Orly Matte Couture for Fall/Winter 2009

This is Orly's second matte release but I'm not really feeling it... I'm getting matte overload!



Blue Suede. A soft medium blue creme with a satin matte finish. This one was my least favorite of the collection. I like the color but the finish is too... rubbery? I want my mattes to be REALLY matte, not this in-between look like you've been wearing it for a day already.


Purple Velvet. A purple-toned dusty dark mauve with subtle shimmer. This one is slightly more matte than Blue Suede but not completely shine-free. I like this one a lot better. This is the only one with a hint of shimmer- barely visible but it's there.


Matte Vinyl. Matte black creme. This is a pretty good matte black. It's not as deep and dark as the KO black, it's more of a soft black. I used this for the base of a really cool chrome Konad design that I'll post soon.


The formula on these was... so-so. They are a lot thicker than the other mattes that have been released this year and they take longer to dry. I did have a little trouble applying them smoothly, even with my matte application technique that works for all the other ones. Wear time is average for mattes- I wore Matte Vinyl for two days- it was shinier by the end of the first day and chipped on the second day. No better or worse than any other matte.

I think I might be all matted-out for the year. I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about these mattes. I probably would have liked them more if I had them a month or two ago when I was still craving mattes. I love that Matte has finally come back and that everyone seems to be jumping on the matte look bandwagon, but a lot of these matte colors are kind of... what's the word? Mundane perhaps. I'm leaning toward favoring a matte topcoat over matte-finish polishes, it's more versatile. Although, some of the matte-finish polishes have been totally awesome, like the Zoyas (Savita OMG).

Am I being too harsh? It just feels like too little too late to me, you know? I mean... they're not bad, they're just not interesting. I would have liked to see more unique colors and a stronger matte finish instead of an almost-matte.

I do give them bonus points for the gorgeous frosted bottle, and I've always loved Orly's rubberized handles... At least they'll look pretty in my polish room :)