First is first: Checkout Scrangie’s Post on Upcoming China Glaze Collections. Can I just tell you guys how ridiculously excited I am for all of these collections!!!!!! FORREST GREEN!!! (Well ok, I wish it were creme but I can deal with shimmer!), BLUES… A WHOLE COLLECTION OF BLUES. EVERYTHING LOOKS AMAZING. So…overwhelmed…with… joy… *gasp* cannot…. contain… self… *dies.*

*revives*

Ooook then.

Now for the main topic of this post – the Zoya Color Lock System. This is kind of long so bare with me.

Where to start? Zoya contacted me about some of my negative reviews on the Polish Addict concerning their polishes. I felt in general that their polishes took too many colors to achieve bottle color and I’d heard from other nail board girls that Zoya polishes chipped easily. My hatred for Zoya was infamous, and so the joke about Zoya having killed my family began.

I decided to give Zoya the benefit of a doubt and try out their polishes using their Color Lock System. Scrangie got really bad bubbling with her test run. (I swear I’m not blog-stalking her but for a full feel of the product I recommend reading both reviews.)

My results with Anchor and Armor were very different. I only got bubbling on two nails and as you can tell from the picture it wasn’t very noticeable. Scrangie’s bubbling was so bad she actually had to change her polish. I only changed my polish because I have Nail Polish ADD, the bubbles bothered me in principle but they were subtle enough that I didn’t feel the need to whip out the remover. Like Scrangie, I got good wear results after two days. No tip wear at all, I usually get tip wear instantly because I type like my life depends on my word per minute count. I did get top layer scratches which is a problem I don’t usually have with Seche Vite, my holy grail top coat.

I think application style accounts for the difference in results. I usually do very fast manis, but the night I tried the Zoya Color Lock System I was also watching Stephen King’s Misery (my other beat is horror movies, go figure). So I applied a coat, got distracted by the movie for a while, then applied another coat, so on and on. The nails that I got bubbling on, left hand middle and ring fingers, were also the nails that I had to redo due to an unfortunate denting incident that occurred after the movie ended. I redid them quickly because it was getting late. Speed of application is definitely the bubble culprit here.

I also disagree with Scrangie about Hurry Up. It dried my nails to the touch fairly quickly. However, my nails were still vulnerable to denting within, I’d say, about 15 minutes after application of the drops. That amount of time is not unreasonable but I wish it worked faster. I don’t usually use drying drops so I didn’t like the way it made my nails feels after using it. I think people who usually use drying drops would be pleased with the Hurry Up’s results.

Finally, Remove is, hands down, the best nail polish remover on the market. I received a mini bottle of Remove as a gift with a Zoya purchase in the past. I loved it then too, but there was only enough in the bottle for 2 or 3 removals. So when it ran out, I just sort of shrugged and went about using my regular off-brand cheapie remover. Then, I swatched 12 different polishes this past Sunday. I used Remove after each one and my cuticles are intact. Granted my cuticles are shockingly resilient to my constant abuse even though they do dry out a bit during swatching. Normally, after and during a marathon swatch session I have to double up on cuticle oil, creams, etc. Remove didn’t dry out my tips at all, *at all*. I think once this current bottle runs out, I’m just going to suck it up and splurge on the huge bottle of Remove. To me, it’s worth it because I change my polish a lot more often than the average bear. Plus, it smells good.

As an aside, I really like the names of the these products: Anchor, Armor, Hurry Up, and Remove – very clever.

Those are my preliminary results. Before I can say anything more definitive, I will need to do a comparison between the wear time I get with the Zoya System versus my usual base and top coats.

I know Scrangie has already done swatches and comparisons of these but here’s my take on them.

The application was excellent on all of these. This collection didn’t have any 4 coaters (hallelujah). My sole complaint is a superficial one: I absolutely loathe that this collection was named after the ultra-wealthy rabble from yet another reality tv show that glorifies being worthless and vapid. (No offense to the people who like the show.) Regardless, the colors are very pretty and within the spectrum of this summer’s trend palette. Also, I must say that this collection is very well arranged; all these colors look like they belong together. I really appreciate when companies put thought into color arrangement – a collection is not a collection in the absence of a common theme or connection that relates the colors to one another.

Zoya Audrina is a pinkish purple borderline neon. This is 2 coats, it applied really well. This swatch was taken with a coat of Zoya Armor since the color is little bit neon, it dried matte.

Zoya Elodie is a bright salmon color. This swatch is two coats plus one coat of Zoya Armor. This is the only one I wore as a mani – it’s actually a funny story. It looks demure and inoffensive in the bottle so I thought to myself… I could probably get away with this one at work. Wrong. It’s much brighter on the nail than it is in the bottle. I liked it – but totally not work appropriate with my nails as long as they are right now. I totally could have gotten away with it if my nails were shorter.

Zoya Heidi is a creamy redish orange. The picture makes it look like a coral but it’s actually much more orange in person. I think it would be an excellent color for people who want to try orange, but are extravagant color shy.

For me, Zoya LC was the stand-out color from this collection. This swatch is two coats. LC is a very bright fuchsia red. The application of this color was actually the best of all the colors in the collection – very smooth and creamy.

Zoya Lo is a standard bright mid range pink, colors like this are always popular but this season they’ve been all over. Since I know this might come up in discussion, let me preemptively say that no this color is not similar to China Glaze Mom’s Chiffon. To me, it looks brighter than OPI Strawberry Margarita, OPI That’s Hot Pink, and OPI In-dia Mood for Love. Although it is my personal opinion that it’s not worth owning all of those (I know that the entire nail board will probably disagree with that statement). For example, I own OPI Koala Bear-y and OPI That’s Berry Daring so with the addition of Zoya Lo, I pretty much have that color range covered, no need for the others. This swatch is 3 coats.

And finally, Zoya Whitney. This is 2 coats. This color, like the previous one, has also been very popular this season.

Man I wish I could get away with wearing this kind of stuff. : ( I’m totally missing out on all these awesome summer colors. *kicks dirt* *grumbles* *stupid professional environment, stupid* */grumbles*

Special thanks to Zoya.

I know what you guys are thinking – The Polish Addict is hocking Zoya now? Well, sort of. Zoya contacted me about my dissatisfaction with their products. For that applaud them, that’s really excellent customer service. I decided to give them the benefit of a doubt and give their products a second shot, this time following their instructions and using their color lock system. So watch for that article in the very near future as well as one reviewing the colors from the Gossip Collection. Anyway, enough about me, here’s the info for the promotional offer since I know most of you don’t share my disdain for Zoya polishes.

Until tomorrow, June 10th, you can get a free sampler of the Gossip Collection, which includes 6 full size bottles of their polish, when you purchase the Zoya Color Luck System Try Me Kit. Enter the code SUMMER into the code box in the shopping cart and hit the update button.

In my infinite nail polish nerdiness, I somehow ended up three neon purple polishes. Well, four actually, I didn’t include China Glaze Flying Dragon in the comparison because it’s unique enough that everyone should own it, regardless of whether one owns other neon purples. The image above is misleading, Color Club Power Play and New York Summer Super Violet aren’t as magentish in person as they are in the picture and both look very similar to Zoya Juicy in the bottle. My favorite of the three is definitely Power Play. It only took 2 coats to get bottle color, while the other colors took 3+ coats. Super Violet is a close second. Both

Super Violet and Power Play are high quality and incredibly affordable. My personal opinion is that they are similar enough that owning both is probably not justifiable. Juicy is meh… but of course, I’m biased because I’m predisposed to disliking Zoya. It is no surprise that I was not impressed by Juicy.

These swatches are in direct sunlight. New York Summer Super Violet took 3 coats, Color Club Power Play took 2 coats, Zoya Juicy took 4 coats (note the cuticle drag). All these colors dry somewhat matte so I also added a layer of Color Club Vivid top coat.

Which color do you guys like best? Do you have a favorite neon purple not mentioned here?

Purple and lilac have been pretty popular this spring. I made these swatches originally to help the girls at MUA find a cheaper alternative to the ever prohibitively expensive but wildly popular Rescue Beauty Lounge – Purple Haze. We were all pretty sad to find that there really isn’t a cheaper alternative to that particular color. No other brand has a shade of purple that even comes close. That is not to say these other colors aren’t worth it, all these purples and lilacs are beautiful in their own right. The only one missing that I really feel should have been included for comparison is Essie – Looking for Love. In the bottle, it’s a really beautiful vivid lilac – but – I had to decide against purchasing it because of its notorious and irreparable streakiness.

3 Coats China Glaze – Spontaneous (The Flirt Collection), 2 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge – Purple Haze (The Spring ‘08 Collection), 3 Coats OPI – Do You Lilac It? (The Original Brights Collection)

4 coats each for these: Zoya Miley (4 coats required for bottle color with a Zoya? No…… you don’t say? – This one is from the Blissful Collection), Orly Bon Bon (Sugar Coated Collection), Essie St. Lucia Lilac (Permanent Collection).

Purple Haze is the fan favorite. I can’t say I was really impressed with the color on myself. The application and wear-time were flawless as always but I just didn’t LOVE it. I’m going to give it one more go, and perhaps let it go if I still don’t love it.

My biggest nail polish pet peeve is accidentally buying a color that is similar to another color I already have. I can’t even say that these colors are similar. They are EXACT DUPLICATES of each other.

My initial reaction was frustration. I was warned by the ladies at MUA that these were close to each other but I didn’t listen. I just didn’t think they would be this close. For several reasons, my next thought was to swap the Zoya and keep the OPI. One reason being that I passionately hate Zoya. My hatred began the day I hauled from Zoya. I bought 8 or so colors. Of those, Zoya Suvi and Kotori from the Downtown Collection, I hated so much I had to swap them. Both colors took 4 coats and they looked cheap with my skin tone. The other color was Zoya Stephanie, as my namesake, I felt I had to buy it. I love the color. It’s a very light pink, almost white but it too took four coats to be even and opaque. It was an ungodly streak-fest to apply. After that disappointment I put myself on a Zoya no-buy and constantly preach the anti-Zoya gospel to anyone who will listen. The running joke on MUA is that Zoya killed my family and I became Catwoman. (Polish fumes kill brain cells. : D)

OPI, on the other hand, is my love. I mean really, OPI is my bread and butter. I spend my nights and days dreaming little OPI dreams – jonesing for the next collection, scouring the depths of the internet nail polish underworld and hole-in-the-wall beauty shops for coveted discontinueds. (Just Groovy was recently discontinued, more reason to keep it.) At least that’s how I felt until recently. Lately, OPI has been dropping the ball. Since OPI changed their formula to big 3 free, quality has been all over the place. The India collection is bleh, same colors – different names, nothing new or exciting.

But still my loyalty is with OPI so I thought for sure I would be keeping Just Groovy, no contest…

then I did the swatches. Wow, was I surprised. These swatches are without basecoat and topcoat. Both polishes were streaky, Zoya slightly less so. Both needed 3 coats to even out. OPI was really chalky, really tough to apply. I also prefer Zoya’s brush to OPI’s pro-wide. The finish on Yummy was a little more glossy than Just Groovy. Both polishes separate easily in the bottle. There is a very very slight difference in color – but it’s not in any way noticeable even to the MUA nail-board eye.

What now?… I’ve heard horror stories about Zoya’s wear, like chips within hours of application (I don’t know first hand because I always end up removing Zoyas almost immediately) but I had a really tough time with Just Groovy’s application.

So I decided to wear Yummy on my left hand and Just Groovy on my right hand to see what’s what. For the actual mani, I used Barielle Camo as the base which completely fixed Yummy’s streakiness but seemed to actually make Just Groovy *more* streaky. Seche Vite fixed the unevenness that I got with both colors after applying 3 coats. I’ll post in a few days with the results.