Zoya Ultra PixieDust Swatches

Sample provided for review

In addition to the twelve polishes in the Ignite and Entice collections for Fall 2014, Zoya has also released three new PixieDust colors, dubbed Ultra PixieDust: Noir, Oswin, and Arianna.



These are all chunky glitters, similar to the Magical PixieDust shades from this past spring and summer, though these lack the holo glitter that those earlier colors have.

Oswin has a deep classic red base. I can't tell if the various sized of glitters in it are a brighter red or actually silver that look red because they're submerged in the red base; I'm leaning toward the latter. I used two coats for my swatch, no topcoat so I could see the texture and how matte they would dry.





I had to see how Oswin looked with topcoat; answer: gorgeous.



Arianna is also red, but a more berry-toned one than Oswin. Again, I used two coats for my swatch. I think I let it dry as long as Oswin, but it didn't seem to get quite as matte.



The matte-ness level doesn't really matter, though, since I like these better with topcoat; here's Arianna all shiny:



Noir is definitely darker than the other two; I'd describe this as a deep berry or plummy purple. While the glitter in the first two looked to be all the same color, the glitter here shows two colors, some red, some pink. Like Arianna, it doesn't dry as matte as Oswin.





Noir gets better with topcoat:





Because these looked so similar to me in the bottles, I also swatched them as Skittles. Top to bottom below: Oswin, Arianna, Noir, gradient with all three.



Another view; the difference between Oswin and Arianna is not that big.



I liked these as a gradient enough to do a whole hand, and added topcoat immediately because I don't think I'd ever wear these polishes without it. They are fairly topcoat hungry, but the end result is worth it.





Noir is my pick of this trio; it's the most purple, and I like the extra visual interest that comes from having two colors of glitter in closely related shades. I wish there were more variation in the collection overall, even just pushing Oswin closer to a hot pink to better distinguish it from Arianna. But mostly I wish Zoya would do more colors in the classic PixieDust finish. I'd love to see some teal, turquoise, and/or bright green in particular.

You can get the Ultra PixieDust colors on the Zoya website for $10 a bottle. Like/follow the Zoya Facebook page for swatches, news, and promotions.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.