Thursday, October 14, 2010

Review: Zoya Valerie

My Zoya polish in Valerie arrived today (my first Zoya! Woohoo!).  Without even seeing how it wears, I'm going to go ahead and declare this my favorite polish of all time.  I take my nail polish very seriously.  I've never had a favorite before.  Valerie is everything I've ever wanted in a polish--purple, vampy without being mistaken for black, and chockful of gorgeous, multi-hued glitter.
 
Have you ever bought a lovely, deep vampy color that looks perfect in the bottle and then totally falls flat on the nail?  Valerie is like the exact opposite of that. Zoya describes it as royal purple, dark violet, red, deep pink, and gold iridescence with a sparkling finish.  To me, it's a blackened warm purple base with fuchsia, gold, and purple microglitter.  Even though the base is dark, there's so much shimmer than even in shadow it won't be mistaken for a black.  It is defiantly purple, and seems to glow from within.


Disclaimer: My swatches DO NOT do it justice at all.  Check out Vampy Varnish's swatches for a better idea.


I wanted to do a couple different angles of the bottle to show how the shimmer varies depending on the light.  The gold doesn't come across as strongly on the nail (I just realized that it's Laker's colors.  I'm such a subconsciously LA girl).

Zoya polishes are $7 at zoya.com.  I got mine for $8 with shipping on eBay.  The Zoya brush is a bit smaller than the OPI brush, which was a little frustrating but no big issue.  I'd say that the polish, however, was way more pigmented than any OPI polish I've ever seen.  I could have done one coat and had it be completely opaque, but I did two out of habit.  Since it's so glittery, the finish itself isn't as shiny as it would be with a creme polish, so you'll need top coat if you want the glitter and the shine.



Awkward Chic rating: A+.  I decided to buy a backup before I even applied this.  It is literally the prettiest, sparkliest polish I have ever seen.  The vampy purple base keeps it from being kiddish, and in direct sunlight your fingers look like they're on fire.  In the best possible way.

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