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!

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!

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.

Zoya Ornate Collection 2012 Swatches & Review *pic heavy*

As soon as I saw Zoya's Ornate collection I knew that I HAD to have it.  This line is right in my ballpark and I immediately called E and laid claim to this review!  I received my collection on Friday and got busy swatching as soon as the sun came up on Saturday!  Thank God that Ohio had a sunny day because these colors in the sun are ridiculous!

Zoya has really been impressing me with their 2012 releases and this time is no different. Ornate is a group of six really deep rich colors. Zoya describes the collection as, "perfect to decorate your nails with stunning jewel tone colors and special effect pigments this season." I would have to say that I agree!  

All of my swatches, with the exception of Electra, were done using Beauty Secrets Base Coat, two coats of polish and Orly Glosser for the top coat.

Aurora is described by Zoya as "plum with a multicolored crystal shimmer". I would say that Aurora is more of a raspberry plum with a bit of holo. Aurora painted like a dream and with two coats of polish, was at full opacity.

Storm, described by Zoya as "black with multicolor crystal shimmer", is one of my favorites. Again, this polish painted flawlessly. The "multicolor crystal shimmer" or as I would call it, holo, is amazing and creates such depth. It looks almost juicy with the Glosser top coat!  

I am not usually a lover of the red hues but Blaze has really surprised me! I love it!  Zoya describes Blaze as "cranberry glitter glam crystal" and that is just what it is! With two coats of polish and the Glosser top coat, this color almost looked like a jelly sandwich all on its own!  

Gold is another one of my not so favorite hues. I just hadn't found one that really looked good with my skin tone. As an unspoken rule, any golds that I came across I would automatically put in a box for my next shipment to E! Thank you Zoya for giving me a gold that I actually like and think looks good on my skin. This polish was a bit more tricky to paint with. Ziv is a "gold foil glitter crystal" according to Zoya and just that description alone should give you a hint on how carefully you need to paint this one. With two coats I had full opacity but the clean up was a bit trying. The little crystals and glitter seemed to get everywhere but the final outcome looked great so it was worth the extra elbow grease!!! 

I am a green girl and when I saw Logan in the bottle my jaw dropped!  Zoya describes Logan as a "green foil glitter crystal" and it is just beautiful. Same rules apply to Logan as did Ziv. With a nice steady stoke and some tricky clean up, two coats of this polish amazed me!  

Last but not least is what some would consider the show stopper of this collection. Electra is a "holo tinsel special effect" and Zoya suggests that you "wear it alone or layer it for extra drama". For this polish I used Gelous as a base and top coat. This was also a bit of a challenge to paint with.  I didn't really need to manage glitter placement too much however, because of the tinsel being what it is, there was some natural overhang that I fixed with a quick swipe of the brush across the tips of my nails.  

And for the extra drama that Zoya describes I did quick swatch of Electra over some basic colors.  I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, Rimmel London Black Satin, Finger Paints Inkblot Blue and Wet'n'Wild Red Red. 

Overall, I have to say that I LOVE THIS COLLECTION!  The colors are amazing and the formula is great!  I would recommend this line to anyone looking for something special for this fall and winter season!  All of these products can be found at Zoya.com for $8 a piece or $48 for the entire collection.  

Let me know what you think!  Do you have a favorite color from this collection or any other 2012 Zoya collection?  

This is a free sample given to me by a company. Either directly from the manufacturer or from a PR company. Receiving this sample in no way impacts my review of the product. My views are my own and are expressed as accurately and fairly to the best of my ability.

Zoya's Guilty Pleasures Limited Edition Trio

Good Evening Ladies!  We wanted to make sure that all of you polish lovers were informed about Zoya's upcoming Guilty Pleasures Limited Edition Trio!

Gilty Pleasures 18K Real Gold Flake Topcoat Gift Box by Zoya

Just in time for party season!

The Gilty Pleasures velvet gift box features Zoya Gilty*, the 18k Real Gold Flake Topcoat  (0.5oz) Plus, two long wearing, full-size (0.5oz), colors to cover in gold as a bonus... Zoya Raven (black) and Zoya Purity (white).

Pre-Order Today HERE! 

Official Ship Date 10/15/2012 - Due to extreme demand and scarcity of the gold material, we are asking everyone to pre-order the Gilty Pleasures Trio Box in advance. Once pre-sell is sold out, there will be no more product available(that means when it's gone it's gone). You will not be charged until for the Gilty Pleasures Trio Box actually ships. 

So run, don't walk, over to the Zoya website and place your order!  As it states above...when it's gone it's gone!

 &

Zoya NYFW 2012 Fall Collection: Gloss swatches & review *pic heavy*

With the firestorm of interest in Zoya's Fall Collections: Designer, Diva & Gloss, I wanted to show these beauties quickly so you could get the scoop on some of fall's hottest shades right here!

The first collection I'll be showing is the Gloss Collection. I have to preface my review with the fact that I've never owned a jelly polish before. I know... shock and awe. Honestly, if you've read some of my posts you might've seen me mention that I detest sheer colors. VNL (visible nail line) irritates me. Like a lot. I don't know why it rubs me the wrong way, but it does. I feel like I'm looking at someone's underwear hanging out of their pants or something when I see VNL! I want to yell "pull your pants up! put on a belt!" seriously...

Now, with that lil disclosure over with I will go on to say that I fell in love with the Gloss Collection! I mean, the colors are stunning and the juiciness of the formula, how it looks on the nail... wow. They're beautiful and ultra shiny without a top coat! Can anyone see a yummy jelly sandwich in my future?? I sure can....

I applied this collection the same so you could see the depth of color in each coat. 

First up is the magically delicious Paloma!

What a beautiful color!! A perfect raspberry in a very yummy jelly! Wow is all I can say. The pictures don't do this color any justice what so ever. It's beautiful and opaque in 3 coats. Personally, I liked the depth the 4th coat gave.

Next is the incomparable Katherine!

What a lovely lady she is! Katherine looks like a deep plum purple in the bottle but she applies in the shade of raisins. Not a bad thing at all, I can see this color being beautiful in fall and winter with a fluffy warm sweater... or maybe a fun date outfit shade that started in the afternoon but kept going till the evening? 

Last, but certainly not least is the edgy Frida!

Ooooh who doesn't love a yummy, lovely forest green?! Seriously though, who? Because we'll need to educate them quick! My love, Frida, looks like a deep teal in the bottle but applies and shows up as a forest green. This color will have a lot of mileage for fall, winter and spring. It's truly lovely at 2/3 coats and opaque in 3/4 coats. 

Sorry, I forgot a bottle shot for Frida!

I hope you enjoyed my review of the new Gloss collection by Zoya. These colors and many more can be purchased at www.zoya.com for $8ea. The other two Fall Collections, Diva & Designer, will get their own separate posts in the coming days, so stay tuned!

xo 

This is a free sample given to me by a company. Either directly from the manufacturer or from a PR company. Receiving this sample in no way impacts my review of the product. My views are my own and are expressed as accurately and fairly to the best of my ability.