Matte Top Coat Comparison

After looking for the Hard Candy matte top coat since last fall, I finally found it at my local Walmart. I love Essie Matte to Go, but as the Hard Candy top coat was $4 rather than $10, I was eager to try it out. I bought both bottles they had (hey, both of them together were still less than one bottle of the Essie!) and hurried home to test it out. I wanted to compare the top coats over both a matte polish and a shimmer polish, so I used NYX Silver Plum, which I was already wearing, and Orly Enchanted Forest.

 outdoors, sunlight

outdoors, shade

Can you guess which is which? Left to right, I used Essie, Hard Candy, Essie, Hard Candy. As you can tell, especially in the first picture, Essie makes both polishes a bit more matte than the Hard Candy. In real life, though, the difference was negligible. I couldn't even tell which was more matte with my hand at arm's length from my face, and once you put on lotion a couple times, there probably wouldn't be any difference at all. And for less than half the price of Essie Matte About You? I'll go with the Hard Candy from now on if I can find it. Two bottles ought to last me a while. :)