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. :)

Hard Candy Beetle

I picked up Hard Candy Beetle the other day at Walmart. It's a mauve, green, bronze and gold multichrome that is (from what I've read) an exact dupe for Orly Space Cadet...and it costs half as much. Beetle's foil finish is absolutely stunning, and I love how it shifts from color to color in different lights. Application was absolutely perfect - Beetle was opaque for me at two easy coats. I was curious to see what Beetle would look like with a matte top coat, as well as what it would do to the multichrome effect, so my pointer finger has one coat of Essie Matte About You, and the rest have one coat of Rush top coat.

 indoors, artificial light

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

 outdoors, cloudy (The sun is refusing to come out.)

  outdoors, cloudy

 outdoors, cloudy

As far as I can tell, the matte top coat didn't change the multichrome effect at all. This is an absolutely gorgeous polish, and I'm very glad I got it - especially as it was only $5 compared to $10 for the Orly (or even more for the MAC dupe). Now, I'm off to see the wizard...er, the doctor. Have a great day!

Hard Candy Mischief

Halloween is over, but I still wanted a little Halloween on my nails today, so I wore Hard Candy Mischief. It's an orange glitter in a dark green base, and it's a cheaper dupe for China Glaze Ick-a-Body. I've read that Ick-a-Body is really lumpy and terrible to remove, and I didn't have this experience with Mischief. Even better, Mischief was completely and entirely opaque in two coats, and almost opaque in one - layered over a dark green like Orly Enchanted Forest, Mischief is perfectly fine in one coat. Here are two coats with one coat of Rush top coat (and sorry again for only indoor pics; it was dark when I left the house this morning and dark when I came back):

 indoors, artificial light

indoors, artificial light

You probably noticed that the polish looks darker in the first picture than the second - Mischief can look brighter or darker depending on the amount of light hitting it and the angle at which the light shines on the nail. Also, though Mischief was a bit lumpy with only one coat of top coat, it is not nearly as lumpy as it looks in the pictures. In real life, though I can feel that my nails are a bit bumpy when I run my fingers over them, they don't look bumpy or gritty in the least. As far as removal goes, Mischief came off much easier than many glitters I've tried. I've only taken off one thumbnail (I'm busy, and didn't want to redo my whole manicure...you'll see what I did for the thumb tomorrow - think Election Day), but it wasn't much of a bother compared to, say, the OPI Burlesque glitters, which were about as fun to remove as the hounds of hell. Or something. 

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend Mischief, though if you want it, get it now! My Walmart no longer has them - they've switched their "special" display to Beetle, Sky, Fabuluxe, and Mushroom (*coughcough* I bought Beetle *coughcough*). If you have Mischief and Ick-a-Body, I have a question for you: are they really dupes? Inquiring minds want to know!

It's Finally Fall!

Studies are increasingly linking more illnesses to depression, including: osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, eye disease and back pain.

It's finally beginning to feel like fall here, so I decided to do a celebratory fall/NDAM manicure. I used Orly Enchanted Forest for my green, Hard Candy Mischief for the orange glitter (I'll show it on its own soon - it's a dupe for China Glaze Ick-a-Body), and an L.A. Colors gold striper for the gold stripes (duh).

outdoors, sunlight

indoors, artificial light

outdoors, shade

outdoors, sunlight

I'm very fond of this manicure - the glitter is much sparklier and brighter in real life, and it's very easy to do, especially with the striper brush on the gold. Also, I would like to bring something to your attention. See how opaque that orange glitter is? Yeah, that's one coat. If only every glitter was that dense!

That's all I have for today...I am absolutely exhausted, and it's not even 6:00. I hope your week is off to a good start!