Zoya, Veruschka

I wore this polish for last Christmas, in lieu of all the people wearing ChG Emerald Sparkle/Ruby Pumps/things that are red, green, gold, silver, and shiny. I liked the velvety look of Veruschka, like expensive wrapping paper or like warm comforter. It suited my favorite part of Christmas more--less about the glitz and the parties and the wrapping paper, more about the fireplace glow of the holiday.

Anyway, it's September now (already) and Veruschka still seems appropriate for heralding in crisp mornings and red leaves and gray skies. It's a deep, blue-based forest green with a velvety sheen and little tiny silver shimmer particles interspersed within the polish to give it more depth than a flat, creme-like matte base would usually allow. I'm under the impression that it also helps with the overall smoothness of the polish--matte may normally allow for a lot of mistakes to show, but I could be wrong. Veruschka is my only matte polish.

Like any other matte (so far as I know), Veruschka dries extremely quickly, so there is little time to paint a nail completely. I still found application fairly easy and applied two coats just in case--if I were faster and more careful, one would probably have been enough. Of course, one should wait until the base coat is completely dry or not wear it at all--this rule also applies to topcoat.

:3

And, of course, this is what it looks like without topcoat--kind of like a finish between the scattered and distinctly-particled glitter/glassfleck, and also the fineness and easily-removeable shimmer. I liked it a lot--it looked like it had tons of depth, although I can't really speak much for the sparkle. The gray days continue. :)

On to other news:  I've recently purged and reorganized my stash in a drawer underneath my desk and I've discovered that I'm a lot less of a brand collector than I thought I was. Also, that I had a ton more OPIs than any other brand. I'd somehow assumed that the list would be dominated by either Essie or China Glaze, but I have one Essie (that is, Jelly Apple:  I gave away the others to people who would've appreciated and used them more) and four China Glazes. My dominant finish of choice is creme or glitter, and there's hardly any other sort in sight. I have never not been on low-buy, and due to my nonexistent budget--I need every single coin I have--I have been on super-low-buy for months.

I know the must-haves for every single upcomming/recent collection, lately, and quite a huge lemming list of my own. But now I'm curious:  what are your top used/nostalgic/signature polishes that you can't live without, regardless of the new trends and the crazy lemmings? What brings you back to all of this, again and again?
 What have you noticed about your own collecting habits, if you collect at all?  :)

Zoya Irene

Um wow. Sorry guys, I disappeared for a... a month? I've been good and not wearing chippy polish, but most of them were repeats and my camera died and had to get a new one and my lamp is still not working and I have to get a new one of those, too, and now I sound like I'm making excuses for myself. Blegh. I'm sorry.

Anyway, here's Zoya Irene, which I picked up during Zoya's Green Friday sale. I rather like Zoya. It works well with my base and top coats, and my body chemistry. They have lots of sales. They have a lot of colors. They also have Remove +, which is my HG remover.

I also really like this green, although I'd been skeptical when I first took a look at it. Most yellow colors wash me out and make me sallow, but I think Irene is kind of flattering. It's sort of a metallic, mossy green, and was done in two coats. It is the exact color I associate with the name Irene, which has this practical, down-to-earth feel for me.

Haha. :P Sorry guys, I just love this. I always want to wear this color with leather and heavy eyeliner, but I think I just wore skinny jeans and combat boots and called it a day. Sorry for the tipwear; Irene is somewhat brushstroky and I usually get rid of that problem by using a thick amount of polish and applying lightly. It works--but once you put quick-dry tc on it, it goes through massive shrinkage.

The base color for the ring finger is Nicole by OPI's Shimmy Shimmer, and I smattered Irene on top of it for that weird river-rock look.

I have more posts coming up, and I've been blog-tagged twice, so I hope to see you soon!

Oh, and quick question to any of my readers: I'm on no-buy, but do I NEED OPI Mad As A Hatter?

I think I might need it. But I'm not sure. x_o

Zoya Raven

So. My first non-pink polish was a black one and I'd used it up--oh, last summer. So when I went on search for a new one, I'd decided to splurge during Zoya Insanity on the Raven, who is the reported Chanel Black Satin dupe. Of course I went for it.

I'm kind of in love with it, too, but details on that below:

Indoors--I can NEVER give indoor pictures clarity, for some reason.
Far off.
Sunlight.

This is two coats of Zoya Raven: it only needs two coats, but it most definitely needs two coats: the first coat is sheer. What makes this polish unique from the average flat black creme is first its lack of pigmentation: this is clearly a base color polish; not a complicated nail art polish at all. Second is the "satin-y" silver finish that glimmers just so on the surface of the nail: I think you all can kind of sort of see it on the pinky finger on the last picture. It's there. It is indeed reminiscent of black satin ribbons. It is also reminiscent of that strange silver sheen in raven feathers. It is very glossy and very sophisticated--given that you can make it not chip.

This is fun, because a lot of people complain that Zoya is chip-effing-tastic. I actually found that it stayed pretty well on my fingers for a dark polish--I'm changing it now after three days or so because my thumbs have chipped badly and needs more protection. I don't necessarily think it's bad, but... I'm not fond of black polish anymore. I don't know why; I'm just tired of it. Maybe I need to put Raven away unless I need a good base for another art experiment--I can't imagine just wearing this just because.