matte & gloss

The blue ocean/swirl paint job lasted till the pumpkin pie was done and 1 episode of Park & Recreation.  I wasn't feeling the blue nails anymore.  I knew I wanted to use the same stamping plate and use a matte finish somehow.  Looking through my polishes, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark was calling to me.  I have not used it in a long time, I would say over two years.  All nails got two coats of the color.  All fingers except the middle got two coats of matte finish top coat, with the middle finger getting normal top coat.

right - gloss

left - matte

middle - gloss

rest - matte

I don't know if it this particular color, but the matte vs gloss is very subtle when on different nails.  I sort of like the matte finish, it would look very nice with pale spring colors.  Of course, I did not stop there.

I did some stamping using the gloss and matte top coats.  Stamping with clear top coats is wicked hard.  It is very easy to clean off your fingers but it dries so quickly you need to clean the plate after two goes.

right - gloss base, matte stamp

left - matte base, gloss stamp

I am amazed how different they look. They do not look like I used the same plate (I did, I promise).  The matte stamp effect has more glass showing through and it less subtle.  The gloss stamp is very delicate.  If I do a look like this again (matte & gloss) I will stamp the matte over the gloss.  But I guess it depends on what plate I use.  A nice thing about this overall look is it extremely subtle, you need to look pretty carefully to notice.  This is sort of what I was going for, but in the long run, it will be good when it starts to fade and I can play around with some new glitter paints on top.

OPI - Lincoln Park After Dark
Nails INC - matte
Plate - Cheeky CH52

Have you used a matte top coat?  Used it to stamp?  Does 2++ years of not using a polish seem like a long time?