YOU CAN CALL ME HEAVENLY: Zoya Tomoko

I have a love-hate relationship with Zoya and am on a (well-intentioned) no-buy right now, but this happened. It is one of the fall PixieDust collection, but it is unseasonably cool today, so I gave myself a preview.

  

Kawase Tomoko is what I want to be when I grow up and we have the same birthday and WOULD TOTALLY BE TWINS IF I WERE SIX INCHES SHORTER AND ASIAN LET'S BE BEST FRIENDS OKAY

  

WE CAN WEAR OUR CAT EARS TOGETHER AND I WILL BAKE STRAWBERRY CREAM CUPCAKES

  

I am not a huge fan of the textured polish thing, but this is shiny enough that I can forgive it. The Zoya "Pixie" thing is too precious for me to forgive, however. THAT'S JUST WEIRD GUYS and coming from me that's saying something....

  

I also discovered the Great Galloping Gallons promotion, where if you buy four 32-ounce bottles of Remove+ you get four free. The price per ounce is 39 cents as opposed to $1.25 per ounce when you buy the flipper thing. If you can steel yourself to spend $100 at once on nail polish remover, it's a bargain.

  

Two gallons of remover should last a couple months at least.

NEON DEATH PINK: Zoya Does It Best

In keeping with our Let's Summer Like It's 1993 theme, I present Zoya Neon Death Pink (aka Layla) with tips in Zoya Neon Death Pink mark Glitter (née Gilda).

  

I bought these as part of a box set in December a couple years ago when I was overexcited about a buy-two-get-one sale. This box came with yet another Neon Death Pink (I think Lola, which I have since given away due to general grossness thereof.

  

Oh tiny stub nails, how you radiate toxic pinkness.

I can't say that I was thrilled with either of these polishes; they like to pretend to be dry until you go to change the laundry and then HAHA MADE YOU SMUDGE. But for the probable forty-eight hours I will be able to tolerate looking at this, they were good enough.

FOURTH OF JULY: about what you'd expect

I tried gradient nails again. The makeup sponges I bought for the purpose seem to be capable of absorbing infinite polish, leaving an inadequate amount for the nail. Or else I need to be using one-coat polishes. Although the final product wasn't really what I intended, it was interesting enough to wear for a few days.

  

One coat of Sally Hansen Celeb City (AGAIN, I'm sorry, it just keeps happening that way), topped with ZOYA Tori and China Glaze Blue Bells Ring. The red and blue both have a silver shimmer, so the finish was consistent between the three.

  

I took a big chip off my right index finger and opted to sponge back over it for a quick fix as I was going home for the weekend and didn't have time to redo the whole thing.

  

Shade view.

Maybe kitchen-type sponges would work better? More or less godawful mess? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

THIRD DAY: Holiday Skittles

These were supposed to be evocative of glass ornaments or maybe the old-fashioned light bulbs or something, I don't know, it's FESTIVE.

I think "skittles" is a dumb name for this color split, but that seems to be the generally accepted term.

  

PURPLE: Essie Sexy Divide
BLUE: China Glaze Blue Year's Eve
GREEN: Zoya Suvi
RED: Zoya Isla
GOLD: Ulta High Roller
MOONS: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails X-treme Wear Celeb City (wtf)

All except the silver bits were given a nice thick coat of Essie Matte About You.

  

I was musing how the Essie is such a nice purple, why don't I ever use that one...because it's a patchy disaster polish OH YEAH I REMEMBER NOW. I am excited because I think that silver may be good for stamping.

  

That is not very well focused but shows the colors in lovely December morning shade.

My beloved assistant said they look almost art deco. SQUEEEE

SECOND DAY: shiny glitter love

Here we have Zoya Isla with tips in China Glaze Twinkle Lights over China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, with an inverted accent ring finger.

  

This got a lot of love at work, but the pictures are not wonderful.

  

I have such mixed feelings about Zoya. The average wear time is crap, but I haven't tried it with their own base and top coats yet. If they would stock them at Ulta along with the polishes, I would have picked them up by now. HINT, HINT.

TWELFTH NIGHT: Carey in Lorelei's Tiara

I wasn’t going to post this one due to the horrific cleanup (or lack thereof), but I had more compliments than usual on it. Inspired by the one snow we’ve had so far this winter.




Three coats of Zoya Carey from the Feel Collection with China Glaze Lorelei’s Tiara from the Eye Candy collection splashed on the ends.




I felt obligated to purchase Carey as it is my namesake polish but didn’t expect to be very excited about gray as my skin demands warm colors. The glitter brightened it up enough to be okay. I think I’d prefer Kendal or Kennedy standalone. I got almost five days out of this one before I had to take it off, which is above average in my Zoya experience.

The glitter is highly adequate. I think the blue bits make the polish.

Also for your entertainment, my magical hair that I wore at the same time. I went to a semi-classy restaurant like this. I am that girl.




Surprisingly, the other girls did not make me sit at a separate table.




The man in front of me at the salad bar said he was glad I was there as the room was on the dark side. I LIGHT UP THE WORLD.

ZOYA Smoke and Mirrors

As it is now September, I deem the season to be autumn for all practical purposes and can rotate the polish accordingly.

I bought just three of the twelve Zoya Smoke and Mirrors collection. Some of the others appealed to me, but the swatches I'd seen didn't look that great. If I find any on clearance later, I may pick up a couple more, in particular Yara and Cynthia.

Zoya Jana (smoke):







I am somewhat fond of this one. Personally I would call it a purple-based taupe. It went on quite smoothly and didn't make me want to punch babies. The wear wasn't very good, but this is a recurring problem I have with Zoya. Their color selection is above par, however, so I continue to purchase.

Zoya Nimue (mirror):






This was super shiny. The "sun" picture was taken in my car as I was fairly certain the light would be past prime before I left work (as indeed it was). The other one, I don' t know, at least two of the three light bulbs in my bathroom are supposed to be "daytime natural" or whatever, but it doesn't look like it.

Zoya Neeka (mirror):






Actually, I was disappointed in this one (should have gotten Cynthia instead). The bottle looks like the polish is way more glittery than it is once on the nail. The only photo I got that came close to capturing that was like. D-T level blurry. So you'll have to take my word for it.

I trimmed my nails way down after this round, because they looked borderline creepy. I cut them shorter than intended, as will be demonstrated next week (BUTTER LONDON SO EXCITED), but they will regenerate. I hope.

Dance un-teal the world ends

Three coats of Zoya Charla under one coat of Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe. Minor tip wear, but it's the third day. I'm busy this week.







THE MERMAID COLORS. I LIKE THEM.