NOTD: Zoya Gigi

with flash

Am feeling neutral… This is a pale sheer pink with microsparkles in it. Decided to top up with Color Club Starry Temptress Top Coat to give it extra sparkle.

Swatch & Review: Zoya Charity

Zoya Charity is described as a “faded mauve-purple with copper colored duochrome shimmer”… But I feel that it looks brown under certain lights and angles which make this a very interesting nail polish indeed.

2coats:

Color Family: Purples

Finish: Metallics

Intensity: 5 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Cool

I usually stay away from colours like that for fear of looking dated or too dull. This one reminds me a lot of Zoya Deidra which unfortunately, seems to have been discontinued as I couldn’t find it on Zoya. They even look similar in the bottle just that Charity has a lot more brown undertones as compared to Deidra.

 Zara is the other purple from Zoya that I currently have in my stash.

with flash

This colour has an understated elegance that is usually mistaken for “boring”. I find that this takes me very well from work to play as it looks different under different sets of lighting. It looks darker in real life (almost like a rosy brown) under fluroscent lamps but in the sunlight this looks like a pretty purple with subtle gold shimmer flecks. Formula is fantastic as with all Zoyas, this one covered well in just two coats.

Zoya Charity on my tips

ZOYA Bianca

This is Zoya Bianca that I picked up recently:

It is described on Zoya as a “soft dark mauve creme with strong cool red and pink tones. A classic shade for a distinguished ladylike look”.

Color Family: Mauves

Finish: Cream

Intensity: 4 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Cool

I love the way it looks on me, wouldn’t say it’s a “classic” colour because on me it appears a little more purple than anything else. I love it all the same though and I think this will look fabulous on short nails too

It’s a gorgeous color really, I don’t know why I didn’t pick this up earlier. I have another one that is very similar though and that’s Moxie. Will do a comparison post soon

The formula is great but I did three coats on them as I wanted to cover up all the bald spots especially at the tips. Though the formula is good to work with, it does take some time to get the hang of it so I ended up re-doing this manicure once.

Swatch & Review: Perfectly Nude with ZOYA Melodie

Zoya Melodie is one of my greatest finds in 2011. This is the nude I have been looking for all my life. It didn’t give me corpse-y fingers and contained just the right balance of beige and pink to give a really pretty neutral look. I am very glad I picked this up and according to my supplier, it is now (unfortunately) OOS and would probably not come in anymore. However if you do come across this, and you need a neutral polish for work… This is fabulous.

Color Family: Neutrals

Finish: Metallic

Intensity: 3 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Cool

Zoya Melodie (3 coats):

Sorry about the picture spam. It’s really too pretty and I can’t resist snapping more pictures just for the sake of it.

Two coats would have sufficed, this went on more pigmented than I had expected. As you know I’m fairly impatient and this resulted in alot of bald spots so I had to use a 3rd coat. No streakiness too and was easy peasy to work with. Wears like iron with Armor Top Coat too, and to speed up the drying process I used Poshe Top Coat over it.

It’s been almost 24 hours and I don’t even spot any sign of wear and tear though I’ve been using my hands a fair bit today.

I’m really not trying to act cute here, but see how the nail colour complements my skintone?

Swatch & Review: ZOYA Barbie

I wore Zoya Barbie yesterday! It’s a warm medium baby pink with very subtle hot pink shimmer and is very girly!

3 coats + Zoya Armor Top Coat + Poshe Top Coat:

Color Family: Pinks

Finish: Metallic

Intensity: 5 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Warm

This is a very cute medium pink that goes on a teeny weeny bit streaky but evens out after 3 coats. The Zoya Armor Top Coat is fantastic, I’ve never had a top coat that works so well with Zoya polishes. I did not notice any bubbling at all even though many consumers complained about it. But I did try to apply my polish without getting in the way of a direct fan or sunlight. However the drying time is terrible. I had waited 3-4 hours before I sleep and I still woke up with a smudged index finger which was why I layered Poshe Top Coat to help with the self-levelling.

Im not a fan of girly pink on my fingers but this is a pink with an attitude

Mini Nail Products Haul

Bought some stuff recently:

Picked up the Mavala Scientifique Penetrating Nail Hardener which I read raves on MUA. It seems so amazing. Totally what I need for my weak peeling nails:(

I applied it earlier on before my change of nail polish and I noticed an immediate difference! My nail tips appear much harder like I had acrylics on. Am pretty impressed with it I’d say but it needs further monitoring. The brush is thin yet not flimsy so it’s very easy to control where the product goes as it was recommended not to get any solution on the skin/cuticles.

Also picked up this acetone-free nail polish remover:

I was against acetone-free polish removers because I was worried they wouldn’t dissolve the polish. I was so wrong. This one works well (though you need a fair bit of scrubbing too) but it definitely does not dry out my cuticles or nails. I had been using Cutex and it drove me nuts because my nails were so dried out they had this whitish film on them after polish removal.

This acetone-free one also contains Rose Hip Oil to moisturize the cuticles/nails so it smells great too (like rose, think Anna Sui). It is slightly oily so when you are scrubbing your nails you are in fact rubbing and massaging in the oil. I swear my nails couldn’t look, feel and smell better. Im a convert, this is the nail polish remover that Im going to stick with from now on.

Lastly, I tried out Zoya Barbie, a warm medium baby pink with very subtle hot pink shimmer. It looks really girly and cute on the nails!

Pictures were taken with flash but darkened to reflect the true colour of the polish

This was 3 coats. Polish was thick and streaky. Took me a thick 3rd coat to even things out but with flash you could still see some bald spots *cries*. Bought and used Zoya Armour Top Coat for the first time too just so I can prevent the shrinkage I got with Poshe. Im pleased with it so far, the real test comes tomorrow

Swatch & Review: ZOYA Crystal

Zoya Crystal can be described as a light, silvered shiny blue metallic foil with sparks of brilliant yellow gold. It looks super pretty in the bottle with all those shimmery gold flakes suspending in the icy blue base.

Color Family: Blues

Finish: Metallic

Intensity: 5 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Cool

Original Collection: Flame

You can see the gold flakes better under low lights:

With flash:

The sparkle of this polish is amazing. However, it does dry down to a muted icy foil finish rather than all-out glitter. I imagine this on a lady like Snow Queen on a cold wintry icy day which makes it a perfect polish for winter. Well, not like it’s ever gonna snow around here where I live..

This polish was sheerer than I had expected it to be (not that the formula isn’t great) and it took me four coats to achieve bottle color. It isn’t 100% opaque because I can still see my nail tips when I hold my fingers up against the light but I couldn’t see VNL on the nails themselves.

Swatch & Review: Zoya Mieko

Zoya Mieko is described as a “rosy pink with a touch of orange and tons of bold metallic gold shimmer”. The shimmer in it is incredibly beautiful and stunning but unfortunately, very invisible on the nail unless you peer closely.

Color Family: Pinks

Finish: Metallic

Intensity: 5 (1=Sheer – 5=Opaque)

Tone: Cool

Original Collection: Flourish

Application was great as usual, and while the colour goes on quite opaquely, it took me 3 coats to obtain the maximum opacity (without VNL). As I had mentioned, the shimmers are not so obvious on the nails and looks a little metallic from far. It’s a cute strawberry-pink colour and does not look the wee bit odd against my skin colour though it’s a cool color

First Zoya CP!

Some hauling is in place! Managed to find a supplier in Singapore who carries Zoya and sells them at bulk prices. It was a super attractive deal!

Our consolidated orders:

Sigh. Seeing them in real life makes me want to buy more. Seriously, no one is able to do sparkly or shimmery polishes like Zoya. These polishes look way prettier in real life.

My order:

My sis ordered Crystal and Freja (not pictured). They are super pretty too! Especially Crystal… Which I made her wear almost immediately:

Sorry the pictures are in flash. It’s late at night and there aren’t enough light to take non-flash pictures without the graininess.

Zoya Crystal is described as a”Light, silvered shiny blue metallic foil with sparks of brilliant yellow gold”. It is super foil-ish and looks silver under room lights. It’s pretty though but a little too “icy” for my liking. I like my polishes to be either super vibrant or vampy. The golden flakes look gorgeous suspended in the steel blue base… And it looks way too amazing in the bottle.

Reviews coming up for some of the new Zoyas I had gotten so stay tuned I know I said I broke my nails and I had sworn off polish until they grow out but… I cannot wait. I now have Angel on my nails heehee

Swatch & Review: ZOYA Zara

Another purple for today!

Zoya Zara (3 coats):

Color Family: Purples

Finish: Metallic

Intensity: 5 (1=sheer, 5=opaque)

Tone: Cool

Original Collection: Flourish

I apologize for the bad quality, it was raining this morning and the skies were really dark.

Zara is a “vivid blue-toned light purple with strong golden duochrome shimmer”. It looks mauve-ish in some lights but it definitely is pretty! I’m usually not a fan of these light purples but it is too highly-raved to miss out on. It looks slightly dull without a top coat but a coat of Poshe really brings out the golden shimmers! This is a gorgeous gorgeous colour that wears well on fair skin tones. Tanner ladies might find this colour a little washed out.

The consistency and formula is great as usual. Goes on slightly sheer on the first two coats but 3 coats is just nice to cover VNL.