Does Adding Cornstarch to Nail Polish Make it Matte?

I've tried using Pam to dry my nails (which does not work, you can see my post here). So when I saw this pin all over Pinterest, I decided to put it to the test.  Add cornstarch to clear nail polish to make a matte polish.  Use it as a top coat for any nail polish.    I've seen lots of cool pictures where people do a french manicure using half glossy and half matte.  I always wanted to try it but never got around to buying matte polish.  This was the perfect opportunity to see if this Pinterest recipe actually works.

I say recipe loosely because if you see the link there isn't any measurements on how much cornstarch to nail polish.  For my experiment I started off with 1/4 teaspoons of cornstarch to one bottle of clear nail polish.  To put the cornstarch into the bottle I made a little paper funnel.  I found that 1/4 teaspoons was too little and ended up using approximately one teaspoon of nail polish.  One additional thing to note is that if your bottle of polish is full you need to pour out some polish to get one teaspoon of cornstarch in there.  You want to also do this on a protected surface because it gets a little messy.  I also used a small chopstick to push the cornstarch into the polish.

The entire process was pretty messy (but easy to clean up, because its only cornstarch, as long as you didn't spill the polish).  So to results of my new matte clear coat?   Marginal Pass.

Cornstarch added to clear nail polish does make it more matte.  But not a matte that is true to color.  The matte is more of a cloudy matte.  It does have a unique look to it, but not anything that I would waste a bottle of good clear coat polish on.

I have read on other forums that you can add cornstarch directly to colored nail polish to make it matte.  This may work out better, but after this test I'm hesitant to try.  Other forums said that a lot of brands now make matte top coats that are really great.   So for the effort I would say, don't try this at home.  It is not worth it.

Have you tired this before with better results?  I would love to hear your experiences.

I used a cheap top coat nail NYC nail polish.

Make a funnel from any paper and do this on protected surface.

The cornstarch does get everywhere and can overflow your bottle if you have too much polish.  So remember to dump out some polish if your bottle is too full.

Looks pretty cool as it goes in the bottle.  Reminds me of the Brain Hemorrhage cocktail.

Shake up the nail polish really good.

Here is the matte polish painted on my middle finger and pinky finger.  You can see it does make it matte, but a little cloudy.

I changed my nail polish 3 times to test different colors as a base.  This one had some bubbles from where the corn starch didn't completely mix.  You can see the cloudiness better here.

With a light base you can't really see the matte.

How to use Pinterest with Google Reader

I love Google Reader and have been getting more into Pinterest.  I use Google Reader to read all the blogs that I subscribe to.  The problem is that when Pinterest first came out there was no support for Google Reader.  I never really looked into it again, until recently.  I just found a Bookmarklet that could pin through Google Reader.  Here is the link /https://foundthis.co/bookmarklet/.  Now I can read and pin all at once!  Yay!   The bookmarklet doesn't let you choose the image like the pin it bookmarklet, but its better than nothing.  I hope this post helps you as much as it helped me.

BTW, if you would like to find me on Pinterest  here: http://pinterest.com/thecheesethief/.  I also have a button on the side bar, under my facebook button.

Happy pinning! If you also are interested in adding Pinterest Buttons directly onto your blog images, Kevin and Amanda have a great tutorial.