Pink Wednesday

Today I have for you Zoya Renee. 
 Zoya describes this as "Ultra-bright red-toned medium neon pink creme" well OK, that clears everything up.  Some people would call this a fuchsia, others would call it more of a bright raspberry, I call it awesomesauce, and all of the above, because really it is.  This was originally part of Zoya's La-Di-Da collection that came out in the summer of 2009, and this is the perfect summer polish.

excuse the cat hair on the top, didn't notice until I edited the pictures.

This bright but not neon raspberry pink takes my pale skin and makes it look tan, and if you already have a tan it's going to make it look so much better.  When I look at my nails with this color on I instantly think summer, to me, Zoya Renee is summer in nail polish form.

shade picture

This is a base of Brucci Miracle Nail Hardener and Essie Beam Up, two medium coats of Renee and a top of Seche Vite.  The formula on this was what I have come to expect from Zoya, which means almost flawless.  I say almost flawless because this polish wasn't the greatest at self-leveling and almost seemed to get thicker in the bottle in the time between the first coat and the second coat.  For this color it definitely wasn't a deal breaker.  I believe that some of the reason for the slightly problematic application was because of what Zoya says in their description, "neon".  Most neon polishes that I have used are somewhat prone to application issues because of the formula required to get a neon color.  I didn't buy the neon claim until after putting the first coat of this on, it dried to an almost vinyl or satin-matte finish, it was definitely not shiny and glossy on it's own.  There is a slight visible nail line (VNL) with 2 coats, but I didn't notice it until I held my hand up to a light source, three coats would almost definitely deal with that problem.  Dry time was good and made better by the addition of a coat of Seche Vite.

sun picture, this makes it look more coral than pink, it is definitely a bright raspberry pink

The SV really brought out the beauty and wow-factor of this polish.  It turned a satin-matte finish into a squishy almost jelly-like finish, which is one of my favorite finishes, I love the juiciness of it.  It also brought forth the shiny, and this color knows how to own the shiny.  If you're looking for a polish that screams "I am summer, hear me roar!" Zoya Renee should be at or near the top of your list in that department, this and China Glaze 108 Degrees are definitely my 2 go-to summer polishes this year.

So what do you think?  Do you own Zoya Renee?  Have you thought about owning Zoya Renee?  What are your go-to polishes that scream summer?

Thanks for stopping by and having a look, until next time.

Zoya Ivanka

Today I have for you Zoya Ivanka.

I got this during a special that Zoya was running on their website, buy something and get 2 polishes, Ivanka and Charla, free.  I had been looking for an excuse to buy Valerie and this was perfect.  I got three really nice polishes for $8.00 plus shipping, so about $14.95 for 3 polishes that cost $8 each.  I'd say I came out ahead on that one.  On to the pictures!

Zoya Ivanka is an almost emerald green polish with gold flakies and green micro-glitter in it, you can see the flakies in the bottle above. It honestly reminds me of a green scarab, that is exactly the green of this polish with lots of gold flakies.

It is absolutely packed with the flakies and glitter.  Boy I had a hell of a time trying to get a color-accurate picture of this.  After eleventy billion tries I just color corrected some of the better pictures.

This pic is color corrected to show the actual color of the polish, my fingers are not usually that red, or the grass behind that intensely green for that matter lol.

Also color corrected, look at all that flakie goodness

All of the pictures are a coat of Beauty Secrets Ridge Filler, and a coat of Essie Beam Up, 3 (three!!) medium coats of Ivanka and 2 coats of Seche Vite.  You could probably get away with just one coat of Seche Vite, but it still didn't feel smooth to me after just one coat so I added another.

The formula on this was somewhat problematic, probably because it was so packed with glitter and flakies.  Zoya lists this as an opacity of 5 (completely opaque) on their website, I respectfully disagree.  It was pretty thick, again likely because of all the flakies and glitter.  The first coat went on pretty sheer, which was a surprise given how thick it was, almost like hair gel, maybe I will have to thin it next time.  With the second coat I could still see a visible nail line, even inside, so I added a third coat.  The third coat got rid of the VNL while I was inside but when I went out into the sun it came back with a vengeance.  Not noticeable in the above pics, but you could definitely notice it in person.  This polish also seemed to take for-ev-er to dry, even the first coat.  The subsequent coats weren't any better.

This was in the shade and you can see how dark my camera wanted to make the polish, it made it this dark even in the sun (not color-corrected)

Non color-corrected sun picture, still too dark Ivanka is more blue than this, not a lot but this looks forest green.

I was overall impressed with this polish, Zoya is quickly becoming one of my favorite polish brands, their colors are gorgeous, and no one does glitter like they do, they pack it in until no more will fit and then they add more.  This makes for an interesting experience removing it, but if you use the foil method you shouldn't have many issues and only a little clean up of rogue glitters after.  It's true what they say, glitter is the herpes of the crafting/beauty world, but so irresistible in polish.

That's all for today, until next time, thanks for stopping by.