Smitten Polish Fall 2014 Collection

Sample provided for review

I was delighted to get the Smitten Fall 2014 collection for review, especially since I've liked every Smitten Polish I've tried. This collection has six shades: Seasonal Lattes, Antiquing, Penny Dreadful, Sparkling Orchid, Udora's Harvest, and 131 Angstrom.



I paired up Penny Dreadful, a super sparkly coppery brown microglitter, with Udora's Harvest, a dusty pink holo. Most pale holos don't show their colors in the diffuse illumination of my lightbox, but Udora's Harvest did. I used two coats of each for my swatch, no topcoat because I had some nail art plans for these, which we'll get to soon enough.



At some angles, Udora's Harvest looked to almost have a foil finish, which was intriguing, and Penny Dreadful showed pops of sparkle and color at pretty much any angle.





These two were even more lovely in direct low light as well.



And now for that nail art I mentioned above: I did freehand diagonal color blocking so I'd have both pretties on all my nails, then slicked clear topcoat on. I love how these two look together.





Just couldn't resist including this blurry shot with all the colors popping:



The next match I made was between two holos: Seasonal Lattes, a brown, and Antiquing, a taupey silver. Neither of these are typical holo shades, which makes me like them more. Again I used two coats of each. These were a litte more shy in the lightbox about showing their rainbows; Antiquing has the same sorta-foil thing going on as Udora's Harvest, so that was interesting to see.





In low direct light, the rainbows showed themselves.





Adding dots of the opposite color make these shades work better together (and the topcoat I put over the dots added shine).



Adding another line of dots crossing the first didn't look as good as I'd hoped; I think it would have been better if I'd used smaller dots so the lines crossing would have been more clear.



The last two shades are both sparkly microglitters, sisters of Penny Dreadful. Sparkling Orchid is a warm bright purple and 131 Angstrom is a deep yet vivid turquoise blue. I used two coats of each and added topcoat to bring out their sparkle even more.



Direct low light shot of these two:



I jazzed these up further by adding a wide stripe down the center of my nail in the opposite color, using a brush in a cheap set I picked up at Five Below, then added more topcoat.



Sparkles on sparkles in low light:



I regret I was not able to see these beauties in the sun when I swatched, but I didn't want to wait to share them because there's going to be a restock tomorrow, October 11th, at 2 p.m. Central US time on the Smitten Polish website. That restock will include these polishes along with a Halloween duo and a limited edition polish called Out of the Darkness which is gorgeous (and which I failed to pick up when it was first stocked, so I'll be setting a calendar reminder this time). You can follow the Smitten Polish Facebook page for restock and other brand news.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

Zoya Entice Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Sample provided for review

On Friday, I shared the shimmery Zoya Ignite collection; today I have the creme half of Zoya's major Fall 2014 offering, the Entice collection. Left to right: Margo, Veronica, Nyssa, Claire, Geneviev, and Ryan.



I swatched these creme in pairs, starting with Nyssa, a warm brown, and Claire, a very deep brownish red. I used two coats of each; Claire, on my accent nail, was very nearly a one-coater. You can see they're very shiny even without topcoat.



Could I leave these cremes be? No, I could not. I added dots of Autumn, Teigen, and India from the Ingite collection, then added clear topcoat.



Veronica, a deep berry red, and Margo, a purpley plum, were up next. These were two coaters as well. Left to right below: Veronica, Margo, Veronica, Margo.



I accessorized Veronica with Teigen and Maro with India; I should have added topcoat to smooth out the abrupt transition but alas I did not thus the stairstep effect in the photo below. The colors do look nice together, so that's something.



Finally we have Geneviev, a slate grey, and Ryan, a navy blue. I did two coats of Geneviev on all but an accent nail, which got one coat of Ryan. I fancied I could see a hint of fine pearly shimmer in Geneviev's bottle, but that did not show on the nail in any lighting condition I tried (maybe it would have come out in direct sun, but I had none of that the day I swatched these).



Of course these cool hues got their chance to mix with shimmers from Ignite, too. I added stripes of Yuna and Remy, putting Yuna in the middle on the Geneviev nails then flanked with Remy, and did the opposite on the accent nail. I did put topcoat on this look.



I couldn't resist doing one last look with these shades. I put down a base of Nyssa, then added diagonal lines of dots in Autumn, Teigen, India, and Sansa.



The cremes in Entice are nice colors for fall, though those of you with ample stashes likely have similar shades on hand already, maybe even from Zoya themselves.

Zoya polishes are available on the Zoya website for $9 a bottle; you can follow the Zoya Facebook page for swatches, sales, and brand news.

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

Zoya Ignite Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Sample provided for review

For their main offering for Fall 2014, Zoya has two six-piece collections: Entice is all cremes, while Ignite is all shimmers. I'm starting with Ignite today, because shimmers are more interesting. (Next week I'll share Entice.) Left to right: Autumn, India, Teigen, Sansa, Yuna, Remy.



Of these six, Yuna intrigued me the most. It has a smoky slate grey base with gold shimmer. I did two coats for my swatch; it was nearly a one-coater, though.





Look how gorgeous Yuna is in direct low light:



My second favorite from Ignite is Remy, a deep, deep turqoise-leaning blue with teal shimmer. This was two coats as well. I think of Remy as the fall/winter Charla.





In direct low light, Remy goes even darker and more blue:



Remember this past summer when I was putting Zoya Bubbly collection on all the things? I'm not done. Here's Muse over Remy, with one finger left untopped for comparison purposes—I love this combination:



The other four shimmers in Ignite seemed to work well together, like autumnal ombre-esque Skittles, so that's how I swatched them. Top to bottom (2 coats of each): Autumn, Teigen, India, and Sansa.



Autumn is a deep orange with gold shimmer. Teigen has a berry base with gold and red shimmer. India is a wine red with orange and red shimmer. Sansa is deep purple with gold shimmer.



Low light shot of these four beauties:



I liked this quartet so much that I decided I wanted to try putting all four on each nail, so after taking off the Skittles, I grabbed a narrow brush and got to work. I put one stripe of Autumn down the center of each nail, then flanked it with Teigen, then India, then Sansa. I didn't want to have to go back over the stripes and probably mess them up in the process, so I tried to lay the polish on thick, and mostly succeeded, though there were some thin spots. I added topcoat to smooth things out when I was done. I was kind of fascinated with this look, angling my hand this way and that and watching the stripes blend more into each other then show up more distinctly depending on how the light was hitting my nails.





Much as I liked the stripes, I knew I had more swatching to do and had to take them off. Doing more Bubbly-ing cheered me right up. Top to bottom: Autumn plus Sansa plus Binx, Autumn plus Alma, Teigen plus Binx, and Teigen plus Muse. I'd wear any of these combos as a full mani.









Zoya polishes are available on the Zoya website for $9 a bottle. Follow the Zoya Facebook page for notice of sales and specials as well as plenty of swatches. Many (all?) Ulta stores also carry Zoya.

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

Zoya Naturel Deux Collection

Sample provided for review

Today I have the Naturel Deux collection from Zoya, which is their post-summer, pre-fall offering. It consists of six cremes: Spencer, Chanelle, Emilia, Madeline, Aubrey, and Marney.



This is a follow up to the Naturel, which was a post-winter, pre-spring collection from early this year. Both collections are made up of browns and mauves, with Naturel Deux being overall a darker interpretation of that theme. In the photo below, the Naturel Deux wheel is on top with the original Naturel on the bottom.



To me, this collection clearly looked like two trios, a brown one and a mauve one, and that's how I did my swatching, starting with the browns. Left to right: Spencer with dotted stripes, Spencer alone, Chanelle, and Emilia. All were two coats, with topcoat only on the dotted nail.



Another couple views of the browns:





And now the mauves (or dusty plums or reddish purples or purpley pinks). Left to right: Madeline with dotted dots, Madeline alone, Aubrey, Marney. These were also two coats each, though Marney was nearly a one coater. Only the dotted nail has topcoat.







All of these are nice, though not exciting, colors with a good forumula. They coordinate nicely with each other, which makes them great for doing nail art without having to agonize about color choices. They're available at zoya.com for $9 a bottle, and you can follow the Zoya Nail Polish Facebook page for news on codes and sales and such.


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