I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the OPI Matte Top Coat dried and love that it's a true matte finish.
This was in my swatching box at the same time as the Barielle Matte-inée (which I shared with the Summer Brights collection), so of course I wanted to do some comparisons. To the OPI and Barielle, I added China Glaze Matte Magic (you can tell I like this one because it's visibly used) and Sinful Matte Finish.
Below, on the nail over a black creme in the same order left to right as the bottles above. You can see that the OPI and China Glaze are the most matte, while the Barielle and Sinful are more in the satin finish camp.
Because I love excess, I did another comparison with the OPI and Barielle, this time putting Butter London Matte Finish and Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Flatline into the mix.
Again, same order on the nails below as the bottles above—OPI and Butter London are true matte; Barielle and OCC are more satin, though OCC is more on the matte side of satin (and also will need thinning before I use it next, as this is an older bottle from before they changed their bottle style).
I wanted to include Essie Matte About You in here, too, but couldn't find it. Just last night, too late to make it into this entry, I remembered I had a tackle box with base and treatment and top coat overflow sitting on the floor of my bedroom closet. Sure enough, that's where the Essie was hiding. I have really got to get my stash more organized.
UPDATE 19-Jun-2013: I did finally get around to comparing the Essie to some other things; see More Matte Topcoat Comparisons.
The OPI and Barielle top coats shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the providers.
fun comparison! You don't happen to have NYC Matte Me Crazy do you? That's the only matte top coat I have, I didn't realize they could be so different! Just wondering how that one is compared to some others. great post! :)
ReplyDeleteleester, I do not, but I will be making the drugstore rounds this weekend and will pick some up if I see it--I always like to do comps. :)
ReplyDeleteaw thank you!
DeleteThank you for doing this!!! It's nice to see what the options REALLY look like. Obviously matte means different things to different companies!
ReplyDeletewow i love when you compare polishes. opi seems to do the trick. hehe. oh man sorry about the matte about you. man i'm having one of those days too. i lost, i theodora you, a really cute pink...of course pink... hehe but i found, flying monkeys...i didn't even remember buying it. lol. it fell under my bed. haha.
ReplyDeletenice! i am getting the new wax finish top coat from cult nails soon. i think i like that finish the best though this matte top coat looks pretty fun.
ReplyDeleteOooh! I love how matte it is! I also love that it's so close to the Butter London since I already have that one. ;) Although, one can't have too much matte topcoat.... hehehe
ReplyDeleteEssie Matte about you performs well, but I love the smooth finish in OPI :-*
ReplyDeleteI have been waiting for ages for OPI to come up with their own matte top coat. It looks so great!
ReplyDeleteNice comparison! I really like the way OPI's looks
ReplyDeleteThe Opi one looks really good :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great comparison! The OPI matt tc looks to be the best of this bunch! My current favourite matt tc is Mavala Color-Matt, but when I'm ready for a new bottle I might well give the OPI a try!
ReplyDeleteI never really believed in spending a lot and searching for special matte topcoats, but you've just proved that there is a huge difference between them. The OPI one to me beats the whole bunch of them! I think I need!!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the Essie compared? Any chance you could be convinced to do a comparison with the OPI/China Glaze still?
ReplyDeleteHannah, I will definitely get the Essie in a comparison before too long. I came across some other matte top coats I missed this time as well so not sure if I'll have enough fingers to get the China Glaze in there too but will see what I can manage. :)
DeleteWow the differences are huge! I like the true matte effect of OPI the best, the satin finish doesn't really appeal to me :-/
ReplyDelete