Zoya Pixie Dusts in Godiva and Vespa

I'm loving the textured trend lately, particularly Zoya's rendition of it, the Pixie Dusts. Today I've got Godiva and Vespa to share with you. 

Godiva is a light sandy beige with lots of silver sparkles- these really are best witnessed in person in order to appreciate how much sparkle these pack. They especially come to life in the sunlight. 

Vespa is a dusty light sage green with silver sparkle. Gorgeous, and again even better in person.

While I'm loving the textured trend, I have to say one thing about it- I hate wearing textured polish while flossing my teeth! It just... feels wrong. It gives me the creeps! What do you think of the textured trend? Are you loving it?

OPI - The Man With The Golden Gun

Tonight I've got OPI's The Man With The Golden Gun topcoat to share with you- while I couldn't justify shelling out the cash for this myself, I was pretty thrilled to find it in my stocking at Christmas. The gold flakes aren't very dense in this- what you see below is one coat over Zoya Marley. This is a pretty Easter look, but next time I think I'll try this over a darker colour (although I think I'll wait for a semi-special occasion... I can't help but think plastering gold leaf on your nails requires a special event- I guess grocery shopping doesn't quite count). 

I kind of think this is worth it based on the shiny golden bottle alone- it's like a trophy! Definitely the ideal gift for a nail fanatic. Did you buy into the gold flake topcoat trend this past season?

Zoya Spam!

Happy Easter, everyone! How about some Zoya spam to celebrate? 

Zoya Aurora: gorgeous (and insanely sparkly) scattered holographic purple. Looks different in the following pictures depending on lighting- in reality, it's somewhere in between. 

Zoya Bela: soft and squishy-looking peachy pink jelly.

Zoya Jacqueline: creamy yellow-toned off-white creme.

Zoya Marley: a light pastel purple with soft pearly shimmer. Very pretty, and perfect for Easter!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Zoya FeiFei

After yesterday's post about Gosh Galaxy, I thought Zoya Fei Fei might be an appropriate polish to share. It has the same dense shimmery metallic finish, but has a steely blue base instead of brown. It also has a tremendous amount of gold (and purpley-pink) shimmery flecks in it. Very pretty. 

What do you think of Zoya FeiFei? Given the choice, would you opt for FeiFei or Gosh Galaxy?

Zoya Dove + Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate

Zoya Dove is a gorgeous (you guessed it) dove grey creme. Application was lovely, and it covered in two coats. I'm especially pleased with this grey because it's fairly neutral- it doesn't lean too green or too blue. It's perfect. And now it's my #1 grey creme. 

I decided to top Zoya Dove with two coats of Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate; all in all, I think I prefer Love In A Cold Climate layered over a dark blue, but this is still quite pretty. Mmm, blue heart-shaped glitter.

I purchased Zoya Dove from Nail Polish Canada; when I picked it up, I also nabbed the other polishes from the same collection (Zoya Intimate Collection Spring 2011). At the time, it was on sale for $36- it doesn't seem to be now, but it might be worth keeping your eye on if you're looking to pick this collection up!

Pirate Polish Love In A Cold Climate is part of my Valentine's Day Collection, currently available in the Pirate Polish Etsy shop. I'm currently away, so all orders will ship after my return this weekend, but to make up for the inconvenience I've activated a coupon code to give you a 10% discount off your order- just enter "AWAYONVACAY" as a coupon code and your order will be adjusted accordingly.

What do you think of Zoya Dove as a base for Love In A Cold Climate?

Zoya Gemma

Zoya's Gemma is a drab olive green with a subtle (but not completely hidden) blue flash. The formula was excellent, and covered nicely in two coats. 

This will be a lovely colour for spring, and I'm looking forward to wearing it then... what do you think of Zoya Gemma? Do you like to wear these types of olive/army greens? 

My Birthday Manicure- Zoya Caitlin and Essie Stroke of Brilliance

Although my birthday was actually at the end of November, I'm just getting around to sharing my birthday manicure with you now. Well, better late than never, because this is a really good one!

I decided to layer a gradient of Essie Stroke of Brilliance (a gorgeous smokey metallic blue glitter that I've been dying to get my hands on for ages) over Zoya Caitlin (a demure blue-grey). I'm absolutely smitten with the tone-on-tone creme + glitter combination of steely blues.

Zoya Caitlin by itself:

I really loved wearing this, and left it on for several days (an achievement for me, seeing as how I usually have a very short lacquer attention span). I thought this was a very "chic" glitter manicure; subtle and elegant, but still reflective and sparkly- it definitely caught the light in intriguing ways.

What did you think of my birthday manicure?

Comparison Post with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and Illamasqua Stance

In my post about China Glaze's On Safari collection last week I mentioned doing a comparison post for Kalahari Kiss; I have that (plus another comparison featuring Illamasqua Stance) for you today. 

By far the closest colour to China Glaze Kalahari Kiss in my collection is MAC's In The Buff (a limited edition shade from summer 2010). However, I think these two colours are far from being twins. Kalahari Kiss is much brighter and cleaner, whereas In The Buff has a much dirtier, murkier tinge to it.

Left to Right: China Glaze, MAC, China Glaze, MAC

In The Buff leans towards the greenish/grey side, while Kalahari Kiss is much more of a clean camel-beige. It's also much more wearable than In The Buff, and generally more flattering, in my opinion. Formula-wise, I'll also take the China Glaze over the MAC. MAC's lacquers are notorious for being weak in terms of formula, and this was still a little streaky at two coats, were Kalahari Kiss was perfect.

The other comparison I wanted to share with you features Illamasqua Stance and Zoya Charisma.

When I first tried Illamasqua Stance, it's nearly-neon vividness brought to mind another purple-neon: Zoya Charisma. However, the two are actually quite different.

Left to Right: Illamasqua, Zoya, Illamasqua, Zoya

Illamasqua Stance is much more cool toned and purple leaning, where Zoya Charisma is more of a warm pink-red. Charisma is also more of a true neon, drying with a matte finish. I much prefer the look and finish on Illamasqua Stance. For me, there is no contest here- Illamasqua knocked this one out of the park. You can see my original swatches of it here.

Just for the heck of it I also pulled out NARS Anardana to add to the comparison (it's shown here on the index finger), but it much more of a pink, rather than purple.

I hope these comparisons helped you out! Which colours are your favourite?

Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? Comparison

Today I have a quick comparison post to share with you, featuring two similar and very awesome duochrome polishes. Zoya Ki and Essence Where Is The Party? are both lacquers with a shimmery deep blackened purple base, and flash green and steely grey.

Top to Bottom: Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?, Zoya Ki, Essence Where Is The Party?

It's not very evident here, but in reality Zoya Ki was a bit more blackened looking, a touch darker than the  Essence polish. Other than that, these are very similar colours. They're also both extremely interesting lacquers! I never get tired of the duochrome effect, and these polishes both do it well. If you don't have either of these, I'd recommend Essence Where Is The Party? because it's more accessible and only cost $1.49. A very worthwhile purchase, I'd say!

What do you think of these lacquers? Do you own one or the other? Would you like to?

What's on my toes (on my fingers) - Zoya Tallulah

It's that time again. That is, it's the time for me to show you what's on my toes by swatching it on my fingers for you to peruse. Here we have Zoya Tallulah, a stunningly vibrant medium tone blue. I'm not quite prepared to call it cobalt, as it's a bit lighter than cobalt, but it retains the same intensity. It also has the most incredible electric blue shimmer running through it.

Not only does Zoya Tallulah stand out on your fingers and toes...

It also stands out in a line-up of elephants.

What do you think of Zoya Tallulah? Would you where it on your toes?

Finally, I'll leave you with this wonderful photo of actress Tallulah Bankhead (because I had to google "Tallulah" to see if there were any notables with that name).