Swatch-off: Zoya Peachy Pink Edition ft. Sinful Colors

This week I made the unfortunate decision to hand-wash all of my dishes in hot, soapy water without rubber gloves, because that's how I roll.  Sadly, said rolling lead to what it always does: peely, gross nails that need to be chopped off before anyone can see my shame.  So I'm back to nubbins.  It's not my favorite look, but since I was already up Mistake Alley might as well revisit a previous unfortunate decision of buying four nearly identical polishes.  Hopefully my questionable judgement can help someone else out!

Zoya's Cassi, Clara and Willow; Sinful Colors' Hazard.

Apparently I'm drawn to peach-pinks, as I have managed to pickup Zoya's Clara, Cassi, Willow and Sinful Colors' Hazard, which are all practically identical in the bottle except for a slight variety of shimmer and undertones.

Indigo Bananas - Halcyon, Hermes, Maui and Telephasic Workshop

How pretty is this stuff?  I mean look at Maui, it looks like a robot peacock.  So this is Indigo Bananas, a great small batch individual polish maker.  Her store is absolutely full of this stuff in every color you could imagine.

Telephasic Workshop, Hermes, Halcyon, and Maui.

Just to be open and out there I did get two free upgrades in this order, Hermes and Maui from mini to full sized.

Zoya - Sharon vs Arizona: The Swatch-off

Zoya Sharon v Arizona: Please note the bottles are reversed in this photo.  

Back in Fall 2012 Zoya released a limited edition trio for Peter Som's 2013 Spring/Summer collection containing Neely, Jacqueline and Sharon. Neely and Jacqueline have since been re-released for non-limited edition sales as part of Zoya's Spring 2013 "Lovely" collection, while Sharon stayed Limited Edition, for good reason. That reason? It's almost an exact duplicate of Arizona from Zoya's Summer 2012 "Beach" collection.

Lame.

Even lamer, Zoya went on to re-release Sharon as part of a limited edition promotion in Sping 2013.  I was glad to see my old comparison shot of these two make the rounds at the time, because getting duplicates sucks enough without getting them from the same brand within one year.  I never made a post with that comparison, so figured I'd put one together now in case Zoya ever feels the need to re-re-release Sharon in the future, or if any fellow Zoya addicts feel their collection is incomplete without it.

Arizona and Sharon have the same formula, which is prone to streaking and can be a little on the thick side, so I would highly recommend layering 2-3 thin coats for opacity.  These new swatches both used two regular coats and you can see it's definitely on the thick side.  As far as pigment goes, these two are dupes in my book, though Arizona is a hair lighter and more yellow than Sharon, but the difference is minimal.

Get the Polish:
Zoya's Arizona |  $8+shipping

I took a new swatch photo at the time of this post, but as I have yet to normalize my lighting conditions it came out pretty icky looking, but it's below the cut in case you want to see these colors on a hand.

Fandom Nails 2.0

Welcome to FandomNails 2.0!

Due to some pretty extreme technical issues with Wordpress and an abundance of spam I've made the decision to switch to the Blogger Platform.  I've reposted all manicures and reviews from FandomNails 1.0 and would encourage readers to update their links.  Those of you who subscribe via RSS may need to update your subscriber settings.

With a change in platform I thought now would be a great time to roll out a rebranding effort.  While I still want to provide Fandom-inspired manicures on a regular basis, I found myself overworking my nail polish hobby and burning out quickly. I held off posting swatches and reviews because I wanted to space them evenly between the rather labor-intensive fandom manicures. I was going to rename it, because the blog I want to have isn't really fandom themed, but it would back track on a lot of work, so it's sticking around.

Consider this a general purpose nail polish blog that sometimes geeks out about television, movies, video games and more.  I'm on a big indie polish kick at the moment, but am anxiously awaiting the new Zoya summer collection and hopefully a return of their Earth Day promos.

Sinister Benediction - Horse Feathers

Horse Feathers over Zoya’s Raven (pointer&middle) and Mira (ring&pinky) in artificial light.

Oh Horse Feathers, I don’t even know how to start with this polish. It’s a beautiful multichrome layering polish that flashes from burgundy to purple to royal blue to teal to emerald. As with other layering polishes, the color flashes show up best when layered over a dark base, so here I’ve layered it over black polish (Zoya’s Raven) on my pointer and middle finger, and medium purple (Zoya’s Mira) on my ring and pinky finger. On it’s own it is a buildable sheer polish with a dusty burgundy base and a more subtle flash. It occurs to me I probably should have swatched it on it’s own, whoops.

Painted Sabotage - Moon Jelly

Painted Sabotage – Moon Jelly in direct artificial light.

This is Moon Jelly by Painted Sabotage, a sea green polish with multi-size and shape glitters ranging from micro holographic gold to medium emerald squares, large gold hex and so much more.  Pigmentation is semi-sheer, making it opaque in 2-3 coats on it’s own and is very flexible for layering.  In these photos I am wearing two coats on all fingers except for the ring finger which has one coat layered over one coat of Essie’s Pretty Edgy.

Duplicates: Zoya - Toni & Essie - Recessionista

Duplicate shades (dupes) are the bane of polish hoarders everywhere and are all too common between competing brands seasonal collections.  Particularly when that color is deemed an “It Color” of the season by fashion houses everywhere, like Oxblood for Fall 2012.

The picture on the left was taken in ambient daylight, while the photo on the right was taken in the evening with direct incandescent lighting.

My first impression with Zoya’s Toni was not a positive one.  I worried it would be too vampy to be wearable, but on application I was pleasantly surprised with how flattering and rich it looked.  Another surprise came with the application, Toni applied a little watery for my tastes and I was sure I would need a second coat, however it evened as it dried and came out as a one-coater.  Like most Zoya fall shades, the pigment is ever so slightly smokey.

Essie’s Recessionista came to me thanks to a promotion from Klout.   First of all, can we just stop for a moment and consider how stupid this name is?  Maybe a global economic crisis is not the best way to score sales.  I know polish companies are infamous for horrible names, so I really should just be grateful it’s not named ‘Poor People Amirite’?  That said, the polish itself is quite pretty, and is a brighter, slightly berry-ish version of Oxblood.  It applied nicely, with a very manageable but slightly thickened consistency.  Unfortunately, where Toni evened out when drying, Recessionista let a few thin patches requiring a second coat.

Ultimately I would consider these polishes duplicates and not worth having both in your collection.  Personally, I’m siding with Toni, as I prefer the smoke look to Recessionista’s berry influence, as well as Toni being a one-coat polish.

Get the Polish:
Zoya’s Toni
Essie Stylenomics Collection, Fall 2012, Recessionista

Disclaimer: I was given Essie’s Recessionista because I’m a Klout influencer.  I am under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company.  I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.