Time for a Matte!

Hello there lacquer lovers. In my last post I mentioned I had considered experimenting with matte polish but decided it didn't fit the mani I was going for. So this time I decided I would use one of my matte topcoats.

For this mani I used China Glaze Luxe & Lush from the Hunger Games Capitol Colors collection, Wet n' Wild Black Creme & NYC Matte topcoat. I recently added a lot more Wet n' Wild colors to my collection since CVS was having a sale where they were .69 a piece.

The black creme polish had a nice shine but you need to put it on a tad thick to get an even coat & it isn't easy to clean up. The finger on the left looks slightly uneven because it is wearing a teabag due to a crack but by the end of the mani it blends in with all the other fingers.

Here I added the matte topcoat. It gave the black creme a matte effect in under a minute, I love it! I chose to get a matte topcoat because it is more versatile & cost effective than collecting matte colors. However I do intend on adding some matte colors to my collection & comparing the matte polish vs. matte topcoat.

I had hoped the shine of Luxe & Lush would contrast nicely with the black matte but the shine really just cancelled out the matte. So I decided to sandwich the Luxe & Lush under another coat of the matte topcoat.

Overall I was happy with how it turned out, I was happy to see that the matte coat didn't kill the shine effect of the glitter chunks in the Luxe & Lush. In the future I might use a different black though, this one wasn't the easiest to work with or clean up.

I recently ordered a stamping kit & dotting brushes so I can do even more fun manis. The stamp kit came today, I am so excited to try it out!

My sweetie & I are going to San Francisco to celebrate our third year anniversary soon so I'm brainstorming for a fun rainbow mani, I hope you'll look forward to it!