Hard Candy's Matte Top Coat

The Premise

Two weeks ago I was showing off my half silver half blue nails to the ladies in the office (see below). Unbeknownst to me one of them sells Avon. She dropped off her catalog to me open to the page on "Mosiac Effects" polish. I bought that as well as a bottle of matte black polish I found at the back.

Mad about Matte

The matte black polish came in on Thursday. It looked great but chipped so quickly. I figured there HAD to be some sort of matte top coat. A quick amazon search turned up a few. There was even one at Walmart. So I hopped in the car to find it for a little instant gratification (and free shipping). The company I ended up buying from was different than the one I went to grab, Hard Candy's Matte Top Coat was something like $4 and claimed it would make any color polish matte. I went for the Esse Matte About You but they were sold out. When I run out of Hard Candy's I'll probably try the Esse (even at the $8 a bottle they want).

The Findings

As advertised it does indeed turn any color matte (pardon the poor lighting in the picture). I tried a whole bunch of colors first and found that the darker polishes work best. But you can see I went with silver/chrome and did a little freehand polish on the tip after the top coat had dried. This makes for a subtle effect that someone has to be really looking for to note (or they have to be very intent on you!). Here's a link with a comparison of the two top coats. Seems the Esse is a little better.

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