Zoya Sophisticates Fall 2017 Lipsticks!

*Sent for review*

Top row left to right- Zoya Lucky, Layne, Izzy, Bristol

Bottom row left to right- Zoya Addie, Tommy, Maggie

Today I have the Zoya Sophisticates lipsticks for your viewing enjoyment!  I have been really feeling Zoya's lipsticks and I am glad they are releasing more of them now. They are typically a lovely formula, creamy and comfortable to wear. I have dry lips and they feel moisturizing when I wear them. I also love that they included a blue lipstick in this collection!

Zoya Lucky is described as a "vibrant cool toned pink". It's a nice fuchsia that has a bit of sheerness to it, so it's not such a heavy punch of color. It looks fresh and really brightens up my face.

Zoya Layne is described as a "medium dusty rose". It leans towards a nude rose on me and I am in love with this one! It's a perfect shade for when you want something polished and professional, but you want something more flattering than a true nude. The hint of rose is perfect and looks more alive than a nude.

Zoya Izzy is described as a "deep fuchsia". Strangely enough, in my arm swatches, I feel like this looks like almost a coral color. But once it is on my lips, it is definitely a raspberry pink, maybe with a bit of warmth to it. This is probably because my arm is as white as a piece of paper so the color looks totally different 😂.

Zoya Bristol is described as a "medium wine tone". This one seems a bit brighter to me than a wine, but it may be the undertones of my lips causing it to turn more pink. It's a very pretty color though, nice and flattering.

Zoya Addie is described as a "pinky nude apricot" and that is a perfect description. This is a great nude for me, a little pink, a little warm, not too corpse-looking. Gorgeous!

If you're feeling daring, Zoya Tommy is a "saturated blurple". This is a great blue with some hints of purple. It took a few more swipes than the other colors for full coverage. The others really apply well in one or two swipes, this took more like 3 or 4. Love the color on me though!

Zoya Maggie is described as a "deep berry". I really love this one too, it's SO perfect for fall. It has that vampy berry look and is such a juicy looking shade. I can't wait to wear this one!

Overall, I can highly recommend these lipsticks. They apply well, are comfortable to wear, and last a good amount of time for cream finish lipsticks. They are all available now at zoya.com!

Zoya Naturel 3 Lipsticks, Swatches & Review!!

 *Sent for review*

Happy Friday readers!! I have swatches of the new lipsticks from Zoya Naturel 3 for you today! If you haven't tried Zoya lipsticks yet, you should definitely include one in your next order. I have tried a couple now and really love them! The formula is unscented and unflavored, so it is great for anyone with sensitivities to some of the overpowering lipstick scents. The Zoya Perfect lipsticks feel so comfortable on my dry lips, very creamy, yet lightweight somehow. Despite the creamy feel, I don't find them to slide around off of your lips at all. 

These pictures are left to right- Zoya Cameron, Zoya Paisley, Zoya Maxwell.

(Bear with me on the lip swatches, I am no beauty blogger and it is winter so my lips are like lizard skin currently.) Zoya Cameron is a light nude cream. It is pretty light, even for my skin tone, but it has a nice warmth to it that prevents it from being corpse-like. I love a good nude lip with a smoky eye, so I will definitely be wearing this often. I used MAC Boldly Bare liner with this one and it was a good combo.

Zoya Paisley is a really nice blush rose cream. It offers a nice flattering dose of color, but still looks like a natural shade. I think this one will be flattering on most skin tones. I like lipsticks like this for daily wear, a nice pop to deepen your natural lip color. This kind of color just makes me look healthier and less tired! I used MAC Rosy Rim lip liner here and it went perfectly with Paisley. I just need to learn how to line my lips better....

Zoya Maxwell is a deep vampy red plum. It has more of a satin matte finish than the other two and also has some glitter flecks in it. I found that I didn't notice the glitter flecks unless the light caught them in a certain way, but you could feel them a bit on your lips. I love this color, so bold and dark! I think this one is the most unique of the three here, due to the matte finish with tiny glitter flecks. I used MAC Just Wonderful lip liner, and it wasn't the best pairing, it was too pink. I will have to look around for something a bit better for this one.

Zoya Perfect lipsticks are available at zoya.com!! Remember, Zoya is having the four free deal right now- if you pay the promotional shipping charge of $15, you can pick four free polishes or lipsticks. And you can do any combination of polishes and lipsticks, so you can get three polishes and one lipstick just to try them out. This offers ends 1/16, so start picking out your shades now!!

Rimmel London The Only 1 Lipsticks for Halloween!

*Sent for review*

Still looking for the perfect lipstick to go along with your Halloween costume? No worries- Rimmel has you covered! I have swatches for you of four Rimmel London The Only 1 Lipsticks perfect for Halloween. From left to right we have One of a Kind, Under My Spell, Oh-So Wicked, and Call Me Crazy. One of a Kind is a deep berry red with purple tones. It's vampy, but also really a flattering color. Under My Spell is a purple with some red and pink in it. This one looks a bit darker on my lips and more purple-y, less pink. The real Vamp of this show is Oh-So Wicked. This is a deep, dark burgundy wine. The perfect true vampy lip color. Lastly (and my personal favorite) is Call Me Crazy. Call Me Crazy is a hot orange-y red with some pink. It's almost coral, but it feels like a fall coral, not a summer-y one. It's almost like a bright pumpkin orange. Love it!!!

These lipsticks are nice and creamy. They glide on the lips and have great coverage in just a swipe or two. They are scented with a kind of fruity iced tea scent. It almost reminds me of the YSL lip product scent. I did find the scent to fade away and I did not detect any taste. Sadly, I don't have lip swatches for you today. We had about three cold days here last week and my face and lips turned into the driest lizard skin on the planet :/. Hopefully I can do lip swatches when they recover a bit.

These pretties are perfect for Halloween and available at a drugstore near you!!

MAC Blogger's Obsessions Lip Swatches

MAC Sonoran Rain

I wasn't originally going to post more about the MAC Bloggers' Obsessions collection because it sold out. Why torture you guys with swatches of things you can't have? But now, MAC is making a second production run of this collection, so I can post away! If you want to get on a waiting list for this collection, it should be up soon on MACcosmetics.com.

bare lips for reference

MAC Evolution Revolution

A few notes about these lip swatches: my lips are not very pigmented (see bare lips photo), so the two red glosses show up quite well on me. Also, I will do lip swatches of Caqui shortly. I was losing the daylight when I did these, and Caqui is TOO AMAZING to not capture accurately.

MAC Nitro:licious 2046

The two red glosses are really pigmented and pack quite the colorful punch when you wear them! I love them, but they're definitely not for my everyday life. That's what Evolution Revolution is for!! This is my new everyday, wear it constantly gloss. I may pick up a back-up when this is re-released!

MAC's Semi-Precious collection hit counters yesterday (and went online Tuesday). Did you get anything? I'm going today to get Warmth of Coral mineralize blush, possibly Gem of Roses lipstick, and Jade's Fortune mineralize eye shadow. Swatches soon!

Zoya's Summertime and the living's easy! (Part One)

Due to my complete lack of time as I practice like a maniac for the upcoming World Irish Dance Championships, I'm going to do only three of the new Zoyas at a time. The first three I have for you today, Sooki, Tamsen and Kieko, are total WINNERS. Read on!

Zoya Kieko

I don't know what's wrong with me lately, but I was most excited to try the Summertime collection, which are all cremes! I got these polishes on Friday night after I returned home from work, and it was too dark to swatch and photograph them, but I put Zoya Kieko on my toes almost immediately! Zoya described Kieko as a "warm, red toned dusty light purple with berry tones with an opaque cream finish". This may sound like a lot of words thrown together, but I think it's a pretty good description. This is not your typical cool-toned, blue-based purple. This is the exact purple that has been in my head for awhile now, but I couldn't seem to find it! I wanted a red grape type of purple and I love the dusty quality this one has. Although I have pale skin, I have really strong warm undertones (more so in my face than my hands), so I always prefer the look of warm colors. I do think Kieko would be really flattering on any skin tone or color though.

Zoya Kieko

Kieko applied like a dream, like most Zoya cremes, and this is only two coats! I usually do three coats, because polish tends to look more sheer in pictures, but there was no need with these three polishes. Two was perfect! Zoya really does purples quite well, I must say. Remember I wanted to marry Dannii from the spring collection? Well... we might have to have an open relationship, because Kieko is stealing my heart! (P.S. do you know anyone named Kieko? Wasn't Kieko the whale that Free Willy was based on?)

Zoya Kieko

Zoya Tamsen

Next up is Zoya Tamsen. Zoya described this one as a "medium warm brick red with strong orange undertones" and I think they nailed the description once again. This is definitely a warm brick red creme and I think you can see the orange undertones best in the indoor pictures below. Tamsen is different than other brick reds I have seen. Most brick reds look a little dull to me, but Tamsen is nice and bright, not dusty at all.

Zoya Tamsen

Zoya Tamsen

This is only two coats again. The pigmentation on these is just fantastic. If you were short on time, you could almost do one coat. I'm sure my mom will wear these as one-coaters. Tamsen was maybe a tad thicker than some Zoyas, but still nice and easy to apply.

Zoya Tamsen

Zoya Sooki

OMG... Zoya Sooki.

Zoya Sooki

Whoa, could you just look at this bright beautiful red?!?! Zoya described it as a "cool cherry red creme with a subtle jelly finish", but I have to say I don't think it's overwhelmingly cool-toned at all. I think this is the truest red I have ever encountered. Interestingly, my previous favorite red polish was Zoya Kristi, which I thought was a real true red. However, I did a comparison of Kristi and Sooki, and Kristi applies a little on the blue/pink side when you see it next to Sooki! Sooki is just SO bright RED! No pink or blue or magenta. Just RED! I love it!

Zoya Sooki

Zoya Sooki

Sooki could be one coat also, but it is kind of a jelly finish, so you might have more VNL at one coat than you'd like. It's very cool and squishy-looking though! Application was lovely and I see myself wearing this a LOT. Sooki has definitely replaced Kristi as my favorite red. I thought Kristi was bright, but Sooki makes it look almost dull!

Zoya Sooki

Zoya Kristi on left, Zoya Sooki on right

I took a comparison picture of Kristi and Sooki, but the sun was going down, so I think I'll have to redo it. You can see, though, that Kristi is not as bright and that it has more blue in it than Sooki. Both have great application and serious pigmentation, so they are both great red choices. I'm glad I own both! On a side note, does anyone else say Sooki in their head in Bill's voice? "SOOKEHH!" No? Just me? OK...

Overall, these three Summertime polishes get a 10/10. All three have perfect pigmentation and application. Kieko is my dream purple creme, and Sooki beat out my previous favorite red creme! I can't ask for much more!

The Zoya Summertime collection is available online at Zoya.com.

These polishes were sent to me by a PR agent for Art of Beauty. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.

Zoya Mod Mattes For the Win!

Zoya Phoebe

Mattes. How do you feel? I know even in the beginning of the matte polish trend, it was a love it or hate it thing. Now, I hear people saying the matte trend is over. To those people, I say, NEVER!!!!! For example, take in the beauty of the following post and then try to tell me the matte trend is over.

Zoya Phoebe

When I first saw the promo pictures of the Zoya Mod Mattes, I was really pumped. I wear matte polish more often than I'd like to admit, due to the fact that I'm always running late when I go out. Rather than go with bare nails (it's very shocking for my friends to glimpse my naked nails), I slap on two coats of a matte polish. Matte polishes dry ridiculously fast and you're not supposed to wear a base or top coat with them either! However, most of the mattes I own are fall/winter colors. I have one pastel mint green from KnockOut Cosmetics and the rest are dark or jewel-toned. Zoya Mod Mattes, on the other hand, are super bright colors that scream SUMMER!! Let's take a look!

Zoya Phoebe

Zoya Phoebe

First up, and, as I tweeted this evening, hands down the BEST matte I have ever used, is Zoya Phoebe. I am about to upload a ridic amount of pictures of this one polish, but I did not take one picture where this polish looked bad. So I'm posting them all!

Zoya Phoebe

Phoebe is a swimming pool blue matte shimmer. It was super thin upon application, which is really unheard of for mattes. Mattes tend to be pretty thick and chunky. Phoebe was as thin as any other Zoya and flowed on to the nail beautifully. Some mattes dry so quickly you can't even get your three brushstrokes in, and this makes the polish look uneven and streaky. Not Phoebe! Phoebe stayed wet quite long enough to evenly coat my nail, and then dried quickly after that. I can tell I'll be sporting this one ALL summer long. It's odd, I read some bloggers who said that Phoebe applied the best of all three Mod Mattes, but they failed to mention exactly how amazingly it applied. In my opinion, Phoebe is as easy to use as a regular (non-matte) Zoya polish, and that is certainly saying something!

Zoya Phoebe

Zoya Phoebe

Zoya Phoebe

Zoya Lolly

Zoya Lolly

Next up is Zoya Lolly. While Phoebe was my favorite of the three, Lolly ain't no slouch herself! Lolly is a bright, almost hot pink, Barbie pink matte that I can also see myself wearing a lot this summer. Bloggers have compared it to OPI La Paz-itively Hot matte, but I think they are totally different colors (will do a comparison later) and Lolly does not have shimmer.

Zoya Lolly

Zoya Lolly

As you can see, I took a ton of pictures of this one too! I really like the color with my skin tone. I think the bottom two pictures are the best representation of the actual color. Those were taken outside, but not in direct sunlight. Lolly applied almost as easily as Phoebe. It was very thin, which still surprises me for a matte polish. You can see in some spots it's not 100% completely smooth as a regular creme finish polish would be, but it's pretty close and looks gorgeous! Matte bright lips were a huge runway trend for this summer, and I think matte pink nails are a good option for those of us who are scared of matte hot pink lips!

Zoya Lolly

Zoya Lolly

Zoya Mitzi

Zoya Mitzi

Finally, we have Zoya Mitzi. Obviously Mitzi is a color right up my alley. Bold yellow-green chartreuse matte= heaven! I love to wear obnoxiously bright polish like this in the summer. It makes me happy and feel energetic. Some bloggers have compared this to OPI Who The Shrek Are You? but I think it's quite a bit brighter than that. And cooler cause it's matte! You can see in the second picture above that Mitzi looks less bright in dim indoor light.

Zoya Mitzi

Mitzi was a bit thicker than Phoebe and Lolly. Maybe not as think as other mattes I've used, but definitely not thin like a regular Zoya. It also did not apply quite as easily as the other two. You just have to use a little more caution with Mitzi. Thick coats seems to work best, as well as letting it dry all the way in between coats. The fewer strokes you can do on your nails, the smooother it will come out.

Zoya Mitzi

Zoya Mitzi

Overall, I give this collection an 9/10(Phoebe and Lolly were both 10/10 and Mitzi was a 7/10, so that averaged out to 9)! I do wish Mitzi had applied as AMAZING as Phoebe and Lolly did and I hope Zoya will release more mattes in the same formula as those two. These are gorgeous colors for summer and even better if you love mattes, like I do. If you haven't liked how other mattes have applied, definitely give Phoebe a try. If you love all three colors, Zoya came out with a mini set of all three for only $15!

Zoya Mod Mattes are available now on Zoya.com.

The products in this post were sent to me for review by a PR agent for Art of Beauty. For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy.