Zoya Feel Collection - Winter 2011

My heart grew three sizes when I saw the promo pictures and preview swatches of the Zoya Feel collection - six soft cremes for winter. I had the same reaction to the Misa 9-5 collection, of which I ordered all but one. I'm not sure why these colors are so appealing to me - they're not all that unique, or eye catching to others, but I just really love the way they look on the nail. The colors remind me of angora sweaters...soft and cozy. And they're completely appropriate for almost any workplace.

I ordered four of the six colors in the collection: Kendal, Kennedy, Kristen and Carey.

Kendal

Kendal is a soft purply gray - too dusty and gray to be lavender. This would be a great shade for anyone who has trouble with lavender shades or just doesn't care for Easter egg-type colors.

Kristen

Kristen is a soft blue creme with a lot of gray in it. Typically I'm not crazy about baby blues on me but this has enough gray in it to change my mind. I found myself looking at this polish a lot...it's unusual in my collection.

Carey

Carey is a gray creme and is pretty standard. I have...um, a bit of a problem with gray cremes...I have to stop myself from buying them sometimes. This is a really pretty choice if you are in the market for a gray creme, though!

Kennedy

Kennedy was my runaway favorite in this bunch. I'm sorry the picture is a little unfortunate (my cuticles are suffering with the arrival of colder weather) but this is almost a perfect "mannequin hands" shade for me! I got a lot of compliments on this one...weird how sometimes the quietest polishes elicit the most response.

All of the four shades I bought were excellent in terms of formula. All but Kristen could even be one coaters if your application is very good - Kennedy in particular was nearly perfect in one coat. The Zoya brush is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and each of these polishes applied beautifully. Wear time was good for me - I got probably 3-4 days out of Kendal and Kennedy, though Kristen chipped the morning after I applied it and I only wore Carey for about 24 hours.

As usual, I used Palladio Fuse base coat, Palladio ridge filler and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (red bottle) top coat with most of these. I tried Rush 60-second top coat with Carey and it didn't work all that well. I'll try it with different polish brands though...Zoyas can be funny about top coats, which is why I don't use Seche Vite with them.

Overall, this is a really nice collection of neutrals with something that should suit a variety of skin tones. If you're always looking for more work-appropriate shades, these would be perfect to consider!