Anyway, enough mushy stuff, on to the polishes!
These polishes were created by the makeup artist Mike Potter- known for his work on Hedwig And The Angry Inch. Just from reading that sentence, you know they're gonna be awesome, right?
They are.
Flatte Black. That's pretty much a description in and of itself. It's flat black. It's very black and very matte.
Powder. It's kind of an off-white matte creme. It's not as matte as Black, this shade has more of a satin finish.
KO (Knockout) also has a matte pink called Calamine and a matte red called Karen, but I haven't tried them.
First, let's talk about the formula. It is much thicker than your average polish. It also dries very quickly. The combination of those two qualities can lead to some difficulty in application. Just make sure you have enough polish on the (gigantic) brush and work carefully and you shouldn't have a problem. What you see is what you get, so be careful to apply them evenly.
The Flatte Black is opaque in one coat. Powder needs three coats to be even an opaque.
The polishes start out matte, but by the end of the day are a satin finish. They become smoother and shinier the longer you wear them. Kind of cool, but I wish they stayed matte!
Another odd thing about this polish is that when it dries it becomes very brittle. After I had been wearing Black for a few days (I was sick and couldn't change my polish) it began to crackle and little black flakes would fall off randomly. I have never seen that happen with any other polish- it was so weird!
Now comes the interesting part- the bottles.
The bottles are a work of art. I absolutely love them. They are beautiful and a polish I would be proud to display.
They have long brushed metal handles, a matte finish frosted glass with KO and Flatte being the only shiny parts. They are flat and have a scallop shape. Lovely. Oh yeah, and they're GIGANTIC.
Here they are compared to a regular OPI bottle to give you an idea of how huge they are. They are really, really tall and pretty wide.
They look awesome, but the super long brush and handle make them difficult to work with. It is very tricky to maneuver the extra-long brush stem, and since the stem is so long it's also hard to get all of the excess polish off of it to prevent dripping.
These polishes are incredibly cool and even if you aren't wearing them they're nice to look at.
They remind me of another brand of extremely cool matte polish with awesome bottles...
ManGlaze.
ManGlaze will always be my favorite matte polish, but the KO polishes are different enough from ManGlaze to warrant owning both.
KO is just plain flat black that becomes shiny after a few hours of wear. ManGlaze Black (I believe it's now called 'The Death Tar') and Grey ('Fuggen Ugly') have depth and texture. They're packed with these little particles that make the polishes look like smooth asphalt that stays matte without topcoat, but transforms them into an uber-sparkly black or grey polish when topcoat is applied.
I will do a side-by-side comparison when I get a chance, but I just wanted to point out that yes, they are different.
KO Flatte Black is one of my new favorite colors. It's seriously badass. But, if you want to keep it looking totally matte and intimidating looking, you will need to invest in the KO Flatte Top
topcoat. I have a suspicion that it's nothing more than a ridge filler or nail strengthener in a topcoat bottle, but I've never tried it so I can't say for sure. China Glaze used to have something called Flat Top -it's discontinued but still available at some beauty supply stores- it was a topcoat that made your polish matte. I wonder if they're similar?
I love matte finish polishes and I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more of them this year. Bring on the mattes!!! (And make a green, please.)
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