Zoya Jules with Zoya Blaze

ALIIIIIVEEE!

Its finals week! Plus, I get a week off between finals for Winter term and the Spring term. So I am blogging. Hurrah! I am going to try and spend my 15 hours not studying to line up a few weekly blog posts by at least doing photos. I hope to get enough posts in the next two weeks to publish once a week until the end of Spring term (in July). That is the goal at least. I will reevaluate time when my husband graduates from the local community college in May.

Today's nails are two toned. Zoya Jules is a grayed champagne metallic. It was from the Spring 2011 Intimate collection. Zoya Blaze was part of the holiday 2012 Ornate collection. It is a mulberry red with micro holo glitter. Sorry I didn't get a good photo of the holo.

I have been busy in the garden. Its finally warm enough for the green weeds to show up. I took photos outside because I could. Look at that green!

Jules was like most metallics from Zoya. Sort of runny. So watch out for cuticle flooding. I ended up with 3 coats. The lighting and contrast with the red make this look more like it might be a manicure hand color for me. It is not. It looks like it would match some pearl finish beige pumps I had almost 20 years ago. So I guess that is why people call it 'vintage' or 'old lady.' Not the most flattering neutral for me, but it is a nice finish that goes well with lighter spring neutral wardrobe options.

Blaze was a different type of formula. It left no brush marks and the finish was more like a jelly. Shiny! I did two coats and I could see a bit of visible nail line. in the right light.

Overall Imrepssions:
Love them both! But, I think I won't wear them together again. The gold shimmer in the Jules seemed to compete with the silvery holo glitter in Blaze and distracted from both at least in certain lights. In the bottle, Jules was far more gray looking than on the nail. Now if I was staying indoors the whole time, it works pretty well together. But bright light and outdoor light pulls out the gold.

Zoya Danni and Zoya Adina

Its purple day! Today's purple polishes are both spring colors from Zoya, in years past. Its been a swatching marathon today and I even redid a few shots for this post.

 Sorry for the crappy bottle shots! I promise the fingers are prettier. Danni on left, Adina on right.

Danni is from Zoya's Spring 2011 collection. Its a lovely bright purple with a pink shimmer. They describe it as an enchanted orchid metallic. All I know is its purple and pretty.

 I am guessing this is because I bought this bottle in a blog sale, but application was TERRIBLE. It was thick sort of goopy. I have only run across that once with Zoya polishes and what do you know, it was from the same blog sale. Needless to say, I was pretty fed up with it. But, it was a one coat wonder...sort of. I will thin this down if I wear it again. I am not a huge fan of purples, so that may or may not happen any time soon.

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Next up is Zoya Adina. Also from a spring collection, 2010 this time, titled Reverie collection. Unlike Danni this one is a duochrome. I like to think of this like a purple opal. I know that makes no sense since opals are whites with color change, but it just does. Its a medium purple (not too different from Danni in intensity) with a color change to a purple/teal color. Some people call it a mermaid color because of the color change.

This polish is also very sheer. It took 2 thick coats to get full coverage on my short nails. If you are familiar with Zoya I would say the formula is about standard. Not super thin, but thinner than a lot of other brands that are only 3 free instead of the 4 free or 5 free polishes.


And now the finale. I painted every other nail with each color AND took photos outside. I got some really bright lighting thanks to all the snow that will never melt so enjoy these in true technicolor.

Turns out I really like them together so I think I will be sporting an ombre style 2 color skittles Manicure until I paint my nails again.

Like these colors? Love them? Starting Monday 1/7 there will be a special coupon for 3 free bottles of Zoya polish ($10 S&H, free S&H with $25 purchase). I will be blogging next week with more colors. I still have some yummy microglitters and pink posts in the works. If you don't have a Zoya account yet, sign up for one here. You can start shopping and adding colors to your cart now and wait until you know exactly what you want before you actually buy.

Disclaimer, I bought these both myself. All opinions are my own.

China Glaze Sci-Fi

I thought I had posted on this one before, but I couldn't find the post. So, here it is.

China Glaze "Sci-Fi" is a metallic purple. Its from the 2009 Khrome collection which is a bunch of crome metallic colors. I actually thought it was more of a gray until I started playing around with the color and toppers and the lavender really came out.

Its a one coater, except that it tends to drag if you don't paint really fast and then let it fully dry.  >.<  So paint each nail fast, and don't go back to it until its fully dry, even if you miss a spot. If you do, you will see what happened to my middle fingernail. Not a killer, but if i weren't planning on layering this later in the week, I would add a second coat to that nail.

The color looks gray on my hands. Maybe its because its cloudy (snow is rolling in and by the time this post goes live Monday morning we should have at least an inch on the ground. It can pull off a metallic silver almost gunmetal color if you don't have gray next to it. It would be excellent for people that want a neutral that love wearing purples. Its just a Hint of color.

Disclaimer, I bought this myself. I got it online at a discount store (TonyNail) over the summer. It might be a bit hard to find since its a little older. But since it is in a discount site, I am guessing it might not be *that* hard to find.

China Glaze Joy

Joy is a nice plum purple metallic from Spring 2009 Romantique collection. I have a couple of polishes from this collection, but I think this one its my fave. Plus plummy purples are totally fall friendly, so I am wearing it.

Joy is an awesome one coater. Yes seriously. Aside from that blip on my pinky (from clean up oops) it would have been perfect. I wore this today and meant to take more pics in different light, but I did some serious packing and cleaning for a friend and its chipped beyond belief. So just the bright morning sun photo.


So you see where I hit the nail when I was cleaning up the pinky? That is the one nail that didn't chip. Ha! The others do look like I packed 10+ boxes of books and office stuff as well as washed dishes by hand. Yep. See things like this are why I have short nails. I use my hands.

I love this color. I want to wear it on my toes. Its a nice metallic type finish but not a foil and not streaky. The opacity in one coat means it should stamp great for anyone that is looking for stamping polishes.

I can find China Glaze at my local Sally's Beauty Supply for about $7 unless on sale, as well as numerous online retailers for less than retail prices. I bought this polish myself and all opinions are my own.