ManGlaze Revisited

It's about time I re-did my old, blurry sideways pictures of these.

This seems to be the year of the mattes. Everyone's doing them now. KO, OPI, Zoya and MAC are all coming out with more mattes soon and I'm sure a few other companies will jump on board before the end of the year.

I have been enjoying matte polish for a very long time. My old 'signature' shade was Maybelline Matte Olive. (Thank you, kind-hearted friend -you know who you are- for allowing me to enjoy this polish once again!)

If you are a matte lover like me, you'll know it was impossible to find any matte polish at all after the Orlys, Maybellines and Cover Girls were discontinued. All hope was lost. And then, ManGlaze was invented.

ManGlaze is marketed mainly toward men and it's not for the faint of heart. It is truly a rock star polish. It currently comes in two shades:

The Death Tar. Formerly called 'black' (and I think it even had another name before that). It's an asphalt-black matte. It's not just a plain, flat black. It's flecked with shimmer and little particles that make it look like a little piece of blacktop on your nails.


Fuggen Ugly. Formerly known as Grey (and something else before that). Matte grey with the same shimmery flecks and particles as The Death Tar. This shade makes me think of metal. It reminds me of the time I put a non-dishwasher safe part of my coffee maker into the dishwasher and when it came out, all the shiny coating had been removed. That's what this looks like. Raw metal.


The whole point of these polishes it to be matte. Their tagline is "Glossy has been cancelled." But... I just couldn't resist seeing what they look like with topcoat, and they're truly a sight to behold.




The Death Tar with topcoat. You're going to want to look at the full size images for these. It's awesome. It seems like the topcoat makes the black in The Death Tar even richer and deeper. Applying topcoat seems to release a multitude of multicolored sparkling particles. This is so sparkly that it almost looks holographic. You can see the colors shift in the shimmer- red, blue. orange, green... Perhaps they're tiny, tiny holographic flakes and not just rough silver shimmer?


Fuggen Ugly with topcoat. Just like The Death Tar, this one comes to life and becomes richer and more vibrant with the topcoat. The sparkles are outrageous. It's glittery but there's no glitter. It's smooth as glass. These pictures seem to show the prismatic effect of the shimmer a little better.

The application on these is fantastic. They're right in the middle of thick and thin texture-wise. They don't run or streak or bubble. They need two coats for optimum opacity. The drying time on them is super fast. You don't use topcoat with these polishes (that would destroy the matte finish) but even without my beloved Seche Vite, this polish dried completely within ten minutes. Out of all the mattes I've worn, these seem to wear the best. They resist chipping and tipwear very well, but depending on how rough or gentle you are on your nails, wear time can vary. I don't usually wear polish for more than a day or two, but every time I've worn these for more than a day they haven't chipped.

A few people have asked me about the texture of these once they're dry, and the best I can describe it as is paper. Like rubbing your finger across a sheet of printer paper. It's smooth, but not glossy smooth like photo paper, and not rough like construction paper... It's about the texture of plain printer paper or notebook paper.

I love these polishes. I love everything about them. I love the artwork on the bottles, and even the ingredients list that comes inside the shipping box. Take a look at your address bar when you visit the website. This company has a sense of humor and that's one thing that is SERIOUSLY lacking these days. I really appreciate that about ManGlaze. Above all, ManGlaze is pretty badass and that scores major points with me. It also helps that the guy who did their label, Joe Simko, also did artwork for a bunch of my favorite bands. It was love at first sight.

On top of the great product, they have really great customer service. Friendly and very quick to respond. Another thing that most companies lack.

ManGlaze is big three free and does not do animal testing. You can get ManGlaze directly from the company's website. Right now it only comes in two shades, The Death Tar and Fuggen Ugly, but a little birdie told me that there are more shades in the works.