Zoya Kimmy

   Today, I have my final (whoop!) polish from the Sunshine Collection. Meet Kimmy!

Kimmy is a bright and bold cherry red base with red and gold shimmer particles in it.

The shimmer comes together to form a sparkly foil finish, a la the Sparkle Collection.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

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Natural light, with flash.

Yes, this is a terrible, unevenly lit, blurry as hell picture, but I like that it shows how bright Kimmy is and how it sparkles. So I'm putting it in. Say something. *puts on G face*

Sunlight, no flash.

      Kimmy is so beautiful. It features such a bold and pure shade of red that it fairly glows, and I'm in love with the sparkling metallic finish. I'm already planning a Fourth of July look around this polish...it's perfect for that occasion. All spangly and majorette-like. However, I think that Kimmy is not that unique. When I put it on, I had a niggling feeling that it reminded me of something, but I couldn't place it until like just now. It reminds me of Hard Candy Lava. Kimmy maybe features its gold shimmer a little bit more prominently and Lava may be a bit oranger, but I'm like...99% sure that they're at least kissing cousins. So expect a comparison for that in the near future. 

    I think because it has a different finish from them, Kimmy was much better than its Sunshine sisters, in terms of pigmentation. I only needed two coats for opacity, but went with three for fun. It also went on smoothly and dried fast. 

And that is the last of my summer Zoyas! Personally, I think that they did a good job overall, although the Summertime portion seemed rather uninspired. And instead of making Faye that plummy purple, they should have made her a really vibrant lapis lazuli or turquoise blue. ALSO, they should have given all the mattes the same shimmer that they gave Phoebe. But besides that stuff, not bad Zoya. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day! :D

Zoya Tanzy

Next one from the Sunshine Collection is Tanzy. 

Tanzy is a bunch of small and flat gold shimmer particles in a warm, sheer tangerine base.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

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    I actually don't like Tanzy on me. I like warm colors, but on me, Tanzy just looks brassy. It would look killer on someone with a darker skin tone though. But looking at it objectively, Tanzy is a good color. It's bright and sunny, and when the shimmer catches the light, it sparkles and makes me feel like I have sunbeams at the tips of my fingers. So Tanzy is great for summer, but it'll also be awesome for a winter pick-me-up mani...looking at it, I feel like I should be lounging on an orchard in Florida, eating clementines and feeling the sun on my skin. 

   Formula-wise, Tanzy was okay. It was a little sheer, so what you see in the pictures are three coats. Four on some fingers. But at least it went on smoothly and dried in a reasonable amount of time.

And that's all for today! Thanks for reading! 

Zoya Faye

Are you guys sick of Zoya yet? I'm a little sick of them. But I just have a few more to go from the Sunshine Collection, and then we can go look at other stuff. I thought it'd be nice to start this collection off on a high note, so here's Faye.

Faye is a ton of gold and purple flat shimmer particles in a sheer plummy base. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

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I tried to blur this one a little bit, to show the sparkles.

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     Faye is so gorgeous! I actually think of it as Danni's grandma. In lower light, the golden shimmer kind of takes over parts of the nail so you get a bit of a purple-golden-copper duochrome-type thing going. I tried to show some of that in the second to last picture. And in sunlight, the shimmer glitters so beautifully. I love how it dances across the nail and contrasts with the base color. My only thing with Faye is that I don't really see it as belonging in this collection. All the other shades are really bright and sunny, but this one is kind of not. It actually reminds me most strongly of changing leaves, so maybe it would be better suited for a fall release. But it's still awesome and unique.

   Faye's formula didn't really give me issues. It was a bit sheer, so four coats was necessary to eliminate all VNL. And it doesn't seem to want to cure...I've been wearing it for about...14 hours now, and some of my nails are still dentable. But it went on okay...nice and smooth. 

And that's all! Thanks for reading! ^_^

Zoya Phoebe + China Glaze Lightning Bolt

         Today, I have Phoebe from Zoya's recently released Mod Mattes Collection. I was actually wearing it yesterday too, for Autism Awareness Day, but the weather sucked, so I couldn't take pictures. But better late than never, right? 

Phoebe is an electric azure blue polish with really fine silver shimmer, all in a matte finish.

Sunlight, no flash.

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And some shots of her with topcoat:

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     Okay, I love Phoebe. The shade of blue is bright and fun without being too much. And the silver shimmer is a beautiful touch. Phoebe is unmistakably matte, which is good in my book. I mean, if you're gonna be a matte, commit to it. But the silver shimmer cuts the finish a little, giving Phoebe a nice bit of dimension. With topcoat, Phoebe perks up a bit and the shimmer is more prominent. It actually reminds me a bit of China Glaze Blue Sparrow with topcoat.

    Applying Phoebe was hellish. The consistency was fine, but it was so streaky! After four tries, I managed to get a relatively smooth finish by using really generous coats, working fast, never going back to correct a brushstroke, and using a very light hand with the brush. Also, Phoebe was surprisingly sheer for a matte, needing three coats to be fully opaque. On the upside though, it didn't dry as fast as most other mattes I have, which gave me a bit of time to work with it.

But today, Phoebe was struck with a Lightning Bolt, courtesy of China Glaze. 

Ahh, how I yearn to call this polish White Lightning. 

Self explanatory. 

Sunlight, no flash.

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    I really like this combo...it reminds me of acid wash jeans! I really wanted them when I was a kid, but my mom wouldn't let me. She always bought the boring Wranglers from K-Mart. The ones with the tapered ankles that give you diaper butt. :(

   

And that's all I've got for today! Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

ETA: For the love of all that is good and holy, please wear a good base coat with Phoebe. I lazily skipped it and now my nails are a disgusting shade of green-blue.  ;_;

Zoya Tamsen

         For today, I have Zoya Tamsen, from the Summertime Collection. 

Tamsen is a bold and warm red creme with orange undertones. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

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     I was stupid to buy Tamsen, even though it's not an ugly color. On the contrary, it's quite sunny and fun and positively screams summer. Looking at it, I'm reminded of a perfect tomato, freshly picked from a garden. But I was still dumb to buy it when there were way more unique colors available. This one is just so...plain.  Even Sooki would be better than this. Oh Zoya...you disappoint me. 

   But Tamsen's saving grace is it's formula. It was just like Breezi's...smooth and silky and easy to apply. Dry time was also excellent, although I had wear issues with Tamsen. After just one day of doing nothing, I had tip wear.  -__- 

And that's all I've got for today! Have a good night, guys! 

Zoya Breezi

         Okay, so in case you were under a rock for all of last week, Zoya had a BOGO to promote the launch of their new summer collections. I joined in on the buying fun, and on Monday, I received my polishes. Yay! One of the ladies that made her way into my home was Breezi, from the Summertime Collection.

Breezi is fairly complicated. Zoya describes it as a soft, dusty, dirty, medium cerulean blue creme, which is actually very accurate.

What is not accurate are these pictures...in real life, Breezi is a bit darker and much dustier.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

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    Breezi is the only color from this collection that I saw and immediately knew that I had to have. I feel like Zoya almost never does blue, but when they do, they do it so so right, and Breezi is no exception. It's a really compelling and pretty shade of blue, with just enough green in there to make a statement. The smokiness also adds a certain je ne sais quoi and gives Breezi this...faded, favorite pair of jeans look that Zoya mentioned in the color description. To be fair, I own very few blue cremes, but Breezi is my new favorite one. 

    Application was super easy too. I only needed two coats of color to get full opacity and they went on  super smoothly. No dragging, no bubbling, no streaking....just creme-y goodness. Zoya did a great job with this one, and if you only get one polish from the Summertime Collection, please make it Breezi. 

And with that, I'm all done for today. Thanks for reading!!

ETA: So a couple of people have asked in the comments how OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui and Breezi compare, but since I skipped SSFS, I couldn't give a definite answer. Happily though, the wonderful BMR from Doing My Nails busted out a great side by side comparison of the two. Take a look: Zoya Breezi vs. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It + China Glaze Crushed Candy

       Firstly, sorry about the last post. Some of you may have noticed that it went poof, and the reason for that was the pictures were really inaccurate, and it felt like a lie to leave them up. But anyway, for today, I have OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It, from their Texas Collection. 

 

Fort Worth It is a slightly frosty lavender toned silver base with teeny, light pink microglitter running throughout.

The stupid glitter refused to show its sparkly little face in any of the pictures, but it does show in real life.

 

Sunlight, no flash.

 

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       I think I'm kind of ambivalent about this polish. The silvery-lavender color is very pretty, as is the hazy, nebulous quality of it. Also, the pink microglitter is fun and sparkles so nicely in the sun. But for me, it doesn't feature prominently enough, and I don't like the finish of Fort Worth It. I think they needed to use this guazy-type of finish to make the pink glitter work, but it's still not very nice. It's kind of brushstroke-y and unless you look at your hands from far away, it looks kind of messy. So yeah...meh on this one. 

       Fort Worth It's formula was okay for me. It was sheer, so what you see is four coats, and I had to give it a few minutes between coats or drag and bubbles abounded, but besides those, there were no issues.

      So then, I got bored right, and decided to do some crack.

 I used a thin layer of China Glaze Crushed Candy. 

 

Sunlight, no flash.

   And that is all I've got for today! Thanks for reading, and have a nice Monday! ^_^