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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Zoya Pixie Dust ... Taking Textured Polish by Storm

My initial reaction to all the talk about texture/sand paper like polish was "really? textured polish?". None of them sounded very appealing to me. My first dive in the texture pool was with the OPI Liquid Sands from the Mariah Carey Collection. I liked them fine but I wasn't totally sold yet on the concept.



I started hearing talk about Zoya coming out with their own textured polish and I was excited to try them since I have been loving and definitely enjoying the colors/formula of recent Zoya releases. When the sneak peeks of the Pixie Dust Collection appeared I was really happy with the colors. They looked very pretty and wearable. Not quite the in your face boldness of the Liquid Sands. Now that I think about it, maybe that is why I wasn't totally in love with the trend at first. It seemed to be a little too much, the bright colors on top of the texture. Zoya's color choices were much more subtle and ultra wearable. There were no swatches available at first, so it was hard to really tell if they were going to be all I had hoped for. The anticipation was crazy as I awaited their arrival.

More after the jump --> click the link to read the rest!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Life and all the things in-between aka An update!

Hello lovelies!

It's been a while I know... Dom & I have had an onslaught of crazy life-itis it seems! Here's my update though :)

Since I saw most of you last (on the regular) I was working through a deployment and all that it entails. Well my husband since came home then deployed again. Haha the life of being government property eh? I feel bad for him being gone so much but I know that he enjoys his job, so that makes it easier I'm sure. But back to the update...

When I was preparing for his previous homecoming I looked like this...


More after the jump!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Zoya - Lovely Collection - Review & Swatches

Until I started really getting into nail polish I always respected pastels but wasn't overly moved to purchase any. As I've watched my collection evolve and be exposed to more and more brands that I never knew about I've also watched my color tastes broaden. Specifically in the direction of pastels. This year there is no shortage of lovely pastels offered up from our favorite brands. I am very happy to have a review of our favorite Ohio based nail polish company, Zoya, and their spring release, the Lovely Collection.

When I saw a photo of the Lovely Collection by Zoya my interested was definitely piqued. The collection as a whole is a nice set of basic spring staple colors. Those of you that aren't into nail art can enjoy the beauty of a lovely color alone. Those of you into nail art will enjoy this collection as it has some deeply pigmented cremes perfect as a base or use in nail art. I love the duality of the color choices they're offering in this collection for that reason alone. I mean to me that's a major reason to pick up the 6 color set immediately. However, if you need more convincing here are my swatches with reviews for each color in the Lovely Collection.

Zoya - Julie
Light box lighting, 2 coats w/top coat

Julie is by far my favorite of the shimmer set. I like shimmers in general but usually find myself reaching for cremes more often than not. However, I really love this soft lavender shimmer. The only downside for me is realizing it is the same shimmer combination/recipe as Zoya - Zuza. I am NOT a fan of Zuza and was disheartened to see that it was the same shimmer. I wish they would re-work the amount or type of shimmer they use. It is not clean up or sloppy painter (ahem, like ME!) friendly.

Zoya - Piaf
Light box lighting, 2 coats w/top coat 

This is Piaf, a lovely yellow that I would call a soft "mustard" yellow. I don't think it works for my skin tone, but I can see a lot of other lovelies wearing it and totally rocking this sweet spring color.

Zoya - Gie Gie
Light box lighting, 3 coats w/top coat

I really love the soft and dainty Gie Gie. I would love it even more if it was just a tad less sheer. I do not like VNL (visible nail line) and unfortunately on me I needed 3 coats of Gie Gie to reach an opacity that I felt comfortable with. I do love the color though, in fact it's currently on my toes! It probably doesn't hurt that the Mr. & I are hoping for a little girl this time around... so I've naturally been gravitating towards pink in all it's shades and variations ha!


The Lovely Collection's cremes are truly the stars of this collection. They are pigmented enough to easily use in nail art, are good color bases for most any occasion, and alone are simply perfect pastel shades.

Zoya - Blu
Light box lighting, 2 coats w/top coat

Blu is my absolute favorite out of the entire Lovely Collection. It is the most perfect powder blue I've ever seen and is just an easily wearable blue. Some people feel self conscious about wearing blue, but honestly I think even if you're self conscious Blu is a good color to try breaking through those feelings. It is soft enough that it isn't in your face but blue enough to say "Hey! I'm a lovely shade of blue, you should love me!"

Zoya - Neely
Light box lighting, 2 coats w/top coat

I have to say at first I was not excited about Neely. I was afraid that it wouldn't look good on me and might look like a "sick" green not a lovely pastel green against my skin tone. Oddly enough from the first swipe of the brush I knew I was totally wrong. I really like Neely and can see me wearing it this Easter with some cute nail art. Yay! I love when I'm wrong about a color!!

Zoya - Jacqueline
Light box lighting, 2 coats w/top coat

This is another color I was super unhappy about at first. In some of the photos Jacqueline looked like a nude to me. I haaaaaate nudes. I can't stand them, they get on my nerves. I honestly feel like what is the point if you're going to use a nude. However, I know that not everybody feels that way and that's ok too. Either way, once I actually saw the bottle in person I thought, well there's something I like about it but I'm still not convinced. WELL! Let me tell you... I was wrong not only once but twice!! This is soooo not a nude! It is more a very soft yellow or what I'd imagine the nail polish equivalent would be to aged white walls. Very antiqued and soft. It was difficult to truly capture the color accurately but I feel like the above photos are pretty close. This color, oddly enough, lightens up once painted. So don't go by the bottle. I really liked this color and feel like it is a perfect nail art base. It's a very soft spoken and unassuming color. Very lovely for a spring wedding day or maybe a stroll through the park.

I mentioned that these colors are prefect for nail art and here are two quick examples of some nail art only using Zoya - Lovely Collection colors.

Zoya - Julie as a base with Zoya - Blu polka dots
I was feeling very Mod and thought large dots would be cute lol

Zoya - Jacqueline as a base with Zoya - Julie, Blu & Neely fan brush marks
I didn't want to do another polka dot design and felt like adventuring a little with the fan brush in my MASH brush set. This is my first fan brush mani, definitely not great but you can see how pretty the colors look together. 

I hope that you enjoyed my review and swatches of Zoya's Lovely Collection. These colors are available for purchase on Zoya's website or direct link to the collection HERE for $8ea.

xo,






This product was provided to me for free and in no way impacts my review.
 The views and findings expressed are my own and to the best of my ability.

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