Should You Dress Your Dashboard? (Matte vs Gloss Debate)

Some detailers swear by it. Others say leave it alone. So should you dress your dash or not?

Dressing your dashboard used to be standard practice. But today, with modern materials and cleaner designs, there’s more debate than ever. What does a dashboard dressing actually do? And is it helping or hurting your interior?

What Dashboard Dressing Is Supposed to Do

Protect: Adds a barrier against UV rays that fade and crack materials
Enhance: Restores color and richness to dull plastic or rubber
Condition: Prevents drying or brittleness (mainly on older dashboards)

But some dressings also bring unwanted side effects: greasy residue, shine, streaking, and glare off the windshield.

Matte vs Gloss Finishes

The real difference between a good dashboard detail and a bad one usually comes down to the finish.

Matte Dressing	Gloss Dressing
OEM-style finish	Artificial shine
No glare on windshield	Can reflect sunlight into your eyes
Dusts less	Attracts dust and fingerprints
Professional look	Looks greasy or overdone

Unless you're restoring a show car from the 80s, matte is almost always the right choice.

Best Matte Dashboard Dressing

All Dressed Up is a water-based, non-greasy dressing that gives you a true factory-style finish. It restores depth without gloss, works on all interior plastics and rubber, and leaves behind zero streaks or residue.

It can even be diluted 4:1 for ultra-matte results on newer dashboards.