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:

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.

Top coat with flash.

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

Top coat natural light.

Close up, top coat in natural light.

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

With flash.

Up close with flash.

Natural light.

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.