Okay my darlings, the lovely fairies at Zoya saw fit to send me this summer's Magical PixieDust collection, and I must say that it is STUNNING. Yes, these are press samples, but no, I didn't have to love the heck out of all of them.
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| Zoya Bar, shaded sunlight |
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| Zoya Arlo, shaded sunlight |
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| Zoya Ginni, shaded sunlight |
Before I go into my descriptions, here are the outdoor shaded pictures of
Bar,
Ginni, and
Arlo, so you can go onto www.zoya.com to order all three right now. You really won't be sorry. If you like shiny, feminine, beautiful polishes, these are all must-haves. No joke. The photos are all taken with two coats of polish--no top coat, so you can really see the texture and finish of the polish.
First up is Ginni. I have to admit, I was originally looking forward to Ginni quite a bit when I got the press release back in April, as I like soft, pink colors. After receiving, swatching, and wearing Wendy, Rooney, Kitridge, Harper, Binx, and even Jesy and Rocha, I sort of was over anything pink, or even pinkish. I was also a bit wary of the fact that Zoya tended to go super bright and candy/ girlie in lieu of rosy this summer, and I thought Ginni might have been a textured version of Harper, but without the gold tones. It in no way is. As a note on the pics, Ginni didn't want to photograph in the sun well. At all. This was the best I could do, and I know it's blurry. The holo glitter kept kicking it out of focus, which actually wasn't a problem for the other Magical Pixies, luckily. Just Ginni. Sigh.
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| Zoya Ginni, indoors in natural lighting |
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| Zoya Ginni, direct sunlight |
Zoya describes Ginni as "a glittery pink tourmaline in the best-selling, ultra textured, matte, holographic Magical Pixie formula." I appreciate that Zoya is trying to use gemstones in the descriptions of these polishes. I do. Really. Except that they're not particularly accurate--not in this case. Pink tourmaline is frequently super bright, and would have pretty much been close to Rooney in terms of color--bright, blue-toned pink. I find Ginni to be really well balanced. While it is definitely feminine, it's not overly bright.
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| Zoya Ginni, indoors in artificial lighting |
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| Zoya Ginni, taken with a flash |
I should note that I also have Lux from the Spring collection, which I have swatched in the past. It definitely is not a dupe. They're both pale pinks, but Lux reads super silvery on me, to the point where I've confused it with Cosmo. Ginni manages to be soft without washing out in color--the pink doesn't overpower, but it also is quite present. The holo glitter in Ginni is also really quite pretty, adding a nice fire to it, and complimenting the pink in interesting ways. It's a very feminine polish that isn't over-the-top or overwhelming. I think the larger hex glitter is both holo AND pink in Ginni--not just holo, like in Lux.
Zoya Bar is described as "a glittery nude topaz in the best-selling, ultra textured, matte, holographic Magical Pixie formula." I'm not going to lie here: I read
Twilight, and, like most everyone else who did, have no real idea what topaz really means beyond a general gold-like hue. Actually, I also know that there is a topaz in pretty much every shade of the rainbow, and I'm assuming that when Zoya said nude, they meant gold-ish like Stephanie Meyer. Competing with that mental image, however, was the nude descriptor, which made me think of Godiva, Zoya's nude PixieDust from their original Spring 2013 collection. It's one of my all-time favorite polishes, but I was a bit afraid that Bar was going to be a holo, chunkier version of Godiva.
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| Zoya Bar, indoors in natural lighting |
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| Zoya Bar, direct sunlight |
I was mostly wrong on both accounts. I find it really hard to gauge how a polish will look on Zoya's website, as we all know, so I really was expecting Bar to be a bit lighter, especially since there was the "nude" descriptor. It's almost a light brown, but with nice warmth, but not too yellow. It'd work really well with a tan, I think, as a flesh tone. I have to say, I think this looks absolutely stunning on me. Godiva is more yellow than my freakishly pink skin, and Tomoko isn't really trying to be nude, but Bar actually looks the most natural on me, perhaps because it's not too close to something it's clearly not. It brings a warmth to my skin tone that really flatters in a surprising way, without being yellow, which actually might be the key here. My skin is never yellow, and that's what Godiva really is, in essence.
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| Zoya Bar, taken with a flash |
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| Zoya Bar, indoors in artificial lighting |
I always have scoffed at the descriptions of Bella falling into Edward Cullen's topaz eyes, but if topaz is actually as pretty as Bar, I'd get lost in topaz, too. The holo glitter really makes Bar pop on the nail, too, which pretty much goes without saying, but shouldn't be ignored, either. Again, it doesn't overwhelm the color itself (and there appears to be larger hex nude glitter along with hex holo glitter, too), despite Bar being in the nude family. I hate to admit it, but these swatches are actually me with a bit of a tan, so I will be interested to see what I think of Bar in the middle of the winter, when my skin is hard to distinguish from the snow outside. For now, it's a surprisingly serious love for me.
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| Zoya Bar, one coat in direct sunlight |
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| Zoya Bar, one coat in shaded sunlight |
As an FYI, Both Ginni and Bar look absolutely amazing with
only one coat, as well. I went a bit too heavy on the first coat with
Ginni to provide pics of that, but Bar is seen here with only one
coat... it's dainty, right? You get enough color without it being
overwhelming, and enough sparkle without it being too much. I'm sure
it's how I'll wear it 90% of the time.
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| Zoya Bar, one coat indoors in natural lighting |
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| Zoya Bar, one coat indoors in artificial lighting |
Side bar--after wearing it for a while, I've decided that it's like
wearing the beach on your nails, a bit, too, which is fun.
Seriously--what's a better summertime mani than wearing the beach on
your fingers? Right now, I'm wearing Muse from the Bubbly collection on
my toes, which is a mermaid blue, and I think it might be the most
amazing summer beach mani/pedi combo ever.
Arlo is described by Zoya as "a glittering violet amethyst in the best-selling, ultra textured, matte, holographic Magical Pixie formula." Arlo is a polish I knew I was going to love. I have a few pieces of amethyst, and all of them admittedly lean a bit more blue than Arlo, but there is a lot of variety in the stone, so I'll give them this one, begrudgingly. It's definitely an on-trend color, leaning a bit towards Radiant Orchid. I'll be really honest here: Arlo is the color I really wanted Binx from the Bubbly collection to be. Binx ended up much more pink than I thought it was going to be, and had strong gold metallic glitter that really subdued the purple tones that I was excited about.
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| Zoya Arlo, direct sunlight |
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| Zoya Arlo, indoors in natural lighting |
The hex glitter in Arlo is both purple and holo, like in the other summer Magical Pixies, and it really helps keep the integrity of the shade, while adding the dimension of the holo. It's stunning in Arlo, truly. I don't know if I see any of the violet aspect in Arlo that is in the description, but I also don't know that I care. It's much darker than the other two, though still remains pretty and feminine. The purple still has a lot of pink in it (again, I think it leans towards the Radiant Orchid spectrum) so it's a rather versatile color.
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| Zoya Arlo, taken with a flash |
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| Zoya Arlo, indoors in artificial lighting |
Some people get scared of purples, as they can be rather assertive, but despite the fact that Arlo is a textured polish with heavy glitter, it really isn't overwhelming. Arlo is a bit on the juicy side, compared to the other two. I could see it being quite lovely with a top coat over it--almost like a grape jelly with glitter and loveliness. The darker background colors in Arlo really fade nicely when dry, though, and the colors sort of melt on the nail. Quite lovely. Because it's darker, it will also hold up on toes well, too, for a nice, sparkly pedicure.
This Zoya collection was incredibly gorgeous. I thought the colors were really well balanced. The Spring Magical Pixies had a bit too much holo glitter in them, and you really lost the matte look. They also were a bit too textured then, too, and I think they've evened out a bit on that aspect, as well, though they are a little more coarse than the regular PixieDusts from Zoya. These three polishes are a big improvement over the Spring's collection, which were already a nice line that sold out amazingly fast. I think the biggest improvement is adding hex glitter in the polish's base color instead of just holo; while I adore holo glitter, it tended to swallow the colors on the Magical Pixies before, and these shades are allowed to come through beautifully, while still having a substantial amount of holographic glitter in them.
I've always been a huge fan of the textured polishes-particularly Zoya's PixieDusts, but was a bit less enthusiastic about the Magical Pixies from the Spring. Zoya came back stronger than ever with this summer collection, though, and my only compliant is that it's only three colors. I wasn't as sad about the quantity in the spring, but I am missing the six color collection right now, man...big time!
Next post is going to be a dupe check for these Magical Pixies. I'll be comparing Bar against Godiva and Tomoko, and Ginni against Lux and Miranda. I figured it'd be nice to see them side by side, both in bottles and on the nail, so keep a look out for that.
Pretty soon I will have a post on Zoya's Rebel, which I bought during their $1 shipping promo. I keep telling you guys to watch
Zoya's blog and
twitter (@ZoyaNailPolish) pages for a reason. They decided to have a promo for expedited shipping for $1 with any $15 purchase... the code was JUSTBC, which pretty much sums it up for you. They're always running promos like that. I snagged myself Rebel and Dillon, as well as Dot for my mother. I had passed over these three polishes when I saw the press releases for Spring's Awaken collection, but when Zoya sent color spoons out with a minicure promo, I realized that I had dismissed these babies too quickly. I always seem to find myself disappointed in blue and green polishes, but these are NOT to be missed. Reviews and swatches will come soon.
Until then, stalk Zoya's twitter and blog like I do. I really don't think you'll be sorry! Oh--and BUY ARLO, GINNI, and BAR! Right now! They're amazing!
I'll see you soon, my darlings!
Emily, the Manic Paintress
a glittery nude topaz in the best-selling ultra textured, matte,
holographic Magical Pixie formula. - See more at:
http://www.zoya.com/content/item/Zoya/Zoya-Nail-Polish-in-Bar-ZP761.html#sthash.T4ibcjbQ.dpuf
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