Open Pandora's Box of Neutral-y Goodness! (Zoya Pandora)

The last polish in the Zoya Touch collection is Pandora, a "mauve beige cream with a metallic kiss", in the words of Zoya. Pandora is recommended for cool skin tones, and it is a bit darker than the other two. I don't know if I would call this a mauve beige cream, or more of a dirty rose beige cream. Mauve always means purple-y to me, and this is not at all purple. It's more of a pink-brown.



Pandora has the same excellent formula as Shay and Minka. I have been wearing it for several days now and have NO chips or tip wear, so I'd say it wears very well! Pandora might be my favorite of the three polishes. The shimmer is less visible in this one than it was in Shay, it's about the same as Minka- only visible in certain lights.



Overall, I know this isn't the most exciting release for us nail polish fanatics. We're always waiting for the next flakie/glitter bomb/duochrome/whatever, but I think these are going to be super popular with the salon-going crowd. I think that even glitter lovers might want to buy at least one of these. The formula is really excellent, and there will come a day in your life where you may really need a neutral polish.



So, if you're in the market for neutrals, definitely get these! If not, think about getting one anyway for that job interview in the future!




The Zoya Touch collection is available at Zoya.com.

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Zoya. For more information, please read my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Shay Reminds Me of Ice Cream!

The second polish I tried from the Zoya Touch collection is the lovely Shay. Shay really reminds me of tasty vanilla ice cream and it kind of makes me hungry! Does anyone else ever get cravings when you look at nail polish? Or I am just weird?



Zoya describes Shay as a "desert rose sand beige cream with a metallic kiss". From the description, I thought this would be my favorite of the three Touch polishes. While it's very pretty, I didn't really see the whole "desert rose" thing going on. I definitely agree with the sand beige cream part though!



As was the case with Minka, the formula on this was excellent. Opaque in two coats and no streaks in sight. I have to say that Zoya really nailed the opaque nude thing in this collection. If you are looking for nudes, these polishes are exceptionally well done.



I was able to see the shimmer in Shay more than I could with Minka. It even managed to show up in my pictures as well! I'm not sure if I got a weird batch, or what, but again, these are less shimmery than I had envisioned. The shimmer is still nice to have, and I think it makes these colors more wearable that a flat cream.



Zoya recommends Shay for those of you with warm skin tones. Shay is definitely a beautiful neutral option for work environments, or those times when you just can't have glittery green nails (really though, what times are those? LOL). I did think Shay would be my favorite here, but I think I like Minka or Pandora the best actually!



The Zoya Touch collection is available on Zoya.com.

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Zoya. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Minka from the Touch Collection

That's Minka on the left!

I received the lovely Zoya Touch collection last week and having been dying to try them ever since. They look like delicious milkshakes sitting in their pretty little package, don't they? Unfortunately, June is a very busy month for me at work (we had our end of the year dance recital yesterday!), so it took me a few days to find time to swatch these.



Today I have Zoya Minka for your viewing pleasure. Zoya describes Minka as a "latte beige cream with a metallic kiss". OK, now let me be honest. I have seen a lot of pictures of these polishes on other blogs that were taken with flash and the shimmer looks very prominent and obvious. Don't be fooled by those pictures. If you are indoors or in low light, the shimmer is really not obvious. It's definitely there, and you can see it better in the sunlight, but these are not as shimmery/metallic as I was thinking they would be.



Minka is a very pretty color, I think latte beige is a pretty good description. It seems to be a more yellow-based neutral, rather than pink-based. I do think the shimmer in these polishes help them apply smoothly and dry with a streak-free finish. Minka was very opaque in two coats. It actually looked pretty good with just one coat as well! I would certainly say that Minka and the other two polishes in this collection are the most opaque nude polishes I own. They are also the easiest to apply. They are the perfect consistency (I sometimes find nudes to be thick and chunky, or thin and runny) and you don't have to use any technique to get a streak-free finish.



Just a note about skin tone- I have very neutral undertones. I can wear almost any color make-up or clothing. All three of these polishes were flattering on me, but Zoya designed them so that everyone could find their own perfect neutral. According to Zoya, Minka is best suited to those with neutral or yellow undertones. I will be posting the other two polishes in the next two days, so those of you with warm and cool skin tones can stay tuned for your perfect neutral!



The Zoya Touch collection is available online at Zoya.com!

This polish was sent to me for review by a PR agent for Zoya. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Purple Spam- Zoya Mimi

Zoya Mimi, three coats, no flash

Zoya really knows how to do a good purple. Between my beloved Dannii from Spring 2011 Intimate to Mimi from the Sparkle collection, Zoya has some of the best purple polishes I've ever seen.

These pictures are not the greatest quality, I hadn't intended to take pictures of this manicure, as I'm sure you've seen Mimi already. But this color is too gorgeous, I couldn't resist!

Zoya Mimi, three coats, no flash

I am actually planning to wear Zoya Mimi for a full week to test out my new CND Super Shiney top coat (full review coming!). A week is a long time for me to wear one polish, I usually only last 2-3 days. So I'm glad I picked such a gorgeous color to wear for a week!

Zoya Mimi, three coats, with flash

Zoya Mimi is available online at Zoya.

NOTD: Nubar 2010 over Zoya Kelly

Two coats Nubar 2010 over two coats Zoya Kelly, no flash

Just a quick post today to show you the cool combination I've been wearing for the last day or two- Nubar 2010 over Zoya Kelly. Zoya Kelly is from Zoya's fall collection, see it alone here. I know you've already seen Nubar 2010/Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure a hundred times, but I really like it over this dark gray creme. This is two coats of Zoya Kelly and two of Nubar 2010. Under Nubar 2010, one coat of Kelly really would suffice, it's quite opaque.

Nubar 2010 over Zoya Kelly, no flash

Nubar 2010 over Zoya Kelly, no flash

I should have the new Sinful Colors polishes up tomorrow evening. I hear it's only going to be partly cloudy tomorrow, so I can finally get good pictures! Any fun plans for the weekend? I'm going to Ulta today to nab OPI Black Shatter. I'm so excited for it! I love any excuse to go to Ulta, and I'm really looking forward to putting Black Shatter over every polish I own!

Zoya Kelly is available online at Zoya. Nubar 2010 is available online at Nubar.

Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy Comparison

Wet N Wild Gray's Anatomy left, Zoya Adina right

left to right: Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy, Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy; no flash

Upon seeing my post about the new Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy, a reader wondered if it could be a dupe for Zoya Adina, from Spring 2010's Reverie collection.

left to right: Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy, Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy; with flash

Gray's Anatomy and Adina do look a little similar in the bottle, and they definitely have the same concept going on. Both are kind of dusty-looking multichromes. However, on the nail, they are absolutely not dupes. Zoya Adina is much darker and deeper than Gray's Anatomy. Adina is also much more pigmented (that's three coats of both polishes in all pictures).

left to right: Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy, Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy; no flash

Another major difference in these two polishes is color. Zoya Adina is really a purple polish with lots of greenish multichrome. Gray's Anatomy is a gray polish with pink/purple multichrome. They are most alike in finish, not in color, although Gray's Anatomy does have some visible nail line with three coats.

left to right: Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy, Zoya Adina, Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy; no flash

Zoya Adina is available online at Zoya. Wet n Wild Gray's Anatomy is available at a Walgreen's near you.

Last Nubar For Awhile: Nubar Gold Feather

Nubar Gold Feather- Work Appropriate... OR IS IT?????

Nubar Gold Feather, four coats, with flash

Nubar Gold Feather, four coats, no flash

Alright, so until I order from Nubar again, this will be my last Nubar post. After this, you have officially seen every Nubar than I own, and most of the Nubars EK owns as well. Nubar Gold Feather was a seriously elusive subject in terms of capturing it's beauty in a picture.

Nubar Gold Feather, four coats, with flash

Nubar Gold Feather is a caramel-colored shimmering nude with a TON of green duochrome. I took pictures in every kind of light I could find. Low light, whatever sunlight was available, flash, etc. The green duochrome is what I had a serious problem capturing. I even tried holding my nails at different angles! For some reason, the green looks so faint in most of these pictures. I think the second picture from the top there shows it a little bit. If you look at the bottom left corner of that picture, you can see how green the polish is in the bottle. That's really how it flashes on your nails.

Nubar Gold Feather, four coats, with flash

The really cool thing about Gold Feather is that I think it's work appropriate, unless your office is insanely strict. At most angles that people would see your nails, the polish looks like a very soft nude/caramel shimmer. It would be a natural looking polish for many skin tones. However, if you hold your hand at the right angle, you get this BAM! gorgeous flash of green! I stared at this for hours. I must have looked like a toolbox, sitting there wiggling my hand around and staring at it.



Now, you're probably saying, "EC, why so much VNL?". Well, ladies, that is the downfall of this polish. It is sheer. Very sheer. I did four coats for these pictures, so you can see that this is an actual sheer polish, as in, it will NEVER become opaque. So if you're the kind of person who can't stand VNL, skip this. Personally, I dislike VNL 95% of the time, but this happens to be one occasion where it doesn't bother me. I really hate it with brights polishes, it just looks wrong. But on a soft nude like this, it's kind of OK. Especially when the green flash blinds me so that I can no longer see the VNL.

So that's the last Nubar for awhile. Nubars like Gold Feather are available on ByNubar. Thanks for taking my poll about the ratio of pictures to talking, by the way. I appreciate the feedback!

What's next for you on the polish-buying schedule? I think I'm going to pick up NARS' spring polish, Desperado.

Zoya Intimate Collection Available January 15!

Don't forget the Zoya Intimate Collection will be available on January 15 at Zoya.com! It looks pretty. I, of course, really like the green!

The Zoya Intimate Collection consists of:

Marley (ZP542) - lavender pink with a whisper of metallic
Dove (ZP541) - delicate, pale gray cream
Caitlin (ZP540) - misty, moody gray violet cream
Dannii (ZP537) - sparkling, enchanted orchid metallic
Jules (ZP538) - soft, glimmering gold kiss metallic
Gemma (ZP544) - mysterious green/purple duotone metallic



Zoya says "The Zoya Intimate collection was designed to recreate the custom looks developed for and inspired by the runways of New York Fashion Week - Spring 2011."

What do you think about this collection? Will you be getting anything?

Polish of the Week: Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion, two coats, with flash

I originally planned to show you a whole bunch of EK's Nubars in one post, but it's been really hard to swatch around here. It's always cloudy! I had time to swatch this morning, but it was really overcast and then started to snow. So, I only have Nubar Indigo Illusion for you today, and the pictures are a bit dark. But, man, this polish is gorgeous!

Nubar Indigo Illusion, two coats, no flash

The VNL you see in these pictures isn't visible in person. I find that happens with some duochrome and metallic polishes. They look really opaque to my naked eye, but then the pictures look sheer! Anyway, the formula on this was great. Two coats, even coverage, nice flow onto the nail.

Nubar Indigo Illusion, two coats, no flash

I love Nubar duochromes. I really wish they would come out with more this year. I'll definitely swatch the rest as soon as I see the sun again!

Nubar polishes are available online at Nubar.

Don't Forget: Free Zoya Polish!

Zoya Kristi

Don't forget, if you liked Zoya on Facebook, they have reached their 20,000 fans (they're actually somewhere around 27,000 now!). So, mosey on over to their Facebook page and get the promo code for THREE free polishes of your choice, for only the cost of shipping!

Need help picking your three? Check out my posts about Zoya polish here. Definitely check out Colbie or Kristi if you want reds. Ivanka, Shawn, and Midori are gorgeous greens. Jo is my favorite cornflower blue of all time! Julieanne is a stunning purple glass-fleck. Go get your free polish!

Zoya Julieanne

Polish Combo of the Week: OPI and Nubar 2010!

I finally got Nubar 2010 for my birthday, even though I've been wanting it all year. I love Nubar, but sometimes I don't order from them often because the shipping is pricey, the polishes themselves are kind of pricey, etc. It doesn't seem worth it if you're only ordering a few polishes. But let me tell you, Nubar 2010 is absolutely worth the expense!!!

with flash

I wore two coats of OPI William Tell Me About OPI to a fancy dinner party this week. The morning after the party, I decided it would be the perfect base for Nubar 2010. I was SO right. The flakies really pop against such a dark background. I LOVE the way these flakies are reddish/orange sometimes and green depending on how you look at them. I tried to capture the green in the photo below, sorry for the blurriness.



I am wearing two coats of William Tell Me About OPI and two coats of Nubar 2010 in all of these pictures. You can see William Tell Me About OPI alone here. I didn't want to take this combination off, but by the time I put 2010 on, I had been wearing William Tell for a few days, so there was some tip wear and a few chips going on. I'll definitely be wearing this combo again soon!





Don't forget to enter my Milani One Coat Glitter Giveaway!

Got this cool news from Zoya!! Check it out:

"Zoya Nail Polish wants to Spoon with you!

Do you REALLY love nail polish? Have you ever purchased a color online or from a color chart only to find that it doesn’t match the picture? Have you always wanted to be able to try on nail polish the way you do clothing?

Well, what if you could see EXACTLY how any Zoya color would look on YOU before you buy it? What if you could make sure you ALWAYS get your perfect pink? Or perfect red. Or purple! ANY color! Any shade, EVERY TIME! Well now you can...

Zoya presents a new way to shop for nail color - The Zoya Color Spoon!

Every incredible Zoya nail color made will now be available as a spoon so you can try it before you buy it! This is a revolution for the online nail polish consumer and salon and spa buyers alike who previously only had online color representations or printed color charts as a guide. Never before have you been able to try so much color for so little money out of pocket. This is same Zoya color that comes in the bottle poured into small nail shaped wells to create a tester color spoon - you can see every subtle detail of the color and hold it up to your nail to see exactly how it will look. Plus, the amount you pay for the spoons will be added to your account in the form of code that will be available for use on a future Zoya purchase and BONUS Zoya will ship the spoons to you at no charge. “It’s amazing that we will be able to do this for our customers - there really is nothing else like it in the nail polish market today” stated Leo Reyzis, VP of Marketing at Zoya.

So quit the color guessing game when purchasing nail color online and try any one of Zoya’s over 300 formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate and camphor free, vegan friendly shades. Now you can be sure that the color you try is the exact same color you buy!

See it - Try it - Buy it!

Zoya Nail Spoons - $0.50 ea. (free shipping on all spoons - value of spoon(s) will be added to your account for a future zoya.com purchase).

Zoya Nail Spoons will be available at www.zoya.com starting September 1, 2010.

Here’s how it works...

Simply visit www.zoya.com, select a color(s) to try, click on the coordinating Zoya Color Spoon option in the product ordering area to add the color spoon to your shopping cart. Order as many as you would like. After your order has been approved and processed, zoya.com will ship your selected color spoons out for you to try and email you a confirmation along with your spoon value code (code will also be available under the “my account” section of www.zoya.com so you never have to worry about losing it).*

* All Zoya Color Spoon sales are final. One time personalized spoon value code. Zoya Color Spoon value code can be applied to any polish or treatment item at www.zoya.com. Code cannot be used to purchase additional spoons."

I think this is great, since most of us do not have access to a store that sells Zoya polish. I can't just go see a collection in person, and I bet most of you can't either. This is a cool idea, and it's even better that the price of your spoons gets added to your next order! I love Zoya for stuff like this, I really feel like they care about their customers.

For more info, or to order your spoons, visit Zoya today!

Zoya Color Lock System Review

Zoya Color Lock System (plus cat)

Before I start this long overdue review, I do want to apologize for the lack of posts around here. EK and I are once again preparing for a competition, this time it's the North American National Championships. So we're having lots of practices, while also working, and we're generally exhausted the rest of the time.

I expected a LOT from the Zoya Color Lock System (seen above with my kitty, who refused to move). In case you don't know, the Color Lock System includes Zoya Remove+ (a remover and nail prep), two base coats (Anchor and Get Even), a top coat (Armor), drying drops (Hurry Up), and polish restoring drops (Renew) for when your old polish gets all thick and gross.

Zoya Adina on Day One of my Color Lock System test

Now just as some background here, I know some people have problems with the wear of Zoya polishes, but certain base coats can not be used with Zoya polish. They contain an ingredient that makes the polish chip and wear horribly. When you find the right base coats, Zoya polishes last for ages. I once wore Zoya Harley with NO base coat and NO top coat and it was chip-free for FIVE days. A small amount of tip wear was present on the fifth day, but not too offensive. So this is why I expected big things from the Color Lock System.

I started out swiping each nail with Remove+. Then I applied one coat of Get Even ridge-filling base coat. Next, I applied two coats of Zoya Adina and one coat of Armor top coat. A few minutes later, I applied the Hurry Up drying drops. I believe I followed the directions exactly.

So here is my problem- the whole thing took so stinking long to dry that I ruined every nail on my right hand and messed up a few on my swatching hand before my nails were dry!!! I even applied the drying drops two more times, but they didn't seem to help at all! I waited an hour and 45 minutes before doing anything with my hands and still proceeded to ruin my nails. I know that to get a mani to last, you need to follow all the steps and wait for it to dry, but I don't have that kind of time to sit around doing nothing! So the polish doesn't look too hot in the Day One picture.

Zoya Adina with Color Lock System after four days of wear

By day four, I had a big piece of polish that had chipped off of my nail on the cuticle side, not even a chip from the tip. I don't know how that happens. I also had quite a bit of tip wear. More tip wear than I had when I wore Zoya Harley with no base coat and no top coat. So honestly, between the ridiculous drying time and the fact that I don't even think this made my polish wear very well, I'm not impressed with this system at all. I'll give it another try sometime, but I'm not looking forward to sitting around for 2+ hours waiting for it to dry. This is NOT a must-have at all. Please give me my Seche.

Zoya Adina with Color Lock System after four days of wear, with flash

Zoya Color Lock System and Zoya Adina are available online at Art of Beauty.

The Zoya Color Lock System was sent to me by a PR representative for Art of Beauty. For more information, please see our Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Reverie Collection

Zoya's Spring 2010 collection, Reverie, features six metallic, duochrome-y polishes. Some of the six are true duochrome polishes, while others only have a very slight duochrome flash.
The six polishes are:
Laney - moonlit silver metallic
Adina - duochrome violet metallic
Reece - gilded rose metallic
Happi - pink blush metallic
Gwin - sunny melon metallic
Lana - rich red metallic

All of my swatches are three coats. Except for Happi and Laney, if I were wearing these out, I'd probably only do two coats. Three coats just looks better on camera. The formula on these was a dream- not streaky, good drying time, easy to work with. Just total excellence, as is usual for Zoya.

Zoya Laney, no flash
Laney is a light silver metallic with a tiny bit of a green flash in some lights. I didn't see much of the green, but I read one review where the author found Laney to be very unflattering to her skin because of the green. On me, this was a pretty straightforward, light and bright silver. I think it'll be a nice alternative to white in the spring. It's super crisp looking, but not quite as bold as white.

Zoya Happi, with flashHappi is a medium/light (I say medium/light because it's not super pale, but it's still light) pink with a very strong gold duochrome effect. This is the kind of pink polish that I just LOVE. The gold flash really makes it something special. The gold is noticeable in just about every light. Duochromes are really hard to capture on camera. The gold in this kept making it look much lighter than it really is.

Zoya Reece, no flash
Reece is a medium rasberry pink with strong gold duochrome. This was another one that was very difficult to capture. My pictures show you the amount of gold in this one, but the color is deeper than any of my pictures show. It really is more of a rasberry pink. I love duochrome polish, but man I hate taking pictures of it. This is another gorgeous polish that I can't wait to wear all spring and summer!

Zoya Lana, no flash
Lana is a stunning orange-y red with, you guessed it!, gold duochrome flash! LOL. I am really loving this one, and I'm not usually a big red fan. This one is very flattering to my skin though. My pictures came out pretty good for Lana. You can see the gold flash, but if you look at my pinkie in that first picture, you get a good idea of how red it actually is. Another winner from this collection!
Zoya Lana, no flash

Zoya Gwin, no flash
Gwin (my second favorite of this collection) is a reddish orange with gold flash. I own a lot of orange polish, I happen to really like it all year 'round. The combination of this shade of orange with the gold shimmer makes this one different than anything else I own. It is now officially my new favorite orange! SO HOT!!! My pictures for this one also came out pretty good. It might look a tad more copper than it really is, but otherwise the pictures are pretty close.

Zoya Adina, no flash
And my favorite favorite of Reverie is Adina! Adina is a medium purple with green-gold duochrome, named after a beauty blogger and fellow Specktra member (Specktra is the greatest blog/forum about MAC make-up. If you like MAC, you should join NOW. But beware- you will then go broke buying MAC make-up LOL). I definitely saw the green flash in this polish. I took a lot of pictures of this one and none of them quite capture the exact look of the polish. Adina does not look the same in any of these pictures either, but that just shows you how it changes with the light. This is a real must-have in any polish addict's collection!
Zoya Adina, no flash

Overall, I love this collection so much more than I thought I would. Every polish I put on became "my new favorite" only to have the next one be even better. There isn't a bad color in this bunch. If silver looks bad on you, Laney might not be your thing, but it's a very well-done silver for those of us who like silver polish. If you've never tried Zoya, these are a fabulous introduction into the company. Definitely order Adina and Gwin at the very least. If you are a big Zoya fan already, BUY THEM ALL!

The Zoya Reverie collection is available online at Zoya.