Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Eleanor, meet Zuza. Zuza, Eleanor. You two should get to know each other as I believe a relationship between you would be of mutual benefit at this time of year.

Zoya says that Zuza is a "deep, saturated, oceanic turquoise with gold and silver metallic shimmer and a foil-like finish. A beachy, colorful, foil-like shade with the perfect balance between blue and green." I agree with most of that. Zuza is a perfectly lovely summery blue green, very aquatic and reminiscent of tropical waters. It has an attractive sparkle in direct sun, a wonderful glow in indirect light and a flecked metallic look in the shade.

And Zuza IS a particularly well-balanced polish. The silver and golden metallic shimmers are there in subtle complementary measures and viewable depending upon the angle of light. The blue and green that comprise this color are inextricably linked, you cannot tease one from the other the way you can with other Zoyas (ahem, Apple). The overall impression is bright but soft, softer than it looks in the bottle and more complex also, and of medium intensity. Zuza is above all eminently wearable for summer.

The consistency of this polish is ever so slightly thicker than what I've come to expect from Zoya but excellent nevertheless. The color is so pretty that it's a pleasure to paint it on your nails and I felt like I could do coat after coat after coat just to look at it gliding on the nail. I could have, but it wasn't necessary in terms of opacity. Zuza is well-pigmented for such a soft color, it applies very evenly and is completely opaque in two coats. Maybe even one, if you didn't mind a skosh of VNL. It was dark out when I applied this polish and indoor lighting isn't the best by which to judge opacity so I did two coats as I suspected I would be able to see visible nail line in daylight after one.

Zuza dries naturally to a satiny finish, which complements the soft look. I added a coat of Seche Vite for a glossy finish that emphasized the shimmery components of this polish as well as popping the color a bit.

I did experience some tip shrinkage with this manicure. I got all excited when I saw this because it meant I could show it to YOU and you could learn what it was and why it happens and how to try and head it off. Tip shrinkage, or just "shrinkage," is when the polish pulls back from the free edge of the nail as it dries. Sometimes it pulls back so completely that the free edge has the appearance of bare nail. If you "wrap" the free edge of the nail with your polish you can avoid shrinkage. Wrapping your tips is when you apply polish to the tip of the nail at the same time as you do the nail surface. Once you get your wrapping technique down it isn't long before it becomes a habit. I usually wrap my tips with everything, basecoat, colors, glitters, topcoat every time I apply. It takes more finesse than I possess to wrap the tips of short nails without making a mess. Longer nails are relatively easy to wrap. 

Here's a pic of tip shrinkage I experienced with Zoya Zuza...

Zoya Zuza, showing tip shrinkage

See how the polish has pulled back from the free edge of the nail? I think I know why this happened. I had wrapped the tips on my basecoat and my first coat. But I was having a little too much fun looking at the color to pay attention whether I was wrapping all my tips with my second coat. D'oh! You can see that it's the second coat that pulled back. I must have missed wrapping this tip. Lesson learned! Always wrap the tips.

I missed wrapping on several other nails as well. After I'd taken some photos I added another coat of Zuza and Seche Vite, wrapping the tips. This worked to camouflage some of the shrinkage but not all of it. Look for it in the photos!

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza -- this polish is more complex on the nail than it is in the bottle, but you can see that two coats provides an excellent match to the depth of color in the bottle

Zoya Zuza, lookin' silvery

Zoya Zuza, you can see both silvery and golden shimmers

Zoya Zuza, gorgeous flecky goodness

at the window...

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza, showing golden shimmer

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Zoya Zuza

Beauty, eh? So nice. I like it very much. It reminds me of flying over the Bahamas. The water around those cays and islands is clear and jewel like, with every shade of blue and green. I hope that you get to go there, Eleanor. When we stayed at Green Turtle Cay, the tide would go out and you could walk for hundreds of feet out into shallow warm waters. About every twenty feet or so, there would be a scooped out shoulder-deep pool bottomed with white sand, with seaweeds and conks around its edges. I felt like a mermaid, swimming in those pools with my mask on so I could look at the creatures.

Zuza definitely feels mermaidesque. Perfect for a young ocean going mammal like yourself!

love,
Aunt Liz