Now that Labor Day has passed, TV shows are starting to return with new episodes, kids are heading back to school and—our favorite—fall makeup and skincare lines are hitting spas and salons across the nation. For those who provide nail services, that means the hottest trend in a long time is heading your way—matte polishes.
We’ve had our hands on the trendy lacquers in the DAYSPA offices for several months now. We find ourselves intrigued by how quickly this movement toward a manicure with no shine—the antithesis of what technicians normally try to provide—has gained a following. At first, it was just a few bottles of polish, such as Zoya’s Matte Velvet collection. But soon enough, top coat after top coat landed in our mailbox—which is arguably a more versatile way to incorporate the trend.
So what’s the appeal? We asked DAYSPA art director Dannie Caseñas, who started lusting over the darker matte polishes as soon as they came across our desks—and finally made off with a top coat of her own. We also poured out polishes with her for DAYSPA’s September Must Have photo shoot, including a matte Zoya color, and marveled at how it dried to a lusterless finish (top left). “I’m not big into painting my nails all the time, and when I do it’s usually very dark—or definitely not pinks or reds,” she says. “However, I thought [the matte trend] was really wild since polish has been glossy all these years. Being so different is what stood out for me.”
Dannie says she soon realized how ahead of the fold she was. “I wanted to wear my matte nails out and see if anyone noticed. Only a few said anything, but it went over so big with my husband (of all people!) that he couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was,” she says. “He even told some female coworkers about this ‘fall polish’ phenom. Ha!”

The editorial staff at DAYSPA has been experimenting too. We’re finding that glittery polishes used for French tips or as nail art on top of matte bases really pop, but adding matte top coat to already lusterless polish doesn’t necessarily double the dull factor. Application can be a little counterintuitive; the polishes tend to dry fairly quickly, while the top coats go on a tad milky before drying to their matte finishes. But given all the varieties of varnish still coming in, we’re pretty sure we’ll keep having fun all autumn long.

For matte polishes and top coats, check out Barielle, China Glaze, CND, Color Club, Essie Cosmetics, Orly, OPI Products and Zoya.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Editors' Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.