Adventures in Matte Land

I was a little skeptical of the whole "matte thing" but being one not to shy away from a challenge, I found a girl willing to swap her Essie Matte About You on MUA.  Here are the results of my findings.

Butter London - Trout Pout with Essie Matte About You (Index finger layered with Essie Flawless then Matte About You.)

I hunted this down at Ulta.  It was the last bottle and looked like it could have been opened but I gave it the benefit of the doubt.  It is an absolutely gorgeous color on it's own but with a matte finish gives it a pretty interesting look.  I plan on experimenting with other brights in the near future.

L'Oreal - Waters Edge with Essie Matte About You

Waters Edge is supposedly an Essie Greenport dupe.  As I don't own the latter, I can only rely on pictures from other blogs and it looks pretty close.  I really like this family of colors (being a Pisces) and it also looked pretty neat as a matte, but I still prefer Trout Pout.  Incidentally, I also ordered ILF from Manglaze who happens to be the purveyor of fine matte polishes.  It's supposed to be a nice teal color so I'll be swatching that as soon as I get it (which I hope is soon!)

Formula wise, MAY is nice, not too goopy like Seche Vite can be and dries quickly, which from what I understand is typical in a matte polish.  I like that this type of topcoat allows you to turn your normally glossy polish matte as opposed to turning your matte polish glossy.  Anyways, its a nice addition to my top coat family and it will probably be one I'll be using frequently to "tone down" a lot of the bright shades in my collection.

Nails Inc Porchester Square or, My Latest Ebay Haul

I have recently discovered the joys [and evils] of Ebay.  You can find obscure and/or discontinued nail polishes, lipsticks, and all sorts of wonderful things and avoid generally paying an arm and a leg.  In my case, the key is, if my total bid after shipping costs as much as walking into the store and buying it myself then I won't buy it. 

Anyways, this haul included a polish I've been absolutely drooling over and is what sent me into a nudes tailspin.  Made by Nails Inc in the UK, Porchester Square looked absolutely brilliant when I saw it first on ThePolishAholic's blog.  She had purchased a bottle of Porchester Square and also Primrose Hill but swatched only the former.  Anyways, I loved the shade of greige and swore I would either get a hold of a dupe or save up all my pennies and buy it from Sephora.

Luckily, as I was browsing Ebay as I often do, I came across an auction that included Porchester Square, Fouberts Place, and Elizabeth Street.  Not only that, but for all three, I could potentially spend less than $20!  Of course I placed my bid and waited.

This is what came in the mail today:

and

I had also bought some NYX lipsticks because I had read they were great little lipsticks and came in a variety of colors well-suited for Asian skin.  :)  A pink lipstick that doesn't make me look strange is always a good thing.

So I went to swatching the Nails Inc polishes.  I started with Elizabeth Street because it was such a pretty shade of pink but it ended up being a pretty sheer polish.  I'm one of those girls that likes my color to be pretty opaque but even at four coats, Elizabeth Street was unmanageable to me.  So much so that, even though I completely swatched both hands, I refused to take photographs of my -- em, lack of handiwork.  Elizabeth Street may be getting swapped/sold.  =/

!I moved on to the piece de resistance.  In ThePolishAholic's pictures, Porchester Square was a lovely grey-beige shade and was nothing like what I had.

This is what Porchester Square looked like on me:

Excuse my cuticles!

It didn't look horrible but it didn't look as nice as I thought it would.  Maybe because I keep insisting on wearing cool tones when I am clearly warm?  I'm not quite sure but it actually looked a little pink on me compared to the other  nudes/greys I have.

Index - Nude 4 (Urban Outfitters | Middle - Glamour Purse (Essie)
Ring - Porchester Square (Nails Inc) | Pinkie - French Quarter For Your Thoughts (OPI)

So it's definitely not a color I have (although, really in the grand scheme of things I don't actually have that many polishes yet) but it is one of those colors that had to really grow on me before I was convinced once I saw it on my hands.  I'm not sorry I bought it; I think it fills a void between Glamour Purse and Skulls & Glossbones that I didn't have before.  I'd also stil really recommend it as a polish to have if you're into nude/grey shades like I am.  It was a thick application but I still needed 2-1/2 to 3 good coats for opacity.  

All in all a great, first polish from Nails Inc.  This is definitely NOT the only bunch of bottles I buy (my new obsession is with Charlotte Mews) which means I'll probably be visiting my local Sephora store really soon.