A reader, Celine, requested swatches of these colors a million years ago and I’m finally getting around to posting them now. (Sorry Celine!) These swatches were taken with top coat and 3 coats of color. They all applied fairly well. She initially asked for 5 colors, these 4 and Zoya Kylie. However, Zoya actually has two polishes named Kylie. I only have one of the Kylies and it wasn’t the polish that Celine wanted to see so I left it out of this post. I’ll post a swatch of the bright Kylie as soon as I get my hands on it.

Celine is looking for a Zoya that her friend used to wear, it’s a neon orange-y pink creme. In my opinion, Maya is the closest thing to that description.

Eva is a bright rose pink creme. This is the type of ‘bright’ polish that is excellent for people who feel like they can’t wear bright colors because it’s not as showy as other brights tend to be.

Fergie (some bottles might say ‘Feigie’) is a funky pink-toned purple creme. It’s a little brighter in person.

Kali is a bright crimson-toned pink creme. It’s not as bright as the others in the set but still summer-y.

And finally, Maya, which is a unique semi-jelly bright pinkish coral creme. This one is my favorite from this set.

Zoya is running a promotional nail polish exchange. Send them your old unwanted polishes and they’ll send you any Zoyas of your choice. They charge 3 dollars per bottle for shipping and processing. I heard on the nail board that the last day that Zoya will accept packages containing polishes for the promotion is this Saturday, February 28th, so it’s not too late to participate if you hurry.

I’ve gotten a few questions concerning the format of my Top 20 so here is some information concerning my choices and how I went about choosing them.  First, some of the colors here are not necessarily here because they are my absolute favorites, some are here because I felt that they represented something significant about the world of nail polish. However, most are here because they are my favorites or they have some special meaning to me.

I plan to do a list every year. My list will likely differ greatly from year to year as I acquire and wear more colors. For example, Nars Zulu will probably be on this list next year but it is not this year because I did not own it when I finalized the list back in December. I am only choosing colors I own and have worn because I can provide more information and insight concerning those colors. The list would probably look very different if I were choosing from the entire universe of nail polish. I would probably lose my mind writing that list.

You can see the entire count down as posted so far by visiting this link.

And I deeply apologize for the length of time it’s taking to get this list finished. I’m trying to wear all these colors again before I post about them, that’s why it’s taking so long. It’s going to speed up a little bit now.

Whew. Okay. Now for #9: Color Club Sexsea.

Sexsea is one of the colors that is on this list not only because I LOVE the color but because it also means something  to me privately. I wore this color for the first time last year after my second mock trial. We won but it was a horrible experience for various reasons. I’ll spare you guys the gritty details; suffice it to say that by the time I got home, I was still livid heart-beating-out-of-chest-in-anger  pissed. No one else was home, so I popped in a Netflix DVD (Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror, haha) and went about the task of taking off my work appropriate manicure (Zoya Stephanie) and putting on the loudest color in sight. I chose Color Club Sexsea. I immediately felt better wearing it. This color fills me with an inexplicable sense of nostalgia, probably because the second trial was the equivalent of a final exam so I associate this color with feelings of accomplishment.

I had an immediate love affair with Sexsea. It intrigued me. I pondered and pondered, what color is it? It’s so hard to pin point. Is it coral? red? orange? hot pink? Sexsea is so tricky. Sometimes it seems like all 4. Sometimes I am convinced that it is just one of those colors, but never for very long.  It shifts between those shades, the true color is somewhere in the middle. I consider it to be truly unique, despite the fact that it is a creme and belongs to a class of colors that I usually ignore. I suppose the true test for uniqueness is the reception a color receives from the Peanut Gallery (i.e. the boys in my life). Even the usually nail color oblivious boyfriend commented on the uniqueness of this color. I rest my case.

Sexsea applies semi-chalky but well. The application looks good with 2 coats but I prefer 3. This color was released with the Color Club Yacht Club Collection (an excellent collection, by the way.)

I am so sorry for the lack of updates recently. I’m in the process of getting ready to take the Bar Exam, taking all the necessary steps to start working in May (woo hoo), getting ready to graduate, all while also trying to keep up with my classes. It’s been a huge mess but I’m going to try to be less neglectful, I promise.

In any case, on to the polish talk. Zoya’s newest collection Twist is delicate but edgy Spring installation. Zoya played it a little safe here. Most of these colors are what I consider traditional spring colors but I really love a few polishes from Twist. I had no application issues with any of these colors. All these images are 3 coat of color, 1 coat of base coat and top coat.

Cassi, a pinkish coral with glitzy multi-dimensional irridescent shimmer, is delicate with a twist. Zoya calls it peach, I disagree. This is the type of color I think of when I think of Spring.

Harley is a shimmery light gray. I’m a little bit at a loss as to how to describe the shimmer… it reminds me of concrete, course dark silver shimmer. I love it; Harley is definitely my favorite from this collection. It seems as though nail polish companies are finally jumping on the gray band wagon. Although I wish it had happened a little sooner, I do continue to love these shades.

Malia is a gorgeous lilac creme. This is my second favorite from this collection. Malia is a shade darker than OPI Do You Lilac It? and a few shades lighter than China Glaze Spontaneous (both of which can be seen here.)

Moxie, a vibrant deep raspberry, is another favorite from this collection. It reminded me a lot of the coveted OPI My Throne For a Cranberry Scone, but MTFaCS is actually darker than Moxie. Moxie is an excellent choice for anyone who hasn’t been able to get their hands on MTFaCS. The other potential dupe was China Glaze Designer Satin but it’s, surprisingly, brighter than Moxie.

Barbie is a good name for this color. It’s a Barbie pink with subtle pink shimmer (which didn’t show in my photograph at all). The shimmer is very similar to the shimmer found in China Glaze Pink Underground but the base color of Pink Underground is deeper than Barbie’s base color.

Finally, Jo is a periwinkle blue with silvery blue shimmer. This picture is a little more blue than the actual color which is lighter (I apologize, photographing blues and purples is still extremely difficult even with my new camera and lighting set up.) The base color is similar to China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le but Jo has a depth to it that comes from the shimmer.

I’m starting a new clinical internship this week. This past weekend, I longingly looked through my collection which is sorted into two groups, professional-looking colors and unprofessional/out of the ordinary colors. As my ‘last hurrah’ I wanted a color that was summery, bright, and cheery. I chose Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral.

I know what everyone is thinking, “don’t sweat having to wear professional-looking colors during the week, you have the weekends!” The bittersweet aspect of nail polish blogging is that I spend my weekends swatching so I can’t do fun weekend manicures. Boo.

Now let’s talk color.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral is g o r g e o u s. I began lemming this one because of the bottle image on the Rescue Beauty Lounge site. I don’t know why but I was immediately drawn to it.

It’s very chameleon-like in the sense that color varies in different lighting. It can be described as a bright pink, sometimes coral, sometimes orange-y. Tink over at Casual Lavish also swatched Coral; her skin tone is different than mine so it will give you an idea of how the look of this color can vary.

It’s not the same shade as Color Club Sexsea but the transient quality of Coral was reminiscent of the same quality in Sexsea. Tough to describe but really, really hot. I suppose it’s telling that the last time I wore Sexsea was after a long spat of compulsory professional color manicures. It was liberating wearing such a bright strange sexy color. That’s the feeling I was trying to duplicate by choosing Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral and that’s exactly how it made me feel. Sadly, I removed this color on Sunday after only 3 days of wear. As expected from Rescue Beauty Lounge’s voodoo wear, it still looked amazing. I chose OPI Tickle My France-y for my first day of work. *sobs quietly*

As a side note: I recently started experimenting with different base coats. For this manicure, I used the Rescue Beauty Lounge base coat, 3 coats of Rescue Beauty Lounge Coral (3 was necessary to cover VPL), and 1 coat of Seche Vite. I don’t have a final opinion yet but I can share some purely qualitative observations. The RBL base coat isn’t billed as a ridge filler but that’s actually what it is. It’s milky but not as thick as a ridge filler like Barielle Camouflage. Like all ridge fillers, it makes applying some colors really easy but can make other colors more difficult to apply. So far, I like it.

Ji Baek did it again. I am not a fan of creme sheers and I am completely and totally taken with this collection. Of course, I expected nothing less than perfection from Rescue Beauty Lounge – Ji and company consistently design colors that are in a league all of their own. Ji conjured up the Spongebob Squarepants Collection after hearing that Marc Jacobs drew inspiration for his collections from the popular children’s TV show. I love that these delicate sophisticated colors were designed based on a TV show, the silliness of which is rivaled only by Ren & Stimpy.

If delicate isn’t your thing, Ji says these colors look positively amazing layered over Rescue Beauty Lounge Underwear, the brightest white on the market. The brightness of Underwear gives these sheer colors a back-lit effect. As soon as I get my hands on Underwear, I’ll hook you guys up with swatches. Until then, enjoy these polishes in their unadulterated form.

These swatches are 4 coats each, taken in artificial light. I prefer sunlight images but I got home too late from work and I just had to show these to the world tonight. Despite having been taken in artificial light, these swatches are true and accurate depictions of these colors. It goes without saying at this point that the application of these polishes was perfect, not a streak insight.

If my addiction to nail polish could be expressed in one color, Rescue Beauty Lounge Bikini Bottom would be that color. At first glance this blue looks dupish to Color Club Blue Light and China Glaze For Audrey, both of which I also love. Sorry guys, no such luck. Bikini Bottom is a very light watery blue, almost jelly like in its delicate finish. For Audrey is a greener blue creme, not jelly at all. Blue Light is a brighter light blue, also creme, no jelly. The only downside to this color is that I don’t think it can be pulled off at 2 coats – that and, this color should have been named Squidward. : P

Most people think that yellow is a difficult color to wear, Rescue Beauty Lounge Square Pants will prove those people wrong. I think there is a commonly accepted notion that yellow tends to run the risk of looking a bit garish, but Square Pants is soft and delicate. It’s visibly yellow, not pastel, but it’s not shocking on the nail. This color was put on earth for people who want to try yellow but fear it might be ‘too much’. Perfect.

Spongebob may be the star of the TV show, but for most people, Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick is the star of this collection. Described as “wispy peach coral”, it’s definitely the most accessible of the 3 colors. Bikini Bottom is my personal favorite, but my NOTD right now is Starfish Patrick, primarily because it’s subtle enough for work.

I did take some swatches of Square Pants and Starfish Patrick at 2 coats for those of you who are not sheer polish adverse.

As you can see, these colors are wearable and streak-free even at 2 coats.

Special thanks to Ji Baek and Rescue Beauty Lounge.