Zoya Storm

Oh this is such a splendid polish! Zoya's Storm is a rich luxurious black creme speckled with fine holographic silver glitters. Well, Zoya calls these glitters... but they are quite irregular in shape and lack the bulk that I typically associate with glitter. These magical flaky shards lay perfectly horizontal to the nail surface and are completely incorporated into the formula of the polish, adding no texture to the finish. What they do add is a delicious silver-flecked look that graduates to a full rainbow spectrum of tiny colorful sparks depending upon the nature and angle of light.

Storm was released last year as part of Zoya's Ornate collection for winter 2012. Aurora and Blaze were the other two holo speckled polishes released with that collection and this year with the new Zenith collection for winter 2013 Zoya has come out with two more holo speckles, Payton and Dream. I love this particular micro genre that Zoya's created and am thrilled to see them add to it.

Application of Storm was dreamy, with Zoya's delightful liquid but creamy and dense formula that self-levels so beautifully. I used two coats, one thin and one medium, over treatment and basecoat for this manicure. Storm dries naturally in good time to a glossy finish. I added a topcoat of Seche Vite (bubble free this time, huzzah!) to accelerate the drying process and ward off the dent gremlins.

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, macro shot in the bottle

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, indirect natural light

Zoya Storm, halogen lighting

Zoya Storm halogen lighting

Zoya Storm halogen lighting

If we didn't have this massive mid-Atlantic low pressure system sitting smack off the coast of North Carolina I might have gotten some direct sun pictures but had to settle for letting the halogens coax out some rainbow sparks for the pics. Storm is not a glitter bomb by any means. It's a really luscious black polish with a little magic in it. It felt GREAT on my nails, very clean and spiffy, which is not what I expected. My judgment is tainted from seeing too many moody adolescents on tv and in the movies wearing black polish and I guess I've been harboring a bias. My bad! This is only the second black manicure I've done for this blog and I've loved both of them so perhaps there's hope for me yet.

This will be a fun polish to wear anytime but it's felt particularly appropriate for the dark and stormy days we've had lately. I'm into it, big time!

love,
Aunt Liz