Zoya Feel Collection Winter 2011 Swatches and Review

Now this was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't expecting another collection from Zoya until spring! Right on the heels of the glittery and gorgeous Gems and Jewels holiday set comes a second winter collection from Zoya: Feel, a set of six full coverage neutral creams.


Zoya Avery. This is a neutral pale peach creme. It has a very slight yellow tone to keep it from being too pink, but it's also pink enough to keep it from looking beige. It looks like a little bottle of Zoya foundation to me; if I didn't know it was nail polish, I might try to put it on my face!



Zoya Carey. Carey is the true grey in the collection. Several of the colors have a grey base, but this one is practically pure grey. It's on the light side and in certain lights it looks quite blue. Almost looks a little purple in the bottle.



Zoya Kendal. Kendal is a very light purple with a lot of light grey. It dries much darker on me than it appears in the bottle. The bottle seems like a pure pale purple, on my nails it looks like a darker purple-grey. Very pretty either way, I like the way this one looks on my skin tone.



Zoya Kennedy. This is another one that seems to dry a very different color than it looks in the bottle. In the bottle it seems like a dusty pale pink, on my nails it looks like a foundationy peachy-pink with a slight grey tinge. This is one of those putty type colors, just a tad cleaner looking. I like this one on me too.



Zoya Kristen. This is a shape shifter! In some lights it looks like a straight pale grey with some blue tones, but in others is looks like a dusty powder blue with almost no grey. In my pictures, you can see how much it shifts with the lighting. Most of the time it looks mostly blue to me. This seems like the most unique color in the set as I can't think of another blue exactly like this.



Zoya Megan. Not to be confused with the other Zoya Megan. Anyway... This version of Megan is like a mix of Carey and Kendal. It's pale a lilac-toned like Kendal, but it has a lot of blue and grey like Carey does. It looks like a plain light grey in my pictures, but when I see it in real life it has a definite blue-purple tint to it. The purple for some reason just won't pick up on my camera... but it is mostly grey anyway.

The formula on these was not what I expected. The colors are all nice and opaque like I hoped they'd be, but the texture of the formula is quite disappointing. The formula on the recent Smoke collection cremes was amazing, but I found these to be a very different animal. They have that texture that polishes had right when brands switched to three-free: runny and gooey at the same time. You know how you'll think you had removed all the excess polish from the brush, only to have a huge drip run onto your nail from out of nowhere? These do that. They don't seem to self-level like Zoya's other colors. The most frustrating thing for me was that after I had applied the polish, it would somehow run and pool in one corner of my nail, leaving drips and bumps, like it wasn't drying fast enough. The colors were completely opaque in two coats, but because of the textural issues, I applied three coats plus a little topcoat to even them out a little more. The drying time is long on these. I don't know if I got a bad batch or what, but these don't feel like any Zoya polish I've used before.

After playing around with these a little, I have a few tips for applying that may help with the runny formula. First, apply as thin of a first coat as you possibly can. Get all of the excess polish off the brush and stem- even when I thought I had it perfect, drips still formed. After applying your very thin coat, I'd really recommend waiting a good 3-5 minutes before the next thin coat. Otherwise, you may end up with that clumping/pooling issue that I experienced. Finally, wait another 3-5 minutes after your last coat before applying your topcoat. The bristles from the topcoat brush seemed to leave grooves and scratches in the polish when I applied immediately after the final coat, but waiting a little longer should prevent that. The longer you wait between each coat, the better.

Overall, I liked the colors but not the formula. While the colors aren't sparkly or exciting, they are pretty. Every shade looked classic and flattering on me, but because they're mostly neutral toned (none lean strongly warm or cool), they'll look good on a wide range of skin tones. Each shade has either a grey or a beige base instead of a white base, so they all have a very subdued, muted, marshmallowy look instead of a bold or stark creme finish. These are good office-appropriate, everyday neutrals with a little twist. Nothing crazy or edgy here. Good opaque alternatives to some of Zoya's older, super sheer neutrals.

The release date for these is today, November 15th, on Zoya.com.

(These were sent to me for review.)