Sunday, January 5, 2014

Zoya Dannii

Dannii was released by Zoya as part of its Intimate collection for spring 2011. It is described by Zoya as a "medium orchid purple with pink and champagne highlights and flecks of silver metallic shimmer," and that's pretty accurate.  This is a desaturated purple with a certain creamy quality, almost a dark pastel, containing abundant reflective pink and silver shimmers. It is also Pantone's color of the year for 2014. Danni was ahead of its time!


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Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Color Institute, has this to say about Radiant Orchid: "An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm." (If you'd like to read the rest of the press release about Pantone and Radiant Orchid, it is available here.) Who knew? Not me. In the past I've tended to shy away from this hue as being too warm a purple for my coloring but I was WRONG! It's actually quite flattering.

Dannii applies beautifully. The consistency is fluid and light but not runny. Pigmentation is very good with bottle color and full opacity reached in two coats. As far as clean up goes, I recommend to clean up after this one as you go, because once it has dried those silver shimmers are a bear to remove and have the tendency to scatter across the skin as you'll notice in the pics. Dannii dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Dannii over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. There are pink reflections from my shirt (yes, I'm still wearing it... I tend to do that sometimes) in some of the photos, I'll make a note on the pics affected. The combination of the pink with Dannii's orchid hue is actually rather pretty!


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii, showing pink reflections from the shirt I was wearing


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii, showing pink reflections from the shirt I was wearing


Zoya Dannii, with a bit of pink reflecting off of the free edges


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii, with some pink reflection along the cuticle edge


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii, with bonus topcoat bubble on thumb nail


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii


Zoya Dannii, with bonus topcoat bubble

There is a noticeable chameleon quality to this polish. The combination of the pink and silver shimmers in Dannii has tendency to reflect a kind of rosy pink champagne color that is strong enough in direct light to somewhat mute the orchid purple. This sort of effect, where the shimmer seems to vie with the base color for control of the look, can end up looking almost muddy in photos. At least, I think so. But experiencing the effect in person, dynamically, makes a much, much better impression than still photos do.

The folks at Pantone say that wearing "radiant orchid" (or reasonable facsimile) has the capability of enhancing one's feelings of creativity and originality and of inspiring innovation. I don't know about that, but I will say that Dannii does have a creative and original look to it. It's really very lovely and flattering, I don't know what I thought this kind color would look like on me that had me so spooked about trying it. 

Learn and live!

love,
Liz



4 comments:

  1. Wow look at all that shimmering goodness!! I think it's going to be a good year thanks to radiant Orchid!

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    1. I'm, like, absolutely crazed for shimmers and glitter at the moment -- even if the color doesn't particularly suit my pinkage, if its got shimmer I'm all over it... for example right this minute I'm halfway through a Zoya Kimmy manicure, a blood orange shimmer that turns my digits into plump raw turkey sausages but I'm still all oooooh aaaaah and such.... turning up my nose at the new Zoya Naturel collection, etc. How long will this go on do you think?

      That orchid is an unusual choice for Pantone's color of the year, I think. Usually their selection is stronger, more defined and less overtly feminine. I wonder whether we'll see it play out in the larger world (outside of beauty/cosmetics) the way their choices have in the past. I love Pantone's seasonal color trend reports, used to use them a lot when I made jewelry....

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  2. I love this color, I think Pantone made a great (if unusual) choice this year :) Dannii is gorgeous, I love the shimmer as well as the shade!

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    1. Dannii turned out to be a surprise love for me as I've been skeptical about how this kind of purple would look with my pasty coloring but it's a much more forgiving color than I was giving it credit for. I'm a huge fan of Zoya's shimmers and flecky foils so I think the finish is awesome. I'm glad you like it too, Lucy!

      You know, whenever Pantone announces their color of the year the first thing I do is picture it on a car, probably because I was a restorative auto detailer in one of my previous incarnations but also because I'm a car enthusiast generally. Purple on cars is not for me, about the only maker I can think of off the top of my head who has readily released purple cars is Ford. Maybe this habit is what's giving me pause about Radiant Orchid.

      Preconceptions and biases aside, to me it's a color with a certain equanimity about it. I don't get the sort of energetic feels that Pantone describes... hmm.... Obviously I have a ways to go to come to terms with how I really feel about it.

      I love talking about color, can you tell? ;->

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