New matte nail polish...not for the faint hearted

A lot of people have a signature look. Mine is always always having perfectly manicured and painted nails. I feel naked if I don't have polished or buffed nails and I am very fussy about the way they are filed and painted. That said, I'm always one for experimenting with my nails (hello green nails! hello scented nails!) and when the next big thing rolls around I like to be at the front of that queue.

Matte nail polish. Kind of like when you painted your nails with liquid paper in high school. Chalky and dry and not a hint of shimmer or shine to be seen. OPI are doing 6 of their regular colours in matte and they will be released here mid-October (Alpine Snow - white, Gargantuan Green Grape - tree green, Lincoln Park After Dark - black plum, Russian Navy - navy, La Paz-itively Hot - pink and You Don't Know Jacques! - grey brown). Three of these colours are dark wintery shades, so not great for spring summer, but matte nails are more of a wintery thing in my humble opinion anyway.

I don't have any of the OPI polishes, but OPI have done three of their colours from the OPI for Sephora range in matte as well, so I snapped these up quicksmart! Domestic Goddess - bright grape, Metro Chic - smokey grey with a hint of purple and What's a Tire Jack - black. OPI recommend that when you use a matte polish you don't use a base or top coat or drying drops as it changes the effect of the polish. I agree with not using top coat and drying drops (you don't need drops because the polish dries as you apply it - watch out for streaks!) but you do need a base coat. Matte polish chips ridiculously easily and you need a carefully applied base coat to give it a bit of hold and help it last more than 2 days. Plus, even though it's a matte polish, the dark colours still stain! Ick.

If you want to have a crack at this trend you can take baby steps with a matte top coat. Essie do one, as do OPI. Not sure of the availability, but I'll give you what I know.

OPI Matte Nail Envy
Price: $34.95
From: David Jones or call 1800 358 999

Essie matte topcoat
Price: $19.95
From: Give their stockists number a call (02) 9477 6900

And then of course the matte colours...

OPI matte colours available October
Price: let's assume $19.95 since that's what they usually are - don't yell at me if I'm wrong
From: DJ's

OPI for Sephora matte
Price: $9
From: Sephora (if you're visiting a store, lucky you!)

I'm currently wearing the Domestic Goddess purple polish and, honestly, I tried to take a photo to show you but I couldn't get one that accurately demonstrated the colour and texture so I just had to nick one off thisnext.com so you could see what I was banging on about.

Picture credits: thisnext.com, sephora.com, essie.com