Stash Swatch Initiative: Zoya Wednesday

Hello again!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

 
Since it is Wednesday, I thought this would appropriate. Meet Zoya Wednesday from their recent summer Beach & Surf Collection. It's a beautiful dusty blue-green creme. It's a little more green than it looks here; no sunlight available at the time to get a better picture.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

This applied nicely and was so smooth when I was finished. I waited a day to stamp over this, and I kept running my fingers across my nails because they felt so perfectly glasslike. The first coat was slightly streaky, but a second coat evened everything out. Shown here is Sinful Colors Nail Hardening Basecoat, two coats of Zoya Wednesday, and one coat of Seche Vite. Seche Vite usually doesn't play well with Zoyas, but this time it didn't pull or shrink the polish noticeably.

I compared this to a few other polishes I thought might be similar:

Orly Gumdrop, Nyx Algae, Zoya Wednesday. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Algae is pretty similar to Wednesday, but it is darker. Gumdrop is much lighter and cleaner than the other two. Formula-wise, I had no issues with any of them, though all apply streaky on the first coat and even out with a second.

Zoya can be purchased at their website Zoya.com and at Ulta stores (though, every time I've been in Ulta, the Zoya displays have been severely picked over). If you're interested in trying them, I'd suggest liking their Facebook page. They do a ton of promotions with really great deals. In fact, that's the reason I tried this brand in the first place--I had a buy 3 get 3 free promotion code that I just couldn't pass up, which led to about 20 more bottles jumping in my shopping cart.... Addict? I think so ^_^

This beauty is part of my current mani--check in Friday to see how I dressed her up!

More soon! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: A-England Lady of the Lake

Outdoors, sunlight.

Hello again!

Today we start my attempt to swatch everything in my collection, which I've dubbed 'The Stash Swatch Initiative'. I got a lot of swatching done this past weekend, so updates will be short swatch posts daily during the week until I run out of polishes (unlikely, as I'm on the hunt for new ones any time I leave the house). I plan to show you what I wear each week, too.

Anyway, on to the polish! Today's swatch is Lady of the Lake from A-England.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Outdoors, sunlight.

This is a gorgeous deep blue-purple polish with a scattered holographic effect. When I added this baby to my shopping cart, I didn't think I had anything like it. I was wrong. Take a look at Lady of the Lake compared to Color Club's Wild at Heart. Both pictures show Wild at Heart on my index and middle fingers while Lady of the Lake is on my ring finger and pinky.

Outdoors, natural light. Lady of the Lake on pinky and ring fingers, Wild at Heart on middle and index finger.

No base or topcoat here. Both are shown at two coats. Formula-wise, they are very close. The each have a great formula, which becomes opaque in two coats. I didn't have any problems with application and dry time was quick.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

They certainly aren't dupes, but they are similar. Wild at Heart is warmer and has a pink-tinged holo effect, where Lady of the Lake's holo is full spectrum rainbow.
Lady of the Lake is a part of A-England's 'The Mythicals' collection and can be purchased from A-England's website as well as from llarowe (which is where I got mine). This was in the first order of polishes I purchased from llarowe, and I was impressed. I ordered on a Friday afternoon, received shipping confirmation two hours later, and by Monday afternoon, the package was sitting in my mailbox. Magic, I say! It's a long jaunt to the mid-Atlantic states from Colorado.

I purchased my bottle of Wild at Heart from Head2Toe Beauty. It's been a long time since I made that order, so I can't recall how quickly it came. I do know that I will order from there again--they've got a great selection of polishes from older collections at really cheap prices (I think most Color Club are $3 and China Glaze too).

More soon! ^_^