Zoya Jem

I picked up a couple more Zoya colors thanks to Zoya’s excellent Halloween Treat (do yourself a favor and follow them on Twitter – you will get lots of deals this way!)

Zoya Jem! This is a beauty. Two smooth coats of velvety, glittery color. The duochrome flash is stronger in the bottle, but you’ll experience it on the nail as either a nice plummy purple:

indoors

Or as a reddish color with gold highlights:

sun

In the bottle there you can see it chrome-ing its way to a bright yellow but it never gets there on my nails. I love this color wholeheartedly. It’s a gorgeous color in the reliable Zoya formula. Could not be happier.

It’s been really hard to get passably decent pictures since all my daylight hours are spent at work – but I will keep trying! If you want another shot of a particular polish, please let me know!

Essie Lapis of Luxury

Need a break from glitter? Step into the serene embrace of Essie’s Lapis of Luxury:

lamp light

I had to take these in the dark so they are funky. Blue/purple is hard to photograph true to color anyway. This one is my perfect periwinkle. It’s soft and dusty, but I can’t decide whether it’s purple or blue. Perfect.

white balance!

Here’s another view with a different white balance. On my screen, this shot makes it look totally blue, but it’s definitely periwinkle. This is a 3-coater, but the coats dry glossy and smooth. This is one of those Essies that has a translucent finish, not see-through, but deep-looking? It has to be seen to be believed, and it’s my favorite thing about Essie.

I thought I’d try something new for me… a funky french!

 

Funkity

 

This is my very first attempt at freehanding tips. It came out okay… perhaps it’s worth trying again! By the way, this color is part of Essie’s retail line, so you should be able to find it at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, Target, etc. I love it when they are easy to get. :D

 

 

Zoya Neeka

Okay, I was supposed to get these Neeka pictures up right after Yara. I did wear it right after, for a wedding. But the happy event and all the travelling made it so I couldn’t get a good picture. Feast your eyes on these!

 

shadowy sun

 

Don’t you love it?! It’s like Yara, with flat gold speckles, but the other glitter shows up a little more in this one. And I think it’s a flattering purple, kind of dusty. Here’s a bottle shot that’s blurred out to show the colors of glitter:

 

glittery!

 

As I mentioned before, this is part of the Smoke & Mirrors collection.

 

sunny sun

 

Another shot, just for kicks. And to make it picture-heavy, here’s my wedding attire.

 

I’m a slouchy-sloucher. Do you think it goes?

 

 

Zoya Casey

 

Zoya had a BOGO sale for “email insiders” or whatever they call them, and I used the excuse to pick up the famous vampy, Casey.

 

I seriously love the color and the jelly finish, but it’s pretty streaky at two coats:

sunset

 

But the color! So purply-jelly-delicious! The streaks didn’t bother me that much. I wore it like this for two days (hence tipwear) and hastily took pictures while the sun laughed at me and faded away…

 

another view

 

Haha sun. I managed to throw on another coat and do a jelly sandwich. Index and ring are the jelly sandwich (a coat of Confetti Dreamdate between two coats of Zoya Casey.) The middle and pinkie show the smoother but darker 3-coat version of  Casey.  The glitter from the jelly sandwich was extremely subtle in this dark of a polish, but I liked it anyway. I think it might be easier to just buy a glitter in a wine-colored jelly base, but then again, this was fun!

 

Zoya has earned a fan. I love the bottles, the formula and the Smoke and Mirrors collection (more on that to come…)

OPI Lincoln Park After Midnight

This here’s another eggplant vampy, this time with shimmer! It positively glows in sunlight and it even looks good indoors. Unfortunately, it’s mostly dark on a day like today –  completely overcast. So here’s an indoor pic of OPI Lincoln Park After Midnight, not to be confused with the similar but not shimmery Lincoln Park After Dark.

under a lamp

 

This is two coats. It is slightly brushstroke-y, but not too bad. It’s a great pedicure polish, in my opinion, and you can wear William Tell Me About OPI on your fingers if you like to closely coordinate but not match.

:D

William Tell Me About OPI

Yeah fall! I am going through gallons of Red Rose tea and I just can’t stand the thought of wearing brights…

full sun

 

This, my friends, is William Tell Me About OPI. It’s the color of a real eggplant and so right for right nowl. I think the picture is accurate, since you can see that it’s very dark on the nail. Some lighting situations show the bottle color, but in most cases it’s very very dark.

After wearing it at work one massively busy day, I touched up the tips using wrapping technique, which I first learned about here, on All Laquered Up. To get rid of tipwear, start on step 2 and then do another topcoat.

I don’t usually use such stopgaps because I love having an excuse to pull out another color. But this one has me under a spell that shows no signs of ending.  *sigh*