A vegan nail polish blog. A celebration of colour and light, as well as of justice for nonhuman animals.

Archive for the ‘Zoya’ Category

Zoya June

I can hardly believe it’s already June! But since it is, I thought I’d post some photos of Zoya’s polish named June!

June is a light sheer nude beige with pink tones and shimmer.

Here it is in the shade:

Zoya June

Shown are three coats over a ridge-filling base coat (I think it was Zoya’s Get Even that I used).

Zoya June

In the shade the pink tones really come out.

Zoya June

The formula on this one is nice, not streaky at all; the three coats were only due to the sheerness and not any application issues.

Zoya June

And here it is in the sun:

Zoya June

In the sun the shimmer comes out and the colour seems less pink.

Zoya June

The shimmer is June is made up of tiny little fine shimmery flecks in a sort of opalescent silvery shade that reflect several different colours in the sun, as you can see in the bottle in this next photo.

Zoya June

June is nothing too flashy, but she’s a nice little polish!

Zoya Tamsen

Here’s another great red from Zoya! Tamsen is a warm, orange-based tomato red creme.

Zoya Tamsen

Shown are two coats in full sunlight. The formula on Tamsen is smooth and easy to work with.

Zoya Tamsen

Zoya Tamsen

In partly cloudy light:

Zoya Tamsen

Zoya Perrie with black and white glitter

I recently made this frankenpolish (nail polish that you mix together yourself!) top coat of black and white hex glitter. As far as frankens go, this one isn’t particularly original or complicated; it’s basically just LA Girls Glitter Addict in Uninhibited, thinned out with some clear polish and with some loose white hex glitter added. I still haven’t decided on a name for this creation… I love making frankens; it’s so much fun!

The base shown here is Zoya Perrie, a warm toned, light yet bright purple. This polish is a one-coater with a great formula! The sun was setting when I took these photos, so apologies that the colour is a bit off – Perrie looks redder than she should. If you click on the large versions of the photos you can see where the glitter sort of sinks into the polish a bit leaving slight pock-marks… I’m not sure if this is just from not letting the base colour dry enough before adding the glitter coat, but a second layer of top coat would take care of it!

Zoya Perrie with black & white glitter

Zoya Perrie with black & white glitter

Zoya Haley

Zoya Haley is a bright, orange-toned red jelly. It’s sheer so it leaves a visible nail line. The formula is nice; I didn’t have any trouble with it. Shown are three coats with top coat, after about a day of wear. Bright and cheerful!

Zoya Haley

Zoya Haley

Zoya Haley

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I wasn’t originally planning to do anything special with my nails for Valentine’s Day, but then I put on Zoya’s Cho right before bed last night, didn’t use quick-dry topcoat, and woke up with my own fingerprints on several of the nails, haha!

So, this morning I decided to add some glitter to cover up the fingerprints – LA Girls Glitter Addict polishes in Inspire (light pink) and Animate (red). I topped it off with a layer of Zoya Lucy, a sheer jellyish off-white, for a somewhat subtle-looking jelly sandwich. Pics are in artificial light with flash.

Zoya Cho, LA Girls Glitter Addict Inspire & Animate, and Zoya Lucy

Zoya Cho, LA Girls Glitter Addict Inspire & Animate, and Zoya Lucy

Zoya Natalie, SpaRitual Savoir Faire, & what not to do with drying drops…

Today I’ve got a couple of polishes I’d like to share, and a nail art combo using both that got ruined because I was forgetful! More on that later!

First is Zoya Natalie, an orangey brown shade with a bit of a dusty mauve undertone. I really like this! Two coats, great formula.

Natural light:
Zoya Natalie

Zoya Natalie

Artificial light:
Zoya Natalie, artificial light

Next up, SpaRitual Savoir Faire – an old-fashioned looking dusty pink-mauve that I wouldn’t have given a second look not long ago! As it is, I only got it because it was part of a good deal on a set of five SpaRituals, but now that I’ve tried it I kind of like it. I guess I’m branching out into shades I didn’t like before! I like that it’s a relatively light, conservative pink that I actually don’t hate on my skin tone! This is two coats; formula was also great.

Natural light:
Sparitual Savoir Faire

Artificial light:
Sparitual Savoir Faire, artificial light

Now here is the mani I did using both of those polishes plus Zoya Flowie, which is similar to Natalie but much lighter and less orange. I had on Savoir Faire, and then used French tip guide stickers midway up each nail and painted Natalie above the stickers, Flowie below on the tips. I like the combination of all these dusty rosy-undertoned shades.

The unfortunate part happened after I used Zoya’s drying drops to dry the polish before peeling off the stickers. I waited a few minutes, intending to wash off the residue from the drying drops before applying top coat, but I got distracted by something else and by the time I finished waiting I had forgotten all about rinsing first! So I put on the top coat which turned all cloudy around the edges because it was being applied overtop of drying drops! Oooops, haha! Hence the “what not to do” part of the post title. It’s more visible on the large version of the photos so you may want to click on them if you want to see the icky cloudy ring-around-the-polish. So there is my manicure advice for today; don’t do what I did! 😀
Zoya Natalie, Sparitual Savoir Faire, Zoya Flowie

Zoya Natalie, Sparitual Savoir Faire, Zoya Flowie

Dark teal comparison featuring Nicole by OPI

Someone on a nail board I frequent asked for a comparison of Zoya Cynthia, from last fall’s Smoke collection, and Nicole by OPI Khloe had a Little Lam-Lam from their new Kardashian collection. (Now let me just say that I don’t know anything about the Kardashians except that their names all start with K and they’re on the cover of a lot of magazines in the supermarket checkout line. So, I really don’t know what this polish’s name refers to, but anyway… I’ll just refer to it here as Khloe!)

Cynthia is definitely darker (almost looks black in low light), and has less green in it. I found another polish in my collection that’s much closer to Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter. I also added LA Colors Jungle to the comparison, but it’s a significantly lighter teal than the others.
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Here are the four polishes at one coat, under my Ott light. From left to right, Zoya Cynthia, Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Little Lam-Lam, Joe Fresh Hunter, and LA Colors Jungle.

dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Cynthia is the darkest of the bunch and the least green; it’s a blackened teal but it could also pass for navy. At one coat it also has a pretty cloudy texture to it.

Two coats (no top coat), overcast natural light:
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Khloe has a really smooth formula, great application. Joe Fresh Hunter is nearly identical in colour, though I prefer Khloe’s formula and brush. Not that Hunter’s formula is bad either. My brush on Hunter was a little screwy though; it has one bristle just slightly longer than the others. I’ll have to trim it… The brushes are fairly similar in shape though, both wide and flat, which I personally prefer in a brush shape.

Two coats, still without topcoat, setting sun:
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

At first I was going to say that Hunter is maybe a hair darker and less green than Khloe, but I don’t know if that’s even accurate (it almost looks like Hunter is slightly lighter in these photos – apologies that they aren’t the greatest; I did what I could with the light I had!) Either way, it’s really hard to pinpoint any differences in the two colours. Khloe does dry glossier before top coat, though.

So there you have it, a less expensive alternative to Khloe for those of us who have access to Joe Fresh polishes, although Khloe’s formula is slightly better and the bottle contains more polish (a standard 15 ml, versus 6 ml).

Zoya Codie

This is Zoya’s Codie from the recent fall Smoke collection. It’s a dark brown creme with a distinctly green undertone. I love the colour, but didn’t love the application quite so much!

I found that the formula was kind of thick, and had a bit of that thick-yet-runny thing going on. Shown in the photos are 3 coats, no base coat or top coat. It was streaky at one coat and there were still a few bald spots at two coats. I also got some bubbling. The bald spots and bubbles were probably due to not waiting long enough between coats. I need to remember to be more patient with Zoya cremes and let them dry for a few minutes between coats!

In sun:
Zoya Codie
In overcast natural light:
Zoya Codie

I do really love this shade though. I’ll definitely try it again with a bit more patience, I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end!

LA Girl Electric Guitar & Leopard Nails

I recently picked up a few polishes from the LA Girl Rock Star collection; Electric Guitar is the first one I’ve tried. I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I do – not that I didn’t think I would like it, but I wasn’t really expecting to be wowed by it like I am. These photos show three coats in direct sunlight. The formula was great and easy to apply, and dries fairly quickly.
LA Girl Rock Star Electric Guitar
It’s a warm golden orangey foil with holographic micro glitter and larger hex iridescent glitter. I really like it on my skin tone; it seems fairly subtle until you see it up close. This slightly blurred shot shows off the iridescent glitter a bit better if you click on the larger version, but still doesn’t really do it justice.
LA Girl Rock Star Electric Guitar

Tonight I did my FW’s nails (long story but she and I call each other “FW”), and she wanted leopard nails. I practised first on top of my Electric Guitar mani and I think it turned out quite well! The spots were made freehand using Zoya Penny and Zoya Raven. The following photos are all taken under the Ott light and look quite a bit cooler toned than in real life.
LA Girl Rock Star Electric Guitar & Leopard Nails

LA Girl Rock Star Electric Guitar & Leopard Nails

She chose Milani French Toast as the base for her leopard nails. Here are the two leopards! (I don’t know why my fingers are always so much redder than my actual skin tone, but this photo really makes it apparent, yikes.)
Leopard Nails
Detail of my FW’s leopard nails:
Milani French Toast & Leopard Nails
This first foray into leopard print nails was a lot of fun!