Zoya Codie

I've ordered rather a lot of Zoyas over the past several months. They just kept having sales or promos that appealed to me (BOGO and free ship? SOLD).

One Zoya that I've hemmed and hawed over for months and finally bought is Codie, which is described on the Zoya site as a "blackened espresso brown creme with subtle olive undertones." Now, I must confess: I normally steer clear of brown polish. As in...I never buy it. Ever. It's the one category of color that just doesn't do it for me at all. I've owned exactly two brown polishes - Essie Little Brown Dress, because it came in a set with three other colors, and Dr.'s REMEDY Desire Dark Brown, which was sent to me for review. I virtually never reach for them (and in fact I think I may have passed Desire Dark Brown on to someone else).

But Codie intrigued me, with those "subtle olive undertones." So, I finally pulled the trigger. Can't beat half price, after all!

There was a little bit of drama with Codie. I opened my bottle to do a manicure last week and found...a mess. The polish was stringy like whoa. These fine, wispy hairs of polish would float all over the place when I pulled the brush out of the bottle. Huge clumps of polish were clinging to the brush and brush stem. It was just...really bad. Ordinarily if a polish is slightly thick I just suck it up and get out my trusty Seche Restore but this seemed very far gone. Happily, when I wrote the company they responded quickly. After sending a picture of the compromised bottle Zoya sent out a replacement right away.

So here I am with my new, formulaically perfect bottle of Codie and what can I say? I really quite like it. It's dark and chic without screaming BROWN or BLACK. Must be those olive undertones. Perhaps you can get a better sense of them here:

There's a certain murky quality to it that I really like.

The formula for Codie was great. A bit thin, maybe even watery on the first coat but the second coat makes it perfection. I've been so impressed with Zoya's formula in the last several collections, particularly their cremes. Wonderful and opaque, even self-leveling in some cases (this is a quality I prize above almost all others in nail polish).

I bought this on Zoya.com. The price is $8 but I used a promotion code and got it for half price. Whee! Codie was part of the fall 2011 Smoke & Mirrors collection.

Zoya Codie

Jade Vermelho Surreal

Confession: I'm more picky and fussy about buying polish than I've ever been before. I barely throw it a glance when I walk into a drugstore. This morning in CVS I didn't even look. I've been wearing a lot of my older favorites lately (today: Misa Cherry Topping).

But that's not to say I'm immune to a charming stranger, like Jade Vermelho Surreal. This is a dark red linear holo, and it just so happens that "dark red linear holo" is music to my ears. I have plenty of red linear holos and holo sparkles in my collection but I can almost always find room for another (you can see a comparison post of other red holos here).

Anyway: Jade Vermelho Surreal.

It's a nice, dark red. I haven't compared it on the nail to Hits Ares, but in the bottle Ares is just a bit brighter.

Mmmmm, holo.

I liked it on the nail a lot.

I have about enough holos in my collection at this point...I think I'm burned out on all the pastel holos, and the deep colors I like (red, purple, green) I have pretty much covered, though I'd still like a nice deep green linear holo, swoon. But I'm glad I picked up Vermelho Surreal. It's a good strong holo, and the formula is really nice. I found Hits Ares to be a little on the sheer side (maybe "jelly" is a better way to describe it) and it needs at least three coats. This is not really uncommon with holos, but Vermelho Surreal would probably be good at two coats with careful application. The brush and formula are both good enough to make this possible.

I did not use an aqua base with this and it didn't seem to need it. I used it over my usual Palladio base coat and finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite, with no dulling. (Incidentally, I recently bought a bottle of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Fast-Dry Topcoat, which is rumored not to dull holos, but I haven't tried it with any of my pickier holo lacquers just yet.)

This polish has a distinctive odor that whispers "not B3F" but I'm not 100% positive about that. Just keep that in mind if it's something you are concerned about.

I bought my bottle from shop.llarowe.com for $10 plus very reasonable shipping; in checking the website just now I see the price has dropped to $7. It is also available on Ninja Polish for $7.50. Both sites are out of stock at the moment. The bottle size is 8ml. For reference, a bottle of Zoya is 15ml.

Jade Vermelho Surreal

Okay okay okay I PROMISE to try and do better. I'm still polishing, still buying, still loving all things nails but truth to tell I have been a little lax with some things. For instance I am at work right now with polish peeling off half of my nails. NOT COOL.

I still Instagram most of my manicures and while I realize that's not the best way to photograph polish for accuracy and attractiveness, I'm going to use it as a basis to touch on some things and preview some others.

First off I've somehow, through sales and well-connected friends, managed to get hold of a lot of the Zoya Beach and Surf collection. This is Kimber.

The sparkly shades from this collection are really pretty. I am wearing Carly on my toes right now and I've worn it as a manicure a couple of times as well.

I also ordered a couple of shades from Zoya's fall release, FeiFei and Evvie. Here's FeiFei.

This is a really gorgeous color and I can't wait to try and photograph it with a real camera to try and capture all the little colors within it. Part of my nail polish issue right now is that nothing I'm seeing feels very unique, and while I'm certainly open to buying similar colors or even dupes to get a superior formula or that slightly different shade that makes me fall in love, I'm more likely to be picky about it. FeiFei is the first thing I've seen in a while that seemed to me personally to be unique.

In a similar vein (and a similarly terrible picture), here is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri In A Flurry.

This is also quite beautiful. It's a fall release and it represents the first time in forever that I've felt driven to hunt down a drugstore unicorn. As you know these particular creatures can be very elusive, but I eventually ran across this one in—as usually happens—a drugstore not on my usual beat, where I hadn't planned to be. I'm really sorry for the horrible quality of this photo but again, I can't wait to take real pictures of it. (In the meantime, Google Scrangie's swatch and you will be the amaze.)

I also want to tell you about the polishes I recently ordered from Cirque. This is what you might term an "indie" brand and what I've seen so far is super awesome and impressive. I ordered Tibetan Nights, a deep blue jelly with teeny tiny silver/holo glitter, and Never Nude, a nude-toned linear holo.

The purple holo from this line is also outta sight, and the packaging and service when you order are nothing short of top notch.

What else have I unearthed? Well, through the kindness of a long-distance nail polish friend I finally laid my hands on OPI Tucumcari Boys 'n' Berry. I also want to tell you about Chanel Frenzy, which may be the perfect neutral.

More to come soon!