Zoya Rica and Tanzy: Swatches and Review

One of my favorite things lately is to paint the nails on each hand a different color. I usually try to pick colors that are similar enough so that it's not obvious at first glance that it's actually two different colors. My favorite combo so far has been Zoya Rica and Tanzy from the Sunshine collection.

Zoya - Tanzy and Zoya - Rica

Tanzy is an amazing light orange base that's absolutely packed with sparkly golden glass flecks. Rica is the same formula except with a coral pink base, and both are absolutely amazing. Zoya's Sparkle (summer 2010) and Sunshine (summer 2011) are two of my favorite collections of all time from any company, which is why I was a little disappointed in the 2012 summer collection. Oh well, maybe next year they'll come out with something even more spectacular!

It started out as one of those "I can't decide which one I want to wear!" days, and since I never actually made a decision, I just ended up painting one hand with Tanzy and one with Rica. Turns out, the crazy gold sparkles in both pulled them together into an awesome mismatched manicure, and I ended up loving the rebel feeling of having two different colors. I will certainly be doing this again!

Both of these are shown at two easy coats, but for some reason these have a longer-than-normal dry time.  They were still slightly dentable after a couple hours even with Cult Nail Wicked Fast (quick dry) topcoat.

Zoya Rica and Tanzy are both available on Zoya's website for $8 each, but if you love gold sparkles, I highly recommend picking up the whole Sunshine set. Every single one is a stunner.

Zoya Beach and Surf: Accent Nails

The first thing I noticed about the Zoya Beach and Surf collections was that they all seem to have a "match" in the other collection. There are plenty of swatches out there for Beach and Surf already, so I wanted to give it a twist and show how wonderfully these work for multi-finger accent manicures! I like more contrast for single-finger accents, but prefer the colors to be more closely related for the multi-finger accents.

Check out how well these go together!

Zoya - Wednesday and Zuza

Zoya - Tracie and Meg

Zoya - Arizona and Myrta

Zoya - Shelby and Rory

Zoya - Lara and Kimber

Zoya - Reagan and Carly

Of course, you don't have to pair them up with the most matching color. You can also pair random ones together. For instance, I loved the look of the orange and teal together so I paired Arizona with Zuza for this single-accent:

Zoya - Arizona and Zuza

Overall, while the colors are quite pretty and beach-y and summery, I have to admit that I was disappointed in the collections.  After the killer Sparkle (Summer 2010) and Sunshine (Summer 2011) collections, I was REALLY hoping for more spectacular bling from Zoya for this year.  I know that many others love shimmers and cremes and will be delighted with this collection, but I can't help but feel let down a bit.

I think Arizona was my favorite even though I don't own or like very many orange polishes.  It is the perfect soft, yet bright creamsicle orange that I think would be perfect on finger or toes at the beach!  Carly was also a standout.  It's a rich, intense purple foil that I have nothing even close to in my collection, and it's nearly a one-coater!  Some of the others I liked, some I didn't, but all had excellent formula.  Most are slightly thick and cover in two coats.

The Zoya Beach and Surf collections are both available now at the Zoya website.  They retail for $8 each or $48 for each sampler set.


(These products were sent for review.)

Chrome Nail Comparison

I was looking for the perfect design to do on my nails for my Disneyland trip this weekend when I broke my middle fingernail... dang! The break was so far down is was barely even on the free edge, so I decided to try out some chrome false nails I got from Dashing Diva a while back. So while I'm doing the wear test on the falsie to see whether it will last for my vacation, I figured I'd do a little comparison of various "chrome" nail looks.

Chrome Nail Comparison

Obviously, the fake nail has the smoothest, brightest shine and the most "true" mirror-like finish, but it also has some drawbacks: it's thicker and less natural than the others, and the wear time on it is next to nothing since it just has the adhesive tab on the back. There's an another brand at Sally's that comes with adhesive tabs but you can also use glue (that may last a bit longer).

The silver foil (ring finger) actually looks more like the Dashing Diva chrome from a short distance. The wrinkles are not as prominent if you're not viewing it as an extreme close up. If my nail hadn't broken, I'd probably be opting for this method this weekend. It provides an ALMOST mirror finish and the foils are relatively inexpensive while enough to do MANY manicures.  A lot of the "flaws" that appear here are my own fault for not waiting for the foil glue to dry enough before sticking it on, btw.  The part towards the cuticle is more of an accurate representation of the shine.  I think this is my favorite of the four pictured.

It amazes me how dull the two polishes (China Glaze Millennium and Zoya Trixie) look compared to both the foil and the fake nail. Neither actually has a "mirror" appearance at all, but they both have the ease of regular nail polish.


The false nails are from Dashing Diva, but I don't see the silver chrome on their site right now. Like I said, there's an alternative available at Sally's by a brand called Nail Bliss (though it doesn't appear to be on their site).

The silver foil I bought at Dollar Nail Art. They have a $25 minimum purchase online (or you can order by mail with a check), but they have so many awesome foils, beads, glitter, etc. it was easy for me to find plenty that I wanted!

Zoya Trixie can be ordered from their website, and I'm not sure if China Glaze Millennium can be found easily anymore (it was from their Khrome collection a couple years ago).

Zoya - NYFW Peter Som Collection: Swatches and Review

I'm not really sure what made me spontaneously buy the Peter Som collection from Zoya during NYFW (probably the fact that it was LE and had free shipping), but I'm glad I did!

Zoya - Audrey

Audrey is a pale, sheer pink jelly that has a nice glossy finish. This was the one I was most excited about because of its "revolutionary magical gel look." And the finish IS very nice, but the color is a bit uneven on its own. Not really streaky, but just more sheer in some spots and more opaque in others. Very light and feminine, and I like how it looks with three coats (shown).

Zoya - Katharine

My favorite of the collection. Katharine is a subdued plum/raisin jelly (it looks more eggplant in the bottle though) that is quite sheer on the first two coats, but builds up into a nice squishy jelly finish. For this swatch I used three thin coats, but I think it looked a little better the night before when I tried it with slightly thicker coats. Either way, it looks more even in person than in the pictures.  I love that this is a more dusty/greyed shade of red purple.  So chic and juicy.

Zoya - Evvie

Evvie is a very opaque dark sage grey creme. The only creme in the collection, it is completely opaque in two easy, thin coats. Again, very chic with a little bit of edge. Zoya really hits it home with their greens and this is no exception. I think it is also neutral enough to complement a variety of skin tones from cool to warm. Simple, but quite flattering.

Overall I'm quite impressed with this whole set. All of the shades are nice, and Audrey is so unique! Unfortunately, the set was limited edition for NYFW and is currently sold out, but I've heard rumors of these colors making it into the Zoya core line this fall or so.

My picks from Zoya Feel and True Collections

I wasn't all too excited about the Feel or the True & Flecked collections (so many flakies everywhere!), but when Zoya had their "Get two bottles, just pay shipping" deal, I figured I'd try a few of them that looked interesting.

Zoya - Avery

Avery is ALMOST the perfect nude for me, but it's slightly lighter and pinker than my skin (doesn't really show in the picture).  I guess I have kind of funny hands, because my fingertips are more pink than the rest of my fingers and hand which is much more of an olive tone.  Oh well.  Avery is pretty, but for some reason I have trouble with Zoya cremes.  They tend to be very opaque, but kind of dry out as I'm applying it, so it ends up looking a little "lumpy" in the end.  Top coat usually fixes it, though.

Zoya - Kendal

Kendal is a really soft dusty purple that leans warmer than other pastel purples I own (like Essie Lilacism), so I actually really love this one.  The cooler blues make my hands look "dirty," so I usually avoid them.  I'm certainly going to wear this for Easter (even though I don't really celebrate Easter much... I just like coloring eggs with my family!).

Zoya - Bevin

I know I love dusty olive greens, so I figured I'd try a dusty teal (most of the teals in my collection are super bright).  It's quite nice and actually goes well with Avery and Kendal, even though they are in different collections.  I hear it's similar to OPI Mermaid Tears, but it's a bit more dusty, so I chose the Zoya.  This one was easier to apply but maybe not quite as opaque on the first coat.  Two coats and it was perfect!

Zoya - Tru

Tru was my instant favorite from the True collection when I first saw swatches.  I love red grape purples, and the gold shimmer looked so beautiful!  I always thought it looked more vibrant in pictures, but I think it's shown close to Lotus, which is a very greyed-out dusty lavender.  You can see a little bit of a bald spot on my pinky at two coats, so maybe waiting in between coats is a good idea to avoid cuticle drag.

Overall I'm really happy with my picks from these two collections.  I can actually see myself wearing all of these.  Also, I love Zoya as a company.  They have super helpful customer service and offer many promos and deals for their customers and facebook fans!  I think I have pretty much every Zoya color I want (I have a LOT), but they keep coming out with new awesome colors so I keep ordering more!  All of these are available on Zoya's website for $8 each.

As a side note... For some reason lately I'm not satisfied with anything on my nails unless it's really attention-grabbing.  Since I don't do much nail art, that usually means glitter.  Every time I put on a shimmer or creme I'm bored with it within a few hours and have to either add glitter or take it off and put something more "interesting" on.  It's kinda frustrating...

Zoya Swatches - Greys and Blues (pic heavy!)

Sometimes I like when bloggers have a lot of one brand in a post so I can see which colors I want to buy. So here are all of my greys and blues from Zoya (however, I don't have all of them).

Zoya - Dove

Zoya - Harley

Zoya - Cailtin

Zoya - Kelly

More blue-toned than shows in this picture

Zoya - Freja

Zoya - Raven

Zoya - Cynthia

Zoya - Indigo

Zoya - Kotori

Zoya - Crystal

Zoya - Jo

Zoya - Tallulah

Zoya - Akyra

Perfect Rainy-Day Grey: Zoya Dove

Today is a rainy, grey day in Tempe, AZ, so I was craving a nice dreary grey polish to go with it. This is Zoya Dove, and it's a perfect fit.

Zoya - Dove

This applied nicely in two thin coats and is a nice neutral, shiny grey creme. I was considering putting Lynnderella Snow Angel on top of it, but right now I'm just enjoying it by itself.

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 4 - Red and Green Matte

Time for the fourth holiday manicure of the season!  Remember to check out all of Sammy's here - she has more intricate nail art ones than I do, and they are AWESOME!

Some people say the "every other finger" type of manicure is one you'd do only as a kid, but I love the combination of red and green too much and had to try it with my Zoya Matte polishes.

 Zoya Veruschka and Zoya Posh

Simple, but pretty, I think.  I love these two matte colors, and together it's just the epitome of Christmas.  both are really rich and deep, and I think the matte finish tones down the tacky "alternating colors" manicure.

For a twist, I decided to put some shiny French tips on with my Zoya Armour top coat.  It's not quite as shiny as some of my quick dry polishes, so I would probably use one of those next time I tried this.  Also, I would have liked the tips to be skinnier.

Btw, I forgot to mention that the reason I hadn't posted in a week was because I was in Hawaii!  I'd never been there before, and it was a blast!  However, while we were there, it just didn't feel like the Christmas season, so I'm glad to be back and feeling the holidays once more.  Anyway, I'm going to be playing catch-up a little more to get my 12 holiday manicures by Christmas!

Zoya Isla

I'm sorry, I just couldn't wait any longer to take off the Incoco and try more of my holiday polishes. Today I was in the mood for a nice rich glowy red, and Zoya Isla fit the bill perfectly.

Zoya Isla

This covered nice and easily in 2 coats. I'm head over heels for this color, and it's making me feel so Christmas-y! I absolutely cannot wait for Thanksgiving this Thursday, because that means it's officially the Christmas Season! While I'm not religious at all (I'm actually atheist/agnostic), the holidays are one of my favorite times of the year just because of the time spent with my family. I'm so very close to all of my family and our get-togethers are always lots of fun!

I started the morning with eggnog and the Muppet Christmas Carol while I crocheted some gifts for my family.  I can't wait to put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Friday!!

Fire Kitty and Nails!

So maybe you didn't know this, but I love World of Warcraft. My two mains (nope, I can't pick just one) are a gnome warlock named Whatsit (Chief has a gnome rogue named Whoosit... aren't we cute??) and a feral druid named Zyrah. Last night, Zyrah brought down the 6th boss in Firelands for the third time and Fandral's Flamescythe dropped!

All of my combat is in cat form, and this staff makes my character look like this:

I was so excited that all night I dreamed of ways of putting these flames onto my nails, and here's how it came out. I'm pretty happy with it, though I might do it again with a little more orange next time (less red). I used Zoya Kimmy for the base (2 coats), then lightly brushed Zoya Tanzy over it starting a little farther towards the tips each time, then added just a hint of China Glaze Lighthouse on the very tips.

I'm still so incredibly excited I can't stop squeaking now and then :o)

EDIT:  By the way, all of my Wow characters or on the US Doomhammer server.  Let me know if you have a toon there or would like to try playing and I can send you an invite for a trial account!