Zoya Nidhi vs China Glaze Raspberry Festival

Hey cousin, what's up?  It's difficult to sometimes be original in colors, and these two buddies are pretty close to each other.  Zoya Nidhi is from the 2010 Summer "Sparkle" Collection and China Glaze Raspberry Festival is from the 2009 Summer "Summer Days" Collection.  When I was swatching Nidhi, I had the feeling I had seen the color before.


As I said before, the sun doesn't really like red glass fleck for some reason.  My font also doesn't like the work "Nidhi"  These two look very close in the sun, as seen in both the sun picture above and the bottle picture up top.


In the shade you can finally tell a little different.  I used 2 coats of Nidhi and 3 coats of Raspberry Festival for this manicure... in the index and middle fingers you can tell that Nidhi (index) is darker, more pigmented with a silver glitter, while Raspberry Festival (middle) is lighter with red glitter.  For whatever reason, the ring and pinkie fingers look the exact same to me.


Now these two colors do have their pros and cons - both applied and removed quite well but I did have to use 3 coats of Raspberry Festival to achieve the same opaqueness that Nidhi has.  But Nidhi is $7 a bottle and you can find Raspberry Festival for as low as $3.50.  Oh decisions, decisions.



Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Nidhi

Zoya Nidhi is listed as a rich red sparkling metallic from the Summer 2010 Sparkle Collection.  I must say, I was not in love with this color as I have been the rest.  It has the same glass fleck glitter in it as the rest, but maybe to me, there will never be another China Glaze Ruby Pumps, so I don't care?  Either way, this is still a very pretty color but doesn't like the sunshine at all.  It looks like a creme almost in full sun.


I used a base coat of Seche Retain followed by Zoya Anchor.  I used 2 coats of Nidhi and topped it with a layer of Zoya Armor.  Because I was only swatching and not long wearing, I didn't wear any Seche Vite with it.


All the "metallic" is just lost with the sun - still a very rich red as described, but just not the WOW of Charla or Mimi.


In indirect sun, you can start to see the glitter again.  However, I felt like I had a dupe for this color after taking this picture (more on that later).


The glitter is a bit lost in the shade as well - such a weird color.  It's odd that the bottles look JAM PACKED with glitter but it's very loosely translated on the nail because it's glass fleck, not glitter.  Overall a nice color - great formula.



Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Savvy Deep Amethyst

While at Sally's Beauty Supply during their "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" sale, I spied a rack of colors I had never heard of before - "Savvy".  According to Sally's website "Savvy Nail Lacquers are beautiful and long-lasting. This professional formula bonds to the nail for extended wear. Infused with Hydraplex, a blend of botanicals which conditions, protects, strengthens and reinforces the nail to keep the nail flexible for all day, chip-resistant finish. UV absorbers protect against fading to maintain the true color of polish while intense pigments prevent polish from streaking for full coverage."  I guess they had just got through a logo and other cosmetic makeover because the website has a very different looking bottle that this one.


Confession time.  I am a logophile.  There's just something about words that I adore.  I'm obsessed with fonts and typography, but also just words themselves.  First my eye was drawn to the purple, but then I read "Amethyst" and this beauty went into my basket.


Since I'm not familiar with this brand at all, I used Seche Retain as my base (a safe bet) and 2 coats of Deep Amethyst.  The polish was a little runny for me, pooling a bit into my cuticles but not so much that I'd consider chunking it.  The only let down is that I KNOW I have a dupe for this polish in my stash (which by the way has overgrown its cases and now I'm going to have to buy at least 2 more of).


This is a dark purple with blue undertones and has very fine red and blue microglitter in it, giving it a nice shimmer.  Shade pictures just made it look dark, sadly.


Overall, a nice color but again I know I have a duplicate color so I hope to get a comparison shot some time.


I haven't found Savvy anywhere else online but Sally's (but I didn't look ALL that hard) and I bought it for $3.99 a bottle.

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla was from the Summer 2010 Sparkle Collection and was described as a tropical blue sparkling metallic.  Two of my favorite bloggers have called this color a "mermaid in a bottle" which oddly enough is what Zoya called its green shade (still to be swatched) not this one.  I'll have to be honest, after seeing pictures of this color in blogs, I was NOT thrilled.  I am NOT really a blue nail polish person.


Zoya, you've changed my mind.  


I used Zoya Anchor as my base, 2 coats of Charla and for my top coat, I first used a coat of Zoya Armor, followed by 2 coats of Seche Vite.  The first coat of Seche Vite I applied normally, the second coat, I brushed over the tops of my nails, to "wrap" the top coat around my nail, then applied normally.  Success!  No tip wear/pulling and fast drying top coat.  Now, I didn't come up with this myself - another blogger did.  However, I can't find the person's post to save my life.  I'm sorry!  If I find you, I will credit you properly.


I love the whole glass fleck movement of polishes.  It's not gritty like glitter, but shines like it.


These two pictures in the shade, show my love affair.
It looks gritty, but it's not!  Smooth as a baby's bottom.


Really such a pretty shade.  I had a male friend tell me he thought he should make a wish since my nails were so shiny.  Another male friend couldn't decide if it was green or blue polish (he saw it under artificial light) and yes, under artificial light you see a little more green cast that blue, as you can almost see in the bottle pictures in the shade, but it's definitely a beautiful blue.


I highly recommend this color to anyone who's hesitant about the "unnatural" colors of nail polish - it's so beautiful, you'll love looking at it!


As much as I didn't want to, I did remove the polish so I could post on removal process.  Unlike glitter polishes, glass flecked polish wipes off more like a creme.  I had a friend tell me she ended up with smurf fingers from her removal, but I didn't get any blue staining on my hands during removal.  She also uses felt, I use a cheap bottle of remover that has the sponge inside.  Again, very pleased with this polish.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Cheeky Monkey Party Whore

Cheeky Monkey Party Whore is medium coral pink and quite a pretty spring color.  Because of the coral (and maybe because of my new China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy), this almost looked neon to me during the day, but it is definitely a creme.


I have a new friend who is in LOVE with corals and so I wore this one especially for her.  ^_^  Because I'm freaking that I still have my long nails, I used a base coat of Seche Retain, followed by Cheeky Monkey Wet Dream.  Next was 2 coats of Party Whore, which had excellent coverage but the formula was a little thick for me.  I may end up thinning this one just a little.  I topped it with a coat of Seche Vite for faster drying time, and happily wore this manicure for two straight days.


Here's a sun picture - as you can see, there is a tiny neon like quality in this polish, but nope, just a creme.


I actually took this picture the day before, when we were still overcasted.  It's such a smooth buttery polish - very happy with this color, when I didn't originally think I was a coral person.


Cheeky Monkey can be purchased on their website [official websitefor $15 a bottle.

Zoya Mimi vs China Glaze Grape Juice

While Zoya released glass fleck glitters this summer, it was China Glaze who did so last year around this time.  China Glaze's "Summer Days" collection was much talked about at the time, and I happily grabbed all of them, but sadly the first time I tried on Grape Juice, I had horrible issues with application.  I was just learning and my nails were a mess.  I couldn't get the color to be opaque and I was MUCH too impatient, so I put the color back on the shelf and waited for a sunny day to try it again.


When I was applying Mimi yesterday, my mind wandered back to Grape Juice and I wondered how similar they were to each other.  China Glaze is cheaper than Zoya ($3.50 versus $6.00) and last I saw, China Glaze moved Grape Juice to their core lines at Sally's Beauty Supply.


In the bottle picture above, you can clearly see that Mimi is already a darker color than Grape Juice, but I still wanted to try it out on the nail.


Mimi isn't really THAT dark but when paired up with Grape Juice, the camera goes nuts.  This is 2 coats of Mimi but 3 coats of Grape Juice and I still had some VNL under it.  I have to hand it to Zoya for having loads of pigment in their Sparkle collection.


Here in my shade picture, not only can you tell these are completely different but even the glass flecked glitter is a different - Mimi is more of a purple silver glitter where Grape Juice is definitely a silver glitter.


I still love both polishes, and I've thought of using Grape Juice as an overlay on China Glaze Grape Pop sometime.  Both polishes had a smooth consistency and great removal process.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Mimi

Zoya Mimi is one of the new glass fleck glitters from the Summer 2010 Sparkle Collection.  Well,  I'm calling it glass fleck glitter, even though Zoya has called Mimi "royal purple sparkling metallic"  I'm not sure where the metallic is, but maybe that's the glitter?  Anyway, I'm a BIG sucker for purples, and as much as I love glitter, I hate taking glitter OFF, so this is the best formula for me ever.  Purple?  Check.  Glitter look without glitter grit?  Check.  And away we go!


To achieve the best possible feel, I used 1 coat of Zoya Anchor (step 2 from their Color Lock system), only 2 coats of Mimi (!) and first I used the top coat Zoya Armor (step 4 from their Color Lock system).  However, I'm super impatient and so I ended up smudging everything with the Armor top coat.  So I took it all off, and went with the Anchor, Mimi, and a top coat of Seche Vite.


Why didn't I use Seche Vite in the first place?  Well dear readers, I am going to ask you to read this in your spare time from All Lacquered Up.  She knows what she's talking about - I just know because I read this from her: Wear Test


Oh goodness Mimi, be still my heart!  Now in the sun, this hot number is much more purple than blue, but the glitter flecks metallic whatever! is beautiful.


In the shade, you can really see the true color here - such a pretty happy color.  This is definitely one of my top favorite polishes ever, and I'm thinking of using it on my next pedicure.  I'm very pleased with this color and the formula over all.


Removal was a snap.  I used a bottle polish remover (the one with the sponge inside a cylinder) to let the polish soak for 15 seconds or so, then rubbed my nail against the sponge and pulled out my finger.  When I was done with that, I took Zoya Remove (step 1 in the Color Lock system) to wipe all nail plates of any polish that was still stuck in the sides.  You an see a little bit still stuck in my pinkie in the above pictures.  I attempted to swatch a color yesterday but accidentally deleted the pictures before editing the pictures so that will be a post for another day.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Illamasqua Phallic

Illamasqua Phallic is quite an interesting color.  The company describes it as a shimmering midnight navy, which is pretty darn accurate.  I haven't seen a bottle of Essie "Starry Night" in person, but this is what I'd imagine it would look like.  Illamasqua's website shows Phallic to be lighter than it is - it's definitely a DARK color.  I'm calling this a glitter since it has glitter in it - more so than a shimmer.  The polish was very easy to take off as well.  I wore it overnight and didn't have a problem with color bleed on my cuticles when I was removing it.


The squared off bottle is a little hard to work with but I preferred it to the actual brush top, after I removed the square top.


I used Seche Retain as my base coat (trying to keep my nails strong!), 2 coats of Phallic to cover all bald spots, and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The formula on this polish was quite nice - I didn't have any pooling into the cuticles and but it wasn't too thin either.


Shade pictures just wouldn't work here, so instead I have 2 sun pictures for you.
This one shows you more of the blue in the bottle - while this picture is color accurate for the blue, it's definitely not what you see mostly on your nails.


This is more like it.  Very dark dark navy with a hint of blue glitter.  It's still very pretty but not a good spring color by any means.  ^_^  I'm interested in trying more of this line - the application was very nice.


For those in the States, you can purchase Illamasqua from Sephora [official website] for $14 a bottle.


Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Nail Polish Exchange

It's back!  Zoya kicked off their Nail Polish Exchange on Earth Day, and this will last a whole 2 months!  I still can't get into the site myself, but from what I have seen from others and from Zoya's Twitter [official Twitter page], there is NO MAXIMUM for this, but there is a minimum of 6 bottles per order.  Additionally, you have to include $3.50 per bottle.  You can send Zoya your old top coats, base coats, polish (even mini bottles!) but you can only order Zoya polish for your exchange.


From Zoya:  Zoya Nail Polish will exchange your old, out-of-style, unwanted nail color and replenish your nail polish supply with fresh Zoya fashion colors. Simply send in six or more bottles of old polish - any brand other than Zoya, Qtica or Nocti, new or used - and we'll send you the new Zoya colors of your choice in a bottle-for-bottle exchange.


To start exchanging your polish, please click [here] to go to Zoya's website.  *In case of crashing, please wait and try again.

Essie "Color Me Delicious"

[Please click on image to see full size]

Essie can be purchased on their website [official website] or etailers like Head2ToeBeauty [official website] or TransDesign [official website].

Color Club Pucci-licious

Color Club Pucci-licious was a neon purple from the Poptastic collection.  Like most neons, it dries matte, and it nearly impossible to photograph, although it was a problem of my camera seeing purple and thinking BLUE.  I was able to color correct my pictures to show the true purple of this color.


I've been having hit or miss problems with Color Club, and this was another one.  I used Seche Natural as my base and my first coat of Pucci-licious was very hard to apply, but I'm going to chalk that up to being a neon.  I went thicker than normal to try and make sure I didn't have bald spots, and then used a second (still thick) coat to even out any lumpiness.  I did not use a top coat to keep with the matte.  I did, however, totally screw up the polish on my thumb before walking outside to take pictures.  Go figure.


It looks nice on the nail once it's all said and done though - almost a cornflower purple blue?  Either way, it's unlike anything I have, and I like it.


I had a peek of sun, and tried in vain to get a good picture but this just makes it look glossy instead of matte.  I assure you, it's a matte finish.



Color Club is located on several etailers, including Head2Toe Beauty which has it for $3.00.  You can also Like them on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Barielle Myrza's Meadow

Barielle Myrza's Meadow is being called a light lime green with silver glitter but really it's multicolored glitter in the bottle.  This was one of the special colors from the Wildflower collection that Barielle was donating 100% of the proceeds to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.  Now, I recently saw this color featured as one of the "pretty ugly" colors on another blog, and while I can't quite call this color "ugly", I am slightly reminded of weird baby vomit when I see it.  Blame my kid.


I used Seche Natural for my base, 3 coats of Myrza's Meadow and just for fun, I did not use a top coat.  As you can see, it definitely leaves the nails a bit gritty from the glitter.


I'm sure if I had a coordinating dress or maybe a nice white button down shirt (?) that I wanted a pop of color with, this would work out.  I almost wish that Barielle had left the glitter out of the color, and then I think this would have been a perfect color.


Barielle retails for $8/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Cheeky Monkey Come Hither


Come Hither was an awkward color for me in the bottle.  It looks black, or even espresso brown, but when I put it on my nail wheel, I totally saw red.  Yes, red creme.  Cheeky's website describes it as black plum, so black purple?  Either way, I knew I needed to try it on.

I used Cheeky Monkey Wet Dream for my base and started with 2 coats of Come Hither.  However, I wasn't totally happy with it application with 2 so on my index and middle fingers, I put 3 coats.  I did not use a top coat, since this stuff was pretty lethal without it (shiny wise).

I guess I can see the whole black plum thing now - but this was only in the "sunlight" (which for me is cloudy with a bit of sun right now).  It was easier to see the "plum" with 3 coats, but it was definitely more reddish purple with 2 coats.  In the shade, this color was just super dark - I'd like to wear it during the day.

Cheeky Monkey can be purchased on their website [official websitefor $15 a bottle.

Cheeky Monkey Hot Slut


Check out that rain!  I even got some on the bottle cap.  Well despite the flash flood warnings and the tornado watches, I must continue to swatch!  I ended up purchasing the entire Cheeky Monkey line of polish, mostly because I absolutely wanted to try them all.  When the box arrived, I pulled them all out and arranged them on my shelf, and well, like the ditty that she is, Hot Slut caught my eye.

Cheeky's website calls Hot Slut a "soft red with blue".  I personally didn't see the blue, but this was a HOT red for me.  In fact, I liked it so much that I wore it for THREE days, which is almost a record for me - well, it is a record for a red for me.  (Purple still holds my "one week" manicure record.)  The application on this color was awesome - so much pigment in just one coat.  I used Cheeky Monkey Wet Dream for my base, and just to be consistant, I used 2 coats of Hot Slut, and a top coat of Seche Vite.

No sun, but I snapped a "rain" picture
Maybe I do see the blue?  Either way, I love this color.  It's my new favorite red.  I also grabbed a picture under my porch.

This red is ALMOST a jelly when you add the top coat, but it's really a creme.  It was almost cherry tomato red in my eyes, but either way, it was freaking awesome.

Cheeky Monkey can be purchased on their website [official websitefor $15 a bottle.