Matte Topcoats: OPI vs Zoya

First off, just a heads up: this is going to be a long post, and VERY photo-heavy.  Bear with me!

Recently, Zoya offered their Matte Velvet top coat for free with any purchase.  Being the frugal nail blogger that I am, I opted to buy just one polish (Zuza - a beautiful mermaid-turquoise that I will swatch eventually).  Although I already had a matte top coat, I wanted to get Zoya's because I haven't been very happy with the one I have.

So, naturally, as a nail blogger with two of basically the same polish but by different brands, the only thing I could do is a comparison.

In this comparison, I look at three different factors: Application (does it smear?), Dry Time (which is faster?), and Wear (does it crack or chip easily? does it allow edge shrinkage?).

I decided that the best way to test smearing upon application would be by doing a variety of nail art designs: stripes, dots, a gradient, and Crackle.  I figured that a white background would show the most smearing.

This nail art is ah... well, horizontal stripes aren't my strong point, as you'll see on my thumbs.  This really wasn't meant to look like super good nail art; I simply wanted to show a good variety of colors and designs.  I chose dark colors for the horizontal stripes and the dots, since I figured those were most likely to smear.  And the gradient, well, I missed the candy corn day of the LPLGlamghouls Halloween challenge, but I'd really been looking forward to it!

OPI's Matte top coat is on my left hand, and Zoya's is on my right.  Bear in mind that I'm right-handed, which means the nails on my right hand take more of a beating in my day-to-day activities.  Both hands have the same base coat: ORLY Bonder.

For reference: Day One was Wednesday, Day Two Thursday, and Day Three Friday (Halloween (yeah, this post has been sitting around for a while)).

Day One: Application 

For both of these, I sat back and let my nails dry for at least ten minutes before applying two coats of top coat. I also wrapped my tips, both with the base color and with the top coats. 

OPI

OPI's Matte is rather thick.  Not un-spreadably thick, and not problematically thick - just thick.

I barely wiped off any excess polish, to prevent the bristles of the brush from smearing my designs.  This is a trick I learned a while ago.  It worked on my four fingers, but on my thumb I still got a liiiittle bit of smearing.

This wasn't really a surprise, since black almost always smears no matter what you do.  However, the smearing wasn't so bad that I had to clean off the top coat brush.

OPI Application rating: 8/10

Zoya

The formula for Zoya's Matte Velvet is much thinner than OPI's.  Not too thin.  It's about on par with INM's Out The Door top coat, which is what I'm most used to.  I wiped off some excess polish and was still able to keep the bristles from smearing directly against my designs.

It did smear a tiny bit on one of the dotted flowers, and a little bit on my thumb as well - but again, the smearing was not so bad that I had to clean off the brush.  There is a bit of a smear on my pointer finger, but that's because I smooshed the yellow stripe before it dried - not the top coat's fault.

And the ding on my thumb is more user error - I dinged that as I was setting up my camera and lighting.  I need to be more patient with that....

Zoya Application rating: 9/10

Day One: After Cooking

My timing when I paint my nails is often pretty bad, and I end up having to cook dinner less than an hour after I finish painting.  This day was no different; even though I painted much earlier in the day, I had to prep a slow cooker recipe almost immediately after taking the initial pictures.  I decided to show you how the top coats held up after cooking.  (This recipe was simple; all I did was trim the meat and pour some sauces over it in the slow cooker.)

OPI

My left hand held up pretty well, though the knife did slip and chip in to my middle finger nail a tiny bit.

That counts as user error; I'm sure that would have chipped no matter what top coat I was wearing.

 

OPI Dry Time rating: 10/10

Zoya

I didn't notice anything while I was prepping, but when I went back to my room I noticed a terrible wrinkle on my middle finger.  I would guess this happened while I was holding the knife; I tend to put a lot of pressure on my middle finger when cutting.

After noticing that wrinkle, I poked a little at my other nails and found that they were still slightly damp as well.  In future, perhaps I'll use a thin coat of Out The Door before using this top coat.

I also noticed some slight edge shrinkage on my pointer finger, and I dinged the tip of my thumb on something-or-other.

Zoya Dry Time rating: 5/10

Day Two: After Showering and Sleeping

After I cooked on Wednesday, I didn't do much with my hands all day and I didn't notice myself slamming any fingers particularly hard against any surfaces.  I showered before bed, and the next pictures were taken not long after I got up on Thursday.

OPI

A HUGE crack appeared over night on my pointer finger, as well as some edge shrinkage.

This wasn't surprising based on my experience with this top coat in the past.

There was a little bit more edge shrinkage on my middle finger, and a small spot of shrinkage appeared on my ring finger.

OPI Initial Wear rating: 5/10

Zoya

A thin crack appeared on my pointer finger, but I actually didn't see it until I looked at the pictures on my computer.  The cracks were so fine that my eyes didn't really pick up on them at this point.

 

There was little change otherwise, even on the wrinkled-polish nail.

  
Zoya Initial Wear rating: 9/10

Day Three: After another Shower and more Sleeping

Admittedly, I did not do very much at all on Thursday.  I wasn't feeling well all day, so I didn't go out at all, and I didn't exercise either.  I would have liked to keep wearing these top coats for at least another day, but as Day Three was Halloween, I needed to re-do my nails to match my costume!  These photos were taken after eating breakfast and right before I removed this polish.

OPI

Another large crack appeared on my pointer finger.

A slight crack also appeared on my middle finger.   

Edge shrinkage worsened noticeably on all fingers except my pinky and thumb.  (In fact, there was very little change in either of my thumbs at all - and since this post is already so long, I decided not to bother showing my thumbs.)

OPI Overall Wear rating: 4/10

Zoya

The cracks on my pointer finger worsened to the point that I could see them with my naked eye, but they were still nowhere near as deep as the ones on my left hand.  This says a lot about the top coat, as I use my right hand more frequently.

There was little to no edge shrinkage on any other finger, and I also didn't notice any cracks on other fingers.

  
Zoya Overall Wear rating: 9/10

To Summarize

OPI Combined score: 27/40 (D+)
Zoya Combined score: 32/40 (B-) 

While OPI's Matte Top Coat dries faster, the quality of the manicure diminishes greatly as time goes on.  Not only does cracking look bad, it's also bad for your nails as the crack can potentially damage the top few layers of your actual nail.  I would much rather sacrifice dry time for a good, lasting manicure.  It looks like from now on, I'll be using Zoya's Matte Velvet Top Coat!

What's your matte top coat of choice?  Have you had a different experience with either of these two?  Have you found a matte top coat that would get a B+ or better?  Let me know in the comments!

Two more from Zoya Ignite and Entice

If you've been following me for a while now, you'll probably know how much I love Zoya nail polish.  I've already swatched and reviewed several of their polishes, including Remy and Ryan from the Ignite and Entice collections.

Well, Zoya recently had an amazing sale for their customers who connected their Facebook and Zoya.com accounts - one free polish and 50% off of an order.  I was tempted to buy bunches and bunches of polishes, but I settled for just 3 - so I basically got 3 for 1, which is awesome!

(Currently, through Wednesday November 12, all polishes from the Ignite and Entice collection are BOGO using code BFF - and ejoy free shipping on orders of $15 or more!)

So, anyway, the three colors that I chose are India, Nyssa, and Ziv.  I'll be putting Ziv up in a separate post some other time, as it's not from Ignite or Entice; but it's a beautiful metallic gold.

Zoya Entice: Nyssa

I've actually been searching for the perfect chocolatey brown creme polish for quite some time.  In my quest, I picked up China Glaze "Ingrid" - which wasn't quite right because it has a slight sparkle to it, but is still pretty all the same; OPI "How Great Is Your Dane?", which is great but a bit dark and, I dunno, not quite chocolatey enough.

And then, Zoya released their fall collection, and I saw Nyssa at ULTA, and I knew that she was the one.  But because of my nail polish buying embargo, I had to wait.  The one exception to my embargo is if Zoya has a really great sale, and the members discount came at exactly the right time!

Nyssa is a gorgeous hot cocoa brown.  It seriously looks like you're painting your nails with chocolate milk while it's applying!

The formula is a tad bit thin.  It's not insufferably watery - I don't think any of Zoya's polishes are like that.  You just have to be extra careful to wipe the excess off of your brush, because if there's too much extra polish it'll flood your cuticles and make a mess.  Any imperfections in the first coat are perfectly evened out in the second coat.

 

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I dinged up my ring finger before taking photos.  I fixed that by dabbing some acetone over the smudge using my finger (NOT a cotton swab or ball!), and then added a third coat of polish.

I am so, SO happy with this color!  My quest for the perfect brown is over - now to find the perfect autumn-y orange...

Zoya Ignite: India

The metallic paired with Nyssa is actually Autumn, but India stuck out to me more.  And oh. my. gosh.  India. is. gorgeous.

 

India is a ruby-red metallic, paired with Claire in the Entice collection.  In the bottle, it's very red-gold, but just like Remy, all that gold seems to vanish when I put it on my nails.  Is it magic?!  I don't know, but it's pretty freaking gorgeous.  I honestly don't know how else to describe this beauty.

Application is incredibly smooth and even.  You can pretty much get full coverage in one coat, but I used two in order to even out the shape around my cuticles.

When I looked at India out in the sunlight, I almost fell over.  It was SO. SPARKLY.  It also looked almost purple!  I didn't have my good camera with me, but I snapped a few pics on my phone.

I also took a video, because I just discovered that that's a thing people do: take videos of super sparkly nail polish/glitter to show off how sparkly it is.

So, what's your favorite polish from Ignite & Entice?  Which ones do you have, and which ones do you covet?  Do any of them leave you unimpressed or even bored?  Let me know in the comments!

PS in case anyone is interested - after taking these photos, I think I finally discovered a way to stop my skin from getting completely washed out when I swatch a darker polish color.  I don't know about you, but that's been totally bugging my since my very first blog post!  Hopefully my next dark nails will photograph better.

Nails for Yiayia

Catherine Hatzilias was an amazingly gifted woman.  She had an incredible singing voice.  Her garden was truly an Eden, a sanctuary, a paradise.  She was a devoted wife, loving mother, and an incredibly passionate Yiayia (grandmother).  She was also an amazing artist, her favorite medium being paint on canvas - or anything she could get her paints on.  She kept painting even after rheumatoid arthritis severely crippled her hands.

My mother once showed Catherine my nail art, which I'd posted on Facebook.  "Wow!  Katie, they look professional!" (If only you could hear that in her voice.  Such a sweet, melodic voice she had.)  I should paint these things on paper or canvas, she said, so I can frame them.  But my only painting skill is with polish - on paper, everything I do looks gloppy.  "Why not paint with nail polish on paper? So?"  Dear sweet Yiayia, she'd have done it if you handed her some polishes and a piece of paper.

(I told my mom to tell Yiayia that I want to paint her nails some time.  "Oh, ya! That's what my hands need! One nail goes up, one nail goes down. You better paint something I can put on the wall instead.")

So, when I heard of the death of Catherine, my Yiayia, my namesake, one of my first thoughts was that I needed to paint my nails for her.  Specifically, I wanted to paint them to match one of my favorite paintings of hers.  I have no idea how old this painting is - I just know that it's been on the wall in her house for as long as I can remember, and that I have always loved it.  

 This photo really doesn't do it justice.

Some nail artists that I've seen could probably get that wispy, watercolor look of the background onto their nails.  I probably could if I had several hours or even a whole day to work on it, but I had to sort of rush this nail art so I could fly from Maryland to Michigan for the funeral.  So I went with a simpler look: the wallpaper-y stripes that I've often seen in vintage rose nail art designs.  Pink on my left hand, and blue on my right.

 

My flowers look more like Yiayia's later paintings, when she could really only paint using dots due to her severe arthritis.  I'm totally okay with that.

I didn't feel that any of my pinks were the right shade, so I mixed Zoya Wendy with Julep Bunny and a bit of China Glaze Innocence.  The lighter stripes have extra white in them.

 

I didn't notice until editing these photos that I dinged my middle finger here.  

Which is surprising, because I wore this design for a whole week!

My blues felt like a better match, so I simply used Zoya Robyn and mixed in a little bit of Bunny for the stripes.

 

I did three different colored flowers: white with a pink center (I really meant to make them more red), using a mix of China Glaze White on White and Sally Hansen CSM Red My Lips; blue (Robyn and Bunny) with a darker center (Robyn); and pink (Wendy and Bunny) with a darker center (Wendy).  The leaves are Spoiled by Wet N Wild Green To Be Heard, lightened up with Bunny.

 

And the glitter nails have a thin layer of Nicole By OPI Heavenly Angel with a coat of Zoya Sparkle Gloss on top.  I actually kind of wish I hadn't used Heavenly Angel, because it didn't look as delicate as I'd thought it would, but oh well.  It still looked nice.

 Blue nails and blue flowers.

My mom was really proud of my nails, so she snapped all of these shots with my nails in front of the painting on her phone.

Pink and pink.

Painting these nails for Yiayia was both cathartic and nostalgic.  It brought me back to all the times I used to sit and paint with her.  I just wish I'd gotten the chance to paint something beautiful on her nails, rheumatism and all.

Final Halloween Nails of the Year: Disco Nails! (plus some updates)

Yesterday was October 31, and you know what that means!  I spent quite a bit of time on my nails for my Halloween look, even though they're actually quite simple.

I like my hair, nails, and makeup to all match my costume.  So when I decided to be a disco dancer for Halloween (again? yeah, well, I'm too broke for a new costume and this one still fits), I spent a decent amount of time researching what people wore on their nails in the 1970s.  Apparently, the French manicure was popularized in the 70s, so that was a good option for me.  People also started wearing bright, vibrant colors in the 70s.  Just check out this vintage nail polish ad:

And, of course, I have Nails Inc, London "Knightsbridge," which is basically a shattered disco ball turned into nail polish.  But they didn't really have glitter polish in the 70s, so at first I couldn't decide what to do.  I tried asking my followers, but unfortunately my following is still pretty small and, sadly, silent.  So that was a bust.  Eventually I decided to do a classic French mani and give it some POW using Knightsbridge.  And I was SO happy with the look!

The pink totally looks like it could be my naked nail, but it's China Glaze Innocence - my perfect French manicure pink!  I used some French tip guides and China Glaze White on White for the tips.

 

Stupidly, I tried to put pantyhose on too soon after painting my nails.  Yeah.  So they pretty much got ruined about 5 minutes after I took these pictures.  I was able to smoosh them around into an acceptable appearance, good enough for handing out candy and taking pictures on my phone, but not good enough to take more pictures using my camera.

 

So that's my Halloween look!  I wish I'd gotten this post done when it was still Halloween, but ah well.  I was pretty tired after handing out candy, as I'm still fighting off a cold, so I just wanted to veg out with my leftover candy and watch Hocus Pocus.

This nail art counts as the last day of the LPLGlamghouls Halloween challenge.  Sadly, I missed the last two or three designs due to a death in the family.  I'm working on a tribute post, which should be ready to be posted in the next few days.  Between the funeral and my not-quite-sickness immediately after, I haven't been very active on my nails or blog for the past week or so, but don't worry, I have some great things planned for the month of November!  (Including another hiatus as I'll be back in Michigan for Thanksgiving - more details on that later.)  Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on the little things!

What was your favorite nail art design of Halloween? (By me or by anybody else!)  What are your favorite Halloween traditions?  Let me know in the comments!

November Giveaway Mega-Post

It may still be October, but a lot of these giveaways end in November, so I decided not to group them in with the October giveaways.  I know that right now this is a very small post, not a mega-post, but I'm sure that this list will grow throughout the month!  (I at least know for sure that there will be one giveaway to add in about two weeks... *coughhintcough*)

Salon Fanatic  has parterned up with OPI to give away 12 of the Infinite Shine polishes, plus base and top coat.  Infinite Shine is a gel effect polish, but doesn't need to be cured under a light!  Giveaway ends November 3.

The Nail Polish Challenge is giving away the full Scream Supreme set by Delush Polish - an amazing seven-polish collection inspired by various plotlines and characters from the show American Horror Story.  I love AHS, and I really really like these polishes!  Ends November 12.   I won this giveaway!!!  Look forward to seeing it on my blog sometime in the next month!

Updates!

This one is an Instagram giveaway, and nail art is a requirement for entry!  Dazzlings is partnering up with a few other indie polish makers to host a giveaway in order to raise awareness for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome - a chronic pain disorder and what's known as an Invisible Illness (meaning one cannot physically see the effects of the disease, unlike with, for instance, the flu).  This isn't a contest where you nail art abilities will be judged - the winner is still going to be picked at random - so don't be shy about it!  Ends 11/14 11/28.

Fab Fatale  is giving away the entire Zoya Wishes collection!  Ends November 18th.  US and Canada only.

Lacquered Geek is giving away two colors from Zoya's Matte Velvet collection: Posh (the red) and Savita (purple).  US only, ends 11/16.

Nail It! is giving away an astonishing 250 prizes of three limited edition polishes and three limited edition glitter toppers from Salon Perfect.  It sounds like these will be the ONLY 250 of these polishes available - so cross your fingers!  Open to US residents only and runs until November 30.

Amanda of Manna's Manis is giving away the entire Zoya Ignite collection!  USA only, ends on November 30th.

Hannah of Dalai Lama's Nails is giving away a full set of all of her personal "can't live without it" nail care items - including a crystal nail file, some nail art brushes, a cuticle oil, and a bottle of Seche Vite top coat.  US only, ends November 16th.

Nail It! Magazine  is giving away another great prize - a 6-piece holiday collection from Gabriel Cosmetics.  US only, ends November 18.  To enter, you must comment on this photo on Facebook, as well as filling out the form in the first link.

F.U.N. Lacquer is giving away a set of their Christmas collection.  This one is being run both on Facebook (through Rafflecopter), and on Instagram.  Which means that there are two prizes!  Oh boy!  Both giveaways end Tuesday, November 25th at midnight (Singapore time - which is 13 hours ahead of EST!).

365 Nail Art is giving away three limited edition Zoya polishes!  I have no idea which ones they are, but because they're Zoya, I want them.  There are very few entries in this giveaway and it ends in nine days (November 25), so get your entries in!

Amy of Amy Loves New Wave is giving away one HUGE grand prize and a second surprise prize in honor of the holidays!  This one actually ends on December 1, but since this is so far the only one I've seen ending in December, I didn't see a point in creating a December "Mega-Post" yet.

Kirby of The Mercurial Magpie is giving away a limited edition polish from Literary Lacquer, in appreciation of her fans.  If you don't already follow her, you should totally check her out!  I basically started this blog when I discovered The Mercurial Magpie and realized that nail blogging isn't just for nail techs and people rich enough to buy every single polish ever made.  End November 24. 

Lit From Within is giving away a set of Clinique's Black Honey set.  It's not strictly a nail polish set - it's a nail polish, lipstick, lip gloss, and eyeliner.  US only, ends November 30.

The Plastic Diaries  is conducting their annual reader survey, and at the end of it you can enter for a chance to win $100 via PayPal!  This isn't exactly a nail polish giveaway, but heck, it's coming from a beauty blog so I say it counts.  Besides, even if it didn't come from a beauty blog, it's cash so if you win you can spend it all on nail polish!!! :D  Open until November 30, and it's International as long as you have a PayPal account!

LPL Glamghouls Day 20: Spiders and Spiderwebs

Today's challenge theme isn't one I was super excited about, but it ended up being a lot of fun!

I decided to be a bit simpler than with previous challenges, and do roughly the same thing on every nail.  Five different styles of pattern just takes way too long, even for this out-of-work blogger.  But I spiced it up by using a few different colors for my background.  I considered doing a gradient background, but decided that I was too lazy even for that.

So, I used my three favorite Halloweeny colors: PS I Enjoy Acid Pops by Twisted Colors, Ablaze by ORLY, and Hot Tropics by ORLY.  I've used these three in several of the Glamghouls challenges now.  They're all just so bright and fun!

I got a little bit confused on my first three spiderwebs, but definitely didn't feel like starting over, so I just went with it.  Then I watched a few different YouTubers paint on their spiderwebs and realized that I was drawing my curved lines backwards!  I started out using my white Sally Hansen striping poilsh, but it was a bit too gloppy for the small curved lines, so I switched to my white Sally Hansen nail art pen.

Obligatory "my thumbs look cute but don't photograph well with my other fingers" shot

My spiders are also a bit sloppy... I think their bodies are too small for their eight legs.  I started out using my black Sally Hansen nail art pen on my left thumb, but sadly the ink inside just doesn't stay thick - it all ends up pooling somewhere and it gets way too sheer.  So I switched to using my black striping polish, which is a little harder to control in such small detail.  So don't mind my wibbly, lopsided, chunky-legged spiders!

 

There are only four challenges left this month!  Which one are you most looking forward to?  Let me know in the comments!  I'm excited for candy corn and matching my costume!

LPL Glamghouls Day 16: Witches

All right, I missed day 13, which was bats.  I had some business things to attend to during the day, and I also had an important networking event in the evening.  And I didn't think to paint the designs the day before - I was busy swatching the We'll Take the Lot collection that day.  Anyway, nevermind all that, because today is...

 

Witches day!  Holy crap, these designs took forEVER.  At least three hours.  There's just so much going on here!

At first I thought I'd do the same designs on both hands, like I have previously during this challenge.  But when my left hand started taking for-freaking-ever, I decided to just do plain socks on my right hand.

I used a kajillion different polishes to do all of this, and as before I gathered inspiration from a plethora of different YouTubers.

 

Those darned thumbs are just too hard to photograph with my other fingers! 

My left thumb was inspired by PackAPunchPolish, and I used Nina Ultra Pro "Black," Zoya "Malia," Zoya "Mitzi," and Sally Girl "Crazy."

The cauldron on my pointer finger was inspired by part of HotPinkZebraPolish's video.  I used Sally Hansen CSM "Trouble Maker" for the background, Finger Paints "Ch-Art-Coal Black" for the cauldron, ORLY "Ablaze" for the fire, and a combination of Sally Hansen "Peace" and Spoiled by Wet n' Wild "Show Me the Money" for the potion bubbles.

The witch face on my middle finger comes from IHaveaCupcake's Halloween monsters video.  Her face is Sephora "Caipi Freeze," her hair is Finger Paints "Monet Money," the buckle on her hat is Zoya "Ziv," the hat stripe is Ch-Art-Coal Black, and her hat is ORLY "Hot Tropics."

I LOVE the bubbly potion on my ring finger, which I borrowed from ArcadiaNailArt.  The background is a mix of Malia, Trouble Maker, and Zoya "Nyssa" - I wanted a murky purple like in the video, but I think I just ended up with a slightly lighter version of Trouble Maker.  The potion bubbles are Twisted Colors "PS I Enjoy Acid Pops" with a thin coat of Show Me The Money on top.

My pinky is pretty simple - a broom, inspired by the same HotPinkZebraPolish video - though I think she did a much better job of it.  By the time I got to my pinky, I was beginning to get impatient with this nail art and I just wanted to be done.  The background is Ablaze, while the broom is made up of Nyssa, OPI "How Great Is Your Dane," and a few stripes of Ch-Art-Coal Black.

My right hand is a lot more simple - just some solid-colored witch socks and shoes.  I still really like them!  From thumb to pinky, I used Spoiled by Wet n'Wild "Green to be Heard," Malia, Mitzi, Crazy, and China Glaze "Happy Go Lucky."  I actually painted all of these colors on top of Black, because originally I thought I'd do striped socks on my right hand - but then I decided that it'd still take way too long.  The shoes are all Ch-Art-Coal Black, and the buckles are all Ziv.

What do you think?  What's your favorite design that I used?  Let me know in the comments!

And as usual, here's the challenge image for you!