Zoya Flash and Sparkle Collections Summer 2010

Well well well what have we here!? Another double collection from Zoya, which to me seems like bright cremes for summer days and shimmery jellies for summer nights. Hot, just like the season! I like that they went with deeper colors for the season, not light shades or pastels. By making the Flash brights, they keep the summer feeling for the cremes, and by making the Sparkle shimmery they catch a "night out on the town" summery feeling. Hot days, hot nights, hot nails.

Let's start with the cremes - the Flash collection. These remind me of the OPIs of last year which were inspired by those dumb tight pants which make everyone look fat except supermodels and wimpy boys. The Zoya creme formula is nice, maybe a touch thick, thin it with Zoya Renew or another thinner like my favorite, Poshe Polish Reviver, which is like 2 bucks or something for a pretty big bottle.

The sky blue, Zoya Robyn, is very close to OPI No Room for the Blues and Creative Hot Pop Blue (which was my better/cheaper alternative to OPI No Room for the Blues), but it is actually a shade darker.


Zoya Jancyn is a smooth citrus orange, I like it even though I don't, as a rule, like orange. I know OPI had In My Back Pocket - very similar though I believe that was a shade darker than Jancyn.


Zoya Perrie is a medium purple with some red in it, so it isn't much like Zoya Malia or OPI A Grape Fit. It's like a lighter Creative Studio 54 or MAC For Fun.


Zoya Jolene is a pretty standard candy pink. Very very close to China Glaze summer offering, Sugar High, which is much cheaper. It's a lot like Black Phoenix Croquet also, but hotter pink.


Zoya Maura is your standard hot red. I actually kinda like it, even though it's not my style, and is that kind of red I always shreik at when I see it on people's lips. It's a tad bluer than Zoya America, but not so different I see the point, really.


Zoya Dana: fuchsia pink. What's more to say? Cute. It's the same fuchsia pink we see everywhere but it's mercifully free of the omnipresent blurple shimmer, which makes this a kind of relief.


Onto Sparkle Collection - the SHIMMERS!!! The size and style of shimmer reminds me very much of OPI's Winter 2009 Collection I loved so much. These are nice, easily applied shimmery jellies (except for Zoya Nidhi, which is a creme). DELUMPCIOUS!!! They loosely follow the color array of the Flash Collection, with a couple replacements, but in a darker shade. Love!

Zoya Gilda is probably Dana's match, and even though it adds that tired blurple back to the fuchsia, it manages, with the jelly and the shimmer grain size, to be fresh and yummy. I guess it could be Jolene's match if Zoya Alegra is Dana's match, but Gilda matches Dana better than Jolene (see below).


Zoya Mimi is a deep royal purple shimmer jelly. Sweet.


Zoya Alegra, Dana's match? Who knows. Anyway this is a magenta with blurple shimmer. I like it.


Zoya Charla is, in my opinion, the masterpiece. It's like looking at tropical waters. It's an absolutely stunning teal my camera could not do justice. I just stared and stared at this, it is so beautiful. It absolutely glows on the nail, with an almost metallic shine. An instant addition to my top 10 polishes of all time.


Zoya Ivanka is, thankfully, NOT dark green. I am fucking sick of dark greens. I don't think it's the greatest green ever, but it's nice, shimmery, and I love the jelly!


Last but not least Zoya Nidhi is a cream with large blue shimmer. I wish the shimmer showed up more because this counterpart to Zoya Maura is an absolute STUNNER because of the blue shimmer in it. It's hot and original and a must have. LOVE.


Enjoy them, you shouldn't be disappointed with any of them unless you already have a close dupe. But BUY CHARLA!!

Gettin' Warm! China Glaze Poolside Collection for Summer 2010!

They're bright, tight and dy-no-mite! Well, I love neons, so of course I am going to say that. These are probably not colors you don't already have something similar to, though maybe not exact. But they are a great, manageable formula, very bright, and semi- to fully-opaque. These are all three coats, a thin bottom coat, and two relatively thick coats, with, of course, a topcoat, as they dry matte. They dry pretty quickly, so they are easy to apply, and they are inexpensive, one of the reasons (with the fact their colors can't be beat and their whoppingly magnificent glass fleck) they are my favorite brand. I like this collection but I would added a purple to make a full rainbow!

China Glaze Pool Party is the bright hot pink. My favorite of the group. This is actually a bit different than most of the hot pink neons I have. I'm keeping it.


China Glaze Sun Worshipper is a great neon orange. A calmer neon orange than some, kinda like a neon clementine fruit. I was surprised to find the only neon orange I had other than this is Orly Orange Punch, and this is nothing like it. It's a true orange, not reddish orange.



China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini is greener than shown here, but is still too much like China Glaze Celtic Sun in color to be worth it - but - this is far more opaque than Celtic Sun, though it is not fully opaque. It may be worth it to spend the few bucks on this and throw away Celtic Sun.


China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada is a grassy green neon. And while I like it a lot, it is far overshadowed by China Glaze In the Limelight, which is far more opaque. But still what's not to like about this (providing you like neon, and if you don't you have probably already stopped reading)!


China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is that pink with a hint of orange my camera can NEVER capture, so sorry for the picture, but you can get a hint of the color. It's juicy and very bright. At first I thought I had a dupe for this - Essie Punchy Pink, but that is actually darker and pinker, this has a lot of orange in it, and nothing I have is a dupe for it. Claire's Fabulous is the closest I have, and that too is pinker.


China Glaze Towel Boy Toy is a summer sky blue with the lovely blue shimmer that my beloved Color Club Electro Candy neons of last year had. And in fact Color Club Pure Energy is an almost spot on exact dupe, but the Color Club has more shimmer in it.



Are you ready for summer yet? You better start!!

OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection

Meh. Not much else to say. After the winter's incredible reds, these are lackluster and boring. Winter's glitters were more interesting too. I love glitter, especially microglitter, and these are nice ones but they just don't wallop me over the head. Dunno why. Maybe I am over glitter tossed in clear polish unless it totally covers the nail? Who knows.

The OPI Alice in Wonderland Collection is small, and I bought the mini set.

OPI Thanks so Muchness! is red. It's a nice blue red shade. It's no world shaker.


OPI Absolutely Alice is a neat dark blue that seems somehow to have black in it. It has gold micro glitter mixed in with the blue, for interest and dazzle.


OPI Off With Her Red! is oranger in person than the picture. It reminds me of burnt carrot casserole or something.


OPI Mad As a Hatter is a mainly dark purple microglitter with opalescent/pastel rainbow microglitter. If it had better coverage I'd probably be in love. This is four coats.

Zoya Reverie Spring 2010 Collection

I love pink/green duochrome shimmer. I LOVE it. And every single color in Zoya's Reverie Collection for Spring 2010 has it. Oh sigh. It's so fucking purty.

This is a kind of "Valentine's Day" collection, made up of two pinks, two red/oranges, a purple and a silver all in incredibly thick rainbow microshimmer, so thick it's nearly a frost in application. You might see streaks when you put it on, but let it settle and it goes back to a sleek coat. Just try to be a bit even in your application and you should be okay. It's a good formula, Zoya pretty much always is, so it applies nicely and two coats did me for a nice opaque polish job. This absolutely needs topcoat though, for you non-topcoat wearers, as I found it dried a bit dull, but you should wear topcoat anyway. It brings out the full beauty of a nail polish (except a matte, of course).

You can't always see the duochrome effect in my pics, I think the purple, Adina, shows it well, and I think Reece shows the pink aspect okay. Just know it has it.

Zoya Happi, the light pink:


Zoya Reece, the dark pink:


Zoya Gwin, the orangier red/orange:


Zoya Lana, the redder red/orange:


Zoya Adina, the purple:


Zoya Laney, the silver:

MollyHell's Grab Bag! - Nubar Moodies #M138

Nubar Moodies don't work. Pretty much a given. But this one KINDA works. As you can see the tip is a nice warm bronze and the top half of the nail is a beautiful gilded orange falling leaf color. It kind of gives you a fall leaf manicure all on its own.

Nubar Moodies #M138:

OPI Winter 2009 Holiday Wishes Collection!

OPI's Winter 2009 Holiday Wishes Collection consists of two parts. One half is six reds called the "Glamour Reds", and the other six polishes are the "Dark & Neutrals". First let's get the formula out of the way - this was uniformly easy to apply and non-staining, and easy to remove, though the large grain shimmers took a bit more effort. I love OPI's wide brush. It does make the curve at the top of the nail a bit difficult, but it allows for such easy application otherwise. So formula is no problem here.

Let's start with the Darks & Neutrals. I'd say this part of the collection was pretty damned terrific.

I'll start with what I consider the weakest polish of these six, OPI All A-Bordeaux the Sled, and it's only the weakest because this is simply a standard dark wine vampy jelly. So given that it's unoriginal, you have to admit it's incredibly hot. I got the mini set which included this (only $6.11 at TransDesign) and feel no need for a big bottle, but I wouldn't be surprised if you do. It's a year-round great vampy.


I don't normally love browns, but I like Ginger Bells!. It's a great orangy brown creme which absolutely gives me a Fall feeling. It's sleek and shiny, and could go with so many outfits. I used this as the base color for my Migi Nail Art gingerbread man. I think OPI did a great job capturing that kind of fall baked goods feeling with this one. Mmmm, spicy!


Holiday Glow is a prune-like brown/purple with small silver glitter. It's fun, but it's not the standout of this collection.


OPI Sapphire in the Snow. I want to stab someone in the face I love this polish so much. I wish on the finger it was the same color as in the bottle (I found it a bit darker), but it's so cobalt it almost glows from within. It's incredibly gorgeous even if it is so dark. I LOVE this!


Even with the beauties we have already seen, OPI Shim-Merry Chic and the next polish are the real stars of this collection, in my opinion. Shim-Merry Chic is a bronze shimmer/frost just jam-packed with soft pink/gold/bronze flakes, and tiny rainbow flecks. The picture doesn't begin to do justice to its beauty.


OPI Merry Midnight is a wonder. It's a violet jelly also chock full of that gorgeous soft-shade jewel tone flakes that Shim-Merry Chic has, and also the same pinpoint rainbow shimmer. It's so festive, so pretty, so mesmerizing!



The other half of the Winter 2009 Holiday Wishes Collection, the Glamour Reds, well, it's a whole lotta red. I love reds and even I think this is too many. Luckily they are all gorgeous.

Comet Loves Cupid is kinda like All A-Bordeaux the Sled, in that it's been done, so I don't quite understand it's inclusion. I think it's a bit too bold for most people, but it is very sizzling stuff.


OPI Meet & Jingle is a yummy bluish red cranberry-colored frost. Luckily it's only minimally streaky. I like it well enough.


OPI Glove You So Much is a kind of blackened burgundy. It's in that strange place where could be a slight frost, or a subdued shimmer. I kinda go with frost, but it has very little streaking and damn what a color!!! This color is stunning.


Smitten With Mittens is a new top ten entry in My Favorite reds. Deep, rich, and packed with huge shimmer, this just screams fancy party. It makes me feel like I am putting on my best to go celebrate. The color is great and the shimmer is eye-popping.


The last two Glamour Reds are Crimson Carol and Dear Santa. Despite the pictures, Dear Santa and Crimson Carol are quite similar in real life. I kinda don't see the need for both. So pick one, they're both very, very pretty. Dear Santa is slightly darker, Crimson Carol is slightly bluer.



TransDesign sells a mini pack I already mentioned with Comet Loves Cupid, All A-Bordeaux the Sled, Holiday Glow and Shim-Merry Chic, for $6.11. It also has three other polish boxed sets consisting of two full sized Holiday Glow polishes with a bracelet for $9.98. Nice gift! Enjoy these. I think it's a wonderful collection.

*Note: All but Holiday Glow are photographed with glue-on nails!

Halloween Leftover: Ulta Glow Get a Treat OPI Mini Set

Halloween is over, but I picked up this little mini set at Ulta for a whopping $2.99. It has three polishes, a white glow-in-the-dark, a light blue glow-in-the-dark and an orange creme. I have always wanted Boo-Berry, the blue one, so I snagged this set. Now I don't have to pay eBay prices! An added bonus to this pack: these two glow-in-the-dark polishes are by FAR the brightest I have tried, including Sally Beauty, other OPIS, Wet n' Wild, and China Glaze.


OPI Ghostess With the Mostess, the white GITD:


OPI Boo-Berry, the blue GITD, is very sheer but I LOVE the color:


OPI Pumped Up Pumpkin is darker orange creme than the Tattoo Ta-Boo orange, and I like it better.

O! A Daily OPI! - OPI DS Treasure

It's orange.

OPI DS Treasure:

Color Club Master of Disguise Halloween Themed Mini Nail Polish Set

You know I'm behind minis all the way, especially for Polish Monkeys with tons of polish. There's always a new polish being released somewhere, so why not try a bunch of them as inexpensively as possible? Especially when dealing with themed polishes, such as Halloween sets. I like this set just fine. Only $5.95 at Victoria Nail Supply, that's cheaper than one bottle of OPI bought in a brick and mortar store.

This set gives your obligatory white and black, but the orange is so much more fun than the creme oranges, and they add in a great blue shimmer.


Color Club Master of Disguise, your standard glossy black. Formula just fine.


Color Club Ghost of Chance. Hmm is this Chance's Ghost, or did they leave out the "a"? Anyway this one was gluey and hard to deal with.


Color Club Abracadabra is a great orange jelly with big ol' gold glitter, so much funner than a creme! So much more holiday oriented! Love this one!


Color Club TaBoo! is very much like OPI Ink, which I featured today, except it is lighter and much more cobalt than Ink's navy blue. It has the same great deep purple shimmer, again, like Ink, my camera was unable to capture it. A great alternative polish to throw in this set, and very lovely.


The funny thing about this set is it lists the four colors as TaBoo! Abracadabra, Ghost of Chance and "Witchy Woman" not Master of Disguise. I am ASSuming it's just a mistake, and perhaps they decided not to name the black Witchy Woman, but Master of Disguise.