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!!

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:

China Glaze Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection

I've had these a while, but with Holidays and an issue on the 30th I had not yet posted them.

What a bullseye. China Glaze Spring 2010 Up And Away Collection exactly hits that happy fresh spring mark, and this time while there are many colors I find few if any superfluous. Fun, frisky, candy-coated confections!! Exciting! There are only a few colors I would call pastel, most are vibrant. And I LOVE them. They are all cremes and I had to start thinning them after a bit to apply better, but a few drops of thinner and a topcoat makes these lovely shades I will be reaching for often. So well done, China Glaze. Kudos!!

China Glaze Flyin' High is a smoky medium blue. I can't wait to wear this with a matching tshirt. Dunno where THAT fashion mistake idea came from. But I want to. :P


China Glaze Four Leaf Clover seems more teal to me. But so great!


China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint! Mint is not my color but this is fresh and sweet.


China Glaze Lemon Fizz, light yellow. Nice shade, not orange, not gaudy.


China Glaze Happy Go Lucky is a bright sunny yellow. I don't like yellows, but this is well done.


China Glaze High Hopes. I think this orangy red looks exactly like a persimmon.


China Glaze Peachy Keen. Peach! I am sure somewhere I have a dupe of this. But it is a lovely peach. Not too pastel, not too orange.


China Glaze Heli-Yum. Yum indeed. Love it.


China Glaze Sugar High. So sexy girly candy. I want to suck on my fingertips like a flirt. COME AND EAT ME.


China Glaze Something Sweet is a pretty standard pink, but I like the hint of blue.


China Glaze Light as Air. Again we probably all have a dupe, but this is soooo nice.


China Glaze Grape Pop - GREAT shade. I don't recall having anything exactly like this, certainly not in a creme. Edited to add this shade is very close to China Glaze Grape Juice but no glass fleck.



Pick some of these up. These will be great fresh pops of color for spring, and will easily transfer into summer.

Island Girl Nail Polish

I dunno who makes this polish, Island Girl, but it has a VERY familiar sort of daisy shape on the top of the cap (no not Color Club). But it is sold at these stores in the mall called "ABC", which are the kind of convenience store that preys on hungry/needy shoppers and tourists and sells them massively overpriced items. I always ignore it until one day the corner of my eye caught a big nail polish display! These are only $2.99 and they have a large array of colors, but they are mostly very bright and/or glittery. So if you like that search them out.

I bought four but one ran away. I have no idea where it is, I mean it.

Island Girl Island Color is tiny pink and silver glitter, very opaque with a few coats.


Island Girl Island Volcanic is not volcanic, but it is a very nice blue semi-metallic. It has this neat grainy quality I really like. Reminds me very much of NDB Midnight. Easy to apply, and one coat perfect.


Island Girl Mahalo Dream - Very sheer orangy-pink jelly with rainbow glitter.

Black Phoenix Claw Polish

I was the very lucky recipient of some of the illustrious Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's nail polish, which they call Claw Polish (love it)! BPAL doesn't just make hundreds of incredible artisan perfume oils in "magickal, pagan and mythological blends, Renaissance, Medieval and Victorian formulas, and horror / Gothic-themed scents", they do jewelry, Tshirts and assorted neat stuff which fortunately includes a growing offering of nail polishes (under the Black Phoenix Trading Post arm of the site). Mostly now it is blacks and browns, deep reds and a few pinks, and one glow in the dark. I hope to see them branch out! They certainly have enough inspiration.

First thing that is notable is the formula was quite surprising. It was terrific. A polish line in which the CREMES are more manageable than the jellies??? Wow. Dries fast, hard and just like glass. It's incredibly shiny stuff. I would use topcoat for protection but it is in no way needed for a glossy finish. It's kickass. The brush may be a bit stubby for you long brush lovers, but otherwise is standard. Anyway all due accolades to the talented people at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Thank you!!

I tried a different style photograph for these polishes, inspired by the "Claw Polish" name. Yes, Napoleon, I have large talons. If you hate it feel free to call me an asswipe.

You're going to have to take my word for it that Destroying Angel is not black. it's a dark chocolate, but it's browner than the picture. I am sure I will try again at some point.


Smokestack is actually a very dark blurple jelly with a ton of very fine subtle shimmer. It packs far more punch than you think it will. Very nice.


Croquet they call a flamingo pink, I think it's a bit softer and a great deal prettier than flamingo. Bet the Sissies will love this one!


Malediction is simply black, with that stunning super-gloss that China Glaze Patent Leather has. This is a jelly, not a creme.


Sed Non Satiata is a smooth, sleek berry.


Robotic Scarab is a gleaming bronze shimmer. I drool on this.


Bordello is a beautiful lightly metallic raspberry shimmer. Suckable!

MollyHell's Grab Bag - Sinful Love Nails and Sinful Pinky Glitter

There's a sale at Walgreen's this week, buy one Sinful, get the second free! I think it runs through Sunday, Novermber 22nd. Here's two Sinfuls I bought, for a total of $2!

Sinful Love Nails:


Sinful Pinky Glitter:

China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns!

I got a great package today! Whee! Wizard of Ooh Ahz Returns! Here is what China Glaze has to say about it:

"Click your Ruby Pumps and come travel with China Glaze down the yellow brick road to meet "The Wizard of Ooh Ahz"! Just in time for the holidays, China Glaze is re-releasing the ever-so popular Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection! Very similar to the original version that was released in 2001, these colors will remind you of exactly why China Glaze glitters are always in the forefront! Colors in the 6 piece acetate include:
Ruby Pumps: An all time red glitter favorite!
Good Witch: Pink Frost with specks of pink micro-glitter
C-C-Courage: Purple Frost with specks of purple micro glitter
Dorothy Who?: Blue polish with massive amounts of silver and blue glitter!
Cowardly Lyin': Gold frost with specks of gold micro glitter
the Ten Man: Silver frost with specks of silver micro glitter

China Glaze will take you to that special polish place, some where over the rainbow with these gorgeous glitter polishes!"

The formula is good, stays in place. This stuff is a bit sheer, all of these pictures are three coats. It dries quickly. VERY sparkly. These pix are on glue-on nails (except Ruby Pumps). All have topcoat, which I think the frosts need as they dry semi-matte. Without further ado, the polishes:

Let's start with Ruby Pumps, ruby red jelly with red glitter. This has not changed from the Ruby Pumps they always sell, so it's of course gorgeous.


The Ten Man, frost with tiny bright sparks of silver. Glitterier than the picture. The tip of the bottom finger is how glittery the polish actually is, also the gold and pink and purple.


Cowardly Lyin' is also far glitterier than the picture. Rely on the bottle to see the flash, as somehow this and the silver kinda photographed more showing the frost base than the micro-glitter.


China Glaze Dorothy Who? is a nice medium blue jelly, kind of a light cobalt, with silver and blue tiny glitter, and I also see light purple micro glitter in there too. Even blingier than in the picture.


Good Witch is a very pretty medium rose frost with tons of pink micro glitter. Once again go look at the bottom finger tip of The Ten Man picture to know how sparkly this really is.


C-C-Courage is my favorite. A dark grape purple frost with a somehow dusky tinge to it, it has not only great little micro-stars of purple glitter but a super all-over purple sheen to it.


So there ya go. I do not know if these are glass flecks or not, the insert I quoted only says they are glitters. I will email China Glaze and ask, then update this post. Also there is no appearance of the rumored on Twitter redo of Emerald Sparkle with gold glass fleck. I know they re-released Emerald Sparkle recently in a sort of themed re-release of old colors for the Holidays, called "Love You Snow Much", which also had Ruby Pumps in it. Maybe the redo of Emerald Sparkle is a fiction, or maybe it'll come later. I'll try to see if I can get an answer on that.