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 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.

Soon we’re all going to be bombarded with the spring collections so I figured I would kick off Spring ‘09 with a collection from Spring ‘08. Zoya Blissful is a pretty, light and demure collection. All the colors in this collection are subtle and work appropriate. It’s definitely not exciting, but I like it.

Zoya Felicity is rose with subtle pink and gold sparkly shimmer. It’s work appropriate with a kick. This swatch is 3 coats.

Zoya Laurie is jelly-like sheer pale baby pink cream. It’s opaque at 4 coats but can be worn at varying levels of sheerness with less coats.  Laurie is more cute than it is professional, I probably wouldn’t wear this one in really conservative officers.

Zoya Lulu, a jelly-like sheer light peach, is one my favorites from this collection. It reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick but it’s not a dupe. Lulu is not as bright, however, I think this would be a good substitute for anyone who hasn’t taken the RBL plunge yet. Lulu takes 4 coats for opacity but can be worn with fewer like Laurie.

Zoya Miley, a jelly-like sheer pale lilac cream, has been one of my favorite Zoyas for a really long time. I’ve been on a mission to spread my love for it since I first tried it on. It was one of my choices for the Zoya Mini-Collection promotion last year and I also ROAK’d  it to Dami of Perfectly Polish Tips. She raved about it as well. Like Lulu and Laurie this is a 4 coater if you want bottle color but it can be worn with fewer coats.

Zoya Penelope, a dusty mauve cream, is a Mom color. It’s chic and professional.  This swatch was 3 coats.

Zoya Zanna is a muted dusty rose cream. As many of you know, I have a thing for dusty versions of traditional colors so I’m really digging Zanna. This swatch was 3 coats.

I am a *huge* fan of vampies. To avoid having a top 20 list made up almost entirely of them, I decided to pick only one. Surely, that would have been an insurmountable task but Zoya Casey is so incredible that the choice took only seconds. In my original post concerning this color I wrote:

“Holy &*%^. Zoya Casey is by the far the prettiest vampy I’ve ever seen, ever. It’s a deep deep deep deep jelly-like ultra glossy plum with a red base. The color is an ‘almost black’ which normally would irritate me to no end but there is just something alluring about this color, dramatic and intense. My ultimate test for nail polish is whether a color makes me continuously stare down at my nails. Casey definitely caused some major mani rubbernecking. Despite my nail polish ADD, I didn’t want to remove Casey. This is one for the top 20 list for sure.”

And like I predicted then, it did make it on to the list. Love this color.

I got an email from a British nail polish enthusiast that was having trouble finding bright pink Zoya swatches online. She wants to find a replacement for her favorite color, Nails Inc. Walton Street, which has been discontinued. These are the colors she requested.

Zoya Gweneth, a crimson creme that pulls towards pink, is my second favorite from this set of swatches. It takes 2 to 3 coats for opacity.

Zoya Jewell is a bright hot pink with very subtle purple shimmer that adds dimension to the color. It’s so subtle you can’t even see it in the pictures. It’s nearly invisible in real life too, however, I haven’t seen it outside so it is possible that the shimmer pops in the sunlight. It takes 2 to 3 coats for opacity.

Zoya Morgan is my favorite from this set of swatches. I’m usually not a huge pink fan but this one, I LOVE. I’d call this creme, Hollywood Cerise (as per wiki haha).  This one has exceptional application, perfect in 2 coats but I preferred adding a 3rd.

Zoya Trinity is a hot magenta with purple flash shimmer. It has a metallic-y feel to it but I wouldn’t label it as such. It takes 2 to 3 coats for opacity.

For any one who has made requests in the past, I apologize for the lengthy delays. I promise I will have all requests up soon, bear with me. Also, I haven’t gotten a chance to reply to comments in the last few posts yet but I will soon. : )

So, let me take a second to shamelessly plug some Zoya products. I am really, really, bad at buying gifts so I enjoy prepackaged gift sets like no other. I figured I would share some of Zoya’s pre-packaged gift sets for my gift adverse readers out there.

Zoya has a slew of these little mini polish and lip gloss box sets, adorable. These feature Zoya’s best selling polishes and a matching lip color. These little sets are perfect as stocking stuffers or as small gifts for the polish addict in your life (haha). Clockwise: The Enchanted Evening Set – Zoya Evageline & Hot Lips Starlet, The Sugar Plum Party Set – Zoya Casey & Hot Lips Visa, The Red-E To Go Set – Zoya Dianna & Hot Lips Disguise, The Opposites Attract Set Zoya Raven & Hot Lips Sparkle.

Next up, Zoya’s manicure sets. On the left we have the Qtica set. It comes with a large bottle of Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator, Qtica cuticle repair balm (which I love), and mini bottles of Qtica Extending Top Coat and Qtica Half Time Polish Drying Accelerator. On the right we have the Zoya Treatment Cube which includes minis of Zoya Armor, Zoya Anchor, and Zoya Hurry Up.  The Zoya Treatment Set retails for $12, so I really recommend it for anyone who wanted to try these but didn’t want to shell out a lot of money without knowing for sure that it would be worth it (which it is).

I’ll share these sets even though they are outside the normal realm my expertise. These are great if you need to buy gifts and also need an excuse to place a Zoya order. The Gift Spa set on the left comes with Grapefruit Surprise Sugar Scrub, Grapefruit Surprise Luxury Lotion, Grapefuit Surpise Shower Gel and little set of shower gloves. The Gift Spa set on the left includes Lemon Dream Sugar Scrub, Lemon Dream Luxury Lotion, Lemon Dream Shower Gel, as well as a little set of shower gloves. Both of these sets smell delicious. My Mother *loved* them.

Finally, Qtica Hands & Feet Set and Qtica Feet Set. On the left is the Hand & Feet set which includes Qtica Foot Repair Balm and Qtica Hand Repair Balm. On the right is the Qtica Feet Set which includes Qtica Foot Repair Balm and Qtica Foot Scrub. I’m a pretty big fan of Qtica’s moisturizers, these are no exception.

These sets are all available under the holiday set section of the Zoya and Qtica areas of the Art of Beauty website, respectively.

I have a two-fold apology for everyone. First, I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last update. I had to do a bit of traveling for that interview and my immune system held on just long enough so that I was mildly healthy for it. I started coughing up a storm the minute I walked out of the office. I’ve done nothing but watch Six Feet Under and X-Files for the past 2 days. Second, I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to post the Pulse collection. I know everyone has seen it already but since Zoya is launching a promotion, I figured now would be a great time to play catch up. If you like this collection you can get it for free by entering the code PULSE at check out when you purchase the Zoya Color Lock System on www.zoya.com, or you can enter VIBE for Vibe Fall Winter Collection, or FLOURISH for Flourish Holiday/Winter Collection.

Overall, this collection isn’t for me but I can definitely see why everyone else went ga-ga over it. It’s shimmery goodness, so if you’re into shimmer – this collection is for you.

Zoya Mikka is a deep frosty plum, almost borderline metallic. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.

Zoya Rihanna is aubergine with magenta shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.

Zoya Sloane is dark plum with purple shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.

Zoya Blair is a vivid burgundy with red shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.

Zoya Colbie is brick red with red shimmer. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat.

And finally, Zoya Jacy which is a reddish medium violet with somewhat subtle purple and magenta shimmer. This is 3 coats with 1 coat of Zoya Armor as a top coat. This color is probably my favorite from this collection.

I know most the other nail bloggers have already covered this collection but I’m going to gratuitously cover it as well. I’m pretty surprised by how much I like this collection since usually I’m not into shimmers. It’s not that there is something inherently wrong with shimmers, it’s just that they tend to be really… common. That’s not the case with Flourish which features six are fairly unique colors.

Zoya Zara is an ethereal violet with very complex shimmer that flashes green, gold, and bronze. It looks incredible over whitish colors. I found this out accidentally. Zara has a jelly type quality to it and I was wearing Lippmann Icing on the Cake when I swatching this color so decided to try to layer it. The results were pretty impressive. It applies very well but it needs 3 coats to eliminate VPL. This color is a definite stand out.

Zoya Cyma is a red with magenta shimmer. This is 3 coats.

Zoya Kalista is a dark reddish brown with dark copper shimmer. This is a great wearable dark brown. It applies very well, this is just two coats.

Zoya Mieko is a cerise with sparse fleck gold shimmer. This swatch is 2 coats. 

Zoya Richelle is sparkly light copper with a foil finish. This swatch is 3 coats. I am completely in love with this color – it is ridiculously, disgustingly gorgeous. I’m not sure if you guys have noticed a pattern lately with me just loving the ever living daylights out of these recently released gold polishes. I guess I’m moving from my purple period into a gold period à la Picasso.

Zoya Shivon is a mulberry with greenish gold iridescent shimmer. Shivon is my second favorite from this collection. This is a 3 coater.

CND Black Platinum and Zoya Freja are pretty close but not the same. Black Platinum is slightly more frosty and metallic. Freja has a slightly more bluish tinge. CND Hyde in the Dark has the best coverage of the bunch, it two coats where all the others (except for Dying Love) looked best with three. It’s my favorite from this bunch. Color Club After Hours gave me some cuticle drag issues. That didn’t happen to me before when I swatched this color so I’m going to blame my haste in painting. Finally, Misa Dying Love is the darkest from this set, close too black. It also had great coverage at two coats.

Holy &*%^. Zoya Casey is by the far the prettiest vampy I’ve ever seen, ever. It’s a deep deep deep deep jelly-like ultra glossy plum with a red base. The color is an ‘almost black’ which normally would irritate me to no end but there is just something alluring about this color, dramatic and intense. My ultimate test for nail polish is whether a color makes me continuously stare down at my nails. Casey definitely caused some major mani rubbernecking. Despite my nail polish ADD, I didn’t want to remove Casey. This is one for the top 20 list for sure. For this manicure, I used Zoya Anchor for the base, 3 coasts of Casey, and Seche Vite as the top coat.

Casey is a rediscovered color. I’ve had it in my stash forever. The downside to having so much nail polish is that good colors tend to get lost in the mess. So I have a new system. I have all my untried polishes listed in an excel spreadsheet. Then I use this website (http://random.org/integers/) to randomly select a number. I wear whatever color corresponds to the randomly selected number – Casey was the first manicure I selected in that fashion.

Generally, I tend to associate work apropriate polishes with creme finishes, but every once in a while I encounter a good shimmery polish that can pass for work appropriate. Zoya Deidra is exactly that – a gorgeous mauve with glowing fine gold shimmer. I’m calling it a shimmer but the finish is probably more akin to a frost. This mani is 1 coat of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Deidra, 1 coat of seche. I had no application issues and it wore very well.

What I particularly love about this color is that it’s stunningly chic despite the fact that’s it’s fairly subtle. It’s refreshing when I find colors like this in my stash. It helps to stave off the plague of the work appropriate polish purgatory.

This picture is an accurate depiction of the color but there’s a good bit more shimmer in real life. In the shade, it’s sort of a borderline grayed out mauve but in the sunlight it just gleams gold. This color is probably too much for really really consversative offices but I think it would be a great color to wear just about every where else.

P.S. I recently had a bad break so this is one of the last long nail pictures we’ll have here on the Polish Addict for a while. Boooo.

As I said in the previous post, I like simple red or vampy cremes – they’re classy, sophisticated, and almost always appropriate for any occasion. No, they aren’t unique, and yes, we’ve seen these colors before but as far as I’m concerned polish companies can continue to make as many vampies as they want with no criticism from me. I suppose the problem is most people, Scrangie for example, don’t feel the same way, which is why Zoya Vibe hasn’t gotten as much love as its shimmery sister collection Pulse. I prefer Vibe over Pulse a million times over, but I think might just be the only person on earth that feels that way. I didn’t have any application issues with Vibe, except where noted. Almost all these colors applied perfectly with 2 coats.

Zoya Sam and Zoya Nina look deceptively similar but that’s due to my inadequacy as a photographer. In person, they are noticeably different with Sam being more berry toned and Nina being very visibly brown. This swatch is 3 coats. Zoya Sam gave me some cuticle drag, so a third coat was necessary to even the application out. I think good coverage with 2 coats is possible, I was just being impatient with my swatches. I think Sam will always be slightly darker on the nail than the bottle color because it darkens as it dries.

If you read my blog often, you’ll know that brown is one of my white whales. Even though I passionately love all browns, I have a tough time finding browns that flatter my skin tone. I’m finding that darker browns like Nina and Essie Chocolate Kisses suit my skin tone pretty well. As stated above, Zoya Nina is visibly brown despite it’s darkness in my image. This is two coats – I didn’t have any issues with the application.

Zoya Riley is a magenta based deep vampy red. This is 2 coats.

The difference between Dakota and Riley, for those who are wondering, is that Dakota doesn’t have the magenta undertones. They look very similar in the bottle but they actually are different colors. This swatch is two coats.

I don’t know what it is with this collection but there are 3 pairs of colors that look similar to each other in the bottle but not on the nail. Two pairs I’ve already addressed, the last pair is Zoya Asia and Alix. They look pretty similar in the bottle, but Asia is brighter. Both are true reds. This swatch is 2 coats.

And finally, Zoya Alix, I did have some issues with this one. I had a wonky brush, which was shocking because I love Zoya brushes. I’ve never had a wonky Zoya before. Even when I passionately hated Zoya, I was still a fan of their brushes which are the perfect shape and size for my nails. The brush I got in Alix had a crooked bristle, ultimately it wasn’t a big deal. The wonkiness was easily fixed by just trimming the rogue bristle. The other issue was that Zoya Alix was a little tougher to apply than the other colors in this collection. I didn’t get full coverage at 2 coats and I had a significant amount of cuticle drag. However, a third coat fixed everything to my satisfaction.

Special thanks to Zoya.

I’ll have to reserve judgment for when I see these in person, but mmm I suspect I will love the vampy goodness.

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I was pretty excited when Zoya announced this promo. I really put a lot of thought into which colors I would choose. Primarily I wanted to choose colors that I personally liked but also had good application and weren’t very popular. I didn’t want to choose colors I know a lot of people already own since that would defeat the purpose of getting a free bottle of polish. So here they are:

Zoya Stephanie. Ok, I do love this color, but let’s face it, I’m biased because it’s my namesake. It’s a very chic almost white light pink. The downside is that the application can be troublesome. It’s a 4 coater if you want opacity. I apply it using Barielle Camo as a base, that fixed the streakiness issues for me.

Zoya Miley. Those of you who follow my blog know that lilac is one of my white whales, so I just had to include it in my mini-collection. Miley is also a 4 coater but the application is perfect even without Camo. It reminds me of my beloved Orly Bon bon, although I think Bon bon leans a bit more towards periwinkle. This picture shows Miley as being more bluish than it is in real life – sorry guys, I tried to get the color depiction as accurate as I could but it’s almost impossible to photograph purples accurately without sunlight.

Zoya Rea is just ridiculously gorgeous. Rea is metallic with a foil like finish. Perfect in two coats, smooth application, no visible brush strokes. It was my favorite color from the Downtown collection by far. (Sorry, Kotori and Suvi fans.) The color is hard to describe, Zoya says it’s sparkling metallic plum – I’d say pinkish-purple. Whatever, bottomline, I love it.

I realize my colors are a bit conservative so if you’re looking for something more exciting, check out Casual Lavish for a list of all the blogs participating in this promotion. There really is a mini-collection for everyone.

Zoya came up with a great promotional offer, a bunch of bloggers got to create little mini-collections for our readers to receive for free when ordering anything from Zoya.

I chose Stephanie (of course, ha ha, let’s just pretend it’s named after me), a very chic light pink, Miley, a lilac (I had to include a white whale), and Rea, an amethyst metallic, perfect for the coming return of that trend. Swatches and reviews of all these colors will be posted tomorrow. Check out http://www.zoya.com/polishaddict for the promo deets. My promo code is ADD3, the offer is good from now until the 18th. Scrangie is doing this too so check out her promo. I’ve actually been lemming the three colors she picked (Ki, Yasmeen, and Trixie, yes, I know it’s blasphemous that I don’t already own them) so now I have her promo code as an excuse to place an order for mooooaarrrr Remove+.

Free nail polish = <3