Zoya Intimate

Another oldie. I’m almost done with my Spring collections I promise! 😉 This is the Spring 2011 collection, featuring the quite interesting Gemma. All the polishes boasted the fantastic Zoya formula, with two coats each. The polishes are quite perfect for Spring. I can imagine wearing them during the constant rain and dreariness that is Washington DC springtime! 😉

Gemma. Indeed the star and most unique of this collection, but I didn’t really like it much. It looks like vomit and pea soup. It’s got this interesting purple/blue shimmer running through it. Have a closer look:

It looks a lot better in the photos and in that closeup, but it just looks like baby poo on my nails =\ NOT My favorite and definitely something I’m gonna get rid of!

Caitlin is a dark smoky periwinkle blue.

Jules, how I love this one! It’s a lovely gold with glass fleck. Looks great in sunshine! I think any skin tone could pull this color off.

Marley is a light lilac with a delicate pearl finish.

Dove is a perfect soft grey creme.

Dannii! Guess who’s my favorite? Purple with gold glass fleck shimmer– gorgeous in sunlight.

Zoya Intimate

Another oldie. I’m almost done with my Spring collections I promise! 😉 This is the Spring 2011 collection, featuring the quite interesting Gemma. All the polishes boasted the fantastic Zoya formula, with two coats each. The polishes are quite perfect for Spring. I can imagine wearing them during the constant rain and dreariness that is Washington DC springtime! 😉

Gemma. Indeed the star and most unique of this collection, but I didn’t really like it much. It looks like vomit and pea soup. It’s got this interesting purple/blue shimmer running through it. Have a closer look:

It looks a lot better in the photos and in that closeup, but it just looks like baby poo on my nails =\ NOT My favorite and definitely something I’m gonna get rid of!

Caitlin is a dark smoky periwinkle blue.

Jules, how I love this one! It’s a lovely gold with glass fleck. Looks great in sunshine! I think any skin tone could pull this color off.

Marley is a light lilac with a delicate pearl finish.

Dove is a perfect soft grey creme.

Dannii! Guess who’s my favorite? Purple with gold glass fleck shimmer– gorgeous in sunlight.

Zoya Touch

Zoya usually releases bright, flashy colors. Sometimes too flashy- where would we be able to use that in the professional world? But this summer they released a three piece of work-appropriate, professional neutrals! They call these polishes as neutral but with a “metallic kiss”. It actually just looks like shimmer to me, and a pearl finish.

I love the box it came in! 🙂

The formula was especially fantastic for all three, and they are definitely neutral polishes that everyone needs to have in their stash! Zoya released three types of nudes to ensure that these shades can suit various skin colors, so everyone definitely needs one. 🙂 They are meant to be dense and opaque, but I achieved full opacity with three coats.
I hear a lot of other bloggers achieved this coverage with two, so maybe my definition of coat thickness is different. I do pretty thin coats because if I do thicker ones then I’ll end up with cuticle drag and pooling.

Pandora. This is a cool, light mauve. This is my second favorite 🙂

Detail of the gold shimmer and the finish.

Minka. She’s a strong yellow toned beige nude. It’ll suit people with yellow/green undertones.

Detail. I know, I fudged the application a bit 😐

Shay. She’s a peachy warm beige, very sandy. She is also my match, and there needs to be songs written about our compatibility.

I’m actually craving to wear this one again!!

Zoya Touch

Zoya usually releases bright, flashy colors. Sometimes too flashy- where would we be able to use that in the professional world? But this summer they released a three piece of work-appropriate, professional neutrals! They call these polishes as neutral but with a “metallic kiss”. It actually just looks like shimmer to me, and a pearl finish.

I love the box it came in! 🙂

The formula was especially fantastic for all three, and they are definitely neutral polishes that everyone needs to have in their stash! Zoya released three types of nudes to ensure that these shades can suit various skin colors, so everyone definitely needs one. 🙂 They are meant to be dense and opaque, but I achieved full opacity with three coats.
I hear a lot of other bloggers achieved this coverage with two, so maybe my definition of coat thickness is different. I do pretty thin coats because if I do thicker ones then I’ll end up with cuticle drag and pooling.

Pandora. This is a cool, light mauve. This is my second favorite 🙂

Detail of the gold shimmer and the finish.

Minka. She’s a strong yellow toned beige nude. It’ll suit people with yellow/green undertones.

Detail. I know, I fudged the application a bit 😐

Shay. She’s a peachy warm beige, very sandy. She is also my match, and there needs to be songs written about our compatibility.

I’m actually craving to wear this one again!!

Zoya French Twist

Last month or something, Zoya had both a promo and a new “French twist” style. It was to use both Caitlin and Marley, from their Intimate Spring 2011 collection, as a french tip. Some people alternated with the colors, but I went traditional (ha) and used Caitlin as a base, and Marley for the tips.

Please don’t laugh! I really suck at freehand french tips 😦 I tried following my smile line and it came out wonky so I went over it again but they turned into more like chevron tips.

I did love this, but the tips were just too thick for me lol!

Kinda looks okay here. My index finger is just funny. xD

Did any of you guys try the French twist?

Zoya French Twist

Last month or something, Zoya had both a promo and a new “French twist” style. It was to use both Caitlin and Marley, from their Intimate Spring 2011 collection, as a french tip. Some people alternated with the colors, but I went traditional (ha) and used Caitlin as a base, and Marley for the tips.

Please don’t laugh! I really suck at freehand french tips 😦 I tried following my smile line and it came out wonky so I went over it again but they turned into more like chevron tips.

I did love this, but the tips were just too thick for me lol!

Kinda looks okay here. My index finger is just funny. xD

Did any of you guys try the French twist?

Product Review: Zoya Remove+

I got a sample size with a large Zoya order a while back, and have some things to say about it…

What I Like:
–The bottle size. I know– what? lol, but it’s below the 3 oz requirement for airlines and I travel a ton! I envision this turning into my travel size remover, and maybe I can finally take polish with me while I travel. Well who am I kidding– I’ll just bring the remover, and buy the polish wherever I am! 😉

–How moisturizing it really is. My fingertips don’t go white after I’m done with this! It’s great for swatching in my opinion, because it cuts down the time in between swatches that I spend moisturizing my hands so they don’t look terrible in my ever so scrutinizing camera.

What I Don’t Like:
— Price tag (If I were to buy). The basic essence of Remove+ is that it’s acetone mixed with glycerin. There’s some fancy scent and coloring thrown in, but whatever. I go through remover a lot since I change my mani everyday and I would just rather NOT spend 30 bucks on an acetone remover. I have heard of a recipe that imitates the Remove+ effects by buying glycerin and acetone then mixing them together. Glycerin is cheap on its own, so you would be out 10 bucks at the most and have two giant bottles of glycerin/acetone to last.

— The scent!! It’s overpowering for me and I wish it was unscented.

— It’s kind of not that effective. Moisturizing yes but effective, meh. I feel like I have to put a whole lot of product on my cotton ball and then some more just to finish a hand. I also have to rub harder than usual, to get the polish off.

Verdict? Won’t be buying this, but will try to replicate the effects with a homemade recipe sometime soon and see if the glycerin also cuts down on the effectiveness of the acetone on polish.

Product Review: Zoya Remove+

I got a sample size with a large Zoya order a while back, and have some things to say about it…

What I Like:
–The bottle size. I know– what? lol, but it’s below the 3 oz requirement for airlines and I travel a ton! I envision this turning into my travel size remover, and maybe I can finally take polish with me while I travel. Well who am I kidding– I’ll just bring the remover, and buy the polish wherever I am! 😉

–How moisturizing it really is. My fingertips don’t go white after I’m done with this! It’s great for swatching in my opinion, because it cuts down the time in between swatches that I spend moisturizing my hands so they don’t look terrible in my ever so scrutinizing camera.

What I Don’t Like:
— Price tag (If I were to buy). The basic essence of Remove+ is that it’s acetone mixed with glycerin. There’s some fancy scent and coloring thrown in, but whatever. I go through remover a lot since I change my mani everyday and I would just rather NOT spend 30 bucks on an acetone remover. I have heard of a recipe that imitates the Remove+ effects by buying glycerin and acetone then mixing them together. Glycerin is cheap on its own, so you would be out 10 bucks at the most and have two giant bottles of glycerin/acetone to last.

— The scent!! It’s overpowering for me and I wish it was unscented.

— It’s kind of not that effective. Moisturizing yes but effective, meh. I feel like I have to put a whole lot of product on my cotton ball and then some more just to finish a hand. I also have to rub harder than usual, to get the polish off.

Verdict? Won’t be buying this, but will try to replicate the effects with a homemade recipe sometime soon and see if the glycerin also cuts down on the effectiveness of the acetone on polish.

Zoya Summertime

Here is the other half of the Zoya Summer 2011 collection, Summertime. This is a six piece collection featuring cremes.

The polish was two coater in all of the pictures. Had VNL issues with the red ones, but mainly not too terrible. Formula was stellar. I love Zoya although their price tag could go down a little bit more. 🙂

Love Areej! Such a nice take on the Pantone 2011 Color of the Year: Honeysuckle color.

 Areej, a very strong fuchsia.

This is a bit darker in real life. My camera, and the uploading process washed it out 😦

 Breezi, an interesting blue. Almost teal, almost periwinkle. I looked this color up and it seems to match Munsel Blue, according to Wikipedia’s list of color drops (the little blue square above).

Very dark fuchsia creme.

Great purple creme, this photo shows a bit too purple. It’s a lot more “pastel” (washed out) than the photo showing.

 Sooki is a very cool cherry red. It’s the perfect red creme! I don’t LOVE this because the name reminds me of that horrible Snooki from Jersey Shore and I can’t stand her. 😦

Tamsen is a much warmer red– you can see it has a lot more orange than its sister Sooki above. Dark tomato red. It leans a lot towards the orange side than Sooki, who leans towards cherry. 

Love these cremes… I could do without the two reds though. How about a green? 😉 

I also want to see Zoya name their polish after some REAL women, not these vapid beings that you see on trashy, brain-cell-slaughtering TV shows. =\

Zoya Summertime

Here is the other half of the Zoya Summer 2011 collection, Summertime. This is a six piece collection featuring cremes.

The polish was two coater in all of the pictures. Had VNL issues with the red ones, but mainly not too terrible. Formula was stellar. I love Zoya although their price tag could go down a little bit more. 🙂

Love Areej! Such a nice take on the Pantone 2011 Color of the Year: Honeysuckle color.

 Areej, a very strong fuchsia.

This is a bit darker in real life. My camera, and the uploading process washed it out 😦

 Breezi, an interesting blue. Almost teal, almost periwinkle. I looked this color up and it seems to match Munsel Blue, according to Wikipedia’s list of color drops (the little blue square above).

Very dark fuchsia creme.

Great purple creme, this photo shows a bit too purple. It’s a lot more “pastel” (washed out) than the photo showing.

 Sooki is a very cool cherry red. It’s the perfect red creme! I don’t LOVE this because the name reminds me of that horrible Snooki from Jersey Shore and I can’t stand her. 😦

Tamsen is a much warmer red– you can see it has a lot more orange than its sister Sooki above. Dark tomato red. It leans a lot towards the orange side than Sooki, who leans towards cherry. 

Love these cremes… I could do without the two reds though. How about a green? 😉 

I also want to see Zoya name their polish after some REAL women, not these vapid beings that you see on trashy, brain-cell-slaughtering TV shows. =\