Sparkly Zoya's: Final Comparison

Hello Ladies! One final post of this sparkly Zoya blogathon...I just wanted to give some quick comparison bottleshots.  I was originally concerned that Peyton, Blaze and Aurora might be fairly similar before I bought them, but as you can see from the photo below they couldn't be more different.

From L-R : Zoya Peyton, Blaze and Aurora

You can also clearly see from this shot see that the holo glitter in Aurora is much more concentrated that in the other shades, and its utterly mesmerizing on the nail.  It ranks amongst my sparkliest polishes of all (second only to the Smitten Polish 'Magic Words' collection polishes...post to come on these).  So imagine my surprise to see this fantastic comparison post by More Nail Polish comparing OPI DS polishes, Zoya's, Ozotic's and Dance Legend, showing that the Dance Legend WOW Prism polish packs in more glitter than all of them....I strongly predict there will be some DL polishes entering the stash in the near future.

Jen at The PolishAholic (one of my absolute fave bloggers) did a wonderful comparison post of Holiday polishes from several major brands, including the Zoya Ornate collection.  Check it out at this link.

One of the comparisons made on the More Nail Polish post is between Zoya Blaze and Picture Polish Monroe.  On her post these look very similar.  I have both of these so took a quick couple of comparison shots and I think they are quite different.  I think Monroe was re-released with a new formula, and I wonder whether this is why mine is so dissimilar to Blaze....

Left - PP Monroe, Right - Zoya Blaze

As you can see here, in my bottles the PP is a darker shade of red, more of a burgundy, and the Zoya is more pink leaning towards raspberry.  Both are fabulous, and not dupes.  So yes, if you like sparkly red polishes I think it's justifiable to have both.  Then again I think it's justifiable to spend more on nail polish than food, so what do I know?

Finally, I was interested in finding comparisons to Dream with Picture Polish Cosmos (which I don't own, but was considering) and found this great post from the Polished Cricket. In her post she suggests that these are quite similar, but that Dream is better and from her pics I agree.  Definitely no need for both methinks.

Until next time :)

Sparkly Zoya's: "Aurora"

Hello ladies! Today I'm kicking off a run of Zoya posts, showcasing the sparkly polishes that I have in my stash.  I recently went on a Zoya lemming hunt, and these were the spoils :)

First up is hands-down favourite of the bunch: Aurora.  This polish was released in the Holiday 2012 "Ornate" collection.  These jewel toned holo glitters are described as containing "high concentration micro-fine diamond holographic glitter".  Whether this contains actual diamond I don't know, but it certainly sparkles like it does....

Zoya Aurora - artificial light

Aurora is a cool toned magenta, that appears purple in some lights.  It has a jelly base and flawless application.  The glitter particles are fine enough to allow smooth application with no clump-and-drag and leaving a glossy smooth finish.  Removal was also a breeze.  I'm wearing my usual two coats betwixt NE base and HK girl topcoat.  It did need a couple coats to reach opacity.

Zoya Aurora - artificial light - close up

This polish is mesmerizing in every light.  I find some holos can be dull in indirect light, but there is literally not a dull face to this beauty, indoors or out the holo effect is clearly evident and in sunlight this polish is a riot of rainbows.  I found I was still staring at my nails just as much on day 5 as day 1. Wear time was also impressive, I only had minor tip wear after a full week.

Zoya Aurora - in different lights

I've had a major lemming for this polish since I first saw it swatched by the legendary Scrangie...its such a shame she doesn't seem to blog much anymore.  I can't believe I waited to so long to add this to my collection, but it was definitely worth the wait. 

I bought mine from Nail Polish Direct (link on the suppliers page) for £8.95, which is utterly bargainous for a polish of this quality and beauty.  I got it just a few weeks ago, so even though this was a 2012 polish it still appears to be in circulation.

More "Ornate" polish posts to follow...(and a couple from the follow-up "Zenith" collection).

Picture Polish Aurora

Greetings Ladies!  Allow me to introduce you to one of my favourite polishes of all time....Picture Polish "Aurora"....

Picture Polish Aurora

Aurora is, bar none, the most astonishing multi-chrome polish I have ever seen.  Like its name suggests, this polish is the embodiment of the Northern Lights.  The colour shift is predominantly Emerald - Magenta - Purple but there are hints of blue and gold peeking through.  As if all that wasn't excitement enough this polish is also packed with multichrome glitter that is similar to Ozotic 528 (hardly a big surprise given that Picture Polish is made by the same company as the now-discontinued Ozotic).

Picture Polish Aurora - one bottle, a rainbow of colour

Pictured here I'm wearing a couple of coats of Aurora over a plain black polish ('Just Black' by No.7) to make the colour shift pop.  As usual, there's NE base underneath is all and HK Girl topcoat to finish it off.

Picture Polish Aurora - a chameleon polish

This polish simply has to be seen to be believed.  Sadly this is really limited edition.  Originally it was announced there would only be 800 bottles worldwide and that customers would be limited to purchasing one bottle each.  Nail polish addicts worldwide went absolutely crazy trying to get hold of it and it sold out in tens of minutes.  Then miraculously they announced that a further 1000 bottles were going to be made available.  That's some smart marketing right there...

Picture Polish Aurora - natural light

The best colour shift is seen in natural light, in the shade.  It's then that you see several colours on the nail at once and it's 10x more beautiful than this crappy phone camera picture suggests.  In fact it was so pretty that I actually had to drive with gloves on because the effect was so distracting I was worried I was going to crash my car.  I'm absolutely serious about that.  This here is crash your car nail porn. In artificial light, most of the time this polish appears one colour, but whichever colour it picks is GORGEOUS...sit back and enjoy the show:

Picture Polish Aurora - artificial light

This emerald green shade is the dominant colour, and its a beautiful jewel tone, I'd love a polish that was just this single colour all the time. 

and it's also a lovely royal blue....

and a fabulous magenta/purple....

It's so many colours, and all of them gorgeous. What I loved about this polish were those moments when three or more colours were on the nail at the same time, the combination of the green and the pink is just astonishing. 

I bought my bottle from Sally Magpies (link on supplier's page) for £13.50.  There will apparently be a restock of this shade sometime in March (at Sally's and at Rainbow Connection).  So get your clicking figures at the ready ladies because you're not going to want to miss this. 

I predict that this will be my favourite polish of 2014...

Also check out collection-mates Borealis, Gravity, Altered State, Solar Flare & Illusionist.

Don't Make Me Wine - China Glaze Autumn Nights

Today I have another totally lush polish from the recent China Glaze Autumn Nights (Fall) collection - "Don't Make Me Wine" (DMMW).  Shown here is two coats of colour with the usual NE undies and Seche topcoat.

China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine - Natural Light

DMMW is an intense magenta glass flecked shimmer, with a blackened edge to it that's utterly gorgeous.  There's really nothing more to say than that - it's like raspberry velvet for your fingers. You definitely need this.

China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine - Artificial Light

 My camera handled this a lot better than its collection-mate Red-Y and Willing, which was likewise a total win.  A little later I'll have my final buy from this collection - Tongue and Chic.  Not to give any spoilers away but it's also fab.  CG have made an awesome fall collection this year, definitely my favourite of all the brands.  I also picked up a couple of the Halloween collection that will follow soon, and are also totally rocking. I've not looked closely at their Christmas collection yet, but I'd expect it to be pretty sweet given what they've been pulling out the bag this year.

I picked this polish up at a Sally Salon for £6.95, and I reckon it will become a firm favourite in my collection (by which I mean I might possibly wear it as often as three times a year....so many polishes, so little time!)

Dreamer - Hits Mari Moon


My mani this week is the utterly gorgeous Hits Mari Moon "Dreamer" from the MultiGirl collection of multi-chromes.  This is a stunning multi-chrome, and like all the Hits polishes the effect is really strong (see my post on "Unconventional", another incredible polish from this collection).  This is a picture heavy post as I tried to capture all the colour variations, but its one of those shades that really has to be seen to be believed. 

I apologise for the state of my nails...they are sad little nubbins, I had to cut them all off to take up climbing!  I also apologise for the terrible state of my cuticles.  I'm going to have to find a way to mix adventure and proper hand care...



Hits Mari Moon "Dreamer" - Sunlight

And now for the science....as with all proper multi-chrome polishes, the colour that you see depends on the angle of your nail relative to the main light source.  The dominant shade in "Dreamer" is the electric blue shown in the picture at the top, this is the shade you see viewing your nails straight-on.  At slight angles either side of this a strong purple appears, that blends into magenta as the angle increases.

 

 

I started out with Nail Envy basecoat, an 'underwear' coat of Rimmel Black Cab, two coats of Hits Dreamer, and finally a coat of Seche to finish.  The formula on the Hits polish is fantastic.  I'd guess that on its own it would take at least 3 coats to be opaque, but with a coat of underwear you could easily get away with a single coat.

 

 

At the most oblique angles to the light source this polish takes on the colours of a beautiful sunset - shades of gold and red.  What I was trying to capture in the pics above and below is that at certain angles you get a mix of all colours and it looks like a beautiful oil slick of red, blue, purple and gold.  For some reason the moment that this perfect show of colour happens most is when I'm in the middle of driving and that's really not the best time to be snapping pictures so you'll have to make do with my best attempts stationary....

I picked up my Hits polishes from the fabulous Sally Magpies, which I highly recommend for finding fabulous exotic overseas brands and indie polishes here in the UK.