Matte Moments

When it comes to mattifying my manicure I can be pretty resistive. I REALLY like it when my nails are shiny, but sometimes a girl likes change. When the mood strikes me, it helps to have a decent matte top coat to make everything look meticulous. I think I found a good one!

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Before I even tell you what matte top coat I am using, can we please read the warning on the bottle?! Go read ... I'll wait...

I would be one pissed 7 year old.

When I first received this matte top coat by MASH, I only dipped one toe in the pool, so to speak, to test the waters. Actually quite literally my pinky is the only mattified finger here.

This was at least 3 coats of KleanColor - Fuschia Glitter

MASH matte top coat is only on the pinky; the rest of the fingers were probably Seche Vite.

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Orly - Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

What a fantastic green!!! Gollie g. 

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Right?!

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It is equally as awesome with matte top coat. Good job MASH!

Here is an equally fabulous green (see more here) made LESS FABULOUS...

Sinful - San Francisco

I don't know... it kind of takes the life out of it.

BUT in terms of matte top coat quality... it is superb.

I do like a nice matte cream on occasion. It makes me feel like I am wearing Illamasqua's rubber finish polishes. That dirty post can be found here.

This is Revlon - Rock with MASH matte top coat.

Look how smooth!!










How good is this matte top coat?

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Battle of the top coats...

Seche Vite vs. MASH

.... uuuhhh, it's like apples and oranges people. They are both great.

 Bonus picture here!

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Barielle vs. MASH

Barielle Matte-inee is the only other matte top coat I own.  This is Barielle Matte-inee over Lime Crime - Peaches <3 Cream

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there were visible streaks in the finish. Sad face. This is probably why I don't use it much. I am not sure whether the problem is the brush (it's horrid!) or the formula, or a combination of both.

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MASH matte top coat is like butter. The brush and formula worked like a charm EVERY time.




Can I just say how much I enjoy a mattified pastel!

More Lime Crime Pastels can be found here.










More manicures with MASH...

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I decided to layer Orly - Royal Navy with a bunch of glitters and mattify them!

Bonus picture here!

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Left to Right:

Pinky: Finger Paints - Asylum
Ring: Revlon - Galaxy
Middle: Revlon - Radiant
Index: Orly - Royal Navy shiny!
Thumb: Orly - Royal Navy matte!









I am completely convinced. Not only does MASH deliver a high quality matte finish, but the dry time was great too. What is your favorite matte top coat?

MASH matte top coat is $7.99 for 15mL (0.50 fl.oz.)

*This product was sent for review*

Pastels done right

When I was asked to review Lime Crime's Les Desserts d'Antoinette Nail Polish Collection I was hesitant as they are all pastels. I thought, oh great, seven chalky difficult to apply polishes here I come!

The first thing I notice with these polishes were the names. I loved them all.

'Milky Way'

Is it surprising I chose to wear this one first? I love sheer whites so this was the next best thing. It ended up flawless in two coats! It leans slightly beige pink.

Even the first coat was pretty amazing. Quickly, I began to realize these were not your average pastels.

'Lavendairy'

Standard bright lavender lilac pastel.

'Once In A Blue Mousse'

Oh man, I really loved this one. It reminded me very much of those Tiffany's like colors. See here.

'Parfait Day'


This pink is not quite as bright/neon in real life. Also, do you see the bubbling on my ring finger? That is an application issue; more on that later...

'Pastelchio' <---tee heee!

Woah MAMA! You like green? You like it LOUD!? Well this is your kind of green pastel then. This picture is in the shade too!

I was definitely self conscious wearing this bad boy.

'Peaches <3 Cream'

Seriously, that's the name. Someone asked what I was wearing. I had to pause and think of what to say...
"Peaches heart symbol Cream?!"

Somehow that doesn't quite have a ring to it. I substituted "and" for <3

This might be my first orange... I can't complain.

'Crema De Lemon'

As my sister says, if you want to wear yellow on your nails, why don't you just not wear basecoat for a while? How true. But when you can't wait for those dark colors to do their magic on your nail beds, this one will do the trick!

Actually, last time I wore yellow I was scared/scared so I left this guy for the very end because I thought I wouldn't like it. I was dead wrong.

What a nice yellow! It ended up being one of my favorites.


















I thought this collection would come with your run of the mill pastel formula; I am happy to say this was not the case. The formula on all of these was a dense creme. If you are not careful, the two coats it would normally take to make it opaque will give you bubbles (at least that is what happened to me). Therefore, I opted for 3 super thin coats most of the time. My only other caution with these is, wear two coats of basecoat or you nails may stain, at least mine did.

These were sent for review.
They are 9 ml/0.3 oz
$5.99 each or $39.00 for all 7
On a superfluous note: The packaging is really cute and their site is so wonderfully whimsical!