Zoya Tiegen

Feeling a bit better today.

Tiegen was released by Zoya as part of the Ignite collection for fall 2014, the only collection from Zoya where I purchased every single polish outright. It's full of dark, rich colors bearing complementary metallic shimmers, all of them beautifully done. 

Officially described by Zoya as a "pink toned cranberry with copper liquid metal," Tiegen is a fairly dark red-violet, a purpled magenta shade warmed and enriched by superabundant metallic copper shimmers to a deep full-bodied berried red speckled with shimmers and displaying a coppery sheen. The shimmers are moderately-sized, large enough to read through the base as gleaming sparks of copper, gold, red and pink, and generate a pretty scintillating sparkle as light travels over them. The brightest of the Ignite polishes, Tiegen is sleek and feminine on the nail, lighter and twinkly at the center and deepening dramatically around the edges for a bit of that dimensional, lit-from-within aspect that polish enthusiasts love to see in shimmers.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Tiegen is quite fluid but not runny, and very smooth, with a nicely-balanced viscosity for painting and a silky slip over the nail. Pigmentation is buildable and the first coat is fairly sheer. This is one of those polishes that can appear deceptively opaque and even until you get it into bright direct light, so thin to medium coats applied as evenly as possible are the best way to go. I used two coats on most nails but there were a couple where I added a third to even up some of my edges, and looking at the photos I can tell the difference. I'll plan on going with three coats all around in the future. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with some pigment travel and light trace staining. Tiegen dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence and effects of the shimmers.

Photos show two to three coats of Tiegen over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It remains overcast here today and the polish looks a bit darker in my photos than it does in person.

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Zoya Tiegen

Tiegen is actually quite a bit prettier and more interesting than my photos show -- my camera had a hard time pinning down those flecky shimmers that speckle the finish so beautifully in person. And as I mentioned above, the color here is darker than it appears in person. There's a notable raspberry aspect to the color in person, especially outdoors with bright light all around, that lends a cheerful, vibrant sweetness to the personality of the polish. 

I've been preoccupied with indie polishes here on the blog and not long ago realized just how long it's been since I spent time with any of my Zoyas. It's my favorite mainstream brand and the one I have the most of, and I've been thinking about going through them all, destashing a bit and doing some reprise posts. That would keep me busy for a while! But could I keep my distance from indies for that long? I'm not sure, but it would for sure save me some $$ if I could.

love,
Liz