Zoya Surf Collection - Swatches and Review

For Summer 2012, Zoya is releasing a two-part collection called Beach and Surf. Today I have swatches of the Surf Collection, six shades with a foil/metallic finish.

First up is Carly, a warmer toned purple. This doesn't really feel like summer to me. Carly is a beautiful color, don't get me wrong. I just feel like the rich jewel tone would be a better fit in a fall collection.

Then we have Kimber, a bright pink with almost coral undertones. I am not generally a fan of pinks, but I LOVE this. It makes me think of strawberries and watermelons. It reminds me a bit of China Glaze Strawberry Fields, but the finish is different, of course. Lovely.

Now we have Rory, a rather bubblegum pink with silver shimmer. I didn't expect Rory to be flattering on me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Shades like this one often give me the dreaded zombie hands, but nary a zombie in sight. I'm not sure it's a color I would reach for often, but I can definitely see wearing Rory as a pedi. 

Next up is Myrta, another one that took me by surprise. I think I own two orange polishes - it's just not my thing. I actually think that Myrta is pretty flattering though, and I think it would make a killer summer pedi.

Now we have Meg, my least favorite of the collection. I love green polish, truly I do, but these warmer greens just really don't look very good with my skin tone. Meg was also the one I found most likely to show brush strokes, so that didn't win her any points from me either. I do know some folks that this would look great on though - it's just not really a great shade for me.

And lastly Zuza, the star of the show for me - which is probably no surprise if you know how much I love blues, teals and aquas. =D Aqua foil? Yes, please!

The formula on the Surf Collection is pretty uniform throughout. Not too thick, not too thin, they all flow very easily onto the nail. They're all highly pigmented, and most of them could almost be one-coaters. The one caveat I have about the formula is that a certain amount of care is needed when applying them. They dry fast, almost like a matte or a holo, and because of that they have a tendency to get clumpy and leave bald spots if you go over the same section of the nail too many times. I would also let each coat dry for a couple of minutes between coats to avoid bald spots. If you follow those application tips, though, you should be golden. =)

The entire Surf Collection is shown at two coats with no base or top coat. I think two coats is pretty much fine for all of these, though you might need to go to three coats if you do run into problems with application. I'm wearing Zuza as a full mani right now, and I did three coats just to see if it made a difference, and I don't really see much difference in terms of opacity or richness of color. Zuza dried fast, even at three coats.

All in all, I really like this collection. There were a couple of nice surprises in here for me, colors I wouldn't normally have picked up, but that are actually pretty flattering. I can't really ask for more than that! 

The Zoya Surf Collection (and Beach!) will be available at zoya.com starting April 1.

These products were sent to me for review.