Zoya Livingston

Since I'm not made of money these days I've been tending to buy polishes one at a time, here and there. It's hard to pass on some of these lovely fall collections that have been coming out, but when you're not flush you can't BUY ALL THE POLISHES. Lately I've made it a mission to acquire more reds, which has been fun and helps a lot to narrow down the prospectives.

Zoya Livingston is from one of the aforementioned fall collections that happily met my red criterion. I found it listed for auction on ebay along with it's blue sister polish, Sailor, bid the minimum and won, hooray! (Never mind the blue one, let's just call that inverse attrition... these things happen, you know.) 

Zoya describes Livingston as a "lush autumn red." And that it is, among other things. Livingston is a deep well-saturated rich carmine red creme/jelly hybrid, leaning a frog's hair to the warm side of the red spectrum to my eye. The translucence of its crelly formula is such that its appearance is slightly chameleon-like depending the lighting. It really lights up to a bright fire engine red in bright indirect and direct natural light, takes on an almost brick red look in incandescent light, and shows a near vampy mystique in shade. Above all, though, it is a true red, classic and seasonless and full of the lively glamour you'd expect from such a shade.

I got all spooky as I was applying this polish -- for no good reason, the formula is quite fluid but dense and easily controlled. Sometimes the application of darker polishes just gets to me. My hands were shaky and I got downright frightened by the prospect of waggling a brushload of bright red lacquer with my non-dominant left hand, so much so that I finished my left hand completely before even starting my right. I have a supremely undisciplined mind, is what.

Livingston applies sheerly but densely, if that makes any sense. My first coat was thin and the color was much brighter and lighter than the bottle while at the same time managing to be nearly opaque. I used a medium thick coat for the next go round and achieved the bottle color. Livingston dries naturally to a glossy almost juicy shine but I added a topcoat of Seche Vite to hasten the drying process and protect against smudges, which show on this polish like a crime against nature. Suffice to say it's not the most forgiving of polishes.

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston, showing perfect match to bottle color

Zoya Livingston

at the window...

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Zoya Livingston

Oh the glories of a Rubenesque, full-bodied, totally fetching red polish! Wearing this makes my fingers feel like they should each be walking around having their own lives: traveling, going to parties, winning hearts and minds, sweeping unsuspecting men off their feet... it's just bursting with all kinds of potential. It's a beauty, that's for sure.

So Eleanor, what have you to say about red, nail polish or otherwise? We haven't really talked much about this color and it's not one to be passed over! We'll have to remedy that the next time I come visit.

love,
Aunt Liz