OPI Matte Top Coat - Swatches & Review

Good afternoon everyone! I got quite a bit of feedback regarding the press release I posted last week for this new Matte Top Coat by OPI, so I'm excited to let you know that I was sent this polish to review for you guys! I tried out a couple of combinations using the Matte Top Coat and I think you're going to like what you see.

The press release indicates that this is meant to be used over your favourite OPI polishes, so for my first combination I chose two recent OPI releases that look wonderful when matte-ified. 

I took two coats of OPI The Man with the Golden Gun that was released along with the Skyfall collection and layered it over two coats of the gorgeous OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? from this spring's Euro Centrale collection. To get the matte look I only used one coat of OPI Matte Top Coat covering the entire nail.

You can see the polish beginning to turn matte right before your eyes. It takes maybe two minutes for the polish to reach full matte-ness, and an added bonus is that it dries really quickly. 

Yum, matte gold flakes are definitely going to be making an appearance on my nails next holiday season. I love the way this looks.

I wanted to test the claims and see if I could use this successfully over a polish from another brand. I used to use my Essie Matte top coat on top of anything, so I was pretty sure the OPI would work the same way.

No surprises here, one easy coat of OPI Matte Top Coat over two coats of Zoya Blu makes for a fun take on pastels. On my ring finger I layered one coat of Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs on top of Blue before adding the matte coat. 

I mentioned my old matte topcoat - Essie Matte About You - which I had to order from ebay. I know that I searched long and hard in stores trying to get a matte topcoat, but there simply isn't one on the market for Canadian consumers that is easily accessible. I'm going to show you next how the new OPI release stacks up against my old Essie.

I wanted to show you how it performs over two colours - OPI Skyfall and OPI Jade is the New Black. I've labelled the photo above with which polish was on which nail. Personally, I can tell a difference, and I prefer the OPI Top Coat. Especially over Skyfall, I think the OPI polish has a flatter matte look which the Essie is a little more rubbery. I waited about twenty five minutes for these to dry to ensure that one of them wasn't still matte-ifying so I don't think that's an issue. Of course, they are pretty similar and if you already have the Essie maybe you won't need the OPI, but if you haven't invested in a matte top coat yet I would recommend OPI's.

Lastly, I wanted to show you guys some fun nail art using the OPI Matte Top Coat. If you follow OPI on facebook you will have seen the variations on matte manicures they have been posting recently. I love the idea of combining glossy and matte into the same manicure, it's a subtle but chic way of doing nail art.

I chose to use another colour from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, so for reference, here is OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw sans Matte Top Coat for a very glossy look.

I taped off some sections of my nails and brought out my dotting tools and this is what I came up with! I love how this looks!

I think in this combination, my middle finger is my favourite, look how satiny the section near the cuticle looks. Wow!

The OPI Matte Top Coat will be available starting in April 2013 and the suggested retail price is $10.95 CAN, which by the way, is less than what I paid for my Essie polish after shipping. I think this is a great product and it's really bridging the gap in the market that we face in Canada where there isn't a matte topcoat easily available. I love the OPI Pro Wide brush and I much prefer it to Essie's small brush. I would absolutely recommend the OPI Matte Top Coat to anyone in the market for one.

 I hope this review has helped you make your decision! Do you think you'll be picking up the OPI Matte Top Coat? What's your favourite way to wear matte polish?

Some of the products in the review were kindly provided to me for my honest opinion.