Zoya Matte Velvet Winter Collection 2009

This is the last late post I have for 2009 Collections. Thankful sigh! And there's little to say about these except that I think Zoya perfected the suede/matte formula. These have sparkle even when matte, tons of color, great texture, apply easily, and are colors we didn't have before in matte. Great collection. I love them, even if they do remind me of Vegas casino Mardi Gras beads. I mean these colors are exactly the beads they give you.

Zoya Sativa is a gorgeous deep purple.


Zoya Harlow, yummy red grape? I dunno. Very pretty whatever you call it.


Zoya Veruschka is complete perfection. FOREST green, not the everpresent yellowish greens we get, and full of tiny sparkles.


And like I said a month or so before, if you already have FingerPaints Evergreen Dream (sold at Sally's and a lot cheaper than Zoya) if you slap a matte topcoat on it (here shown with Essie Matte About You)you have an exact dupe for Zoya Veruschka. I needed both, obviously.


What a great year it was eh?? Within the week I will post my 2009 Polish mayhem Awards for 2009, so stay tuned!!

Orly Metallic Matte Collection

Been on vacation but I am back!!

As you can probably tell from the pictures, these are a lot like OPI's Suede Collection. A nice satiny finish with a ton of metal shimmer underneath. Tons of texture and depth. They give us a couple nice new shades for matte, gold and bronze, and we have the black already but it's very nice in the satin/suede finish!

These apply just like regular polishes, and do not dry too fast. But try hard to remove any overlap, or brushstrokes that clump, because it will show up in the final polish. Just mess with it til it is smooth.

Orly Glam Rock:


Orly Iron Butterfly:


Orly Solid Gold:

Color Club Dark Romance Matte Collection

Frankly I hate these. There are three polishes in this set of mini bottles, a black, a white, and a silver shimmer, and you are also given a matte topcoat. The black and white are not really matte, they are kinda just dullish, like old car paint. They never get totally matte. The matte topcoat produces much the same effect, a kind of half shiny half dull look. In my opinion the silver is the only one worth anything, it's kind of neat. But using say, Essie's matte topcoat over a silver polish will do the same thing. But I don't know of any silvers quite the same as this one, though I am sure one exists. The set is so cheap it may be worth it just for the silver if you like it.


Color Club Dark Romance Matte


Color Club Alabaster Matte


Color Club Smoke and Mirrors Matte

FINALLY!!! OPI Suede Collection!!!!!

I was pretty scathing in my review of the OPI Matte Collection. I wondered aloud if OPI made the Suedes because they immediately realized how crappy their Mattes were next to other companies like Nubar and Zoya, and those brands' magnificent semi-matte velvety finishes. It appears I was right, because OPI completely redeemed themselves with Suede. Everything that was wrong with Matte is right with Suede. OPI, come back, all is forgiven!!!

They did as I tried to do with the Mattes, they raised the darker colors several shades so you could SEE them, and added a massive quantity of metallic powder to them so they would have some depth, shine and texture. These are about the texture of soft whipped butter. They spread well, and dry quickly. When they dry they look like your fingernails were professionally powder-coat painted. It's such an easy way to get manicured-looking nails within minutes. I would say try to get these in one coat, and not apply two, they can tend to ripple and clump if you use too much polish. I applied these over wet and dry base coat, had no shrinkage or rippling problems with either, they dried quickly and no matte finish was lost.

For those who hate and fear matte polish, I would reconsider. These are not flat. These are like velvet - they have a glow, or like the back side of satin. They have both texture and a mixture of matte and shine. As I said about Zoya's MatteVelvets, these look like velvet made with satin, they have a soft matte but glowing textured layer over a base of shine. They really do look a lot like suede, but if the lowest layer of the suede was shiny. These are terrific. I would have preferred a red instead of two reddish purples, and a green instead of two blues, but otherwise I am over the moon about these polishes.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede, a much needed color lightening, and doing so made it such a gorgeous color!


OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees Suede is OPI's version of Zoya Loredana, or ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly. It's more the color of Fuggen Ugly, but the texture of Loredana. Needless to say I love it!


OPI Russian Navy Suede does lose a little bit in translation, but it's still pretty. It loses the characteristic purple shimmer, so it could have been tossed for a gorgeous dark green, imagine how great it would have been if they had lightened Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow like they did Lincoln Park and made it Suede!?


OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede is SO much better Suede than Matte. A boring taupeish brown becomes a sleek sophisticated brown. A real standout.


OPI Ink Suede is more successfully interpreted that Russian Navy. Love it! Somehow manages to keep the purple quality!


OPI We'll Always Have Paris Suede, pretty but this coulda been lost for a red or a vampy burgundy.


Well took me a while, but worth the wait, saved a lot by buying these online. I seriously adore them!!

Orly Matte Couture Collection and a Note About Basecoats and Matte Polishes

Orly made a decent stab at mattes. I'd call these an eggshell finish, rather than OPI's hideous flat finish. They manage to have a bit of depth and not look like if you scraped your finger over these it'd sound like fingers on a blackboard. That said, they're a sophomore effort and nice, but I'll reach for other mattes first. But they're decent polishes, and I am in no way horrified by them. They have a beautiful formula, not gloppy or sticky at all, and you have plenty of time to get them where you want them before you dry. they take a tad longer to dry than other mattes, but in my opinion it's well worth it.

Also I wanted to say a word about basecoats and matte polishes. I ALWAYS use base coat. not only does it improve adhesion, but it fortifies my thin nails, protects them, and - this is hugely important - smoothes out my ridges. Every picture I have ever posted of matte nail polish, and there have been many, I am wearing base coat. It in no way harms the polish's ability to give a lovely matte finish. So don't be scared to wear basecoat with mattes.

Orly Purple Velvet is my favorite, a reddish purple with a nice depth.


Orly Blue Suede is a great light navy shade which we've been lacking in mattes.


Orly Matte Vinyl is your standard black.

OPI Mattes and Some Ways to Salvage Your Money

I love OPI. It's a great brand. Not too daring though, and not too savvy about edgy trends. Their mattes for instance. If I wanted my nails to look like I painted them with flat finish house paint, well, I would do so. And get better colors, OPI. The matte collection is some apparent best selling colors they just happened to make matte. They didn't go the way of Zoya, ManGlaze, Nubar, no, they just said well, just make the finishes flat, that's what the others are doing right? And needless to say the Sephora by OPI mattes are just as bad, though better colors!

I haven't gotten the Suedes yet, I hope they came out because OPI realized their massive flub and corrected it. Good matte nail polish has DEPTH. Matte does not equal flat!

I did not buy all the colors. I did not get the matte You Don't Know Jacques, as I don't need dirt colored nails. But I got the others.

OPI Alpine Snow Matte. Not too terribly fail, a completely flat white is actually kinda cool. Also useful, as I will demonstrate.:


OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte. Almost black when gloss, a blackish mess matte:


Russian Navy Matte. Loses every bit of the beauty of the gloss formula. Why bother, this might as well be the LPAD matte, they are both almost black.:


Sephora by OPI Metro Chic. Great color, if not great texture.:


OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte, the one real success. They left in the blurple shimmer and it lends depth and pizazz to this. I actually love this.:


Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack? besides the insulting name, this lackluster black couldn't lick the dirty bootsoles of ANY of the other black mattes out.:


OPI Gargantuan Green Grape Matte. Wow I have green housepaint on my nails.:


Sephora by OPI Domestic Goddess. Nice color.:


Okay so now is where I brought in the Alpine Snow. What if we mixed some Alpine Snow matte into the desperately useless Lincoln Park matte and Russian Navy matte? You might find the results worth it.

Twenty drops of Lincoln Park After Dark Matte to five drops Alpine Snow Matte gets us this: not a huge change but more wearable, kinda. Not one of the more fixable polishes, as it is highly pigmented. You'd need more white to make it lighter than I have it.


Four parts Russian Navy Matte to one part Alpine Snow Matte gets us this: I added a bit of glitter, to mediocre success. Sigh.


What if we use Alpine Snow Matte with another nigh on useless OPI, Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow? I like it. Once again five drops Aline Snow Matte to twenty drops of Aragon.


Eh there's my try at it.

Tyler Durden's opinion of OPI Mattes:
You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Zoya Holiday MatteVelvet Polishes Winter 2009/2010

Here's what I got from Zoya today!



The ZOYA color experts have done it again!
Introducing three new LIMITED EDITION, exclusive MATTEVELVET* shades for Winter 2009/2010...


MATTEVELVET WINTER

Savita (ZP504) - plum gray matte shimmer
Harlow (ZP505) - rose matte shimmer
Veruschuka (ZP506) - evergreen matte shimmer

The incredible Zoya MATTEVELVET* shade collection has been expanded with three new LIMITED EDITION beauties. 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 September 15, 2009.

PRE-ORDER NOW!
Sug. Retail $6.00 per 0.5 oz bottle. U.S.

Nubar Modern Mattes - Magnificence!

I cannot tell you how nuts I am about the Nubar Modern Mattes Collection. Wow did they do this right. It's a collection of dark reds/purples, all with the stunning velvet style matte I loved so in the Zoya mattes. BUT. The colors are hot, and give us a variety in matte polishes we didn't have before, and the formula is terrific. It's just like Nubar's regular polish formula, like spreading something fluffy and whipped.

Unlike other mattes these are neither watery nor like spreading glue. They apply like any other Nubar polish, except they dry lightning fast, and are one - yes one coat perfect. Even on my right hand, which I always have some trouble with, these were one coat perfect. I had few polish mishaps, they mostly stay just where you put them. And the velvet glow of them is just spectacular. I LOVE these. Matte chic and trouble free? And unlike the OPI mattes, pretty colors? Who can say no? Seriously, don't say no. Try them.

Onto the swatches!

Nubar Contempo, the reddest of the bunch:


Nubar Avant-Garde, a terrific dark wine Nubar calls "russet":


Nubar Prevail, a cool smoky concord grape:


Nubar Vital, a Tyrian purple that's probably my favorite:


These are available now at the Nubar site, bynubar.com.

Comparison of Zoya Matte Velvets and ManGlaze Matte Polishes

So how close are ManGlaze Mattes Fuggen Ugly and The Death Tar and Zoya Matte Velvets Dovima and Loredana? The answer is a lot and not much.

Zoya Loredana and ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly are both dark grey, Loredana being lighter. The big difference here is Zoya's polish is far more matte. I think it is the clear winner here. Loredana has a slightly better formula than the other two Zoya mattes, but ManGlaze is the clear winner in ease of application, having a formula almost indistinguishable from regular nail polish. Zoya's is thicker and stickier. But the winner despite formula, for me, is Loredana.

Top to Bottom:
ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly
Zoya Loredana



In the black category, Zoya Dovima is pitted against ManGlaze The Death Tar. The colors here are again similar, but Dovima is a lighter black, with a more velvet soft matte finish. It is again more matte than the manGlaze offering. But the formula once again is better with ManGlaze - it's far easier to work with. I prefer the darker color of the ManGlaze, and the finish of Zoya Dovima. Here I'd say they tie, and you need both. Yay for needing both!

Top to Bottom:
ManGlaze The Death Tar
Zoya Dovima



On Twitter I begged Mr. ManGlaze to make us some new colors. As I asked yesterday, why not the colors of forest and desert camouflage?

Zoya Matte Velvets - New Collection!

So now that I have a moment, let's talk about the new Zoya Mattes. There are three, one dark grey, Loredana, one black, Dovima, and one red, Posh.

The basics: these are thick, and start to dry FAST, like neons. LOAD your brush well, and do not hesitate. You can always clean afterwards. Slap that stuff on thick and do not go back and restroke polished areas! Just dive in. You can always remove and redo. One coat should be fine except for Loredana, which I found much thinner than Posh and Dovima. I needed two coats for Loredana.

Zoya instructions are to wear these polishes with no base or top coat. I will admit I DID use base coat in these pictures. My nails or too thin and ridgy not to. I had no loss of matte-riffic beauty. I have some matte topcoats coming in and will discuss if they are useful for these or not, but I did not use topcoat this time, shiny topcoat certainly would not work. I think they do not want polish slippage and problems from overlapping strokes, but I had pretty similar an experience with plain nail application and with base. Maybe be extra careful if you use base. This stuff is worth the extra time.

Dovima, the black, is gorgeous and so edgy. I think it's hot. I don't think you need to be Goth anymore to wear black nail polish, or even a rocker or metalhead. It's just cool, and would look great out on the town. Okay maybe not on Paris Hilton, but thank god for that anyway.

Zoya Dovima:



The grey is a nice dark grey, with a lot of texture. This required two coats, though your bottle may vary.

Zoya Loredana:



While I love the first two, I think Posh is the scene stealer here. It's a lovely deep wine red, and man this looks just like velvet. Red velvet. It has a shine that comes from below, like the shinier fabric that the velvet pile is based on, and it makes the whole nail look glowing and soft and deeply plush. I will need about four bottles of this, because what if I run out in 2023 or something???? God I love this.

Zoya Posh:


So there's the scoop. Use a bit of care and learn to work with this polish and you will be a knockout.

Zoya Matte Swatch Teaser!

About 15 minutes ago I got my Zoya mattes! They are gorgeous! Until later, when I have more time to swatch, here is a teaser! This is one coat each of Dovima and Posh, two coats Loredana.

Posh looks JUST like velvet on your finger. Wow.

Top to bottom:
Zoya Dovima
Zoya Posh
Zoya Loredana

Update on Zoya Matte and Zoya Truth and Dare Collections!

I got chips of the Zoya Truth, Dare and Matte Collections yesterday!!




Let's start with Matte. Matte consists of three polishes, a black named Dovima, a grey named Loredana, and a dark red named Posh. The colors are rich and should make lovely mattes. They have a velvet appearance in the chips. They come out on July 1, so not a long wait for these! I will soon, I am sure, have real swatches on nails to show you! These are meant to be worn without base or topcoat. Now I am not happy about the base idea, but I will experiment with these when I get them and give you the rundown. Zoya says these will have less staying power, not having base or top coat and a different formula. This is to be expected and I see no problem with it.


Zoya Dovima:


Zoya Loredana:


Zoya Posh:


On to the Truth and Dare Fall 2009 Collections. Truth is a set of six warm colors that range from a gold with a bit of orange, through orangey reds, to blue reds, to pink. These are jewel tones, not pastels, or runway weirdness, or chalky. These are shiny, rich, deep colors in glowing shades. Chips can only tell us so much, but I am not expecting to be disappointed with these! These come out July 15, with the Dare Collection.


The Dare Collection is six cremes in darker shade which also appear to be jewel tone, from red, through reddish purple, to green to dark blue. the dark blue, Ibiza, has a "subtle shimmer". I think it will probably be like the shimmer in some of the reds, it matches the tone so enhances the color rather than making the nail appear to be sparkly. Once again, only so much from chips, but these look exciting and I expect to have bottles soon and believe me will photograph them six ways to Sunday! These come out July 15!! Start saving up now!!