Thursday, October 10, 2013

L'Oreal Mix and Matte Swatches

As the title says, today I've got swatches of the shades from the L'Oreal Mix and Matte display, but first I need to vent just a tiny bit about my life outside of nail polish, which has been a touch more stressful this week than usual. Monday, I was out of town, having extended my weekend visit to see my mom when there were some unexpected developments (she's physically doing pretty well, but there are concerns in other areas that needed some attention), then when I did get back to work, I had to fire one of the people on my team, so that was not a fun process either. It's just the way things go sometimes. I'm fortunate to have so many other things going well in my life, such as being able to buy plenty of new nail polish, like the L'Oreal colors I have to share today.

The Mix and Matte display has six shades, three regular cremes and three matte ones. Left to right: Lacquer-ized, Never Lacque-ing, Lacque-onic, No Matte-r What, She's So Matte, and Matte-r of Fact. The word "matte" in the names of the last three is the main indication that these are matte; the bottles aren't frosted and the front label just says "nail color" like the regular cremes.



When I swatched these, I used the display as my inspiration. It shows a matte color on three fingers with funky French tips added using one of the regular cremes, then an accent nail of the same regular creme topped with one of the Nail Lingerie strips.



I didn't use any Nail Lingerie strips in my swatching, though, since I've already reviewed them (see that blog post here) and putting them on for just the short time before I moved on to the next swatch seemed needlessly wasteful. Besides, you can see the colors better without stickers on top.

For my first pairing, I chose She's So Matte, the black matte polish which I also featured in last Friday's matte topcoat comparisons, and Lacque-onic, a classic red creme. I used only one coat of She's So Matte; two (or some basecoat before the first) would have been better for disguising my ridges. I used two coats of Lacque-onic, which is certainly decently pigmented but was no match for the deep dark of She's So Matte. That meant I needed to make my funky tips thicker than I'd like to get them anywhere near as red as the accent nail, and of course I couldn't smooth that out with topcoat because that would ruin the matte/glossy contrast.





Matte-r of Fact is a teal matte creme; its partner for this swatch party was Never Lacque-ing, a cool-toned beige creme. I used two coats of Matte-r of Fact and three of Never Lacque-ing. I had the same lighter tips over darker base issue as with the first pair; maybe I just need more practice doing funkies. Or maybe I just need Photoshop; I suspect there was some image editing going on with that mani photo on the display, as they don't have lumps at the tips at all.





Our last couple is No Matte-r What, a deep red matte, and Lacquer-ized, a purple-leaning medium pink. Both of these were two coats.





I'd wear any one of these colors as full mani. The regular cremes aren't anything I don't have already in my stash but they'd be nice options if I weren't already overstocked. The mattes are quite nice. My favorite is Matte-r of Fact, the teal.

9 comments:

  1. Love the way these pair up. Sorry things are so stressful. Hope everything's okay with your mom. *hugs*

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the teal matte is my favorite as well! I'm still not a big matte fan. more of a glossy girl.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It sounds like you've been going through a lot; hope all is well with your mom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aw, that sound like a no-fun week, I hope everything is sorted out with your mum too...
    Those mattes look really nice matte!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sorry you're having a stressful week. I hope things get better soon.

    Thanks for the swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Try putting a coat (or 2) of the shiny color on the whole nail first & then tape off the tips & apply your matte color. You still might have a tiny bit of a line but it's usually much better :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jenn. If I get it into my head to do a full mani like this, I might try that. For swatching sessions, I'm usually too impatient to let the first coat dry enough to do any taping on it. :)

      Delete
  7. Sorry to hear about stresses in your life :( I hope everything is going well with you. I love your swatches of these with the cute tips!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.