Zoya Lovely Collection for Spring 2013 (Swatches and Review)

Good Morning and happy Friday! Today I have something super exciting to share with you, swatches from Zoya's Lovely collection for Spring 2013. The Lovely collection features six season appropriate pastels consisting of three beautiful cremes and three gorgeous metallic shimmers. I've been meaning to post this review for over a week but I've been sick with strep and the flu. The one good thing about delaying this post is that I can comment on the wear for about half of this collection.

Zoya Blu

Zoya Blu is a lovely baby blue creme with a strong white undertone. The formula on Blu is a bit thick but easy to work with. Blu was fully opaque in two coats and I wore this polish for three days with minimal tip wear. I actually got quite a few comments on this polish. This seems to be pretty popular even with those who aren't polish obsessed like the rest of us  ;)

Zoya Jacqueline

 

Zoya Jacqueline is a creamy nude polish with a slight tint of yellow. It was opaque in two coats but I found the formula to much thicker and stringier than the other cremes. It took more work than the other cremes to get it even and opaque. You can even see some areas on my ring finger that started to bubble. (For reference on this nude shade, I'm NW15)

Zoya Neely

 

Zoya Neely is a gorgeous pistachio green creme. This was my favorite of the cremes. It was opaque in two coats and had the same formula as Blu. I can report that the wear on Neely is phenomenal. I wore Neely for a total of SIX days with minimal tip wear and no chips.

Zoya Piaf

Zoya Piaf is described by the Zoya website as "fresh forsythia yellow metallic" which is spot on. I wasn't sure how I would feel about Piaf once on my nails but I found it to be flattering for a yellow. I looked through my large stash of polish and the color of Piaf is very unique. I used three coats of Piaf to get it fully opaque.

Zoya GieGie

Zoya GieGie is an icy light pink shimmer. This is what Barbie would wear if she traded in her bright pink for a shimmery pastel for Easter. This one wasn't one of my favorites, but I think it would be nice if you needed a color similar to this for a special occasion. I used three coats to get GieGie fully opaque.

Zoya Julie

Zoya Julie is my standout favorite from the Lovely collection. This gorgeous pastel purple shimmer is so gorgeous and flattering. I didn't expect to love this one as much as I did. I used three coats of Julie to get it fully opaque. I wore it for three days with minimal tip wear.

The Zoya Lovely collection is available now on Zoya's website here. They retail for $8.00 each, or you can buy the set for $48.00. Has anyone purchased any of the Lovely collection? Do you plan to? My favorites are Blue, Neely and Julie.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

*The products featured in this post were sent for my honest review.

Twinsie Tuesday - Saran Wrap Mani

Good Morning! The challenge for today is a saran wrap manicure. Honestly, I dreaded this. While I think the outcome is pretty cool the idea of making a mess is what has always held me back. I got my saran wrap cut and slathered the Vaseline around my cuticles to ease clean up. At first, I used OPI La Boheme and Deutsch You Want Me Baby. The colors were too close and I could barely see the Saran Wrap effect. I pulled out Zoya Ziv and went to work. Here's what I ended up with....

This reminds me a little bit of a Christmas ornament, but I like the outcome. If it wasn't for this challenge, I would have never done it on my own. The clean up was pretty minimal, I basically just wiped the polish off the Vaseline each time I finished a nail.

Check out my Twinsies and their Saran Wrap manis:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth at Did My Nails

Jamie at Polish, Please!

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Zoya Ornate Collection Swatches For Winter 2012

Good Morning all! Happy Monday...boo! haha. It's my birthday today (27) and I'm headed off to work. I should have planned ahead and requested the day off but oh well. Today I have something super special to share with you - Zoya's Ornate collection for winter 2012. Since I first saw the promo photos of the Ornate collection, I knew it was something super special. I'm usually a sucker for all holiday collections but Zoya's Ornate collection really packs a punch!

Up first is Blaze. Blaze is a berry red with holographic microglitter. As you can see in the below photos the microglitter in Blaze pulls red, pink and purple. The fact that this doesn't show the silvery shades we are used to with holographic glitter gives is a 'lit from within' feel. The formula was easy to work with and opaque in two coats.

 

Aurora is a red toned purple with holographic microglitter. The holographic effect in this is much more obvious than my camera could capture. It's a real stunner. The formula on Aurora was easy to work with and fully opaque in two coats. Magenta and red-toned purples are my favorite, so this is a definite win for me.

 



Next up is Electra. Electra is made up of holographic bar glitter in a clear base. To be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of bar glitter but I really fell for Electra. Electra reminds me of the tinsel that my grandmother used to put on the tree at Christmastime when I was a child. This gives off a real holiday feel. The glitter is dense and this I was able to get it opaque in three coats. (The photos below do not have top coat)  The formula was easy to work with and there was no fishing for glitter or having to move it around the nail to get it even. Electra is also more holographic than my camera could capture.

Ziv is a gold foil with tiny gold glitter pieces and a touch of silver. I was a little unsure how this would work on my skin tone (NW15 with some redness in my hands) but it's beautiful. After seeing this in person and getting to wear it I really do think that this would be flattering on all skin tones. The first coat went on a bit sheer but it was fully opaque with the second coat. The formula on Ziv was also very easy to work with.

 

Oh, Logan. Where do I begin? Logan is a b-e-a-utiful emerald green foil with a touch of gold fleck and teal. It's gorgeous in the bottle but it completely blew me away once on my nails. I have a few greens in my stash that I thought might have been comparable but once I took a closer look I don't have anything in my stash of 800-900 bottles quite like Logan. The formula was super easy to work with and it was fully opaque in two coats. If I was more careful, I feel that I would have been able to get away with one coat of Logan.

 

 

Last but not least, Storm. I was not expecting to fall in love with Storm the way I did. I thought this would be another black with holographic glitter, but something about Storm really won me over. Storm has a black jelly base with dense holographic glitter (the same holographic glitter as Aurora). It's extremely shiny even without a top coat, and a second layer does not make all of the holographic glitter in the first coat completely disappear. The formula was easy to work with and it was fully opaque in two coats. Storm is much more holographic in real life, my camera wasn't able to capture just how holographic this really was.

 

 

Overall, I'm super impressed with the Ornate collection. I wore Blaze and Logan for two days each without any chips (I topped them with Zoya-friendly Out The Door, skip Seche Vite with Zoya polishes as it seems to pull and cause shrinkage). The formula on each polish was easy to work with and the dry time was fast.

 

I recommend the entire collection, but if you are on a budget I would say that Blaze, Aurora, Logan and Storm are must haves. If you are a holo lover, the holos would be a fantastic addition to your collection. If you are a green girl (as I am) don't think twice about picking up Logan as you won't be disappointed.

 

The Ornate collection can be purchased as a set for $48 or individually for $8 USD from Zoya's website. 

 

Has anyone already purchased any of the Ornate collection polishes? Does anyone plan to? Since swatching these I'm in the mood for the holidays. I'm ready to skip over Halloween and maybe Thanksgiving (we'll stop at Black Friday!) and get ready for Christmas lol  ;)

 

The products featured in this post were sent for my honest review.



Twinsie Tuesday - Glass Fleck Polish

Good Morning! I apologize in advance for my absence and this super quick post. I'm out of town with no internet access, so this was scheduled in advance at the last minute. This week's theme is a glassfleck polish. I chose Zoya Ivanka for this one, since it's one my favorite glass flecks. The swatches below show two coats of Zoya Ivanka topped with 1 coat of Out the Door.....

Don't forget to check out out my Twinsies! I'm interested to see what brands everyone picks:

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing

Anne at Grape Fizz Nails

Ashley at Art Evolve

Brandi at The Collegiate Nail

Chelsea at Nailed Blog

ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...

Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...

Katherine at Haul of Fame

Maribeth at Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite

Marisa at Polish Obsession

Meredith at Polish and Charms

Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails

Rachel at Top Coat It

Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Zoya Zuza

Hey all! I'm here with a late night post. Sorry for being a bad blogger lately. Sometimes I feel like I barely have time to paint my nails at night. I have to get better at my time management so that I can get back on track. I must have at least 30-40 mani pics, to the point I'm getting overwhelmed. I hope to get it all together sooner than later.

Anyway, here are some quick swatches of Zoya Zuza. Zoya's website describes Zuza as "Deep, saturated, oceanic turquoise with gold and silver metallic shimmer and a foil-like finish. A beachy, colorful, foil-like shade with the perfect balance between blue and green."  Everything about this just reminded me of a mermaid. The formula was easy to work with, and the pictures below are 2 coats of Zuza and a coat of Out the Door.

(Sorry for the cuticle flooding -_-   I missed that previously)

I like how this polish has just the slightest hint of yellow to it. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Zoya Arizona

Good Morning! Super quick post for today. I'm going through some older swatches, which is why my nails look so much longer than yesterday's post (which is current). I'm still trying to find the best length for my nails. I even think they may be a smidge too long here. Thoughts? From the side they look like they are entering the land of duck nails (I will not go there! haha)

Anyway, up for review today is Zoya Arizona. Zoya's website describes Arizona as "Softened bright citrus orange with a muted cream finish. This orange is bright but also very soft, giving it a fun, orange sherbet-like look on the nails."  To me, this looked less like sherbert and more like mac and cheese lol. This was a huuuuge lemming for me. Formula was easy to work with and I used two coats and a coat of Out the Door for the pictures below.

Sorry for the cuticle flooding on the ring finger  :0/

The day I wore this I did think about Kraft Mac & Cheese each time I looked down at my hands. It's super cute and summery.

Twinsie Tuesday - Polish The Color of Our Rooms! (Zoya Charisma)

Can you believe it's another Twinsie Tuesday already? Geeeesh! The weeks fly by. The theme for this week was a polish that's the same color as our room. Now that's an easy one. For a while I was obsessed with all things magenta. Believe it or not, my walls are magenta as well as a ton of other things within my room. I figured while I'm not married with no children I might as well do what I want (I pretty much always use this excuse, I'm thinking I may never have kids or get married lol).  I had a bunch of magenta/fuchsia nail polishes to pick from but I wanted to go with an untried.

The Zoya website described Charisma as an 'ultra bright neon fluorescent magenta/red-toned purple cream.' With all polishes this color, it did dry matte and needed a coat of Out the Door to gain any shine. 

Before I go any further I just want to apologize for these cruddy photos. Two cameras and two cell phone cameras later, I had the worst time trying to get this polish to photograph accurately. Also, since Seche Vite shrinks Zoya like crazy I've been using Out the Door top coat which I'm not liking much at all. I find Out the Door bubbles and I just find it very thin to begin with. It seems to photograph awful in all the photos I've used it for a well.

Ugh, without further ado......

Not color accurate

Not color accurate

Not color accurate



This is as close as I got, but my skintone is way off and my walls in the background look brown. What the hell Charisma?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsies! I'm interested to see what everyone's room color is....

Amanda at Amandalandish
Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi
Cordia at Srsly Swatched
Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch
Tara at Polishy of Truth

Zoya Rory

Good Morning! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Today I have one of the new Zoya polishes from the Beach & Surf collection. Rory is from the Surf portion of the collection. Per Zoya's website, they describe Rory as "Medium mauve pink with lilac tones, gold and silver reflective metallic shimmer accents, and a foil-like finish. The gentle color of this polish gives the foil finish a softened appearance."  If Barbie liked foil polishes, this would be her pick.

For the photos below I used two coats of Rory and topped it off with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. Since I've had so much trouble with my SV and Zoya, I've been using Sally Hansen ID without any problems (just an FYI for all you suffering to part ways with your SV, like me lol)

While I do like this polish, I'm a little on the fence about foils. I basically have a love/hate relationship with them. I feel there is a fine line where a polish starts to look too frosty. Something about Rory keeps it very metallic looking.

Sorry for the pool of lotion on my pointer finger. I've been a greasy mess lately with trying to let my cuticles grow back. I literally apply cuticle oil 10x a day in addition to lotion/cuticle cream. I also slather on Lanisoh at night to keep them hydrated, which has been doing a pretty good job since I started religiously three days ago. It's just strange to own nipple cream for nursing mothers when I'm using it for my cuticles haha. I'm a lurker on MUA and always see Lanisoh spoken about, so now I can happily recommend it.  :)

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Twinsie Tuesday - Funky French

Today we have another Twinsie Tuesday post. This week the theme was funky french. I spent a little while on Sunday trying to put together a real 'funky' mani in my head. I looked down at my traffic cone orange nails and decided I might as well work with the amazing orange I already had, which I'm sure is funky to some of you lol. Before I begin, I don't like this mani one bit. It's pretty much atrocious. I dislike this so much that you are only going to get one single photo. I kept my previous mani of Zoya Paz (two coats) and on my tips I picked up a few of my glitters from the Burlesque collection by OPI. From left to right, I did two coats as 'tips' of the following:

Pointer: Glow Up Already

Middle: Extra-va-vaganza

Ring: Sparkle-icious

Pinky: Bring on the Bling

 

I ended up with this hot mess.....

 

I apologize for the unclear photo. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had a hard time getting Zoya Paz to photograph accurate, and under my indoor lighting this looks like a mess.

Don't forget to go check out what my Twinsies are sporting for today's theme!

Amanda at Amandalandish

Anna at Going to the Showing
Anne at Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley at Art Evolve
Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
ChiChi at I'm Just Me...ChiChi

Cordia at Srsly Swatched

Jenn at All That is Gorgeous...
Jenna at I'm Still Thinking...
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Meredith at Polish and Charms
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Top Coat It
Sarah at See Sarah Swatch

Tara at Polishy of Truth

Thanks for stopping by! :)

 

Zoya Paz......Orange Perfection!

Good Morning! Happy Monday! How many of us feel like this this morning?

LOL! This is one of my favorite photos, ever! I've had this saved on about three phones now and I've taken it with me to about three different jobs over the years. It makes a bad day better haha.

Anyhow, I got my package from the Zoya Earth Day promo last week. I ended up getting 14 polishes in order to qualify for free shipping, the Zoya Remove + and the Qtica grapefruit scrub. I picked up Arizona, Zuza, Meg, Heidi, Lianne, Ali, Renee, Wednesday, Paz, Elodie, Shelby, Rory, Kimber and Myrta. I was definitely in a bright coral/orange/pink mood when I ordered. When I got my package and unpacked them Zoya Paz jumped out at me. I have found my perfect orange.

Zoya Paz is a bright orange. It's exactly traffic cone orange. On top of being a great color the formula is perfection! The Zoya website calls this a creme but during application it feels so much like a jelly. It's so buttery smooth and it flows off the brush onto the nail with such ease. It's opaque in two coats but dries with a dull finish, looking almost rubberized. I topped this with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and it's amazing!

This polish gave my camera and the three other cameras in my household a hard time! I was finally able to get a color accurate photo outdoors with my cell camera (go Android!). For whatever reason, the top coat reflects strangely in these photos. I didn't realize it until after I removed this polish and came indoors.

Enough rambling....on to greatness!

I feel like I can swap all of my other oranges now. I have found my go to orange. I love this so much, how could I ever use another orange? lol

Does anyone else own Paz?