Zoya Color Spoons

   Happy Monday.  How many of you have ever bought a bottle of nail polish online?  Ever wish you could see the color in person first?  Or even wish that you could see how a couple coats of it would look dry before you buy a bottle from the store?  Well the fairies over at Zoya are making those wishes come true.  How you ask?  With color spoons, that's how.  Color spoons are a small piece of plastic with a round bowl at the end which holds approximately 2 coats worth of polish. 

   As you can see the spoons are labeled with the polish name and catalog number so you know with just a glance what color you're looking at.  They also have a small hole at the other end so you can string your collection together for easy storage all in one place.  Or they come to you in clear plastic envelopes of 6 each if you would rather store them that way.  

   Now you're probably wondering how much these guys cost.  Each spoon is only $0.50 and ships for free no matter how many you order.  Not bad, but what's even better is that for every spoon you order Zoya will put a credit on your account for the price of the spoon.  Once your spoons ship you will receive an email with a code to use on your next order for the credit amount.  A bottle of Zoya polish runs $7 on their website.  So basically if you order 14 spoons to try before you order a bottle, you will receive a credit worth the amount of a bottle of polish.  Which means you're getting the spoons for free to try out the colors next to your skin tone to see what works best for you.  Pretty nice huh?

   Color spoons were released on Sept 1.  According to Zoya's twitter feed, almost 250,000 spoons were ordered on that first day.  And yes, I was one of the people who made an order.  Though I was only responsible for 20.  As an added bonus with every order made, while supplies last(ed), a free color plate of the current Wicked and Wonderful collections was included.  I'm not sure if these are still being sent out or not.  Not all colors are available as spoons right now, but the company does plan to release all colors as spoons in the future.  Now here's the ones I ordered.

Wicked & Wonderful Color Plate

My Order

   I do have individual shots of each envelope so if there is a set you would like to see in more detail let me know.  Or if there is a particular spoon you would like a close up of let me know and I'll take one and post it.  The one I posted up top is of Mimi from the summer Sparkle collection.

Zoya Cola Wear Test Results

   Last week I posted a review of Zoya Cola from the Wonderful Collection.  I promised a wear test on the color after a week.  Well guess what?  It's been a week.  And as much as I love this color, I've never wanted to change my polish more than the last couple days.  I think it was the knowing I couldn't change it that made me want to so  much.  Or the fact that I've picked up a couple awesome new polishes that I'm dying to try out too.  You know, one of those.

Original Swatch

How did it turn out?  Click to the rest of the story and find out.

Zoya Cola

   Recently I went through my polish stash and separated them into ones I've worn and ones I haven't yet.  I'm determined to make it through the haven't worn box soon.  Though this task would be easier if I stopped buying more polish.  But I think we all know what the chances of that are.  And I probably need to change up the polish a bit more often as well.  Good news for you guys, my lovely followers. 
   Today I'm wearing Cola from the Zoya Wonderful collection.  Cola is a lovely red brown shade.  It reminds me of a glass of Dr. Pepper when you hold it up to the light.  So Cola is a very apt name I suppose. 

   As you can see from the picture I also decided to try out my new Barielle top coat.  I based this decision on the fact that last time I wore a Zoya polish, Charla from the Sparkle collection, I used my normal Seche Vite and had some shrinkage and wear issues.  I've since learned that Vite, and a lot of other quick dry top coats, have a certain chemical compound in them, to help with the drying process, that doesn't play well with Zoya most of the time.  I can't remember the exact name of the compound, but I do remember it's a cellulose something.  Looking at the Barielle ingredients I did not see anything called cellulose whatever so I'm hoping I get better results.  So far I haven't seen any shrinkage and it's been about 24 hours since I put it on.

   I used 1 coat Seche Rebuild for my base, 3 coats Cola, and two coats Barielle Ultra Speed Dry Manicure Extender top coat.  I used 3 coats of Cola because my first coat was too thin and wound up very streaky so it didn't give enough coverage.  This was entirely my fault.  The formula for Cola was very nice, not too thin not too thick, and went on very smoothly when I used enough polish on my brush.  For the top coat, I really liked the square top.  I found it very easy to hold on to.  This one also went on very smoothly, as long as I worked quickly.  It started drying very fast which could cause issues if you don't have enough product on your nail to cover the entire area.  Which I sometimes run into, especially on my thumbs.  It's a very fine line between not enough product and too much.  One which I am still trying to figure out.  You'll also notice that the polish dries darker on your hand than the bottle color.  But this was a good thing for me.  I much prefer the darker color on my nail than the bottle color.

   I've also decided to do a bit of a wear test on Zoya this week.  For the next three days I will be working at the mall Bath & Body Works helping them box up all their product in preparation for their remodel that starts next week.  Yes there are two BBWs in my town and no I do not normally work at the one in our mall.  Though technically I think the mall isn't actually in Athens, but Bogart but really it should be Athens.  Parts of Bogart have merged with Athens so they're almost one town in areas.  But I digress.  I figure the best time to do a wear test is when I'll be doing a lot of manual work with my hands.  So I will leave this mani on for a week and post my results next Wednesday. 

   So far I'm enjoying Cola a lot.  It's a nice rich color with lots of pigment.  2 coats would probably be enough for full coverage if you don't make the coats too thin like I did.   I think this would be a really nice fall color.  It's nice and earthy and very deep when you look at it.

Disclaimer:  This bottle of Zoya Cola was provided by the company to me after I won a Twitter contest by them.  It was not provided for consideration or as a PR sample however, simply as a contest prize.