Moving on down the line, here is Tanzy, the "light, bright tangerine orange with yellow gold metallic sparkle. A sunny orange that's easy to wear year-round." I was very iffy about this color because while orange has definitely been a hot color for 2011, I'm not 100% into this new trend. I used a base coat of Zoya Get Even, 2 caots of Tanzy and a top of Zoya Armor.
The first coat of Tanzy had me very worried because it was much more sheer than Reva, but as you can see in just two coats, it was full coverage and opaque. I'm still not loving orange against my skin tone, but as a polish, this color and formula did not disappoint.
As with Reva, this color looks much better to me in the shade - the sparkle really shows up better. Also I'm getting used to this squoval shape now - it's still not something I can seem to do myself, but pampering myself once a month with a manicure is totally okay by me. :]
Indoors with the flash and man it's like sparkle OVERLOAD, but in a good way. Remember, I do love glitter! ^_^ As for as the color, it's a cross between orange and gold, and I'm happy with that uniqueness.
Zoya can be purchased on their website for $8/bottle.
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
Kicking off the other half of the Sunshine and Summertime Summer 2011 collection from Zoya is Reva, a cool toned strawberry red with glowing golden metallic sparkle - a very rich and luxurious looking gilded red. You say metallic sparkle, I say glass fleck, either way it's gorgeous. Easily my favorite "easy" look to wear (flakes and glitter are still #1 but take time to apply and take off) - and Zoya does it quite well.
I used a base coat of Zoya Get Even, 2 coats of Reva and a top of Zoya Armor.
In the sun, metallic sparkle/glass fleck just never looks as pretty as it really is. It's hard for the camera to focus properly when there is so much going on.
But then you put it in the shade and BAM. This color reminds me a lot of China Glaze Strawberry Fields except this has much more red to it. Such a beautiful color - I really didn't want to take this off at all.
Indoors with the flash just kind of shows you how much shimmer/glitter/glass fleck whatever you want to call it is in the polish - very even coverage.
If you love this type of finish, I highly recommend getting this color. Very nicely pigmented and smooth formula.
Zoya can be purchased on their website for $8/bottle.
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
The final gem in the "Summertime" portion of the Summertime and Sunshine Summer 2011 Zoya collection is Breezi, a soft, dusty medium cerulean blue with an opaque cream finish. A super chic high-fashion denim look for nails." While I don't see this as a denim blue (I'm more into darker washes personally), Zoya does do blue very well. This blue reminds me a LOT of Zoya Phoebe but as you'll see below it's darker, richer, and of course, not matte.
I used a base of Zoya Get Even, 2 coats of Breezi and a top of Zoya Armor. Formula, again, was excellent.
Here in the sun, you see how well this polish applied - no brush strokes, no bubbles, nada. Very nice solid blue.
Same story in the shade - nice and creamy.
Indoors with the flash, you can see a bit of balding on my middle finger on the outside edge (going towards my ring finger) but that's from bad application by me. Getting those sides has always been difficult for me.
A great finale to this half of the collection - I'd say my favorite is a tossup between this and Mira.
Zoya can be purchased on their website for $8/bottle.
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
While I was at JoAnn's Fabrics this past weekend, I saw this set of 12 "vintage leaf glitter" vials from Martha Stewart. I had bought her 12 glitters vials about 2 years ago and it's done nothing but sit on my shelf of crafts as another one of those "I'll eventually play with this" things. I figured with this, I could use it in nail art just like gold leaf foil (which I had to fight myself from buying last week as well). At $20, this is a pretty good value considering how little you use for art and how many different colors are included.
I opened my vial, and tried to "paint" on some of the leaf glitter using my paintbrush that I clean up my cuticles with but that didn't do much, so I just used my fingertip to place the leaf glitter on my nail and then added a thick coat of Seche Vite. A few pieces were still sticking up, so I pushed them down with an orange stick to try and get it to stick. Bottom line, I wasn't patient enough. I'm positive with enough time and patience (and a good top coat), you could get the leaf glitter to properly lay down and even place in a design.
This was over my earlier manicure, Zoya Mira.
The shine is amazingly brilliant but as you can see, a few corners are still sticking up which can easily catch on things... mainly hair since I tend to play with my hair a lot.
Even in the shade, this catches any available light to reflect upon. I definitely think this is a great way to spruce up a manicure :]
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
Moving on down the line of Zoya's Summer 2011 Sunshine and Summertime - today I have Zoya Mira, a "blue toned medium purple with dusty lavender tones and an opaque cream finish. For a muted yet colorful purple that isn't too dark." Now, when I first saw this color, I giggled at the name, because in Spanish, mira means "look", and as a teenager, it was popular to say "mira, look it" (which is totally redundant, but also hilarious at the time)... Okay yeah, it's kind of weird but what can I say. I used a base coat of Zoya Get Even, 2 coats of Mira, and a top of Zoya Armor. Formula was very nice and even.
Now, this color looks a lot like China Glaze Grape Pop, but I haven't had any time for comparisons just yet. That's one reason why I'm doing my nail project, so I can pull comparisons all the time. I have a little over 50 nails done, so I'm only 5% into it (oy). Very beautiful purple though.
Here in the shade, you can really see the blue tones coming through - I'm not sure what I like more... I'm a huge blurple lover in general.
Indoors with the flash... very Barney purple like. Great creme but not entirely unique. I promise to have comparisons again soon!
Zoya can be purchased on their website for $8/bottle.
Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration. For more information, please read this post.
