Zoya Lovely Part 1

I have the first half of the Zoya Lovely collection from Spring 2013.  The first half consists of 3 pastel creme polishes- Jacqueline, Neely, and Blu.  I used Finger Paints base coat and no top coat for all of these photos.

Jacqueline

   Jacqueline is a nude creme with a slightly yellow base.  The consistency was a bit thick, which I kind of liked, but it made application less smooth.  The polish didn't self-level very quickly which led to the first coat streaky and patchy.  Because of this I needed 3 coats for full coverage.  I also hated this with my skin tone, though others said it looked ok.

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Neely

   Neely is a pale mint green creme.  It reminds me of the base of mint chocolate chip ice cream.  The formula was thinner than Jacqueline, more like what you normally expect from a Zoya polish.  Application was decent, less streaky on the first coat, but still a bit patchy.  I only needed 2 coats for full coverage.

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Blu

   Blu is a very pale blue creme.  I get a very icy feel from the polish.  Formula and application is the best of the 3 cremes of the collection.  There was no major streaking and only needed 2 coats for full coverage.  Blu is very bright for a pastel, possibly from the amount of white in the base.

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   My pick of the cremes is Blu with Neely a somewhat close second.  

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

Zoya True Collection Review

   For Spring 2012 Zoya has brought us a gorgeous collection of 2 nudes and a set of 4 greyed shades that could have come straight from Monet's garden.   I'm just going to let the pictures do most of the talking.  All swatches are 2 coats over China Glaze Strong Adhesion base coat.  I did not use any top coat with these.

Cho

   Cho is a warm toned beige with a barely there silver shimmer.  The shimmer shows up slightly more in person, but it is definitely  extremely subtle.  The formula on this one is a little thinner than normal for Zoya and I recommend wiping the neck of your brush off as well to avoid unexpected extra polish falling onto your nail.

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Farah

   Farah is a cool toned light greige creme.  It dries just a touch darker than the bottle.  I'm thinking this might be a good base for a newspaper mani.  

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   Looking at separate pictures Cho and Farah look very similar.  Here's some shots of the bottles side by side:

   Cho is on the left, Farah on the right.  Even in the bottle, these two look very similar.  So here they are side by side on the nail so you can better see the differences:

   Cho is on my thumb, middle, and pinkie fingers.  Farah on my index and ring fingers.  On you can really tell the difference in tone and base better.

Bevin

   Bevin is a greyed mint green creme.  In the bottle it looks like mint choco chip ice cream, but dries darker and loses that ice cream feel.  I like the dry version better.

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Skylar

   Skylar is slate blue with silver and gold shimmer.  The formula is a little thin again here, so make sure to wipe the neck of your brush before applying.  Skylar dries darker and more grey on the nail than in the bottle, in a very nice way that really lets the gorgeous shimmer shine.  The shimmer does like to stay on your skin.

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Tru

   Tru is a very red based orchid purple shade with red and gold shimmer.  The shimmer gives this polish an amazing depth and warmth.  It's what really makes this polish for me.

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Lotus

   Lotus is a blue based medium light purple with pink shimmer.  Like Cho and Skylar, the formula is a little thin.  This one also dries greyer and darker than in the bottle.

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   Final thoughts:  The two nudes feel a bit out of place in this collection, especially after the recent Touch collection, but I enjoyed them more than I expected.  It seems Zoya can make me like just about any color.  Anyone who's read this blog for a while would probably guess that Tru and Lotus are my favorites of the collection.  You'd be half right.  My favorites are Tru and Skylar.  I just love the shimmer and depth of these.  Even though the formula on half of these is a little thinner than you'd normally find from Zoya, they are still completely worth the tiny extra wiping and application is as smooth as always.  

   

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

Zoya Touch Collection Review

   A lot of businesses and offices have very strict rules about what shades of nail polish are allowed, if any at all is.  Most places that have these rules allow nude polishes.  Finding the right nude for your skin tone however can be kinda tricky.  But, with their new Touch collection, Zoya has given us 3 new options to find one that works.  

   I'm sure you're all aware by now that I'm not normally a fan of nude polish or the "mannequin hands" trend of matching your polish to your skin tone so your fingers look like a store mannequin.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I found I kind of liked 2 of the 3 colors in this collection.  It would be a 3 out of 3 but one of them clashes with my skin tone a bit.

   The entire Touch collection had incredible application, even for Zoya polishes.  They went on incredibly smoothly and have great pigmentation.  All 3 have a pearl-like finish to them which gives a nice depth and interest to the polish.  With all 3 I used a base coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base and a top coat of Barielle Manicure Extender.  A little tip if you can't find or want to try the Barielle top coat, check your local TJ Maxx or Marshall's.  That's where I usually find it and at a much lower cost than online.  

Minka:

   Minka has a yellow-ish base to it.  This is the one that I felt clashed a bit with my skin tone.  I used 2 coats for full coverage.

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Shay:

   Shay is more pink based and is the one I felt most closely matched my skin tone.  Again I used 2 coats.

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    I have a few bonus shots of this one for you.  First is an angled sun shot to show you the pearl finish.

   Next is a side by side comparison of Minka and Shay in the bottle so you can see the difference in the base tones.

 Pandora:

   Pandora is a little darker and brown based, but still leans more to the pink side than yellow.  This one was probably my favorite of the 3.  Mostly because it was darker than my actual skin tone so there was more of a contrast.  With this one I did 2 coats of polish on my ring and index finger but only 1 coat on the rest of my fingers.  I did this to show you how opaque these colors really are, with a steady hand you can probably get away with just one coat on any of these.  But also to show you how if your skin tone is sort of inbetween Shay and Pandora just one coat of Pandora could be a good option for you.

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    If you're looking for an office appropriate nude or just a calming color for a breather between bolder colors hopefully you'll find one you like from these 3.

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