Zoya Lara

Zoya Lara. Bright blue-toned pink cream. I bought it because it's almost my name (one letter off!), and I wear it because it's the perfect barbie pink.

Day 1.

Day 5!

Day 5.

I went lipstick shopping while wearing this, and it's a pretty good match for Maybelline Color Sensational Vivid in Fuchsia Flash.

No H8.

Conveniently, I had a purple waiting to be worn! Zoya Carly, two coats.

Zoya Charla

I love Zoya polishes. They're so lovely. And they do this sparkly, glass-flecked, almost-foil-y finish better than anyone else. It's pretty much my favorite thing. Ivanka, Apple, Kimmy, Charla... yummy goodness.
Charla is well-known. She's pretty much the same as OPI Catch Me In Your Net, Orly Haley's Comet, Essence Choose Me...

And an extreme close-up for your viewing pleasure!

Zoya Danii

Danii was one of the 2 polishes I got back in the January Zoya promo... It takes me so dang long to get to polishes! She's a beautiful purple with seriously amazing gold shimmer. Compared to the letdown that was Your Hut or Mine, I am super excited about this one!

2 coats, no top coat.

That's it for today! Short & sweet.

Princesses Rule vs Sparkle

Ack! I've been slacking on the polish blog front! I spent all weekend attending a 3-day photography workshop, and a couple days fixing up my business' website, so this sort of got pushed to the backburner... sorry!! The good news is, I should have goodies coming in the mail in the next couple days, so I will be super excited to play with the new pretties & share them here!

I haven't done anything Valentine's-y other than year reds & pinks, so nothing special is coming... instead, here's a simple comparison for you!

Zoya Sparkle & OPI Princesses Rule!
PR is one of those weird polishes that I don't understand why I own them. I bought it before I was into nail polish, when I really hated pink & red polishes, so WHY would I have bought this? But it's beautiful, and I wore it on my wedding day, so I shouldn't complain!
Sparkle I got in my first humongo order of Zoyas, and I'm not sure why I got it, either... I tend to only buy polishes that I've seen a lot of swatches of, and I can't find any of this! So strange...

These are layered over SH CSM Cafe au Lait, since it's what I was wearing when I decided to do this!

They're VERY similar, but not as close as I initially thought! PR is more noticably pink, while Sparkle is really just a sparkle top coat. So I suppose I am glad I have them both after all! They'll serve different purposes for me, now that I know what the differences are!

Zoya Anaka

Anaka is so wonderful. Bright pink with a great shimmer. And out of the sun, it hovers on the line between pink and purple.

Anaka, shade

Anaka, sun

Shade

 

Sun

Then I added Meep Meep Meep from the Muppets collection on my ring fingers. I expected it to be more different, but instead it ended up being a pretty good comparison. They're very similar color-wise, but the finishes are different, and Meep Meep Meep had a lot more depth.

Shade

 

Sun

Nail Mail! Zoya Mira + Danii

My zoya promo finally got here! Yaay, nail mail! I've been on a serious no-buy due to a severe lack of budget in our household this month, so this is my first new polish since Christmas. I'm sure you all understand how freaking excited I am!

 As always with Zoya, the box came with swatches of their recent collections. This time, the True + Fleck collections & the Feel collection as well.

This is the first time I've gotten a box this size. My first order from them I got two of the 6-pack box (yep, I bought a lot!), and the second order they just wrapped them up in soft packing stuff.

And the pretties!! Mira & Danii.

Mira could be a one coater if you're really good at polishing your nails; I had a couple bald, draggy spots from where I was being impatient and not quite careful enough. But here she is at two, with no top coat: utter glossy perfection.

I want to enjoy Mira in all of her beauty, but I also didn't want Danii to feel left out, so I did an accent gradient with her. These two look really lovely together!

No top coat

OPI Natural nail top coat

And finally! Since we all know what Zoya Mira/OPI Funkey Dunkey looks like, I figured she's a good judge against what the purples in the True collection are like for those of us who aren't fortunate to own them already. As you can see, the True purples' bases are much warmer & grayer.

Mira is my first purple cream and I think I officially need to get myself more purples!

Zoya Faye

Continuing the Zoya streak. I swear I own other polish brands! I need to make myself wear something else when I take this off...

Zoya calls Faye "a bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle.  A unique gilded shade that will work in any season," and they classify it as a purple. I'm definitely going to agree with "purple undertones" and "flooded with bright gold sparkle," but I don't think I would call it a purple at all! I asked my husband what color he thought it was and he said, "Pink? Gold?" and that's pretty much how I feel about it!

Here are a LOT of pictures; I wanted to try to show you all of her faces. All 2 coats. And, as always, clickable to view much larger.

Here's Faye in front front of my window; natural, indirect light.

Here she is in direct sunlight. This is the only time you can see that she isn't as opaque as a cream would be.

This pretty much the ONLY picture I took that showed her as purple!

Indirect sunlight,

direct sunlight,

and shade. She is a mostly-pink with gold shimmer in sunlight, but she is pretty much pure gold in any other light.

I wore her matte last spring, and this is what she looked like then. Beautiful, and much more purple than she is shiny!

Finally, here she is in action. This is while I was a work yesterday. She really comes across as a rose-y, golden foil more than she does a "bronzed mauve with purple undertones."

Do you have Faye? What do you think of her?

Zoya Neeka

I am definitely in a Zoya mood right now. I'm SO excited about the True collection -- not that I'll be able to afford it this month! -- and I ordered Mira & Danii in their promo last week. My collection of polishes is really small in the purple area. To get myself psyched about the polishes coming in the mail, and to try to quench my lust for the purple shimmers in the True collection, I reached for one of the few purples I already have: Zoya Neeka.

 And now, for one million pictures!

Shade

Shade again

Direct sunlight

Indirect sunlight

In my car

One day in with tipwear.
At my work, in gross florescent lighting.
Still pretty!

The shimmer in this is just absolutely gorgeous. And I don't know why I don't own purples, because I think they're lovely!

Last night I was watching the game with my husband's boss's brother, whose wife complimented me on my nails. "What brand is that," she said, "OPI?"
I tried to tell her it's Zoya, a brand that isn't available in this area (we don't have an Ulta or any other store that sells it!) and she seemed really confused. But at least she thought it was pretty! :)

Zoya Crystal take 2

Here are some pictures of Crystal I took while out and about yesterday. They are definitely better than those I posted the other day!

These first two were in the car; for some reason, it's always where I get my best pictures!

These next two were in the apple store; I took pictures of my nails while my husband looked at shiny toys! :)

 And for your viewing pleasure, here is an extreme close-up of Crystal!