish and do french tips.  You can paint your nails a normal shiny polish color, then tip them with a matte color. Or, do the matte color, then tip with a shiny color.  The OPI website lets you test out different shade combos. Its pretty neat. Doing the matte color and shiny tip might help it last, since it seemed mostly my tips that faded fastest.  Also, as the tag attached to the polish will remind you, steer clear of hand lotions, top coats, base coats or any nail quick drying products. It will either make the color fade faster or turn it shiny, which defeats the purpose of matte.

So what do you think of the OPI Suede?

Thanks for reading!

~Amber