Matte mani without matte polish

Pin It A couple of weeks ago, I went to five shops in search of a matte topcoat. After failing to find it at the fifth shop, I tried to discover if it was possible to gain a matte finish without a matte nail polish. I found advice on The Adventures of Goddess Gorgeous. She suggests that a matte finish can be achieved simply by breathing warm, moist air onto regular nail polish.
I went home to test this method and found the finish to be much more matte than when I did not breathe on the polish. The finish is not as smooth as you get when using a matte topcoat like Essie Matte About You.

These are completely dry swatches of Revlon Midnight Affair; on the left are two coats of polish without topcoat. It is definitely shiny. In the middle, I breathed on two coats of wet polish on and off for about 30 seconds. It has a matte finish, but you can notice along the side, where the breath wasn't as even that there is a little cloudiness. It almost looks like salt stains in the polish. On the far right, the polish was topped with Essie Matte About You. It has a bold, even matte finish.

In my opinion, it is worth it to get a matte topcoat for the very defined matte finish, but if you don't have a matte polish available, you can try out the look by simply breathing warm, moist air over the wet polish for a few seconds.