Matte Top Coats Compared

Hi guys! If you love matte nail polish, you're bound to love matte top coats. I love these because you can transform any polish into a hot matte finish. There are many to chose from, even with different finishes, so let's compare the few I have!

As you can probably tell there are some differences between the four. Let's break it down a bit:

	P2 - Matte Top Coat (€1,55 / $1,95 for 8ml / .27 Fl. Oz.) This one has the most satin finish of the bunch. The substance is a bit cloudy, which you definitely can tell by looking at the nail. You could say it dulls the color a bit. Application is pretty smooth! This top coat is not that easily available since P2 is a German brand, but it is relatively the cheapest of the four. Drying time: slowest of the four, definitely needs a couple of minutes. Wear: Chipped after 3 days.
	ManGlaze - Matte-Astrophe (€10,43 / $13,13 for ?) Like everything ManGlaze, this one is special! Matte-Astrophe has a crackle effect (not always), which you either love or hate. (Most likely to happen when you apply the top coat when your nail polish isn't fully dry yet). Application is seriously the best, smooth, thin and not streaky. Mattest of the bunch. Drying time: pretty quick, 30-60 seconds. Wear: Turns satin after 3 or 4 days, no chipping, will start to wear down around the edges.
	China Glaze - Matte Magic (€5,16 / $6,50 for 9,6ml / .325 Fl. Oz.) Matte Magic has a truly flat finish, no shine or effect. This one's a bit thick though, which affects the application. Drying time: super quick, 15-30 seconds. Wear: Turns satin after 1 or 2 days, no chipping, will start to wear down around the edges.
	Essie - Matte About You (€7,94 / $10,- for 15ml / .5 Fl. Oz.) This one goes on super smooth, isn't thick and isn't as cloudy as Matte Magic. The color wasn't affected as much either, which is a big plus! Drying time: super quick, 15-30 seconds. Wear: Turns satin after 3 or 4 days, no chipping, will start to wear down around the edges. Common problem: after a while it's possible you'll find white specks in the polish.
Please note, wear can be different for everyone, depending on body chemistry and activities during the day

If I had to pick only one, I'd choose Essie's Matte About You. Matte Magic is a bit too thick for my taste and the one by P2 is way too satin. I love love love Matte-Astrophe though, but I'm not always in the mood for crazy crackle ;-).
So Matte About You it is, application and wear is really good. And, not totally unimportant, it respects the original color the most. Funnily enough I don't own this one myself yet, Daphne from www.nailswatches.com lend me hers, so I was able to this comparison, thank you Daph!!

So, when I'm running out of Matte Magic, I'm going to order Essie MAY myself.
If you're happen to be Dutch, I have some good news for you! Hema just released their own matte top coat, I'm so excited. Unfortunately I couldn't find it in the stores I've been too, but I've seen swatches, and it sure looks promising.

Well this was it already, thanks so much for reading and have a great day -
Michèle

How to: Happy Cuticles!

Hi everyone! I've done a lot of swatching today, but my MacBook failed on me AGAIN :-(. I got it up and running again but most of my recent files are gone. I've been swatching some great colors by American Apparel, Diamond Cosmetics and Eyeko. So expect those soon, after I redid them, lol!
Since I don't have anything nice to show you, I figured I'd write about another subject I'm getting a lot of questions about, cuticle care. I've always had awful looking cuticles and after trying a lot of things, this is my routine now:

1. To cut or not to cut? A lot of people pick, or bite or cut their cuticles, using clippers or scissors. Please don't! I'm a firm believer of the no cutting regime, and I'll tell you why. Cuticles are a very important part of the nail growth cycle, when you tick them off, you're bound to see this reflect in your nail growth. Cuticles serve as a natural barrier to bacteria and fungus. If you fiddle with this too much, you'll lose this protection. And not too mention the risk of nasty infections that can lead to permanent nail damage. Yikes. If you insist on doing this, make sure you use sterile tools. As you can see in this very old picture, I, admittedly, used to cut mine too. You can see how annoyed they look, but I just didn't know how to care for them.	Sad cuticles :-(
Nfu Oh Cuticle Remover	2. Get rid of it After soaking in warm water, simply push back your cuticles with an orange stick or cuticle pusher. Be careful though, or you'll end up with damage anyway. Now, I've raved about this before, but I love love love Nfu Oh's Cuticle remover. I use this religiously and it makes a huge difference! There are different kinds of cuticle removers out there, the ones that just soften your cuticle and the ones that actually work. The latter are the so called A.H.A removers. Alpha Hydroxy Acids are natural exfoliators that dissolve and slough away dry, dead skin. Some other A.H.A. cuticle removers are CND Cuticle Eraser or OPI Avoplex Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment. Just apply the stuff on the cuticle and move an orange stick along the cuticle and watch the gunk come off!
3. Moisturize! Another huge part of taking care of your cuticles, is hydration. In order to keep them supple and healthy, you need to keep them hydrated. If I'm slacking, I'll notice this right away. There are a lot of products out there that promise moisturized cuticles, but I'm very picky. There are balms, oils, creams, butters, you name it. I think we're seeing oils the most and funnily enough I like these the least. They often contain mineral oil and they seem to dry out my cuticles even more. The product I'm using a LOT is Lemony Flutter by Lush. It does contain oils but probably in the right conjunction, because this stuff is miraculous. Every night before I go to bed, I slap this on and I wake up with super soft cuticles.	Lemony Flutter by Lush
Happy cuticle :-)	4. What do you do? So, that's all there is to it actually! Step away from the clippers & nippers, get a good cuticle remover and moisturize like there's no tomorrow. Some lovely Brazilian readers told me it's common for them to cut the cuticles, so I'm really curious to see how many of you are doing this: Do you cut your cuticles? No! Yes! Yes, but I'm not going to anymore    pollcode.com free polls

So now you know all about how I keep my cuticles happy, I hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon!
- Michèle

Models Own - Lilac Dream

Hi guys! What's up? I've had a nice and relaxed weekend, I even managed to ignore my inbox and blog, sometimes I just have to, to keep things fun. But I promise you I'll be back with full force this week ;-). And if you emailed me, replies will follow soon, so keep an eye on your inboxes!

I wasn't planning on posting tonight but the fact I hadn't posted in a while was gnawing at me, haha. It is in the middle of the night so I'll get to the point: You're looking at Lilac Dream by Models Own. I love their huge selection of great colors and this pretty lilac is no exception. I was planning on doing a comparison with Lilac Dream, but as it turns out, I don't have anything like it!

Application was alright, only 2 thin coats are needed for full coverage. I did find the formula on the thick side, so it could stand some thinner.
I actually somewhat tested the wear of this polish and after 3 days it was looking as good as it was on day one! It didn't make it to a 4th day, but let's blame my obsessive compulsive need to change polish for that!
I'm not big on cremes, they usually bore me pretty quickly, but I'm really enjoying this color.

What do you think of cremes? Please let me know: Beautiful or boring?

Models Own products can be purchased at www.modelsownit.com.

ManGlaze Giveaway!

Yes you read that right :-). I was enjoying my ManGlaze polishes so much, I just felt the need to share some of the ManGlaze awesomeness with you!
And to be honest, you guys are all so great and supportive and funny and sweet and caring, so consider this giveaway as a small gesture of my thanks.

Unfortunately I cannot buy everyone nail polish so I'll be giving away Matte is Murder (click here for swatch & review) and Fuggen Ugly to one lucky winner. The rules? Pretty simple:

• You have to be a follower of my blog (I will check)
• Leave me a comment with your email address
• It doesn't matter where you live, this contest is open internationally.
• Optional: You can earn one extra chance to win by reposting this on Twitter or your blog - include a link to your tweet or blogpost in a separate entry.
• You can enter till the 21th of May, 11:59pm - CET.
• I will use www.random.org to decide the winner

I won't be sending out this package myself, I will order straight from the ManGlaze website and make sure it gets delivered at your address. Yay for laziness! ;-)

Well dear readers, if you wish to enter: good luck!

ManGlaze - Matte is Murder

Hi everyone! Last week I received my order from ManGlaze, I was so excited! I have been drooling over their polishes for months now, so I decided it was okay to give in ;-). ManGlaze is actually one of the, if not THE, very first company to sell matte nail polish. Of course a lot of brands followed, but there's not another single brand out there with the same attitude and edge that I love so much. Oh and the nail polish is pretty damn good too. I got all 4 polishes, Matte is Murder, Fuggen Ugly, Matte-Astrophe (clear matte top coat) and Hot Mess (bling matte top coat). Eventually I will show you all of these and I will compare the matte top coat with some other matte top coats I have. But today I will show you Matte is Murder. Meat Matte is Murder is a bad ass black matte with a nice shimmer to it. The shimmer has a turquoise hue, absolutely stunning. The formula was really good compared to all the matte polishes I've tried so far. I only applied 2 coats, and this polish actually allows you to go over the same area multiple times, without ending up with a streaky mess. Drying time was pretty awesome too, just a couple of minutes and you're good to go. I haven't been able to test how good or bad the wear is yet, but I'll come back and edit this post when I find out more.

I actually took this pic a week earlier, so my nails are a bit longer here

If you get bored with the matte look you can always add top coat, the shimmer really comes to live, so pretty. I decided to make a ruffian with some top coat to show you what it looks like.

You can order ManGlaze polishes online at www.manglaze.com and they do ship internationally!

Well dear readers, this was it, thanks for stopping by!
- Michèle