Nail Art Nail-Off: Matte Nails

This week on Nail Art Nail-Off, we're experimenting with matte nail polish!  Matte nails are pretty fashionable right now, and there's actually a lot of fun stuff you can do by mattifying (is that a word?) your manicure!

Arden's take: I started by painting my nails with two coats of Maybelline Color Show's Impeccable Greys.

I then added a thin top coat of Essie Matte About You.  If you want to read more about this matte coat, check out my review here.

I then cut 3 triangles out of Scotch tape and applied them to my nails leaving a star burst pattern visible at the tips.  I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of this step, but I went back later and took a picture of the tape so you could get an idea of how to position it:

I then painted the exposed area with one coat of Zoya Aurora, and to provide extra tip protection I painted a top coat of Seche Vite on top right after.  I immediately peeled off the tape (slowly!) to reveal fun star burst tips! [Lisl: Aaaaahhhh! These are awesome!]

The only problem I had with this method is that applying the Seche Vite immediately after the Zoya caused my Seche Vite to get a little glitter on its brush which was then transferred to my next manicure.  But it did provide good protection for the nails and solved the chipping problem I experienced the first time I used Matte About You, so I really can't complain.

Lisl here: I also wanted to experiment with some matte-glossy contrast, and I chose to go for polka dots!  I started with a coat of Butter London Blagger a.k.a. my favorite blue, gifted to me by my friend Kathy for Galentine's Day after I spent approximately 3 months staring at it whenever we went to the nail polish store and exclaiming "this is the perfect blue."  

I mattified my beautiful blue nails, then dotted polka dots in the same color.  

I tried a couple of different methods of creating the polka dots: I started using nails and Essie Good to Go top coat to try to get glossy polka dots.  Unfortunately, the quick dry-ness of the Good to Go made it dot weirdly, so I switched to dotting Blagger on Blagger.

I love the way these turned out! I feel like the difference between the glossy dots and the matte background came out clearer in pictures in real life, but Blagger, just look at Blagger!!! It is so blue. Just the bluest.

So what are y'alls favorite things to do with a matte top coat?  Let us know in the comments!