Summer 2007
Zoya Candy & Smitten
My hometown favorite, Zoya, gave us not one but two collections for summer this year. Candy & Smitten are their newest offerings and they are so fun. I got the opportunity to test them, thanks to the lovely people at Zoya and, they are a blast.
Candy is Skittles in polish form. “Taste the rainbow” was going through my head as I pulled them out of the box. The marketing gurus at Zoya really couldn’t have picked a better name for the collection and the polishes have names that are just as adorable and fun.
Candy consists of four cremes and two shimmers, all opaque and well pigmented. After the more sheer summer collections of years past, Glamsicles and Glitterati, Candy is a pleasant surprise. And, there’s a green. Anyone who knows me knows that greens will score major points for any polish brand. To top it off, it’s a pretty green. Totally wearable. I call it a green for women that don’t like green.
So here we have Tart (shimmery jewel toned blue), Yummy (creamy cornflower blue) and Sweet (creamy bubblegum pink). For me, Yummy is the most unique of the three. It’s a glossy mid-tone blue, something my collection was seriously lacking.
Then comes Creamy (sunshiny yellow creme), Tangy (limey mid-tone green shimmer) and Juicy (matte grape creme). Of course I LOVE Tangy, how could I not but, Creamy is drawing me in with it’s lemony goodness. All thanks to my new found love of yellow. 
Ok, so you don’t wear bright or loud colors. You think I’m a nut for wearing yellow and loving green. Well then, Smitten is for you. As a girl that only wore reds and pinks on my toes as a teen and young adult, I can totally identify with these shades. Don’t believe me? I swear, I wore OPI I’m Not Really A Waitress on my toes for at least 2 years straight. I used to walk the color line at one point myself.
Smitten is all shimmer and micro-glitter. Filled with hot reds, corals, oranges and pinks, there is a color for every skin tone. The polishes all apply like a dream, as expected. Free of dangerous chemicals, Zoya’s formula flows on the nail like a salon quality polish should but, without the risks caused by toluene, DBP and formaldehyde. Preggers ladies rejoice!
From left to right we have Ariel (shimmer berry toned red), Shiloh (mid tone red shimmer) and Sylvie (soft reddish coral shimmer).
I wish the true coral quality of Sylvie had showed up in the pictures. It’s a soft coral, not all in your face. It reminds me of OPI Coral Reef without the holo shimmer. Shiloh (probably named after a famous wee one) is a straight up red shimmer, a great basic for your polish wardrobe. I’ll be honest, while these colors are all very pretty and wearable, they aren’t a must have for me. Definitely great staple colors for someone wanting to add reds to their collection.
Last but not least… Pia (tangerine orange shimmer), Hayden (micro-glittery hot popping pink) and Vivi (fuchsia shimmer).
I’m really drawn to Vivi and Pia and I love Hayden for the name alone. Probably because I’m a fan of Heroes and Hayden Panettiere’s character Claire. Pia will be great for the warm toned peeps like myself and Hayden will be great for the cool toned. Vivi is a fun bright all around summer color.
So now that you’ve gotten a better look, what colors are you lusting after? Which collection is your fav?
OPI Night Brights Review
I finally got my hands on the Night Brights collection from OPI. In all honesty, I’m not sure how I feel about this collection as a whole. It seems to me that OPI played it safe even though they delivered a couple standout colors.Black was huge last fall/winter and there has been a lot of talk about metallics for summer so there is something for every trend lover in this mix of dark and molten hues. Transitioning from winter’s black to steely gray, midnight blue and blurple (bluish-purple) for spring, the dark side of Night Brights is my favorite.
My Private Jet is one of the standout colors in this new line. OPI finally listened to the cries of the many holographic polish lovers out there and delivered a true dark holo. It’s a nice smoky black with that fantastic smooth holo glitter that OPI has perfected so well. Just like the Designer Series, MPJ applies extremely smooth thanks to the Pro Wide brush.
Light My Sapphire was a disappointment in formula, not necessarily color. The color is a bluish-black with a subtle silvery shimmer. It’s darker than the true deep navy of China Glaze Up All Night but you can definitely tell it’s not a black or charcoal gray polish. The problem with this one is the application. It was uneven, gloppy and just plain frustrating. I applaud OPI for taking the steps to rid their polishes of toxic chemicals but if this polish is an indicator, they may want to head back to the lab.
OPI Ink is by far my favorite polish of the six. It’s glorious, shimmery goodness. It’s a mesmerizing mix of blue and purple with fab pink shimmer. A must have for any blue or purple lover. If you were only going to buy one polish from the Night Brights, this would be my recommendation. I can’t wait to wear it on my toes this summer.
(l-r) I Only Drink Champagne, Give Me The Moon
Give Me The Moon is a pale silvery blue. It reminds me a bit of the blue in Creative’s Spring 2006 collection, Rejoice, only opaque. I love the baby blue shimmer and the slight iridescence. It’s not a must have color but it’s a nice alternative to silver for summer. In my opinion, silver nails are hard to pull off. I think of them being frosty and old fashioned or super sparkly and over the top. People that can’t pull off gold but still want something with a metallic feel should check this color out.
I Only Drink Champagne is a true creamy champagne color. In the bottle it looks like it’s made of vintage yellowed pearls. While it’s not unique, it is soft and pretty and impressively opaque. A lot of light colors can end up being too sheer and you’re fooled by the bottle color. This one delivers; what you see is what you get. My only issue is with the finish. It leaves brush strokes so you have to be careful as you apply it.
I decided not to buy Golden Rules! after seeing Fivezero’s pic and reading her review of it. While I’m sure it will work for darker skin tones, like she suggests, I just know it would look horrid on me. I’ll leave you with her words and pic to decide for yourselves. Thanks FiveZero for sharing your thoughts and pic with us!
Golden Rules!, from OPI’s 2007 Night Brights collection, is actually really beautiful in the bottle—a rich, light caramel gold with loads of shimmer, to the point of being slightly frosty. The trouble with it is that it is, in my opinion, a really difficult colour to pull off. I am warm-toned (NC30-35) and it is not flattering on me in the least. I have a feeling that some darker skintones will be able to pull it off well, but it’s quite hard to say.
Finally, for the geeks like me that have so many polishes you need comparisons to avoid buying dupes, this is for you.
Left column: Creative Blue Blood, China Glaze Blk-Billa-Bong, Creative NFS.
Right Column: OPI Ink, Light My Sapphire, My Private Jet.
If you click the pic for a closeup, you’ll see that the only similar colors are Blue Blood & Blk-Billa-Bong and I still say they’re different “enough” to own both.
photos: All Lacquered Up, 8pril on MUA and Fivezero on MUA.
Surf Summer on the Nail
(l-r) Orange-Pacific, Red-Curl-Grl, Blk-Bila-Bong 
Shade 
And now for my thoughts:
White-Kwik-Silvr – An extremely wearable white. Not chalky or freakish looking. Very fresh and springy. The shimmer softens what could be deathly looking. I’m a bit afraid to wear it on my toes but I think it will be a fun spring mani.
Yell-O-Neil – Ok seriously, who would actually wear a yellow polish? That was exactly my thought when I saw the marketing pic for this collection. *raises hand slowly* I will now. Probably the most controversial color in the collection, I bet that for all the haters, there will be just as many people that will shockingly fall in love with this polish.
I highly doubt that this color actually looks good on me and I KNOW it will get strange looks from the general public but I can’t stop staring at it. There’s just something about these summer collections that China Glaze does. It’s the consistency, the shimmer, the jelly like finish and application. It can make any color look fantastic and wearable. The proof is in the (yellow) pudding above. Will I wear this on my toes? Probably not. As funky as I get with my nail color choices, I just can’t rock yellow toes.
Pink-Rox-E – Most pinks tend to be geared towards the cooler toned gals. This is not one of them. Warm and neutral ladies rejoice. Here’s a spring pink you’ll love. It’s the gold shimmer that makes this one fab. While other pinks with gold shimmer tend towards peach (OPI Love Me Tender), this one is a harmonious mix that doesn’t lose it’s true pinkocity (is that even a word?). It is now. This is a bright pink for people that don’t like brights. It’s not in your face but still trendy.
Orange-Pacific – I read way too many comments about this one when the marketing pic first came out. Specifically… “blech” It’s not blech, not even a little bit. It’s a reddish-orange. It’s what I hoped Tequila Toes would be. Which is why I compared the two in the post below. Tequila Toes had too much silver shimmer for my taste. They got it right by using gold shimmer instead.
Red-Curl-Grl – This is the least unique color of the bunch. It’s pretty but not a must have. While I don’t have a polish exactly like Red-Curl-Grl, my collection wouldn’t suffer without it. Now even though the colors I chose for the comparison post are close, seeing it on my nails makes me think it’s a China Glaze Wicked Stepsisters clone. I held the bottles side by side and I didn’t see the connection but, I’ll have to do further investigation.
Blk-Bila-Bong – I have no doubt that this shade will fly off the shelves. Even with the black polish trend dying out, people are still wearing dark polish. Almost every polish manufacturer is including at least one dark color in their spring/summer collections. So what sets this color apart from all the other black/navy/plum shades on the market? It’s simple, blue shimmer. While I was expecting (and somewhat hoping for) Blk-Bila-Bong to be a glassy, sparkly black, I was pleasantly surprised to see this smoky black polish with royal blue shimmer.
Note to all the polish collectors and nail geeks: If you’ve been tirelessly hunting down the discontinued Creative Blue Blood and coming up empty handed, pick up a bottle of Blk-Bila-Bong instead. While the base colors are different, only the truly geeky will notice the difference. After 3 coats of each, even I had a hard time telling them apart.
Surf Summer Comparison Shots
I dug through ALL of my polishes and came up with what I think are the best comparisons for the China Glaze Surf Summer colors. I was quite surprised to find that the majority of them are from China Glaze and Creative. I think it’s because the finish and formula of most OPI, Essie, Misa and Orly polishes are nothing like the jelly-like quality of China Glaze’s shimmer polishes.
1. OPI Elle’s Pearls
2. China Glaze Straight Up
3. China Glaze White-Kwik-Silvr
4. OPI Cabana Banana
5. China Glaze Yell-O-Neil
6. China Glaze Shy
7. China Glaze Pink-Rox-E
8. China Glaze Pure Elegance
9. China Glaze Tequila Toes
10. China Glaze Orange-Pacific
11. China Glaze Tarnished & Varnished
12. Creative Flirts With Danger
13. China Glaze Hot Lava Love
14. China Glaze Red-Curl-Grl
15. Creative Winterfire
16. Creative NFS
17. China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong
18. Creative Blue Blood
Surf Summer from China Glaze
The waves are breaking and I’m ready for summer. Look what hit my doorstep this morning. The new Surf Summer collection from China Glaze. A well themed collection of brights with fun names. Unlike brights of the past, this collection is very wearable. There really is something for everyone.
These are preliminary shots that I snagged during a rare moment of Ohio sunshine. Be sure to check back for comparison shots. I’m all about the new but I’d hate for you all to be buying dupes.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
