Buttons

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Zoya Giveaway!

  I mentioned before that I have a couple of extra Zoya polishes.  Here's what happened - I loved pretty much everything in their new collections, and with their BOGO deal awhile back knew I couldn't pass up the chance to get just a few (I am on a super strict budget right now so have to be very picky when I buy, which is sad).  I got six of the new shades, although it was tough to narrow!  Then just a few days after I received the ones I ordered... I got a package from Zoya with all of the collections to review, yay!  Now what to do with the extras..... I gave two each to my sisters for Easter presents, and the other two... are for one of you!


Up for grabs for one lucky reader: Zoya Tanzy and Zoya Kieko

This giveaway is open internationally, to all of my readers as a way to say thanks!  Just fill in the form below and submit!  You must be a follower on GFC to enter.  This giveaway will run until May 20th, at which point I will pick a winner using Random.org random number generator.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail or a new winner will be drawn.  Thanks for reading and good luck!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Summer Citrus Konadicure

  After swatching the Zoya summer collections, I was really in the mood for a light and summery manicure.. since I was already wearing Tanzy after swatching, I decided it was the perfect base for a summer citrus manicure!

Outdoors, shade, no flash
  I started off with my base color of three coats of Zoya Tanzy, and added the fishnet pattern with Konad Special White and Konad plate m57.  I then used another gorgeous Zoya, Dita and Bundle Monster Plate BM04 to create the citrus fruits.  I wore this mani for almost a week (things are still crazy busy and I had no time to change it!) with almost no chipping and got a lot of compliments.  I am ready for summer now!  Too bad it is still cold and dreary here...

Monday, April 25, 2011

Zoya Sunshine Collection - Swatches and Review

  Here is the final collection for Summer 2011 from Zoya - the Sunshine collection!  This collection is full of golden sparkle, really living up to its sunny name!  All polishes are shown without base coat and with top coat.  Click on each picture to enlarge and see the detail of that sparkle!


  Reva


A pinkish red that reminds me of a strawberry, packed with golden flecks.  This is a really gorgeous color, I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice.  It has a lot of depth.  Two coats for full coverage.

Kimmy


Bright, saturated red with red sparkly flecks.  Again, the picture does not do this justice - click to enlarge to get at least a bit of a feel for this one!  Two coats for full coverage.

Apple


A light yellowish green packed with golden sparkle.  Three coats for full coverage.  This is a very aptly named polish - makes me think of green apples, yummy!

Tanzy

 
 Light yellowish orange with golden sparkle.  A very nice summery, light orange.  Three coats for full coverage.

Rica


Warm pinkish coral, once again packed with golden sparkle!  Really love this one.  Three coats.

Faye

 
One of my favorites from the entire summer collection, this one is really unique!  A brownish plummy purple with a lot of golden sparkle that gives this an almost duochrome quality.  This is an amazing polish!  Three coats for coverage.

Overall Review

Application on these was very good - two to three coats, smooth and fast dry time.  Also, removal was fairly easy, which I was worried about given the crazy amount of sparkle in some of these.  They dry with a smooth surface, not gritty like really glittery polishes.  There are a lot of fun summery colors to choose from, and I am really loving the golden glitter!  Faye is my favorite, since it is so unique, with Rica coming in close second.  Overall a very nice collection, and I am sure these will all be used sometime this spring/summer for full manicures!

So what is your favorite Zoya Summer 2011 collection - Sunshine, Summertime, or Mod Mattes?  Or do you have a favorite polish overall out of all three collections?

I have two of these summer polishes to give away, so keep an eye out for a giveaway post sometime this week!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Zoya Summertime Collection - Swatches and Review

  Here is another one of the fabulous new collections from Zoya for Summer 2011!  This is the Summertime collection, full of deliciously smooth cremes.  Zoya cremes might be my favorite cremes - they have amazing application and are always so pretty!  Application on all of these was two coats for full coverage.  Pictures are shown with top coat, no base coat.

Sooki

A cherry creme.  Great for a stand-out, get noticed sort of red!

Tamsen


A brick red creme.  This one has a lot more orange in it than Sooki, and is much brighter.

Areej


Medium pink creme.  This is probably my second favorite of the collection.  Not super bright and in your face, but not too cool either, I find this to be the perfect medium pink color.

Kieko


A reddish purple creme.  It is a little bit berry and a little bit purple... somewhere right in the middle there!

Mira


A cool, blue-toned purple.  This color reminds me of a few other colors sitting around - comparisons to come!  However it is still a really gorgeous cool purple.

Breezi


Dusty cerulean blue creme.  My absolute favorite of the collection!  This is such a gorgeous color and I think that the muted duskiness of it makes it very unique (at least compared to anything I own).  I am in love with this one.

Overall Thoughts

As mentioned before, I love Zoya cremes.  They go on very smooth and easy, and only take two coats to achieve opacity.  This collection has a lot of really fun summer colors in it - a couple probably have dupes out there somewhere, but a few of them are also very unique.  Overall a very nice collection from Zoya!  What do you all think - which is your favorite?

Check back in a couple of days for the final Zoya Summer 2011 collection, Sunshine!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Zoya Mod Mattes - Swatches and Review

  I was a little shocked and completely excited to receive each of Zoya's new collections for review last week - I am pretty much in love with every color in these collections.  Actually, I had already bought a few on their BOGO deal, so prepare for a little Zoya giveaway coming up! ;)  Now on to the first collection!

Mitzi - Lolly - Phoebe
  I must be honest with you all, these are the first matte polishes I have ever worn.  I own several but I have just not gotten around to using them.  I loved the look - and feel - of these!  Overall, these polishes apply the way I have heard that all mattes do - with super fast dry time, which could cause a bit of streaking.  Therefore it is important to get decent application the first couple of swipes since it will dry quick and start to get lumpy and streaky if you are still trying to touch up.  All pictures are shown in natural lighting.  I also included both the matte finish as well as a gloss finish (with topcoat added).

Mitzi

Matte finish (no topcoat)
A bright lime green.  Three coats for full coverage, this is a fun and funky color for spring and summer.  Wasn't sure how I felt about this color originally but I really loved it.

Gloss finish (with topcoat)
Lolly

Matte finish (no topcoat)
A bright medium pink that really pops.  Again, three coats for full coverage.  This was one of the ones I bought originally - but my sister has already claimed my extra as her own, she is in love with it!

Gloss finish (with topcoat)
Phoebe

Matte finish (no topcoat)
Bright robin's egg blue with a delicate microshimmer.  Gorgeous color on this one!  The shimmer really makes it pop when you add the topcoat.  Also three coats.

Gloss finish (with topcoat)
Overall Review

I really enjoyed this collection - and my first matte experience!  It is a little difficult to get used to the difference of application, since these dry insanely fast and you need to be quick and smooth or else it is possible to get streaks.  However once I got the hang of it I didn't have any problems.  These polishes are super pigmented, and the bright colors are really fun.  I also and a big fan of the frosted bottle, haha.  Overall these are definitely full of win, both in matte as well as glossy if you prefer them that way!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Summertime Party

  The craziness in my life continues... I have pretty much had no time to do my nails this week.  Thus it has been a nice week of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish - I will have to swatch out my collection of those for you all sometime, they are a lifesaver when you are crazy like me and will chew off your nails if they look bad, but are too busy sometimes to spend much time on them!

  Today I have for you a little teaser of things to come... this weekend I will be swatching Zoya's new polishes, and I cannot wait, they are all so stunning!  Here is a mani I did with a couple of these polishes, that I just loved!

Outdoors, sun, no flash
  This is two coats of Zoya Breezi, a gorgeous dusky blue creme that went of deliciously smooth.  For the pattern, I used Konad plate M63 and Zoya Kieko and Konad Special White.  These nails just remind me of a party.  I wore them for several days (both because of my hectic life and because I just didn't want to take them off) and got a lot of compliments!  I love the new Zoya collections and can't wait to share them in full with you - check back this weekend for swatches and reviews!

DISCLOSURE: The polishes featured in this post was provided to Polishology by Zoya for review purposes.  This is an honest and independent review and was in no way influenced by the company.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Techno Bubbles

  Since I have been trying to cut back a lot on spending (including polish spending), I limited myself to one polish from China Glaze's Tronica collection.  Let me tell you, that was a tough decision to make!  Luckily I had a few OMG polishes so I had some of my holo basics covered.  Here is the one I finally decided on!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash
  This is China Glaze Techno Teal.  It is very unfortunate that I did not get a sunlight picture of this one because it is gorgeous!  This is two coats and it went on very nicely.  The holo effect here is not quite as strong as in the OMG collection, nor is it the same linear style effect, but it is very pretty nonetheless.  And the color is amazing; this is one of my favorite colors so I am very happy to own it as a holo!

Outdoors, shade
  For the bubbles I used Bundle Monster BM19 and Color Club Revvvolution, a great black holo that is perfect for stamping.  The end result is a sparkly holographic mani with techno bubbles!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Living Water

  Prepare yourself for some nubbins!  This was the first manicure I did after the horrible nail break awhile back (before I experienced epic fail and chewed off my nails after they had grown back a bit).  I picked this polish for my short little nails because I knew it would make them look good no matter how short they were! :)

Outdoors, sun, no flash
  This is two coats of Cult Nails Living Water, a navy blue jelly polish with blue and green glitter.  This polish was inspired by bioluminescence that can be seen by underwater organisms... what a great idea!  Application of this polish was great, going on smooth with a fast drying time!  I used a wave-like design from Bundle Monster plate BM12 and China Glaze Adore for the pattern, which I thought went very nicely with this polish!  I got several compliments on this manicure!  I have really enjoyed all of the polishes I have tried so far from Cult Nails - you should definitely go check them out if you haven't yet!