Gloss is loud. Matte is confident, the glamour without the glitter. It’s like the quiet luxury of velvet and tailored wool, polished and modern. On the best matte manicures, the effect is striking. It’s a deliberate fashion choice that gives even more character to texture and color. Matte nails don’t need the limelight, but they claim it all the same. Let’s explore this sensational style choice.
Best Matte Manicure
Fall Flowers
There are two kinds of matte finishes: satin and flat. This autumn matte manicure displays a satiny base that looks sleek despite the muted, low gloss effect. You might say it’s the epitome of understated elegance and a perfect example of a timeless look that appeals to fans of minimalism. The matte base provides an ideal contrast to the scattered glossy petals, making the monochrome set almost seem like there are two tones instead of just one. It’s visually interesting how the matte versus glossy textures affect the color.
LAVIS Gel Polish Matte Top - 0.5 oz
Watercolor
There are various ways to create watercolor nails. One of our favorites is using blooming gel. Once the design is complete, most nail artists wrap up with a glossy top coat to maintain that “watery” shine. However, a matte finish feels more true to life as if you’d just lifted your brush from paper or an actual canvas. Weirdly, since it’s less reflective, it can help hide little imperfections in texture.
What’s more, matte nail art seems more grounded and serious. It lets every line and color reveal itself without extra noise.
LAVIS Blooming Gel
Shiny Dots on Matte Nails
Textured designs and polka dots are hot topics this year. Enjoy the best of both worlds by playing with the contrast between shiny and flat. The “dry” pastel nails make the tiny dots look wet and emphasize the variety of sizes present.
Mauve Geometry
Is it an optical illusion, modern art, or a look influenced by something much more ancient? To us, this matte manicure resembles heraldic art from medieval times.
If you were to create geometric nail art, what shapes and colors would you include? How do you feel about the matte finish?
Matte Waves
Earlier, we mentioned there are two types of matte finishes, satin and flat. For maximum contrast against the glossy blue base, the seaweed here has a flat lack of shine although the design itself is raised. It’s a simple look to achieve with nail stickers and a little trickier with acrylic or dip powder as we’ll see in the next map manicure. Nothing beats the contrast between glossy and matte when you really want people to notice nail art.
Velvet Effect Sweater Nails
There’s no help for it – sweater nails need a matte finish. Sure, there are acrylic sweaters that look a little shiny. But the real deal, that cozy, fluffy winter gear that we look forward to wearing each year, isn’t glossy. It’s matte and soft to the touch just as these patterned nails seem to be. They look so fluffy!
Silky Elegance
How else to describe this matte manicure without using the words silky and ethereal? Even the gleaming chrome is slightly muted due to the matte top coat. It looks like swirls of fire on etched glass. It’s amazing the way the matte finish filters the light and makes the set seem so elegant.
Did you know that LAVIS has a chrome matte top coat that creates a beautiful, long-lasting velvet finish? It’s specially formulated to make applying chrome powder a breeze.
Chrome Nail Powder
LAVIS Chrome Matte Top - 0.5 oz
Modern Art Nails
Imagine that you’re walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. How many glossy paintings will you see? Not many! So, the next time you feel like expressing yourself with cryptic doodles on your fingertips, give them a realistic matte finish. People make fun of contemporary art, but it’s an excellent outlet for emotions and thoughts when you prefer to keep people guessing. What you suppose these matte nails mean?
Animal Print
We’re just going to say it. These cute animal print nails look so soft and inviting they remind us of our favorite winter pajamas. Yes, they also had leopard prints in pastel hues.
Fun colors aside, in reality, it makes sense to use a matte top coat when imitating cow prints, zebra stripes, and so on. Animal fur and hide and fur isn’t usually as shiny as a full-gloss top coat.
Chic Tweed
A matte top coat is also perfect for when you have a raised design that looks like plaid material. This pink set was made especially to ease the transition into autumn. It’s rosy like a warm sunset and textured like sophisticated fabric. It was created with LAVIS Pat Pat Gel and plaster gel that make custom colors and 3D nail art simple for everyone.
Lavis Pat Pat Gel
LAVIS 3D Plaster Gel - White 15g
Pop Art
Do you agree that pop art nails need a matte finish? It makes them look like the pages of the comic books that inspired them. What’s amusing is adding the highlights and shadows that fake a glossy shine!
Celestial Nails
The next time you paint celestial nails, consider using a matte finish for the night sky and a glossy one for the stars. It just seems right.
What’s your favorite method for dealing with two types of finish on a matte manicure?
Besides meticulously dotting every detail of the shiny parts with a glossy top coat, here are two other options:
- Use a stamping plate with clear (glossy) top coat as the “polish.” Stamp the pattern directly on top. You instantly get shiny designs over a matte base, with clean edges and far less effort.
- Similarly, use a stencil to control where the glossy parts are.
Since creativity knows no bounds, we bet a nail artist somewhere has even more tricks for crafting the best matte manicure!
Conclusion
Are you excited to try a matte finish on your next set? Stock up on the trendiest colors plus essential nail supplies in our store. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Sources:
https://insideoutstyleblog.com/2008/10/fabric-should-i-choose-matte-sheen-or-shine.html
https://www.textileglossary.com/terms/matte.html