Beauty: Zoya Phoebe

3/31/2011 09:51:00 AM Ashley 2 Comments

Well it looks like Phoebe won the chance to be the first polish I tried from my BOGO spree at Zoya! It's not easy to see, but the color is one of two matte polishes that I got. Zoya discribes this color as:

"Phoebe can be best described as: Bright azure with fine electric blue and violet shimmer with a velvety matte finish. The matte finish amplifies the bright color; this is a matte that positively glows"

The shimmer can be very hard to see in certain lights, but when it hits just right it almost has a metal look too it. Get even closer to the nail and you can see the very small glittery shimmer. And it is, in every sense of the word, electric blue. I constantly catch myself looking at and petting my nails.

For this color I did some layering in hopes of making it last longer (as I've read that this can help), because mattes are notorious for chipping quickly. Sadly it's just the nature of the beast. I started with a base coat of CND's Stickey base coat. I then did two layers of the color and followed it with a OPI top coat. This is why I was able to get pictures of what this color would look like if it wasn't matte. Then I finished everything off with one last coat of the color. All in all I did 3 coats to get it opaque, with 3 nails needing a 4th coat, but that was because of user error.

In the first batch of photos I am showing the polish with a top coat, which completely blocks out any hint of matte.

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Top coat with flash.

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Close up, top coat with flash. Here you can really see the shimmer.

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Top coat natural light.

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Close up, top coat in natural light.

Now to show you the polish in all of it's full matte glory...

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With flash.

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Up close with flash.

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Natural light.

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Up close with natural light.

Nate made a comment that the matte has the look and feel of a chalkboard and I definitely would agree with that comment. I also notice that it picks up body oils and lotions, which makes it almost glow and takes away that chalky look. Which I don't mind.

Now lets get down to business. This is not the easiest color in the world to put on (minus the fact that I always paint my cuticles). This is simply because it is matte, and much like their chipping issues, mattes dry fast. While that might seem like a great polish to use if you need a quick mani, I can say that thought process is totally wrong. I actually tried applying this color on Tuesday, quickly, with a very bad outcome. Because it dries so quickly, if you don't get good solid coats down, you are left with a gloppy, lumpy mess. The key is to rush, but not rush. Load up your brush and try to only do only two swipes per nail (three for thumbs). Don't worry too much if the first coat is streaky, it usually fixes itself after the second coat.

Mattes can take a little work to master, but once you have they are totally worth it. My nails were totally dry in 10 minutes. As in I could press down on my nail and not leave a finger print behind. I am very interested to see how this sandwiching of color and top coat works out. I'll definitely have to do an update on how long the color actually lasts.

All in all though, I am totally smitten with this color. I have nothing like it in my collection. It's such a eye catching color and I really really love how it feels (cause I need another reason to pet myself). I can easily see myself using this as a matte as well as adding a top coat to it, because the top coat totally changes the look of it. It almost glows from within.

So what do you think? Would you ever do bright blue nails? Have you played around with mattes? If so do you like them? And how do you apply them?

2 comments :

  1. Oh WOW!! That colour is sooooo cool!! I'm not sure if I like it totally matte, though. It's weird but to me it looks "unfinished" without that super shiny top coat. The colour is positively outstanding though! LOVE IT!

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  2. It is a great color. I totally get what you're saying about the matte looking unfinished. It took awhile for me to get use to the look. The chalky look has pretty much gone away because of lotion on my hands and things like that. So it almost gives the polish the look of having a not quite so glossy top coat.

    If you like the color, but don't want to go through the hassle of dealing with a matte and adding a top coat, I've heard that Zoya's Robyn is very similar.

    http://www.zoya.com/content/38/item/Zoya/Zoya-Nail-Polish-Robyn.html

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