Zoya Belinda (plus Darling Diva Ringer)

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Zoya has recently run some pretty decent sales on their website, which has led to my first handful of their polishes.  The one I was most interested in was from this past holiday collection, Belinda.

indoor lighting, color-corrected a bit.
Just a heads up: none of these pics are what I'd call exactly true to the color.  My camera refused to play nicely, and wanted to make this shade either navy or royal purple, when Belinda is most definitely neither.

outdoor, mid-day indirect lighting.  because the car is always the best photo studio.
This polish is all about the base color, a luscious, saturated, very rich indigo.  Originally called "Imperial Russia" when it was a limited edition release, it's easily the queen of all blurples, looking in most lights like a midpoint between dark sapphire and imperial purple - it never appears to be straight up purple, but thankfully for as deep as it is, it never appears black in any lighting, either.


The bottle shows plenty of twinkly shimmer that's really only hinted at on the nail.  For me, this pretty much appeared to be a pearl sort of finish, though the camera picked up on the sparkles just fine.


This wore great on me, and I loved the color, but after a few days I was done with plain but didn't have time for a full polish change.  Darling Diva's Ringer to the rescue:

outdoor, sunset lighting
Ringer is DD's version of Fantasy Fire, with that killer ruby-to-emerald color shifting sparkle in a translucent, pale purple base.  In direct lighting, bright or low, it kicks off a gorgeous coppery red shimmer.  Start tilting your hand, though, and the colors change easily.

indoor lighting
At extreme angles, it's a pretty amazing emerald shade.


Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for both.  Each one of these is a gorgeous polish, and i like the way they complimented each other.  Bonus is that Belinda wore with only minor edgewear for an entire week.

Where to buy: Zoya can be bought at cosmetic stores like Ulta, or from their website.  Darling Diva polishes are on Llarowe, or her big cartel or etsy stores.

~Michelle

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