Reprise: Zoya Skylar

My original post on this polish was well over a year ago and can be found here. Take a look only if you are prepared to see a painfully messy manicure, horrendous cuticles and an assortment of weird manicure poses. Really. 

Skylar was released by Zoya as part of the True collection for summer 2012. Zoya describes it as a "medium steel blue with a softened, dusty look and speckled by visible gold and silver shimmer flecks." Excellent description! Skylar is a medium creamy washed denim blue with strong grey undertones and relatively large flecky silver and gold shimmers, the latter of which lends a slight green nuance to the polish in certain lights. This polish tends to pull very grey on me in bright light, for some reason, but shows aspirations to azure in dimmer light. I love this soft, slatey blue with it's lovely speckled finish. It's a gentle, friendly unpretentious color beautifully tweaked by the fun flecky shimmers. 

Application was lovely. Skylar has a fluid and light consistency that is thin but not runny. It is an excellent self-leveler and applies smoothly and evenly over the nail. Pigmentation seems a bit wanting on the first coat, but builds quite quickly and easily to opacity and bottle color in two medium coats. If you tend towards thin coats, you'll probably want to do three. Cleanup is a breeze, especially given how easy this polish is to apply. Of course, I can say that now! Back when I first featured this polish, I didn't have an easy time with application or cleanup. Practice -- it's a good thing. Skylar dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat pops the shimmers.

Photos show two coats of Skylar over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

Zoya Skylar

The ratio of shimmer to pigment in this is very nicely balanced. A bit of translucence in the base allows them to be seen all the way through the polish, not just at the top. Although the shimmers are metallic, they aren't brightly reflective and sparkly the way you'd expect from a polish bearing metallic shimmers. They are a quiet, soft influence, adding visual interest without trying to steal the show. I think their inclusion with this color is genius, it adds so much integrity to the formulation as a whole!

I do wish I could have gotten pics of it that turned out showing less grey and more blue, but perhaps that is impossible with my complexion. There are plenty of photos out there showing it's bluer face, which is truly delicate and lovely.

love,
Liz