Zoya Matte Velvet, Matte Shades Fall 2009

Introducing MATTEVELVET...

all of the color, none of the shine

After working with hundreds of matte formulations and color options, the ZOYA color experts are happy to announce three perfect LIMITED EDITION, exclusive MATTEVELVET* shades for Fall 2009...

Loredana (ZP498) - gunmetal gray matte shimmer

Dovima (ZP499) - black matte shimmer

Posh (ZP500) - wine matte shimmer

Designed to appeal to a multitude of matte color trend lovers; including every metro mod, vintage stylista, retro pin-up, goth beauty, glam rocker, street chic fashionista and color junkie out there, ZOYA MATTEVELVET* shades deliver the new color of fashion. Get all of the color, none of shine with MATTEVELVET*, Zoya’s exclusive blend of matte base and subtle shimmer resulting in utterly wearable and truly stylish nail polish.

ZOYA nail lacquers are free of harmful industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find ZOYA MATTEVELVET* as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion ZOYA shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every ZOYA color is made for women so we name them after women.

*MATTEVELVET nail color by ZOYA is not intended to be worn with a base coat, top coat or speed dryer of any kind. Due to the unique matte formulation, color is not as long-wearing as traditional nail color. A completely clean, dry nail surface yields the best results for matte nail color wear. For best results make sure to always prepare nail with ZOYA Remove + (3-in-1 nail polish remover, nail plate cleaner and new color prep.) prior to applying color.

MATTEVELVET by ZOYA available July 1, 2009.
Sug. Retail $6.00 per 0.5 oz bottle.

New Shades from KO!

I just saw this on KO's facebook page- new colors!  On the top are Calamine and Karen, which we already have.  But on the bottom- Ox, a matte purple and Liberty, a matte mint green!

GREEN!

These look amazing.

They also mentioned two more colors to be released- Pool and Concrete (I'm going to assume they're blue and grey).

Looks like the companies really are listening to us. 

KO polishes can be purchased directly from the company's website, although I have heard some complaints about the customer service.

KO Flatte Matte Polishes

I had been drooling over these polishes ever since I first saw them, and then, out of the blue, a very lovely and wonderful person sent me them as a gift! I couldn't believe it. I still can't! Thank you, amazing generous friend :) Your gift is loved and appreciated.

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.)

Nail Polish Wishes

I have been thinking a lot lately about new nail polish collections. Wondering what types of colors the polish companies are creating and why. What influences them? Is it fashion? Art? Or is it just the numbers, new creations based only on what sells?

I fully understand that I (we) are a different type of nail polish consumer. The main difference between me (us) and your average salon consumer is a big one: Volume. While the average salon patron or nail polish customer may purchase one or two polishes every couple of months, perhaps spending up to $20, we, the nail polish connoisseur, are no strangers to purchasing twelve polishes at a time, usually more, spending more on one polish purchase than the average polish consumer will in her lifetime.

Polish connoisseurs like you and I buy polish because we love color, and we love being able to have a little fun with our nails. We don't buy polish because we have to maintain our perpetually sheer-pink tips and our only bottle of Essie Ballet Slippers is running out. We buy it because we love it.

In my opinion, that should give us more pull with polish companies when they consider the colors for their collections. I feel like the only look at what the salon consumer is likely to purchase, but us polish junkies need some love too!

Please don't think I am being ungrateful and whiny- I know that polish companies have been very good to us. They've been listening to what the nail polish connoisseur wants, and giving us a little something every season. I mean, even Essie, the queen of sheer pinks, gave us Mesmerize this season. China Glaze gave us two unique collections, Romantique and Summer Days. Zoya's spring collection rocked my socks, and do I even have to mention Barielle and Color Club? I know they've been good to me, but I still can't help but feel like some things are missing.

Here are my nail polish wishes for this year.

I want....



GREENS!!! Specifically, Mazoo's 'Bahama Greens'. But really, I'll take all the greens I can get. Please skip the light golden-shimmer greens, please! We need a variety of greens in all tones and finishes. The world is severely lacking in dark to medium greens. We have a reasonable amount of light greens with gold shimmer, as well as pale pastel green cremes and chromes. We need more Zulus, more Recycles, more Evergreens, more Date Nights, more Rainforests, more, more more! And we need creme, yes, but frosts, shimmers, glitters, duochromes, jellies and holos! May this be the year of the greens.


I also want....






Camouflage colors! Drab green, olive, dusty grey, dirty brown. Not enough of these colors exist in the world, and I don't want to have to resort to 'frankening' my own. They are chic ad much as they are edgy, and I think people would be open to them if they had the option to buy them. And not just the traditional Woodland camouflage, either! How about desert camo, snow camo, urban camo, heck, even pink camouflage pattern themed colors? You could sell them in sets of three or six. It would be awesome.


I want....



More holo colors! Not just duplications of the holographic colors we already have, I want entirely new shades of mesmerizing holographic goodness! We don't really have a true red holo, nor do we have a dark blue or green holo. We don't have a yellow holo that isn't gold, and we don't have an orange holo that isn't pink. I want darker hologrpahic shades to contrast with all of the very light bordering on pastel holo shades we already have. And I wand more smooth holo like this Nfu Oh- it's extra awesome.


Also,







I want more unique glitters!! We have plenty of gold glitter, plenty of silver glitter, heck, even plenty of plain holographic glitter. I want more funky shades! Dark colors are especially rare. I bet people would love a dark blue glitter, and just look at the frenzy that China Glaze Emerald Sparkle caused! I know that a few people were even hoping for black glitter, and I think it could work. How about darker shades with a handful of holo glitter? Think about the Massini glitters and how much they rock. And don't be afraid to mix shades together, like these mind-blowingly awesome gems in a bottle:





I also NEED....





More Magnetiques! We only have a blue and a brown, think of the possibilities! And don't make them country-exclusive and don't make them limited edition. Does Lancome hold the patent on these? If not, why hasn't anyone else created these?! I have never gotten more compliments on my nails than when I wear Bordeaux Esmee.


I want...



More Mattes! I have both ManGlaze shades, and two Knockouts, but all together that's only six matte shades available for purchase. Two blacks, a grey, a white and a pink. You can do better than that. Matte is cool, we just need more variety. How about a matte red, a matte blue, a matte olive or a matte green? I think the green should look like moss, and maybe even be named moss.


And last but not least, we need more...







FLAKIES!!! The polish finish that magically transforms a plain polish into something special. There's nothing like flakies. And really, outside of Nfu Oh, there are no flakies that are easy to find. There are maybe one or two readily available shades from CND and Nubar, but other than that they have all been discontinued. Flaky polishes are truly unique and the possibilities for creating opal-like shades are endless. Please give us more.


There are a ton more things I'd like to see created by polish companies, but I could really go on all day. This post is long enough with my demands :) Maybe I will do a part two?

I hope that one day I get to see some of these things come to life. Every time a polish company releases yet another red or sheer pink (on top of the thousands and thousands in existence), I feel a little bit sad and wonder if it could have been something awesome instead.

I <3 Glock

You know, while staring at my freshly ManGlazed nails, a thought passed through my mind.

Hmm... This color reminds me of something.

Just for fun, a comparison that you probably won't see that often:

ManGlaze Black:


Uncanny, isn't it?

=)

Manglaze Swatches - Matte Black and Grey

I have some pretty pictures to post!

First off, my brand-spankin'-new Man Glaze polishes.

Man Glaze Grey, Man Glaze Black:







I love these... They look very industrial, and you know, that suits me. A nail polish to go with my favorite music.

As you can see, they're completely matte, which is awesome, but if you add topcoat like I did on my thumbs, they have some serious shimmer.

They dry amazingly fast and are opaque in one coat. I can definitely see a man liking these, for a nail polish they're completely low-maintenance.

I love all the promotional images and the packaging. It's edgy, but not like Urban Decay trying-too-hard edgy. This polish says, "If you don't like me, I'll kick your ass!"

Love it. Two thumbs way up from me. \m/\m/