Good Evening everyone,
today I have a huge review on different matte top coats from different brands for you. I hope this will help you guys to find the right product for your needs.
Let’s see which matte top coats I have to review:
- O.P.I. – Matte Top Coat
- ORLY – Matte Top
- wet n wild – wild shine – E4073 Matte Top Coat
- Ciaté – Mattnificent
- p2 – Fancy Beauty Tales LE – Scandalous Matte Nail Top Coat
- Essence – Satin Matte – 26 matte about you
- Catrice – Silk Matte Top Coat
- Cosmetica Fanatica – Top Coat Matte
- p2 – Ultimate Matte Top Coat
Let me start with the one product I only could review by memory – Manhattan – ProMat Top Coat.
When I prepard this review I saw that this top coat already had dried in and kind of seperated, so the important part of the product was setting at the base of the bottle. I remember when I bought it I paid around 3 euro. Before I bought it I searched on the Internet for good matte top coats, since the trend just started. A lot of people recommended this on by Manhattan, but I must say I was kind of disappointed. I felt that it always worked or didn’t work that well. Sometimes it even showed strokes which looked very unprofessional.
On the pictures you can see the result with the ruined product. Of course when it wasn’t dried in, it didn’t look this bad ;)
Anyway, I would not recommend this to you, there are much better alternatives on the market.
Let’s take a look at the other products. I know it might be hard to actually see the result on the tips, but that’s the best I could do. In general you will have to take my word for it when I tell you my opinion^^
Sadly I can not show you the tips directly and even then they all look pretty similar. But sinde I used them with different base colors and brand I can give you a piece of my mind on these.
O.P.I. – Matte Top Coat
This is honestly a really good matte top coat. It is easy to apply, spreads smoothly and dries fast. It gives a nice matte finish and was my favorite for a long time. Sadly the price is a bit heavy with around 13 euro.
ORLY – Matte Top
Even though most matte top coats are clear or rather milky looking, this product is more yellow-ish. The result is just as matte though. I haven’t used it on white polish yet, so I don’t know how the original “color” would affect the white polish. It is a nice product, even though I must say, compared to other matte top coats, this is not in my top three. It felt more like a satin matte. not a full matte top coat. The price is in the same range as the O.P.I. matte top coat.
wet n wild – wild shine – E4073 Matte Top Coat
This product is defenitly on eof the cheaper alternatives. This wet n wild top coat costs around 1,50 euro and is a nice alternative for people whoe can’t or don’t want to pay a lot of money for a matte top coat. The result is nice and shows a nice matte finish once it dried. What I would like them to change though is the thin brush. I am not a big fan of them and find wider brushes to spread the product more evenly.
Ciaté – Mattnificent
I own two different versions of this product, one was included in my chalkboard manicure kit and the other I bought by the beginning of 2015 before they changed the packaging.
left -> newer version
right -> older version
newer version
The product is, again, one of the more expensive ones. It is currently for sale at around 17 euro. When I first tried this top coat I was surprised how well those products could work, because it was my 2nd matte top coat after I bought the one from Manhattan, which didn’t work well for me. It has a wider brush then most others and allows the application to be really easy. It dries fast and leaves a nice matte finish. Sometimes, it leaves strokes though if you don’t work fast enough. So you gotta be quick when you apply your top coat. But it also happens when your products gets too old, which you can see on the pictures below.
left -> older version
right -> newer version
older version
p2 – Fancy Beauty Tales LE – Scandalous Matte Nail Top Coat
This matte top coat is probably not available anymore. It was sold within the Fancy Beauty Tales LE from p2 in February and March 2015. I found it to be okay. The price was around 2-3 euro, but again the brush was too thin for my taste. The result though was good. It took a bit longer to dry, but not an awful lot. All together this was an okay product, but it’s also not in my top three.
Essence – Satin Matte – 26 matte about you
This is one of the two top coats with a satin matte finish, meaning it is not as matte as the ones from O.P.I. or Ciate for examply. It is nice that the cheaper brands try to publish matte top coats as well, but I am wondering why they choose satin matte insteat of nice full matte top coats. The result is okay for a satin matte finish, even though I prefere the full matte effect. The price is around 2-3 euro, so not bad. If what you are looking is a satin matte top coat, you might want to go with the one from Essence or Catrice. To me they felt like the same product. The result looked the same :)
Catrice – Silk Matte Top Coat
Since the top coat from Catrice was very very similar to the one from Essence, there is not much I have to add here. The Essence top coat contains only 8ml, the one from Catrice 10ml. Also the brush from Catrice is a bit wider then the one from Essence, a bit too wide for my taste, but if you can handle it that won’t bother you I think. Again, the results are very similar. I like the Catrice bottle design more though ;)
Cosmetica Fanatica – Top Coat Matte
Most of you might not know, but there is a 1 euro shop called Pfennigland, which sells Cosmetica Fanatica products. This super affordable company sells many different colored nail polish, nail care products, as well as base / top coats and polishes for artificial nails.
This is their matte top coat and is one of my favorites from the ones I have showed you today. It only costs 1,49 euro and gives a nice full matte finish. So the price-performance ratio is really good with this one. For thos of you, who don’t have much money or don’t want to pay a lot of money for a matte top coat, this one is for you.
p2 – Ultimate Matte Top Coat
Last but not least, p2 also came out with a new matte top coat in their standart range. It costs 2,45 euro and gives a solid matte finish. Again, the brush is not my favorite, but all together this is a good choice since it’s much easier to purchase then the one from Cosmetica Fanatica.
I hope this overview gave you some tips on good deals and products. My personal top three are the following:
3) Ciaté – high price, but a great product with a good brush
2) Cosmetica Fanatica – very good price-performance ratio: good result for a cheap price
1) O.P.I. – very high quality: perfect combination of brush, product and result
Let me know about your experiences with matte top coats. Do you have any additional tipps for me?
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