Accidentally in Matte...

I saw this tutorial from from Confessions of a Polishaholic. For some reason I just had to try it. The tutorial recommends using a light color as a base, but I already had the Wet n Wild Caught Red Handed on... Plus, I thought that black print on a red polish would actually look good. So I gave it a try.

Sadly none of the print actually transferred, but what I end up with was a matte nail. I tried it on a few other nails with the same result. I choose to blame my flop on the topcoat. I will definitely have to try this technique without the top coat on and see if the text actually transfers. :)

Left hand - ring and pinky fingers matted, index and middle finger original w/topcoat...

Right Hand - middle finger is matte, ring finger original w/topcoat...

This is by no means the most obvious matte effect. It just caught me by surprise, so I thought I'd share. I have yet to try the matte topcoats that are available, but from swatches I have seen they produce a much stronger effect.

If you want a slight matte effect and want to try this, here is what I did:
1. Cut out squares out of the newspaper that are slightly bigger than the nail.
2. Fill a small container with rubbing alcohol (the tutorial recommends vodka or spirit, but who wants to waste that???)
3. Soak nails for a few minutes in rubbing alcohol until they are nice and wet. Apply the newspaper squares to the nail and hold for at least 30 seconds
5. Remove the newspaper and there you have it... matte nails
6. If you were lucky enough to get some of the print to stick, but didn't want it, you can just rub it off.

Some questions to ponder and things to try... if one was to use colorful tissue paper, would the color transfer? Could one crinkle it and make some cool effects? Could one print images from the computer and transfer them to the nail? Hmmm...

Thanks for reading :)
Anutka