normally i don't care for matte polish, and i've been annoyed with the number of late-to-the-trend companies that have been putting out collections of mattes in the past few months (when they could have been putting out unique cremes - my true love - instead!). but i've come to realize that while i dislike the vast, vast majority of mattes, a totally flat matte black polish is *so* me.
the gold standard for matte black polish is ko knock out cosmetics' "flatte black," but i was uninterested in paying $19 for a polish i wasn't sure i'd love - especially one with such an unwieldy brush stem. someone on the nb described totally flat black mattes like this one and the ko as being like black holes, sucking in all light, and i completely agree with that description. i think that effect is best appreciated, however, not in close-up nail shots like this one but rather in the larger context of a full outfit, so that the polish is part of an interplay of textures. right now, for example, i'm wearing leather, lamé, cotton, and a chunky wool knit (all in various shades of gray and black), and the flat black polish on my tips adds one more interesting texture to the mix.
what's a tire jack? matte flows like a normal, non-matte polish when it's being applied; however, this can be a bit misleading, as it doesn't even out the way non-matte polishes do... so take care to do an even first coat. also, it does go a bit "satiny" after some wear, but a good matte topcoat can fix that easily.
bf says: "that is a matte finish."
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I've also been very annoyed by all the companies releasing matte polish all at the same time with sometimes very bad tasted creations (like Matte OPI Gargantuan green). What is funny is that 16 years ago, I was putting my fresh vampy manicure over boiling water so that steam mattify it. It was working like it was working (all I get was a satin effect) but it was anyway great to wear something no one else was wearing and be creative. There was no matte trend, you had to find your own solutions. Now it's all over the place and I feel so saturated that I haven't bought any matte polish beside a black and an Essie top coat.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, the only already made matte polish I love is also a black (ManGalze Matte is Murder). A plain matte black is sexy and very interesting to wear and totally marry what we wear. It was awesome with my black leather jacket an my pastel pink mohair scarf. Also cool against the black rubber elements of my bike. I wish I could have seen that association with your clothes. Sounds so interesting. :)
it looks amazing! if you get a chance....report on the wear. the KO barely makes it 24 hours w/o a chip.
ReplyDeleteLove this look. I don't want to pay the price for KO. I'll just use the matte top coats.
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