Zoya Britta

Britta was released in mid-August this year by Zoya as part of the Urban Grunge collection for fall 2016. It's a shimmer polish with a deep plummy magenta base, sort of a blackberry jam color, bearing superabundant golden microflake shimmers that read in shades of red, magenta, pink and purple. These tiny gleaming flakes sparkle from within the base as light travels over them and serve to create a dimensional, lit-from-within kind of glow, especially in direct light. They also give the finish a foily look. There's a showy, more metallic duochromey look to it as well, in low indirect or reflected light, where a plummy fandango color switches out with a brilliant reddish telemagenta. Very rich and dramatic!

Application was very nice considering I had extra shaky hands today. The consistency of Britta is fluid, smooth and slightly fluffy from all of those shimmers, with a medium viscosity and a plush, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent, delivering wearable opacity in one medium coat, although I think the shimmers are denser and more prominent with two. There is a tiny bit of pigment travel with cleanup and a moderate amount of sticky, freed up shimmers, but it's not too bad. Britta dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat really highlights the presence of the shimmers.

Photos show two coats of Britta over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

Zoya Britta

I like this polish a lot more than I expected to. It has a beautiful blackberry-colored foily look in my pics with a nice bit of sparkle from those shimmers, but I wish I'd been able to capture that metallic duochrome look with my camera, it's pretty glorious and really lets you see the purple in the polish. Overall, I think this is a great everyday kind of polish, a little vampy but not too much, with a boatload of panache. There's also a festive, welcoming feel to it that makes me think of wreaths and garlands and other Christmasy stuff -- it's that time of year, I guess. Christmas is everywhere!

love,
Liz