Still Here . . . Sorry!

For everyone that is reading this, sorry I have been away for the last couple weeks.  I had a culmination of school, work, and family things to deal with.  My summer semester just ended (whew! so happy) so I do not have any assignments until the end of August, when I have to start researching my Thesis- which I am actually really excited about because it means I am almost done with my degree.  I also recently went to a wedding (one my cousin's, it was in D.C.), which was fabulous and I had a great time, but it left almost no time for my blog.  I have a pic of my mani from the wedding to show you as well.  I also had some family visiting from overseas, it is so great to see people after such a long time (3 years) and see how much they have grown and changed.

What is really awful is that I had all my Zoya's ready to go except for a few posts, and I just didn't get around to scheduling them.  So, I will be fixing that issue in the next couple days.  Another thing I wanted to add is that I actually bought a few more Zoya polishes so I will be adding swatches of those as well.


Sorry again!

xoxo-H

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Adina (Day 11)

Adina is a light purple color with a green flash, basically a duochrome that goes from purple to green.  This is from the same collection as Happi, and it is gorgeous on the nail.  Anytime I wear this color, I end up staring at it throughout the day. 

This is indoors, with flash.

Again, indoors with flash.  You can see more of the green in this image.

Indoors, with flash.

Outdoors, shade.  This is what it looks like regularly, almost a metallic/glossy look to it.

Outdoors, direct sunlight.

Color: Zoya Adina
Base Coat: Essie All in one Base
Top Coat: Orly Glosser

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Faye (Day 10)

Are you all still with me?  I hope you are enjoying the Zoyas, I am having fun swatching them! 

Faye is a gorgeous fleck glitter.  It is a light purple base with gold fleck, and it looks great on the nails as it shows up as a glitter duochrome: Gorgeous!  The formula was great, but I used 3 coats for the swatch to get it fully opaque. 

This is indoors, without flash.

This is outdoors, shade.

This is indoors with flash. You can see the purple really well here.

Color: Zoya Faye
Base Coat: Essie All in one Base
Top Coat: Orly Glosser

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Kieko (Day 9)

Kieko is a muted berry purple color with a creme finish.  I used 2 coats for the swatches below, and the formula was great, very opaque color.  I don't have anything else like this in my stash, so it is unique to me, but maybe not a unique color in general.  Kieko was originally from the Summertime collection. 

Indoors, no flash.

Indoors, flash.

Indoors, no flash

Outdoors, direct sunlight.

What do you all think of this one?  Do you own any other creme finishes from Zoya? 


Color: Zoya Kieko
Base Coat: Essie All In One Base
Top Coat: Orly Glosser

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Areej (Day 8)

Areej is a medium pink-purple creme color.  Zoya describes it as a fuschia pink, but I would say it leans more purple to me.  The formula was great, as always. (I feel like I will be repeating myself over and over again with these Zoya swatches).  The color was opaque in 2 easy coats, and has a nice finish.  This is such a fun color for toes. 

This is indoors, without flash.

Indoors, with flash.

Outdoors in direct sunlight.

Color: Zoya Areej
Base Coat: Essie All in one Base
Top Coat: Orly Glosser

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Tanzy (Day 7)

Tanzy is a bright orange and gold fleck glitter.  It is very shiny and metallic and applies beautifully.  The formula is great; I would recommend using several (3) thin coats to cover opaquely and wait for each layer to dry.  The color is gorgeous, bright and reflective!  Love this one for summer.

This is indoors, no flash.

Indoors, flash.

Outdoors, shade.

Outdoors, shade.

Color: Zoya Tanzy
Base/Top Coat: Orly Top to Bottom

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Happi (Day 6)

Happi is a bright pink that flashes green-gold duochrome.  The color is amazing, and really does live up to its name.  The formula, again, is great and covers opaquely in 2-3 coats (depending on how thick you make your coats).  This a great pink for the Spring and Summer.  Every time I wear this color, I end up staring at my hands all day. 

Indoors, no flash. Sorry for the blurry picture, I just wanted to show how it looks without any direct light on it- still glowing!

Outdoors, shade.

Indoors, flash.

Outdoors, direct sunlight.

Color: Zoya Happi
Base/Top Coat: Orly Top to Bottom

NOTD: China Glaze

This is a quick post just showing my NOTD. I used China Glaze Polarized, two coats with two coats of top coat (Orly Glosser). I love the way this shines in sunlight, great silver color. I also painted the under side of my nail like Adele's Grammy mani, Louboutin inspired. Love! thanks for reading!

-H

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Cassi (Day 5)

Cassi is a light, warm pink with silvery microshimmer running through it.  Zoya describes it as: " Light warm peachy-pink with coral tones and sparkling white gold shimmer. An undeniably girly shade for fingers and toes."  So true, it is very girly, and perfect for a Spring/Summer manicure.  The color is sheer at one coat, but it easily builds to full opacity in two coats.  As always, the formula on this was great, so easy to work with. 

Outdoors, sunlight.

Outdoors, sunlight.

Outdoors, shade.

Outdoors, sunlight.

Color: Zoya Cassi
Base/Top Coat: Orly Top to Bottom

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Mitzi (Day 4)

Mitzi is a matte yellow-green color from the Mod Mattes collection.  The color is almost a lime green and the formula is okay, not the best, I had patches, but the nail polish was too thick.  The color is so unique and different and looks great as a matte.  I had to use three coats for the pictures below.  Just a note, this color stains really bad, even with base coat.  Even with all that, I love the color, so I can deal with the other issues! 

This is indoors, no flash.  Sorry about the awful application on the index finger, ugh!

Indoors, no flash.

And then I applied a top coat, this is indoors without flash.

Color: Zoya Mitzi
Top Coat: Orly Top to Bottom

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Lolly (Day 3)

Lolly is a hot pink matte color from the Mod Matte collection.  The formula on this is good, similar to the Matte Velvet collection finishes as this is a matte velvet.  These colors do not have the same "shimmer" that the original collection had (see post on Harlow).  The color is not unique, but the matte formula makes it different, it has a softer finish. 

Indoors, no flash.

Indoors, flash.

Indirect sunlight.

Color: Zoya Lolly
No Base/Top Coat

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Phoebe (Day 2)

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the U.S.A.!  Hope you enjoy the holiday and see some amazing fireworks.  This will be my daughter's first Independence Day celebration, so I have an outfit picked out for her-can't wait to take some pictures.


Today I have another matte color for you!  This is Zoya Phoebe, also from the Mod Mattes collection, but unfortunately, I do not see this on the Zoya site anymore :( I picked a blue for today in honor of the holiday. 

The formula on this was good, I only needed 2 coats, the second to cover some patchiness.  The color is so great, a bright aqua blue.  The shimmer that runs through this gives it that velvet finish again, and it somehow makes this color glow.  I love it!  Again, this one does stain pretty badly, but so worth it. 

Indoors, no flash.

Outdoors, no flash.

Indoors, flash

Outdoors, no flash.

Color: Zoya Phoebe
No Base/Top Coat

My Collection, Swatched: Zoya Harlow (Day 1)

Harlow is a matte finish polish from the MatteVelvet collection.  It is a dark purple/burgandy color.  The finish on this is interesting, similar to the OPI suedes, in that it is not quite matte, and also has a bit of shimmer running through.  The formula on this one is good for a matte color, it covers opaquely in two coats. 

This is indoors, with flash.  You can see the tiny silver shimmer that adds something extra to this color.  The finish is awesome.

This is outdoors, no flash.

Outdoors, no flash.

Color: Zoya Harlow
No Base/Top Coat