Gelish Experiment | ORLY Matte Topcoat Over Gelish

Last weekend the GF and I decided we absolutely HAD to have a nude-colored Gelish polish for the manicures we were planning on doing, so we hustled our butts over to Sally's to check out their Gelish Mini offerings (normally I prefer buying the full-sized bottles off Amazon for the same price as Sallys sells the minis, but instant gratification won over). My GF had fallen in love with a simple manicure she'd seen on Pinterest:


From mademoiselle-emma.blogspot.be
We decided on Skinny Vanilla Latte and noticed a sign saying if you bought a polish at full price you could get a red tagged polish for 50% off. I bee-lined it over to the red tagged polishes and was thrilled to see they had ONE color from the Love In Bloom collection, A Petal For Your Thoughts. I've been salivating over that whole collection, so I was excited to pick it up for $5!! We then noticed that the ORLY Matte Topcoat was also on sale. I love the matte look and, while I know manicurists have been creating a matte finish on Gelish by buffing the Top It Off shine, I'm lazy and inexpirenced and thought a matte topcoat would be waaaaay easier.

I haven't seen anyone definitively say whether any of the matte topcoats work over Gelish, and I'm here to give a definitive answer: YES, matte topcoats (at least the ORLY one) defintely work over Gelish Top It Off:


(Please forgive the meh-ness of this manicure -- it was the one we tested out our new LED lamp with. Oy.) Being a bit androgynous, my GF enjoys a slightly more masculine look on her nails - nude colors, sharp lines, stripes... I think the matte topcoat does a nice job of de-girlifying her look. You can se some shiny spots where I missed with the matte topcoat, but overall it dulled the nails quite nicely. I'm excited to mix the matte topcoat with shiny Top It Off accents in future manicures (especially with a lamp that works >.<). For the manicure above I did the following:

1. One coat Sheek White
2. 2 coats Skinny Vanilla Latte
3. 1 coat Top It Off
4. Added striping tape, then 2 coats of Black Shadow
5. 1 coat Top It Off
6. Wipe off TIO and applied the ORLY Matte Topcoat