Zoya Tiffany, OPI Silver Shatter, and Sephora by OPI Traffic Stopper Copper: Swatch Pictures and Review

The other day, I was in the mood for a blingy manicure, so I came up with this!

I began by applying 2 coats of Zoya Tiffany, a peach-copper foil that was released with Zoya's Fire & Ice Collection. Tiffany applied pretty well; the foil particles made it less smooth to apply than say, a creme, but overall the polish had a good texture.


Next, I applied 1 coat of OPI Silver Shatter. This was my first time using Silver Shatter (or any shimmery crackle polish, for that matter) and it took me a few nails to get the application right. In order to make sure that the polish cracked well and my base color showed through, I was doing pretty thin coats of Silver Shatter, but unfortunately they were too thin to crack properly. Once I started using slightly thicker coats, however, the polish "shattered" well.

I really liked that Silver Shatter was more of a foil than a straight shimmer, and I'm looking forward to using it over other polishes (I think it would make for a pretty look over dusty pastels, similar to those in the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection it was released with). The only downside to this polish is that it has a tendency to get goopy pretty quickly when it's exposed to air, so if you wipe off your brush on the bottle neck like many of us do, you'll probably need to wipe the bottle neck down with remover before you put the polish away.


Finally, I topped the whole manicure off with 2 coats of Sephora by OPI Traffic Stopper Copper, which I bought after seeing kittytokaren's beautiful manicure of TSC over a nude. Traffic Stopper Copper features both small copper glitter and larger, hexagonal copper glitter in a clear base. The glitter in TSC isn't too densely packed, which makes it perfect for layering, and I though it providing a great finishing touch to this shiny silver and copper mani!

swatch: zoya charla

since i hated that last mani so much, how about i now post a mani i love:


zoya charla is probably my favorite of this past summer's sparkle collection (although ivanka is a close second). so sparkly and vivid (and a bit more green) irl! i actually haven't worn this since the summer, as in my opinion this color and finish don't go well with the more professional attire and fairly subdued hues i sport during the school year (i know there are others who disagree and wear any nail polish with any outfit, but this is what works for me and my style). but i loved this color when i wore it a few months ago and can't wait for the warmer months (with their accompanying bright colors and bold prints) to roll around again so that i can break this shade out once more! this picture is of three coats.

boy says: "zoya seems to make good nail polish." direct quote, i kid you not.

swatch: zoya blair

a quickie post, since i'm running out the door:


a gorgeous example of the "lit from within" family of polishes many people love.

swatch: zoya envy

i absolutely love this super-dark green creme. i know many dislike envy because its green tone disappears somewhat in dimmer lighting, but i'm a big fan of almost-black shades. please excuse the polish i accidentally slopped all over my ring finger:


envy has an unusual texture - on the first coat, it's quite sheer and somewhat grainy-looking, but then it becomes extremely dark and even with just one more coat. the graininess of the first coat of polish suggests that envy would have some shimmer; however there is nothing i hate more than subtle/"secret" shimmer and i promise this polish doesn't have it, not even when right under a bright light.

bf says: "...is that black? black and something else? what color is it?"

ughhh the weather is so gross here, so i'm off to eat mac & cheese in bed while watching entourage. happy saturday!

swatch: zoya dakota

hi everyone! this will be a quick one, as i'm totally swamped today. here's a swatch of the polish i'm currently wearing as my pedi, zoya dakota:


that's three coats with some touch-ups. the formula on this one is nice and thin without being watery; if you're scared of vnl, however, do be forewarned that dakota is a jelly and will thus require some work to get totally opaque. also, for some reason this polish looks much darker on my feet than it does on my hands...

bf says: "that looks like blood."

swatch: zoya ciara

i actually have this on my toes at the moment, but a picture of my feet will go up on the internet over my dead body. so, a quick swatch!


as i've mentioned before, zoya is my go-to brand for pedis, for a couple of reasons. first, while i normally love the opi pro-wide, trying to maneuver it around my wee nubbin toenails makes for a huge mess. i find the small brush of zoya polishes less than ideal for manis, but absolutely perfect for mess-free pedicures. in addition, while i'll rock even the most out-there colors on my fingernails (teal jelly holo glitter? i'm there!), for my pedis i'm super-traditional: vampy, red, berry, or pink cremes only, no exceptions. and zoya does these more conservative colors so well!

i'm quite happy with ciara - it's very pretty, and while most people would consider it a "safe" color, sometimes that's exactly what i want. plus its application was smooth, and it was opaque in two coats. i do my pedis while standing in front of my desk, putting my feet up on the writing surface one at a time (basically like a flamingo, haha), so i'm always glad to find a polish that minimizes how much time i'll have to spend in that odd position.

by the way, ciara is quite a bit darker in indoor lighting... definitely more of a berry than a pink.

bf says: "excellent application!" that's a big compliment coming from him, since the last time i did swatches, he told me my "gap" was too big, ha!

comparison swatches: bb couture, illamasqua, rescue beauty lounge, and zoya greens

i haven't yet decided on today's notd (currently leaning towards nails inc. curzon street, but we'll see), so in the meantime here are some green comparison swatches i did this past weekend.


from thumb to pinky: bb couture green goblin, rescue beauty lounge orbis non sufficit, rescue beauty lounge recycle, zoya envy, and illamasqua rampage. orbis non sufficit is the dustiest of the bunch and has the best formula, envy is (clearly) the darkest, and rampage is the only one of these polishes with a jelly finish.

i wasn't thinking and didn't include orly enchanted forest in this comp, so i'll try to take pics with it included in the near future. i also have a dark green from l.a. girl's flare line that might be interesting to compare as well.

as you can see from the above pic, green goblin and recycle are quite similar, so i did a second comp featuring just those two polishes:


bb couture green goblin on index and ring finger, rescue beauty lounge recycle on middle finger.

recycle is more of a "clear"/true green, whereas green goblin is more yellow/brown (which i personally prefer). also, green goblin's formula is superior to recycle's - while green goblin was perfect in two coats, recycle was more watery and needed three coats for complete evenness.

scrangie has a comp of recycle and green goblin here that makes the two polishes look much more different from each other, but i can honestly say that they didn't look nearly that different on me, even under a bright desk lamp. the pic i posted above is literally the *most* different they ever look on me, and in most/dimmer lighting, the two polishes are practically indistinguishable.

swatch: zoya nova

another beautiful ultra glitter from zoya!




formula-wise, this is very similar to zoya astra (pics): sheer at first, but easily built up to opacity in three coats. the texture of both of these ultra glitters is thin and smooth, for which i'm grateful... thick jelly glitters that glob off the nail are such a huge pain to work with. and for those of you worried about grittiness, nova was smooth enough with one coat of t/c, although for total glassy perfection i'd go with two.

while i like nova a lot, i do think it's better suited to paler, cooler skin tones than my own (check out how gorgeous it looks on tobywoo here). for tan, warm girls like myself, astra is the better pick.

bf says: "that's too glittery for me, i think."

swatch: zoya demi

i'm currently wearing (and loving) streetwear fx flash over wet 'n' wild black creme, but unfortunately i won't be able to get a good pic until tomorrow when i have some sunlight. so here's an notd from a few weeks ago...

demi is a lovely red-toned purple creme; however, it's hard to capture accurately. its red tones (which imo are the most interesting thing about it) come out only in the sunlight; in the shade and in indoor lighting, it's substantially deeper in hue, and the reddish undertones aren't as visible. application on this one was good - the above picture is two coats (plus a few touchups) in moderate sunlight.

swatch: zoya astra

it's my birthday today, and i figured the occasion deserved a little celebratory glitter!

i love vivid pinks and i love jellies with glitter, so it's no surprise that i love astra, a vibrant pink jelly with both dark pink and light pink glitter. application was really great, especially for a glitter - the above pic is three coats, with a couple of additional touchups.

with topcoat, astra is very smooth; however, this smoothness doesn't always come across in photos because it's a jelly (which makes it easier to see the individual glitter pieces, which in turn gives the impression of grittiness). but check out the glassy shine on this pic... hopefully this helps to demonstrate astra's glossy evenness:

swatch: zoya lael

sooo sleepy... but a quick post. i'm currently wearing and loving zoya lael, a super smooth dark purple creme:

lael does look darker indoors, but it's still visibly purple in all but the dimmest lighting. and application on this one is easy: the photo above shows even coverage in two coats.

ps. i think this would look great with a gold shimmer layered atop... maybe the new cnd effects jade sparkle?

swatch: zoya sloane + rescue beauty lounge matte top coat

as per the request of my loyal reader micah (a fan of all things matte), here's an update on yesterday's notd of zoya sloane:

excuse the photo's low quality; this picture was taken under my desk lamp at two a.m. btw, i received the rbl matte top coat from a very generous friend today, and i have to say - it's amazing, if you like the matte look. super easy application, a very pronounced matte effect, and lightning-quick drying time.

swatch: zoya sloane

what a gorgeous vampy!

the shimmer in this is subtle, but really nice in the sun... although i'm afraid i didn't do the best job of capturing it in this photo. application on this was amazing - very thin and "flowy," and even in two coats.

sloane does go almost black in the shade and indoor lighting, but i don't mind that at all - i looove super-dark polishes, as they give the general look of black but without pure black's harshness/starkness.

swatch: zoya savita

from the winter 2009 mattevelvet collection. this is really gorgeous, especially with a glossy topcoat added - the shine makes the shimmer really come alive. here it is with two coats:

and here's a photo of savita in its original matte state:

the secret to applying mattes (which i unfortunately only figured out halfway through applying this one) is to load up your brush with polish, much more than you would normally use to apply a regular creme or shimmer. this helps you to avoid the lumps that can otherwise result from their thickness and quick-drying nature. once i got this down, savita was a breeze to apply.

swatch: zoya sam

i was in the mood for a vampy yesterday, and this zoya (one of the polishes i got in their recent bogo promotion) didn't disappoint. it's reminiscent of dried blood and went on smoothly in three thin coats.

btw, this photo is in indirect sunlight... the polish looks quite a bit darker indoors.