Zoya GeiGei compared to Sinful Colors Glass Pink

It has been spring for a month now and I am still sending my children to school in coats. Yes full on coats. I even put the mittens back on them too. Its cold here. Not like January, but hello is April. I remember as a child that the last week or so of April was always the worst at school. The official date the AC would turn on was May 1st. Well guess what, they won't be needing the AC any time soon.

Light. Shiny. Perfect spring color. Or the pink to brighten the winter blues. Its the color of the palest flowers welcoming warmer weather. I love pinks! (Sorry the bottle shots are out of focus, I will try again before this actually posts to get clearer photos. Its been cloudy and gloomy lately.)

Imagine my surprise when I pulled out Gie Gie from the last Zoya sale (that I participated in) in January. If you hang out at the $2 polish racks at drugstores, you might think this color looks familiar. It IS! Its very close to the color Glass Pink by Sinful colors. Glass pink is a bit lighter, and GeiGei is more color intense. But formula wise, Glass Pink was blown out of the water.

 One coat looks pretty similar. Sheer. Pink with a silvery shimmer. Left to right: Zoya, Sinful Colors, Zoya, Sinful colors.

Second coat is where the truth comes out. GieGie actually looks pink. Glass Pink is still sheer.

Now for the review:

Sinful Colors Glass Pink.
Pros: Easy to find. Cheap! This costs $2 retail, but Walgreens often has sales so you can find this for $1.
Cons: Sheer. If you like this, buy it. I was disappointed by the sheerness of the color is why I haven't been wearing it. By the time I get to 4 coats and opacity, I bump my nails. Then I have to start again. Nightmare. But for days I feel like a sheer sparkly pink, this is great.

Zoya Gie Gie.
Pros: Easy to use formula. Opaque in 2 coats.
Cons: Cost. This is $8 retail and though its starting to show up in more places to purchase retail, its still harder to find in stores on a whim. That means you need to plan your purchase, and if you are cheap like me find a sale.

This is so not related, but I LOVE the name of this polish. The name reminds me of the (male) cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. If you haven't seen this Hayao Miyazaki film, rent it or borrow it from your library. Its super fun. Its about a girl named Kiki. She is a witch and she has to venture out on her own at 13 for a year as part of her witches training. Gigi her talking black cat comes along and participates in her adventures.

Zoya Emme

Finals week part 2: More Pink! Ok technically this is posting in the week between classes, but I wrote this at the end of finals week. Scheduled posts are awesome!

This week I made my first bulk nail polish purchase since August from Tonynail.com. Its almost all discount 'clearance' brands and colors that no one will probably recognize. I am pretty excited though. I think I have worn everything IN my nail polish bin. "New Toys!" said just like in Toy Story 3. I got a few of the bigger brand names (OPI and China Glaze) as well as some top and base coats, so I am excited for this package!

Zoya Emme is a pearly pink from the Ooh-La-La collection Summer 2009.

This polsih sucked. Yeah I said it. The color is pretty. I don't even necessarily mind brush strokes since I am a fan of metallic and frost finishes. But bubbles on the nail and problems drying are a different matter. I waited 30 min and it was still soft. It didn't even feel like it was going on that thick. Thicker than many of my Zoyas, but no thicker than other colors. So I left my fingerprint. I checked all the other fingers an hour after I took photos. They all got fingerprints. Awesome right? Not so much.

Most of the finger prints leveled as it finally dried, but who has time to wait an hour for polish to dry? Maybe some people do, but I do not.

If you are a sucker for pearl pinks, add thinner and pray it works.
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This is where I was planning on ending the post. But, while writing up this post, I decided to try it out myself. I added Beauty Secrets Nail Polish Thinner from Sally's. Usually I add about 4 drops. This time I gave it a good squeeze. Not a ton, but probably 2-3 times my typical 'dose.' It worked. Awesome right? Sure its great that it dries easier. Its great that it was far less streaky when I applied it. Its great that there were no more bubbles. Unfortunately, I had to add thinner to make the polish usable. And this was literally my first time opening the bottle. So, buy this color with caution, or at least a bottle of thinner on hand.

P.S. Keep an eye out on Zoya's facebook page. They have traditionally had an Earth day promo involving discounted polishes and a special so you can send in your bad for the environment polish for them to recycle. Earth day is April 22nd.

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 Daul and Faye

Sorry for no post earlier this week. Turns out my 3 year old has asthma. And I started going back to school this week. Its been an eventful couple of days.

The Zoya promo is in full swing, so go get yours!

Here are the colors that look like they could almost be dupes on paper.

First up is Faye. Faye is from the Summer 2011. Its a mauve purple with lots of gold microglitter. This isn't like standard glitter, its glitter look without the glitter clean up. LOVE!

This is somewhat sheer, so either layer it up or just appreciate it on its own. Its not as sheer looking in person as in macro photos.

Zoya Daul is from fall 2012 Diva Collection. Its a deep purple with gold micro glitter. I apologize for this photo, but somehow all the other ones I had of this color on its own were terrible. So, mediocrity wins.

Again, this is a a more sheer color. Much more purple than Faye. Because of the purple, the gold glitter is less yellow in appearance.

And comparison pics.

 Daul, Faye, Daul, Faye

And, slightly out of focus; Faye, Daul, Faye. So you can see how the shimmer looks in the light.

So go check out the Zoya Promo. Three free polishes $10 ship or free ship with $25 purchase.
You can make an account using the link here. https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0168AE43

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.

Three FREE bottles of Zoya nail polish!

You can get 3 bottles of their nail polish (excluding the Spring 2013 colors) for FREE starting Jan 7th until Jan 13th.

You do have to pay shipping/processing charge of $10 for this.

If you don't want to pay shipping, you only need to buy $25 or more in other Zoya and Qtica products.That would be 4 colors and 2 color spoons, or some other combination. That example would get you to the bare minimum though

Don't have a Zoya account yet? Go make one here: https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/01663B3B Then you can start adding the colors you want to your cart for Monday. I already have Zoya Jules in my cart. I just need to find my other two freebies!

Want to read the press release? Go here.


P.S. Expect a bunch of Zoya swatches over the next week. Anything I haven't swatched yet will be up!

Different Dimensions "On Wednesday's We Wear Pink"

Happy Wednesday!  And its a Happy New year too! I have the perfect polish for y'all today. Its called "On Wednesday's we wear Pink" and as a HUGE fan of Mean Girls the movie, I had to try it. Plus its pink and I just love pink polishes!

I just wish they had "Wanna do something really fun? Wanna go to Taco Bell?" Because, that is totally my favorite line. I don't even know what color it would be, but I would probably try to sell something to get funds to buy it. Just for the name. Anyway, I digress.

On Wednesday's We Wear Pink is a pink milky based glitter. The glitter is lots of sizes and shades of pink with a little bit of green to blue holo glitter. I absolutely love it in the bottle.

This is over Monday's mani (China Glaze Sci-Fi). Can you see how that lavender shade of the chrome really pops under the pink milky base? The main sad part if that it dulled the shine of the undercolor. Not a big deal though. I also ended up adding an extra coat of Butter London topcoat after this photo to make it that much more shiny.

That being said, based on the photos in her etsy shop I thought the polish would look WAY different. I am guessing the swatch photo there is literally a jelly sandwich. I did 2 coats of to get this much coverage, but to match the shop photos I would have to tone down some of the glitter with something else.  If you go look at her etsy store you will understand what I mean.

Its not like I disliked this polish, I almost like it MORE the way it is than the swatch photo, I was just surprised why what it was when I got it on the nail.

I did like the formula. It wasn't really thick, but the glitter didn't settle really hard and it dried in a reasonable amount of time. I did roll it a little before using. I also didn't have to fish for glitter or anything.

Disclaimer I bought this myself! I think there was a sale or discount (because that is how I roll) but you can pick this up anytime for $8.50 for a full size bottle in the Different Dimension's etsy store.