Collection: Zoya Fall/Winter 2014, Peter Som

Back in January, Zoya ran a promotion giving away three “mystery” nail polishes. It took about six weeks for me to finally receive my order in Canada, but I’m very happy to finally have my polishes: Charlotte, Severine and Anais!

My actual order was for Annie, Imogen and Payton (which I will swatch later this week). The mystery trio is three mini polishes that were created last fall for Peter Som’s A/W2014 at NYFW. The polishes are unfortunately no longer available from Zoya, but here are my quick swatches, anyway.

Charlotte (cut off as “Charlott” on my mini’s label) is a pale putty cream with very slight greenish gold tone (all three polishes have this), making it rather unattractive against my skin! Not my favorite color. It was also slightly thick and goopy, so overall this is a big miss for me.

(Note: There is an older—and probably discontinued—Zoya polish called Charlotte, which is a pinky nude frost, code ZP357. It is from an older collection called Spa Essentials. I find it a little vexing that Zoya couldn’t come up with a new name for the new Charlotte, but I suppose this one isn’t a permanent color, either!)

Severine (which makes me think of Sévérine from the James Bond film, Skyfall) is my surprise favorite of the three. It’s an old, antiqued gold that veers dangerously to the frosty side, but I do really like it! It has a greenish khaki undertone, which should mean a no for me, but somehow I think it works. There aren’t many metallic gold polishes I like (OPI’s long-discontinued Gala Gold is one of them), but I can add this one to my very short list. The formula is nice, not streaky for such a metallic polish, and two coats are perfect.

Finally, we have Anais, which I would have thought to be my favorite, but it really falls short for me. It’s a pearly deep grey with the faintest greenish khaki undertone. It makes me think of a Tahitian pearl, but seen in such dim light that its beauty can’t be easily seen. The formula was also quite disappointing: it was watery and streaky, and while I used three coats for the swatch, I kind of feel like it could even have used four, which is just a no-go for me.

Overall, I’m a bit underwhelmed by this trio, and I can kind of see why Zoya has not decided to keep these shades in their lineup. Severine is the only one I really like. However, I suppose you can’t complain too much about freebies!

One thing I do want to add is that the packaging for Zoya’s minis is great! They are half the size of the regular polishes and the cap and brush are the same as the full sized ones! This makes application really easy and comfortable. Plus, they look extra cute with their little bodies and big heads.

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Zoya Professional Lacquer retails for US$9 and is 0.5 US fl oz / 15 mL. The polishes I reviewed in this post, however, are minis, which retail for US$5 and contain 0.25 US fl oz / 7.5 mL. Zoya nail polishes are free of toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and camphor, and are made in the USA.

Zoya is part of Art of Beauty, a privately held company based in Cleveland, OH, USA.