Monday, March 30, 2009

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.)


35 comments:

  1. I totally agree with everything you said, my experience with these was exactly the same. :)

    I am dying for a matte olive green and really hoping ManGlaze is working on this!

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  2. An olive green matte would be so hot! Im considering frankening one. All you need is to add Nailtek Foundation II to half a bottle of polish and you have a matte :)

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  3. WOW!

    This polishes are totally awsome !

    I really loved it!

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  4. That black looks so matte that your nails look like they were drawn on instead of being a photo. Neat!

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  5. Matte is the new 'cool' and I have heard that Man Glaze is working on releasing a blue and a green. Write to them and encourage them!

    I totally agree with your love of matte polish. It's so "industrial" and 'real' looking. I also really like Man Glaze, it has that cool metallic depth to it that it's hard to beat. And, it goes on like butter - no brush marks!

    And for once, guys can use it too and not have to 'steal' it from their gf/wives!

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  6. I love your web blog and now have to get a biottle or two of the "Man Glaze" polishes with the matte finishes. They look awesome and I bet will lopok awesome on mu toes, lol.

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  7. I think the white one is awesome! It looks so clean, fresh, satiny, you know what I mean.

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  8. I love the bottle shape!
    I used that bottle shape for the nail polish bottle I put into my new header.

    I think the white looks really neat. I'm not so into matte (I know, I'm as bad as a raven, I like the sparkly), but I can definitely appreciate it on others!

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  9. I love the matte polishes, and cheated by getting Orly Matte Top, it works wonders. I tried it over a pink creme (you can see it here http://fizzivy.blogspot.com/2009/02/viva-la-diva-nr-106-och-orly-matte-top.html) and over Revvvolution (here http://fizzivy.blogspot.com/2009/03/revvvolution-goes-manglaze.html).
    I think I still want ManGlaze though, they really appeal to me! ;)

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  10. Now I need the red. That's my name. Dangit.

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  11. I second what Perla said. It's like a blackout occurred on your nails!

    I wish I loved these as much as you do, but I'm too much of a nail polish amateur to spend time conquering application issues caused by a tricky formula. Hats off to you, Scrangie! :)

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  12. I adore these, from the density to the bottles to the application, I've the black and the Calamine, The Karen looks fantastic! If there was an ox blood shade. Boing! Would love that but seriously jonesing to purchase Karen and Powder, cause the swatch looks gorgeous of Powder.

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  13. I was curious about these. Heck, I was almost willing to buy them just for the pretty bottle. Do you think it would be okay to use basecoat with these? I am thinking it might keep the polish from cracking or flaking.

    I think Orly also made a matte topcoat called Orly Matte Top or something like that.

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  14. That's interesting how the longer you wear those, the shinier they get.

    I've heard about matte top coats. Have you ever tried those with regular polishes? I'm curious if they work or not.

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  15. Haha...okay, I was way too anxious to post a comment. I finished reading your entire post and you addressed top coats. SIGH. Sorry...am a bit slow. Long day at work.

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  16. Scrangie--Only if you are sporting a dew rag, tiger stripe camo, humping a ruck, slung M4 with an Eotech, and rocking the f'ing glock. Let's tear ass around the shit and get some trigger time. Can you dig it?

    Scott, out

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  17. I've bought both of these but not worn them yet - so glad you swatched them as the little instructions I got for the white say to ONLY USE ONE COAT. They are pretty insistent about that but my manicurist kept demanding we needed more than one coat of the white, so I wouldn't let her do it...now that I know that will look good, I'll try it out for sure. I've also ordered the Flatte Top and the Karen at this point, so hopefully they will work and keep the flat finish rocking longer.

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  18. They look like velvet! How awesome!

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  19. Hey Scrangie!
    They look awesome! I ordered these 3 months ago, and have yet to receive them. Honestly, their customer service is terrible!
    Anyways, my question is:
    Does cuticle oil make the KO shinier?

    Thanks!

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  20. Essie's coming out with a neon matte collection!!! so excited for it!


    xx

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  21. Can we use the KO Flatte white as a french mani white ?

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  22. I'm so jealous of you people who own matte polishes! They're impossible to find here in Sweden...

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  23. flatte black come to mama. come now and come 25 at a time lol

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  24. Oooh, I just posted Calamine yesterday!! The white and black are stunning on you! Can't wait for more mattes! :)

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  25. That chalkboard on your nails look is having the same effect on me that nails on a chalkboard would!

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  26. Wow had never seen the matte look....i'm wondering, how do you get your cuticles to look so GREAT? I'm dyeing to know! My cuticleas are always looking so awful :( I would really appreciate if you'd help me out.
    smscrapper@gmail.com
    Thanks!

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  27. I would love to own them all. They look fabulous on you. I believe the polishes were quite expensive, are they? I am dying for a matte olive green also. Oxblood sounds fantastic!

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  28. While I must admit that the bottles are pretty, I am not a fan of the matte look at all. If I am going to use a polish I want my nails to look glossy. To each their own I guess.

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  29. I don't know, I don't really dig matte nail polish! I mean, it looks good, but I wouldn't wear it.

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  30. $22??? And they have guts to call it "cruelty-free"?

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  31. WHOLy %*#$*^%?!*#$%!!!! that black is neeeded...even the SO ... who STILLL think im crazy.. thought this was pretty crazy...i would top coat man glaze once and a while but this..never..

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  32. charcoal! thats what the black looks like

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  33. By the way, you actually can write on the black matte with chalk - I'm a teacher and we tried it out at school. The red looks awesome too, BTW. Just tried it out tonight.

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  34. Am I too late to answer a question on this post and have it answered? :) I just wanted to know what OPI that was in the bottle comparison photo. :)

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