Review: Zoya Seashells summer 2016 collection (Pixies!!)

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Hello!

I'm back today with the second half of Zoya's summer 2016 offerings, their Seashells collection of summer pixies!

Zoya Seahells summer 2016 Pixies

I love myself some pixies--they combine texture and glitter and awesome colors into one amazing melange of gorgeous. They apply like butter, don't need basecoat or topcoat (mostly), and they remove almost as easily as normal polish, a great benefit for those who love bling but hate the struggle to remove it.


Let's jump in with Zoya Bay, a bright cornflower blue with slightly darker holo glitter and a gold shimmer that gives a teal-ish duochrome effect:

Zoya Bay

Zoya Bay

This is two coats of Bay with no topcoat. In all cases these polishes applied like a dream and had excellent formula--they're almost goof-proof.

I love how the color on this has a subtle green-teal flash effect--it makes for a gorgeous beach/sea polish. It also makes me think of crushed blue aquamarines...sigh...

I did find that Bay was a little too scratchy for my taste without topcoat--textured polishes normally don't bother me, so if you're not a fan of the feel, you'll want to wear this one with topcoat. Here's how it looks with a coat of Seche Vite:

Zoya Bay with topcoat

Zoya Bay with topcoat

I found that one coat was enough to give this a smoother feel for me. I generally prefer to wear my Pixies with topcoat anyway, because it brings out the color and shine.


Next up is Zoya Cece, a grass-green pixie with a gorgeous gold shimmer:

Zoya Cece

Zoya Cece

Cece is crushed Peridot for your nails--which is awesome for me because that's my birthstone! I love how much the gold shines through; it's touches like these that make the Zoya textured polishes a cut above most others.

Zoya Cece

Zoya Cece

Next up is Zoya Levi, a gold pixie with lots of gold glitter:

Zoya Levi

Zoya Levi

Oh Em Gee you guys, this polish is crazy gorgeous! It makes me feel like my nails are paved with gold, like I'm some sort of majestic ancient Egyptian princess. This is rich and blinging without looking too flashy or overdone. LOVE, and I'm not normally one to flip for gold.


Next up is Zoya Linds, a cherry-red pixie:

Zoya Linds

Zoya Linds

Zoya Linds

This is tied for my favorite of the collection--SO gorgeous and rich, this polish is crushed rubies on your fingertips. This is the smoothest of the bunch by far, so you probably won't need topcoat even if you're not big on the feel of textured polishes. But, I love that shine on my red, so here's a shot of it with topcoat.

Zoya Linds with topcoat

Zoya Tilly is a gunmetal silver pixie with blue glitters:

Zoya Tilly

Zoya Tilly

I love that they threw enough color in here to give this silver dimension as well as sparkle and shimmer! This has an icy quality to it that will cool you down on those hot summer days, and will star in your holiday manis come winter.


And the piece de resistance of the collection, is, in my opinion, Zoya Zooey:

Zoya Zooey

Zoya Zooey

In the bottle, I wasn't super impressed with this, since I'm not big on pink. But when I put this on, the golden shimmer leapt out, turning the pink into a gorgeous coral/pink combo! This is feminine and bright and fun. The glitter and the texture and the shimmer all work together to produce magic.

This is one of the scratchier colors in the collection, so here's how it looks with topcoat:

Zoya Zooey with topcoat

Zoya Zooey with topcoat

I think the topcoat brings out the gold shimmer even more, and makes this the ultimate in soft feminine bling.


Also, I've been playing around with some different hand poses--what do you think of these? Do you like them more or less than my normal poses above?

Zoya Zooey

Zoya Zooey

 

Zoya Zooey

So what do I think of the collection overall? This is an A+ for me, no question. The colors are bright and fun for summer, and the PixieDust look can't help but make your nails look like they're paved with crushed gemstones. I love that Zoya adds a little accent in the shimmer or the color of the glitter so the polishes are just that little extra bit special. And I love a polish I can apply in no-time flat with no mistakes and remove almost as quickly--perfect for any vacation you're going on.


Finally, Zoya sent me two lipsticks to review along with the polishes, Zoya Candy, a bright pink, and Zoya Mellie, a bright fuschia:

I have to be picky about the lipsticks I wear, because for some reason the skin on my lips dries out and starts to peel within hours with many brands, especially drugstore brands--including gloss. It's crazy bizarre! So I wore these for three days in a row to see what would happen. Both applied like silk, and had reasonable staying power--they stayed put until I ate. They also stayed color constant--I hate it when I buy a blood-red lipstick and as soon as it starts to wear off it leaves behind a pink stain. If I wanted pink lips I woulda put pink lipstick on! I didn't have any color shift with these. But the most important factor for me is they actually conditioned my lips--I had no peeling or drying, my lips felt almost as good as when I wear balm. These two colors are a little bright for me, but I was so impressed with how they felt on my lips that I'll be buying Frankie, their scarlet-red shade.

You can find all these lovely polishes and lipsticks directly from Zoya's website; you can also find them on Amazon, and in any retail store that carries Zoya products. And don't forget to follow them in Instagram and Facebook!

Happy polishing,
M.