*Provided for Review
Okay, so I know I said I was back and then I disappeared again. Completely unintentional I promise. A couple of things happened this month: I had a birthday (yay!), I broke TWO nails (booo!), a package full of stamping plates I was planning on using for a nail art post got lost on it's way here from London (booo again!), and Ramadan started. I'm also beginning work on an exciting new project and that is taking up a lot of my creative energy. So it's been a busy month to say the least. I was feeling major guilt about not posting, but then I just had to remind myself that sometimes life happens and we just have to go with the flow. I have a pretty awesome post for you today that I hope makes up for my absence! Zoya recently released their new Summer 2017 collection, called Wanderlust. It is made up of twelve vibrant summer-themed shades and has eight cremes and four shimmers.
The details:
I used no top or base coat for my swatches (this was for convenience since I was swatching 12 shades back to back!). I used two coats for each polish, unless otherwise indicated.
Winnie is described as a "watermelon" pink creme on Zoya's site. I don't find that color description to be accurate. It's more of a bright cool-toned pink with blue undertones. Think Barbie pink. I was thoroughly prepared to me meh about this polish since every summer polish collection to exist seems to have this shade of pink in it. But - I actually really like it. It's actually one of my favorites in the entire collection. There is something different about it- though I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe the cool undertones? Formula wise, this performed like most of the cremes in the collection: thin and a bit streaky on the first coat, fully opaque and smooth on the second.
Sawyer is described as a soft taffy orange cream. It reminds me of a creamsicle! This is my favorite shade in the collection. I love orange polishes for summer and I like that this one is just a tad softer than the usual neons or red-oranges. It's not a pastel - but almost. The formula is identical to Winnie's.
Arbor is an olive green cream. This formula was a tad thinner that the previous -two - but despite this I had none of the issues of streakiness on the first coat like the other either. It applied really easily from the first coat. I love green shades like this and you usually find them in Spring or Fall collections, so I don't know if I'd reach for this much over the next few weeks. I tend to want something more vibrant on my nails in the Summer.
Sonja is described as a crimson red. But to me this is the polish that screams watermelon! It's such a vibrant "juicy" shade. It's a nice subtle twist to the classic orange-red for summer. This particular formula was identical to Arbor's. Super easy to apply with no issues.
Esty is a bubble gum pink creme, according to Zoya. This is number two of THREE shades of pink in this collection. Esty is pretty. I can't say much more about it since I feel like it's waaay to similar in tone to the other darker pink in the collection. I literally almost got them mixed up while writing this post and had to double check to make sure I was posting the right one! That's how similar they are. The formulas was similar to Winnie's and Sawyer's.
Scout is one of four shimmers in the collection and is described as a shimmery moss green. Its the only one of the four shimmers that I really like. Unlike the other three, it does not have a frosty undertone to it. And I am sucker for shades like this. My camera didn't do a great job of picking up the gold olive tones in this polish, but they are beautiful! I was really impressed with the formula for Scout. Even though it is thin, it applied smooth and evenly and it is the only one of the shimmers that was fully opaque with two coats. This was the first polish in the collection that I tried and I wore it for about three days. And while I loved it - it feels very Fall. So like Arbor, this is a color I probably won't pick up again until Fall.
Cora is described as a muted coral orange. On my skin tone it reads waaay more vibrant than it does in the bottle. If you are paler this will probably read a bit softer on you. Neverthekess I love this color. Like I said I love oranges for Summer and I like that this one reads vibrant on me without being neon. It's a nice middle road between Sawyer and Sonja color-wise. The formula was comparable to Winner, Sawyer and Esty.
Mandy is described as a shimmery berry pink. Le sigh... I always feel bad reviewing shades like this because I know before I put them on that I will hate them. Shimmery, frosty colors are the finish I dislike the most. And I would love to have something nice to say about the formula but I really don't. It was super thin and I had to be careful applying my second coat to make sure that I didn't pull or lift the first coat. it is not opaque after two coats. My nails are short right now so you can't tell as much in photos but in real life, I could still see my nail bed. You will probably need three super then coats to get full opacity.
And we have Byrdie. Described on Zoya's site as a muted fuchsia pink. Not to be confused with Esty. Why Zoya?! Why?! This was so confusing. When I fist received the polishes I thought that they had sent me two of the same shade by accident until I looked at the bottom of the bottles and saw that nope - these are two different polishes. The undertones are slightly different. Byrdie is pretty and if I had to choose between Byrdie and Esty I would probably go with Esty. The formula was identical to Esty's as well so if you are choosing between the two it's a bit of a coin toss.
Lois is described a rich magenta violet cream. It reads a bit muted on my skin tone. I love a good purple polish but this one was a bit meh for me. I would have loved something a tad more vibrant. The formula was very good. a bit thin and applied evenly and smoothly. I would say it was one of the better formulas in the collection.
Journey is a shimmering strawberry red. Formula was identical to Mandy's. You will probably need three coats for this one for full opacity.
River is described as a shimmering cobalt blue. Frost. Frost everywhere! Formula was again identical to Mandy's and Journey's. The one major thing that blew me away about this polish: it did not stain my nails! Now, sure I only had it on for like fine minutes, tops but that is usually more than enough time for most blue polishes to turn my nails into little Smurfs. I swatched this polish with NO base coat as well. That's impressive!
Final thoughts:
Overall, this is a solid collection. There is a bit of same-y, same-y to it with so many different pinks and oranges and I wish that Zoya had stepped outside the box a bit and added a few more summer-inspired bright shades. But - I have worn multiple colors from this collection multiple times since I received it. And that's usually a great litmus test for me as to how wearable a collection is. The colors I have worn the most are: Winnie (I was actually wearing it when I started swatching and had to remove it!), Sawyer, Cora and Sonja. They are also my faves of the collection! Formula-wise, with the exception of the shimmers (minus Scout which was opaque in two coats), these performed really well and were completely opaque in two coats.
The Zoya Wanderlust collection is available on the Zoya website. Each shade retails for $10 a bottle.
What do you think of this collection? Any shades on your wishlist? If so which ones> Let me know in the comments!
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