Zoya Bubbly

 press samples 

When the press release for Zoya's summer collections hit the blog's email and I saw the Bubbly shades, I literally gasped.  I saw good things in Tickled too, but Bubbly was a scene stealer.  When they came in the mail I gasped again.  They're stunners, even if they're not exactly what I expected.  Zoya describes them as an "exclusive liquid-metal holographic jelly formula with 2 coat coverage" and I have two bones to pick with that.  First off, they're not holographic.  I always wince a little when a big company describes anything as holographic, because it so often isn't.  It's happened more times than I can count.  Zoya's been pretty good about the use of that word though.  After all, their Magical Pixie collections have silver holo glitter.  The glitter in these Bubbly shades is iridescent.  I'm more than ok with that, because I love anything iridescent.  They're also not two-coaters for me.  My nails are long-ish and I wound up using a third coat with all six shades.  I'll give them the use of "exclusive" though, since I've never seen anything exactly like these.  Imagine Sinful Colors Hottie mixed with China Glaze White Cap or Sally Hansen Debu-Tint or one of those, but in a jelly base and completely wearable without undies.  Anything that takes that much explaining is pretty unique!

This is one of those rare-ish cases when the formula is essentially identical on all of the shades, so instead of saying pretty much the same thing for each, I'm covering that part up here.  I used three coats for each.  They're on the thick side because they're crampacked with small, iridescent hex glitter and gold microfleck shimmer.  They have jelly bases that are sheer enough for layering, but build well.  Two coats could be fine on short nails or if you don't mind a hint of sheerness.  They're not terribly "thirsy", but do take more/thicker topcoat to smooth out than non-glitter polishes would.  Now that that's out of the way, on to the swatches!


Harper has a bright, candy pink base.

My best description of Harper?  Bubblegum for magical fairies.  It's outrageously girly and Nichole loves it!  The gold microfleck pops beautifully against the pink.

Matte topcoat brings out even more of a bubblegummy look and lets you see the glitter and shimmer more clearly.

Alma's base is a bold, sunny orange-yellow.

My camera had a fit over Alma.  I think it's because the base and shimmer are warm, but the glitter is predominantly cool.  My fingers looked gray-blue in most of my photos and I had to trick the camera by showing it a white surface and then "surprising" it with my hand before it could readjust.  Yipe.  I really love the look of Alma, but it brings out a bit more red and purple in my skin than I'd like.  It's not unflattering, but I'm not sure if it's right for me.  It would probably look amazing if you're tan though.

Mattified it looks like jewels and gold!

Jesy is a citrusy orange.

Permit me another gasp.  *gasp*  Juicy, sparkly, and just completely stunning, isn't it?  All of the Bubbly shades have at least a bit of depth to them, but just look at the "darker edge" effect on Jesy!  The gold shimmer is outstanding in the orange jelly and while the glitter takes a backseat in all of the warmer shades, it does add a nice little twinkle here.

One more because it's gorgeous!

Matte topcoat sometimes kills depth, but not this time because these polishes have jelly bases.  Love that!  The iridescent glitter contrasts beautifully when Jesy is worn matte.

Stassi has a lime green base.

Like Kitridge/Kirtridge my bottle of Stassi says "Staasi", but whatever it says...it's beautiful!  There's something kinda dragon-y about it.  The glitter looks very blue amid the green base and the gold microfleck glows and twinkles.  There's something mystical about the look, for sure!

The blue pops even more with matte topcoat.  Even though this is a summer shade, I feel like it's got a lot of Halloween costume potential.  Yes, I'm ALWAYS thinking about Halloween.  Always.

Binx is fuchsia.

The base brings out a lot of purple in the glitter, and the gold shimmer is more vibrant in Binx than in almost any of the others.  I love that about this collection.  Even though they've all got the same glitter and shimmer, the bases bring out different aspects.

They all mattify so beautifully too!

Muse is a cool sea blue.

It's hard to stand out in a collection this splendid, but....damn!  Muse is the winner here!  I can see a lot of people going nuts over the mermaid-y look.  I'm sure Nichole wants to clonk me over the head and run off with it.  The glitter looks mostly blue and green this time, and the shimmer takes on a green tone that adds even more to the oceanic feel.  I'm glad I saved this one for last, since that means it can be my NOTD today!

Mattifying takes a little undefinable something away from Muse, but it's still pretty this way too.

Bottom line: Love love love!!  Zoya really did something amazing here.  Muse is a stand-out among stand-outs, but I also love Sassi and Jesy.  Nothing against the other three, at all!  I'm just not a pink person and Alma makes my fingertips look a little off.


Two down, one to go!  The summer Magical Pixie trio is on its way to me now too and will be on the blog next week.