Inspiration Wednesday- Zoya Maya with flakies

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, sunlight

Here’s a manicure that was inspired by someone’s pet. A month or so back, I was saddened to hear that an online friend’s beautiful cat had passed away unexpectedly. The cat’s name was Maya, and I had just happened to have received Zoya Maya in the mail from the Zoya Freedom Sale around that time. Because of this, I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to wear the coral jelly  and pay tribute to Maya the cat. Once I had applied Maya, I wanted to top it with something, but none of my glitter seemed quite right. Then, it hit me...flakies! Beautiful, delicate flakies would look lovely in combination with the gorgeous coral jelly. I applied Color Club Snowflakes, and voila! My delicate coral mani now had a special something extra with the green to orange shifting flakies.  I love the combination, so much so that I took a ton of photos. See more pictures afer the jump, including a couple of mattified ones!

Zoya Maya topped wth Color Club Snowflakes, shade

Zoya Dillon turns the tide on a texture

Zoya Dillon with China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns, sun

Here’s a quick post to share a NOTD I just sported recently. This manicure features Zoya Dillon on 2 fingers. Dillon is a light seafoam green with a silver shimmer.  I use China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns on the other 2 fingers. I picked up that texture glitter on clearance at Sally Beauty.  I’m not a fan of textures, but I love the mint green base color of this one as well as the greenish teal glitter in it. So I added plenty of topcoat over Teal the Tide Turns.  

 

 

 

 

 

Zoya Dillon with China Glaze Teal the Tide Turns, shade

 

Zoya FeiFei gets all striped up!

Zoya Fei Fei with gold, blue and purple stripes

One of the things that makes Zoya FeiFei a standout polish is that its shimmer is so complex. There seems to be a whole rainbow of colors in that shimmer, and this makes FeiFei a great polish for nail art. I've seen some beautiful nail art with this polish, and decided to some nail art with it for myself. I tried a technique I had admired in the past with FeiFei, but things did not go quite as planned.  The original look I wanted is based on this tutorial:

I originally saw it on The Polished Momma's blog, and she did an outstanding job of recreating the manicure in this post.  As you can tell, I didn't get nearly as complex in my version, for reasons I'll explain later. Find out what they are, and what polishes I used, after the jump.

Quick comparison-Sinful Colors Winter Wonder vs. Zoya FeiFei

Sinful Colors Winter Wonder on index and ring, Zoya FeiFei on middle and pinky, sunlight

Sinful Colors Winter Wonder on indes and ring, Zoya FeiFei on middle and pinky, shade

Here's my comparison of Sinful Colors Winter Wonder and Zoya FeiFei. I had some smudging and lost my FeiFei for a bit, so I switched out the pictures in this comparison with some better ones. You can see that the the two polishes are about the same. Depending on the light, one or the other can seem brighter than the other, but I think that's just a byproduct of the shimmery nature of the polish. Zoya FeiFei is also a dupe of OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service. My friend Lisa over at Swatches and Whatnot did her own comparison where she discusses the two polishes extensively, check out the full post here. In the meantime, here's one of Lisa's pictures featuring OHMSS and FeiFei:

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service with Zoya FeiFie, from the Swatches and Whatnot blog

A few more pictures after the jump!

Dude, Where's My Duochrome? Fergie Ferguson Crest Syrah

Fergie by Wet n Wild Ferguson Crest Syrah, sunlight

When I saw Ferguson Crest Syrah at the store, I was immediately drawn to it. Why? The polish displayed a beautiful gold duochrome effect in the bottle. I'm here to tell you,though, that it's a total lie! >:(>:(  There is no duochrome effect to be found in this Fergie brand polish. At all. I feel so let down, and hope others can avoid disappointment because of this review. It's definitely a beautiful color in its own right, but I bought Ferguson Crest Syrah for its duochromeness. See more pictures of the polish, and find out what it's a dupe for for, after the jump.

See that gold shimmer in the bottle? No? You won't on the nail either!

Comparison-Zoya Myrta vs. China Glaze Riveting

This is a comparison I've wanted to do for a while, but I was unhappy with the original pictures I took and I do not own Zoya Myrta. I had to wait until I had a chance to borrow it to do the comparison.

Zoya Myrta on pointer and ring fingers, China Glaze Riveting on middle and pinky, sunlight

As you can see from the pictures, Zoya Myrta is lighter than China Glaze Riveting, and it has more pink in it, making it more of a coral orange. Riveting is more of a true orange with a glass-fleck finish while Myrta is a shimmer. The glass-flecks in Riveting are very gold, while the shimmer in Myrta is more on the silver side. Of the two, I definitely prefer the glass-flecked brilliance of Riveting, but they are different enough that a true orange lover would want both.

Zoya Myrta on pointer and ring fingers, China Glaze Riveting on middle and pinky , shade

Quick comparison-Zoya Carly vs. Zoya Jem

Zoya Jem on middle and pinkie fingers, Zoya Carly on ring, natural light

When I saw images of the Zoya Beach and Surf collection, I immediately disregarded Zoya Carly because it looked a lot like a Zoya that I already own, Zoya Jem. I am lucky to be a polish dealer...errr... liason to a friend, and I picked up her Beach and Surf colors at my local nail place. I asked her permission to use Carly and managed to catch these pics of the color in comparison to Jem.

Zoya Jem on middle and pinkie fingers, Zoya Carly on ring, sunlight

As you can see, Carly is lighter than Jem. Also, the shimmer in Carly leans silver, while the shimmer in Jem leans more orange and gold. I think you can justify owning both if you love purples. My problem is, I love purples so much that I'm not sure I should get Carly.  I already have more than 30 purples, surely I shouldn't get another...right? :/

Zoya Zuza gets splattered by Pirates (of the Caribbean)

*Warning, if you are disturbed by uneven nails, skip this post*

Zoya Zuza splattered with OPI POC collection colors Skull and Glossbones, Planks a Lot and Mermaid's Tears

 I had some reservations about sharing this post because my nails aren't all even in the pictures. As I shared earlier, I've had a lot of nails break on me recently and I cut down all of them as a result. However, I decided that this mani was good enough to post for a couple of reasons. Find out what they are, after the jump!

Ciate is full of $@#%-My belated Fish Egg Friday mani with Zoya Myrta

I found these microbeads in LA when I was visiting back in the beginning of April. It's obvious that the whole "caviar manicure" was well known enough that Dona Michele Salon Basics jumped into production on microbeads and had already manufactured, packaged and shipped them to Dollar Tree by April 8th. That's the date I purchased these at a random Dollar Tree in Los Angeles. The packaging says "made in China," so it's not like the items had just been produced in the last few days. Anywho, I think this is further proof that the whole Ciate "trademarking" of the caviar manicure is beyond ridiculous! (In case you're not in the loop on the stuff I'm talking about, here's a link to the Pretty Digits blog, and a link to Let Them Have Polish's post detailing the nail blogging community's response.)

On to the manicure, this look was created using Dona Michele brand nail microbeads and Zoya Myrta. I like Myrta but it lacks some of the gold shimmer I expected based on the bottle. Because of this, I spiced it up with a caviar style accent nail. See more pictures and find out what's wrong with this manicure, after the jump!

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Zoya Jem

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Zoya Jem, shade

When I first put Zoya Jem on my fingers, I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. It just shimmered beautifully in the sunlight, and I found it hard to stop admiring my fingers.   Then I added China Glaze Luxe and Lush.  It's hard to believe you can make such a great polish even better, but that's truly what happened when I added the shard-like flakie to the mix. Join me to learn how it compares to Essie Shine of the times and for a lot more pictures, after the jump.

Really, Zoya, really?! Late shipment leads to disappointment

Back on January 8th, I told you about how I had placed an order with Zoya to receive 2 free nail polishes as part of their special offer. I knew that the ground shipping was going to take a while, so it wasn't until last week that I started checking the mail every afternoon in hopes of finding my polishes waiting for me. Imagine my surprise when I opened my email this Tuesday the 24th and learned that the polishes had barely shipped out that afternoon! Auuughh! I mean, I totally understand that they're doing me a favor with this offer and that my shipment is going to be a low priority one. I even understand that it may take a long time, even weeks, for them to process the order. But to not even inform me of the fact that they haven't processed the order until 16 days later? WTF? Really?? I'd read on Kayla Shevonne and Rebecca Likes Nails' blogs about their negative experiences with Zoya, but I thought it had to do with the complications of international shipping. After this experience, I'm beginning to think that Zoya may have a problem in general with customer service! Maybe they didn't anticipate the response to their offer would receive and this incident is an anomaly.  Maybe I'm just overreacting. But so far, color me less than impressed with the Zoya experience. :( 


(BTW, as of the 26th, my package was in Ohio so it will still probably be a week or so before it arrives here in California.)

Zoya giveaway alert!

Zoya is offering 2 free nail polishes when you pay the cost of shipping until 1/9/11! Items from the Spring 2012 collection are excluded, and the offer is limited to residents of the US. According to the comments at Nouveau Cheap, where I read about it, shipping will be around $6. Go to the Zoya blog post for all the details about the offer: http://zoyanailpolish.blogspot.com/2012/01/let-zoya-color-your-world-in-2012.html

1/01/12 Weekly Blog Roundup: more flakies and lists!

-Several blogs have posted the press release for Zoya's Spring 2012 collection, which features 3 flakies! Scrangie has already posted some swatches.
-More bloggers have gotten their hands on the Finger Paints Special Effects collection, including myself. THe master of watermarbling, Colette at My Simple Little pleasures has posted a  video  which has each over black and one color complimentary color apiece.
-There were lots more favorite nail polish lists as the year drew to a close. Everyone did a different format.  Let them Have Polish had a top 10 for major and indie brands, plus and honorable mention post, Swatch and Learn did a top 10 for polishes, nail art, makeup, skincare and cosmetics. Rebecca and Kayla finished their lists, Imperfectly Painted did her top 20 in several separate posts and also had her readers weigh in,  and the The Polishaholic didn't specify exactly how many favorites she chose. 
-Meanwhile, the Manicure Addict and iPolished chose their favorite manicures of the year and Enamel Girl did both a top 11 and a favorite manicure list and The Polish Insomniac reviewed her 5 most visited posts of the year.
-I enjoyed reading all these lists immensely, but I'm sure I'm missing some of them. I'm just doing the best I can based on what I can remember/find best at this time. I"m actually planning to do an uber-lazy version of my top 10 later this week, as well.  
-A final reminder to visit Sally's to check out their clearance section. I visited a location near work on Saturday and found some stuff that my local one didn't have, still at 50% the red tag price. 

Zoya Twila over Finger Paints Where Art Renoir?- I chose this manicure

a)     because I was inspired by an awesome layering experiment over at Swatch and Learn.

b)     because of stamping gone terribly wrong

c)     as a physical manifestation of my internal joy at finding Sally Girl cuticle oil again

d)     to show off my very first Zoya

e)     all of the above! 

Natural light

I just got the Zoya last night, and was itching to try it out. I love turquoise and liked the color I already had on my nails, so I used CND Stickey as a basecoat, 2 coats WAR?, 1 coat Twila and Seche Vite on the base, not on the full mani. There's tipwear because I had hastily applied Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? a few days ago.

Sunlight

Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? is a pretty cool color I found at Sally's. It was on sale at the time for $3.99. I had been looking for Orly Goth but this looked like a total dupe at a lower price. I love how the glitter adds sparkle and girliness to what could be a harsh black. As far as the Zoya goes, it's a clear base with turquoise micro and hair glitter. Turquoise is my all time favorite color, and glitter is one of my favorite types of polish, so it was only a matter of time before this beauty ended up in my collection.