Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Zoya (pinterest) Surf Trio and Cosmetic Arts nail polish review and swatches

I am doing two reviews of nail polish today: Zoya Surf and Cosmetic Arts.

First off: Zoya!
Pinterest Trio mini (left to right): Zuzu, Kimber, and Myrta

I was lucky enough to sign up for their Surf (pinterest) collection mini trio set, which was free for the first 2000 people who "purchased" it. The trio was free and all you had to do was pay the $6.95 shipping. What a deal! I have used a few of Zoya's nail polish in the past and I was very excited to get these. 


Zuzu: shimmering metallic turquoise/teal
Kimber: shimmering foil hot pink/fuchsia
Myrta: shimmering metaliic red orange

Note: All of Zoya's nail polish are FREE of formaldehyde, toluene, camphor, and DBP. No parabens either! So you get the pretty nail polishes without the harmful chemicals. 

The Summer 2012 Surf collection contain polishes with very heavy shimmers. It creates a nice glow. For those of you who do not enjoy shimmers as much, check out their Beach collection! The Beach collection contains very similar shades as the Surf collection but without the shimmer. 


Left to right: Zuzu, Kimber, Myrta, Bevin (0.25 fl oz each)

Each one of the polishes swatched here for Zoya is with only one coat! What pigmentation! The shimmer makes it easy to hide imperfection during application and creates such a sizzling hot look. I especially love Zuzu! I threw in Bevin, which was part of an earlier release, for comparison. Bevin is a cream color. These Surf colors definitely suit my summer needs!

 Left to right: Zuzu, Kimber, Myrta, Bevin (holding Myrta bottle)

 Left to right: Zuzu, Kimber, Myrta, Bevin (Bevin bottle in background)

 Left to right: Zuzu, Kimber, Myrta, Bevin

I am still in disbelieve that I only use one coat of everything above, with the exception of Bevin which had two coats in the last picture. I really like the color payoff and the dry time! It took maybe 30 seconds to become hard to a light touch and about 1 minute to dry completely. These babies dried in no time even without a top coat. 

I only have one small complaint. The color Zuzu stained my nail a little when I took the polish off. Though I suspect I could avoid this with a base coat. 

The mini trios are no longer available, but these colors (and more!) are available on zoya.com for purchase. Regular bottles are 0.5 fl oz and cost about $8,  but look out for specials because they are constantly running them. Not only are their products amazing, but their costumer service and the way they give back to their customers and society is also wonderful. Check them out if you haven't!

That's why NOW through 6/25/12, 11:59 PM EST we are offering any three, full-sized (0.5oz bottles) Zoya Beach and Surf Collection colors for ONLY $15 + Free Shipping


Next: Cosmetic Arts nail polishes

Thanks to Nouveau Cheap's blog on the Cosmetic Art nail polishes, I have picked 3 of them up on my recent trip to Ross. I just couldn't resist after seeing her swatch of the orange cream color: (http://nouveaucheap.blogspot.com/2012/06/review-swatches-cosmetic-arts.html)

So naturally, I had to pick up a few myself and see how it would work on me. These polishes do not contain any names or numbers at all. So like many bloggers out there, I will just make up a few names for them :)
 Suggested names (left to right): Coral Sunset, Pink Barbie, Soft Lavender
(0.5 fl oz/15mL, $1.99)

Coral Sunset is a creamy, fruity orange color. It looks great on the nails for summer!
Pink Barbie is a light pink cream and was the hardest of the three to apply.
Soft Lavender is a pale grey with a hint of purple. I really like the look of this color!

The pay off was pretty good. Though I had to apply at least two coats to get an even cover, the look after two coats is amazing. Since the dry time is also pretty fast (30secs - 1 minute to dry), I finished my nails in no time. I only swatched one color on each nail here to limit the pictures to this blog.

All of the nail polishes applied very easily, with Pink Barbie slightly more difficult due to it being streaky. However, after a light third coat or a top coat, it was not noticeable (I did not capture this third coat).

 left to right: Pink Barbie, Coral Sunset, and Soft Lavender

 left to right: Pink Barbie, Coral Sunset, and Soft Lavender

 left to right: Pink Barbie, Coral Sunset, and Soft Lavender


soft lavender

All of the Cosmetic Arts nail polishes are DBP, toluene, and formaldehyde free! I have not seen them sold anywhere else besides Ross stores. However, they are part of the Forsythe Cosmetic Group, which also makes Color Club nail polishes. Thus, I suspect the formulas are very similar.



Have you tried any of Zoya's summer nail polishes? Does Cosmetic Arts nail polishes interest you?

Em



All products shown here were purchased with my own money and were given my fair and honest opinion.

2 comments:

  1. They do contain numbers :-). There are numbers ingrained at the bottom of the polishes into the glass. Hope this helps!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks! I didn't even see those. I thought they were just etched into the glass for the manufacturing. I have one that is #16, but I can't imagine they have 16 colors out there. I will keep an eye out for more :)

      Delete

Kindly refrain from advertising your blog here. Helpful links related to review only. Thanks!