Zoya Zara

Mixture of light purple and rich gold is surprisingly flattering. The downside of Zoya Zara is the sheerness, these two coats are still quite see through. I was in a hurry, just covering the Entourage disaster and did not have time to do more. Application was ok, bit runny, but nicely settling. In real life this polish is much more stunning, the golden shimmer is very deep and perhaps has a hint of multicolour in it.

But my Seche Vite starts to be bit goopy - and the bottle is not even halfway. Not impossible to work with, but bit difficult to apply near the cuticle. I'm slightly disappointed.

Zoya Angel

I found few older pics of some pinks in my hard drive. Zoya Angel is one of my favorite pinks, very soft and super flattering to my skintone. The base shade is dusty rose with a hint of mauve in it. The polish is packed with shimmer that seems to be a mix of pink and perhaps pale gold or silver with warm tinge. The overall impression is grayed rose in my eyes. In the bottle the shimmer is very dominating, but on the nail this color can be surprisingly cremelike, especially in indirect light.

The light in the picture is warm indirect evening light and it gives a little too warm impression of this color - although it really has a beigeish nature in warm light. The bottle image gives a good impression of the color in more cool light.


This polish can be used with just one sheer layer or 2 to 3 layers for more opaque look. The consistency is thin and fast drying, easy to work with if you don't try to make thick coats.

Decadently gorgeous Zoya Richelle

This is one of my older nail pics with slightly longer nails. That might be my favorite length, still very practical but starts to have that finger elongating elegance of long nails.

Zoya Richelle on the other hand is one of my favorite metal polishes. The finish is very metallic but not actually foil like, larger sparckling particles disguise the brush strokes really well. The polish is thin, but two coats is enough for opaqueness. In addition to the perfect application I like this warm, slightly copperish, slightly dirty shade of gold.

This might not be the most obvious summer shade, but I really wait to test this out with simple grecian-style draped dress, some bejewelled sandals and light tan.


Alberta Ferretti dress from SS 2008 collection. Style.com

Zoya Freja with diamond coat

Recently I have categorized Zoya Freja to metallics rather than greys. It is indeed very silvery, blackened one, not quite with foil finish though. It gives a beautiful futuristic and slightly decadent look and behaves well, covers with 2 to 3 coats. This time I got some sheet marks to couple of nails and end up adding one coat Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond on top of Freja to cover up the mess.

I have to say that although I'm not shy for bright or unusual colors I have issues with excessive bling, mainly with holographic and glitter polishes. I have one holographic polish and I'm seriously considering giving it away - I've barely had courage to try it to my pinkie. But sparsely scattered holographic or glitter particles I like, sort of. They give this funky dotted look, cover nicely some manicure disasters and are so much easier to remove than dense glitter polishes.

I tried to capture the beautiful holographic nature of Orly's topcoat - but that is not too easy. IRL this stuff twinkles like... ...crazy? ...diamond?

Zoya Casey - a beauty with issues

For me these almost blacks are the safety blanket of manicures an they have been that for a long time. I guess that I was lured by some woman's magazines ages ago and bought one of Chanel's outrageously priced polishes: Rouge Noir - and was hooked. When some girls reach for their favorite nude I grab my trusted nearly black and feel instantly good about my manicure.

I've been looking for a reasonably priced alternative for Rouge Noir for a while and Casey really delivers. When speaking just about the color Casey does an excellent job. It is not an exact twin for Chanel polish - Casey is more purple and very dark, Rouge Noir is more red and tad lighter (will dig an older pic of Rouge Noir later for comparison). But there is that same dramatic outlook that I adore. As an added plus Casey is extremely shiny. With Mavala topcoat I can almost fix my lipstick using the reflection from my nail. And see those bluish higlights! This image shows the colour very black, but the red purple flashes beautifully in bright light.

I have to say that I have some issues with Zoya. All cream polishes and light shimmers bubble really badly - I guess that they are not compatible with Mavala Mavadry topcoat. Casey was also chipping on the next day after application. I have zero interest to try Zoyas color lock system. First, I think that it is expensive. Second, my nails don't stain and they are quite smooth - so for me the basecoat feels like totally unnecessary extra step in the manicure. Third, I hate fast dry drops.

So I really need to find a fast drying topcoat that works with Zoyas. I'm open to all suggestions!

Zoya Lulu - that summer peach

I have some recent manicures photographed and ready to publish, so I will purge those pics here eventually.

This is Zoya Luly, a lovely, slightly jellylike peach + Mavala Mavadry topcoat. That jelliness makes a difference to the usual, chalky outlook of most pastel polishes and really sets this color apart in my records. I can totally see myself wearing this a lot in the next summer, it will probably be even more flattering when I get a hint of color to my skin.

Usually four coats is too much for my patience, but this particular color really needs them, and it really got prettier and prettier with each application. One coat made my nails look just stained. There definitely is a yellowish tone in this color - so there is no use for it in sheer manis unless you have a purpose to look like a chain smoker.

Otherwise this polish was nice to work with. The consistency is little bit in a thin side as with my other Zoya polishes, and it dries pretty fast. Except that four coats of polish never dries particularly fast...