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December 12, 2013

Zoya Naturel Collection Swatches


*Sent for review*

I feel like I need to make a meme that says "I don't always wear neutral polish, but when I do, it's a Zoya" LOL. Zoya always does these beautiful and slightly edgy neutral collections that make me fall in love, even though I am not the world's biggest lover of neutrals. Zoya Chantal was the first polish I swatched in the Naturel collection, and it is the almost mannequin hands shade I've been searching for. Zoya calls this a "french vanilla creme" and that's a great description. It has a little bit of yellow in it, but not too much. In these pictures, my hands look really red (it was FREEZING OUT!!), but in person, this is a great match for my skin tone (around MAC NC15).



This is two coats of Chantal. It was nicely pigmented and applied well. My one note about Chantal and the next polish, Taylor, (the two lightest shades) is that they did not really self-level all that well. I felt like I had to be a bit careful of how many brushstrokes I used to apply them, or else they looked a little lumpy. They mostly smoothed out with top coat though, so not a huge concern.



 Zoya Taylor is a bit darker and more brown-toned than Chantal, but still a nice light neutral creme. Zoya describes it as a "light toffee creme". So now I'm hungry because we have french vanilla and light toffee LOL. Taylor is not a mannequin hands shade for me, but it's a nicely flattering neutral shade and might be close to a slightly darker skin tone.



In the above picture you can definitely see what I meant about Taylor and Chantal not leveling out, mostly on the middle and index nails. You can also weirdly see my reflection on the ring nail! Strange! This is three coats of Taylor. It was opaque enough in two coats, but I was trying to smooth it out a bit more with the third. Again, no a huge problem, as a thicker top coat like Seche Vite would smooth this out no problem (I used OPI Top Coat for all of these swatches).



Next up is the lovely Zoya Rue, an interesting purple-y blush creme. Rue is a pretty combination of purple, pink and nude that I think will be flattering on a wide variety of skin tones. These pinky purple nudes seem to be the big trend in make-up right now too with palettes like Urban Decay Naked3 and Laura Mercier Artist's Palette (oh why did you sell out so fast??).



This is three coats of Rue, I felt like I needed a third for complete coverage. The application was great though, no problems here!



I think Zoya Brigitte is my favorite of this collection. I am always a sucker for these purple-y taupe cremes. Brigitte is less gray than some of the purple-y taupes I already own, so I think if you like this kind of polish shade, it is really worth getting! I can tell I'll be reaching for this a lot.



This is two coats of Brigitte. Nice coverage, perfect formula! Sorry about the weird one and a half watermarks in the above picture, I don't know what happened there!



Zoya really knows how to do a knockout purple. Out of the 100 or so purples I own, so many are Zoyas. They just seem to have mastered the art of a fine purple polish! Zoya Odette is no exception! They describe Odette as "sultry maroon", but I see a medium orchid purple creme, with a bit of pink. It actually reminds me of the Pantone 2014 Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid. If you haven't seen that yet, Google it now, I know it'll be all the rage in make-up and nails this coming year.



This is two coats of Odette. Again, great coverage and excellent formula. Another one I'll be wearing a lot!



Last, but definitely not least, we have Zoya Normani (side note: is there really anyone out there named Normani?). Normani is a mushroomy purple taupe, another polish color I can't ever get enough of. This version definitely has a bit of pink in it and not too much gray, so I think it's more flattering than other iterations of this color.



This is two coats of Normani and it also had an excellent formula. So really the whole collection had great pigmentation and good application throughout, just the first two needed a little more cautious application.

*Sent for review*

The Zoya Naturel collection shipped early and is actually available now on Zoya.com, rather than January 1. My favorites are definitely Odette and Normani, but I also like Chantal for a mannequin hands shade. I want to wear these all together sometime, they look really gorgeous all lined up next to each other. Which shades are catching your eye in this collection? This is going to be a great collection to wear in January when I'm sick of red, green and glitter!


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