Zoya Arizona and Myrta

   Today's post is brought to you by the color orange.  Arizona and Myrta from the Zoya Beach and Surf Summer 2012 collections to be exact.  You've probably been seeing a lot of orange this year as Tangerine Tango is the Pantone color of the year.  Myrta is closer to this shade, but Arizona is a nice compliment. 

   Arizona, from the Beach set, is a medium orange/tangerine creme.

  The formula was a little thick, but that could just be my bottle.  When it arrived the polish had leaked into the cap and onto the neck a little, so I think my bottle was affected by heat, which could have caused the thickness.  Does anyone else have this polish?  What's the consistency like on your bottle?

   Application was ok, but the first coat was a bit streaky.  The second coat evened everything out though.  I used Finger Paints base coat, 2 coats of Arizona, and no top coat.  Dry, the polish is brighter than the bottle color.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   Myrta is a red-orange metallic foil with a pewter or gold/silver mix shimmer.  It's a little hard to tell which but the shimmer lends well with the polish color.  In a good way.

  

   I had no issues with the formula or application.  Like with Arizona my base coat was Finger Paints and I used 2 coats of polish.  No top coat again.  Myrta dries to bottle color.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   I think Myrta would be a great summer pedi color.  And once I add a little thinner to Arizona I can definitely see myself wearing it again.  Neither color is super unique, but both are very nice, especially if your collection could use some orange.

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were sent to me by the company for consideration.

Sinful Colors Pandora

   Fall is probably my favorite time of year.  The scents, the colors in nature, the weather.  It's no surprise I'm drawn to those types of colors in polish as well.  So of course when I saw the Sinful Colors Castaway collection I immediately picked up Pandora.

   Pandora is a burnt orange with matching shimmer.  It reminds me of the color of changing leaves.  The shimmer is subtle, but there.  It shows better in person than in pictures.  

   Application was smooth, but the formula was thin so be careful of pooling polish and flooding your cuticles.  Pigmentation was excellent.  I only used 1 coat of polish.  My base was Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler and I did not use a top coat.  

Direct Sun

Shade

Indoor

  

China Glaze Fireside Glow

   This was my New Year's mani.  A little bit of bling, but not too in your face.  I kept things simple over the weekend, so this polish kind of fit with that.

   Fireside Glow is from the China Glaze Ulta exclusive 3 piece collection that suddenly showed up about a week or so before Christmas.  I had no idea these polishes were coming out and I believe they've already gone on clearance, but you might still be able to find them.  As far as I know, China Glaze has never done Ulta exclusives before so I'm not sure if this is the start of a new trend or just a one time thing.  I will try to find out more information if I can though.

   This is a copper/orange glitter with holo glitter mixed in.  In the bottle it looks more orange, but on the nail it's more the color of a new penny.  In fact, when I was looking at it on my nails, this almost felt like a neutral polish, especially under darker lighting where the holo didn't show as much.  Maybe I'm just crazy though and you ladies will look at it and feel the exact opposite.

   The formula of Fireside was good, but application felt a little weird to me.  I think it might have been my base coat combination though that was doing it.  I started with a coat of Barielle Nail Rebuilding Protein followed by a coat of Gelous gel base to try to give some extra strength to my nails.  I've been having major peeling issues again, so the tips of my nails have been a bit weak.  I used 2 coats of color for good coverage and topped with a coat of Barielle Manicure Extender.  The Barielle top coat is a reasonably thick top coat, but 15 minutes after I put it on, the glitter in Fireside ate all of my top coat so that my nails felt like they had no top coat on at all.  

   This is not necessarily a bad thing though.  On its own, Fireside dries to a nice satin/suede finish.  The texture is very gritty, but it looks pretty.  The main problem is that the holo glitter doesn't come out nearly as much with this finish.  To bring out the holo I added a thick coat of Gelous over the glitter and a second coat of Manicure Extender, after taking pictures of the satin finish of course.  The extra top coats brought the holo goodness out and mostly smoothed out the texture.  But because the layers were so thick on my nail at this point, the polish started peeling/popping off in sheets last night.  It did make removal a little easier since I was going to take it off last night anyway.

   The top photo will be with just 1 coat of top coat.  The bottom photo will be after I added the 2 additional coats.  If you click and enlarge the photos you can see the difference better, especially on the shade shots.

Direct Sun

Shade

Indoor

   I liked this polish.  But I think next time I wear it I might try layering it over a creme first to see if that helps stop the glitter from eating my top coat as much.