Flakie Friday! Zoya Chloe

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*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information** 

Hello Lovelies! Happy Friday!!!!!!!!! Not a payday Friday here, so it's not as exciting as it could be (especially with the ILNP Ultra-Chromes pre-order going live today. Ahhhh I want those so badly!!!), but with Friday comes Flakies, and Flakies always make things awesome.

Today's Flakie is Zoya Chloe, a mix of orange/red/gold/yellow and some green/blue duochrome mylar flakies in a barely pink tinted base. I've been in love with this since the day it was released and am seriously wondering if I am insane since I am just now wearing this pretty. Poor Chloe...she's been neglected.

I've seen Chloe paired with a number of awesome base colors, my favorite being purple, but I really wanted to try her over a dark, but not quite black color. I chose Essie Devil's Advocate, a deep plummy oxblood color.

This is 1 coat of Chloe over 2 coats of Devil's Advocate, topped with Glossy Glam. I apologize for my pinkness here - I'm working hard to moisturize and baby my hands since I'm healing from the evil blistering allergic reaction, which always seem to give me a bit of a pink flush.

Okay, I have to admit it,  I was kind of hoping the darker, plummy base would bring out a little more pink in the flakies, but I was wrong. However, this is still a beautiful combination and I'm quite happy with it. The color shift is truly amazing! How about a macro shot of those colorful flakes?

Gorgeous!!! I particularly love the Green/Blue in this one. That shift to cobalt blue just makes my heart skip. You can see a bit of the pink in the center as well, but with such a deep base color, they end up fairly washed out.

Chloe's formula is fabulous, although she does have a lot of base vs. flakies, which can make holding onto those flakies at the tip of your nails a bit of a pain. Application was wonderful, save for the aforementioned base vs. flakies issue. Dry time was average, and wear is excellent with no signs of wear at around 20 hours. These are Mylar flakies, and a bit thinner than the usual flakes, which means that they lie very flat on the nail. No need for glitter food or Gelous with Chloe. I used a single coat of Glossy Glam here and my mani is smooth as glass. I do need to mention that the tint in the base color does not have any effect on base color at all. It's so barely there that it's essentially clear.

I really wish that I had worn this flakie much sooner. I mean, look at those colors!! I must try this again over a purple so I can really see that pink shine.

What do you think of Chloe? Do you have this beauty of a Flakie in your stash?

I'll return tomorrow with some Indie awesomeness! I have a ton of Indies to share with you, including some new to me brands that will blow you away, so be sure to check back.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber



*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**

Nothing to Disclose

Classic Color: Sexy Divide...with a twist!

Quick weirdness update: If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen my tweets about asking my doc why in the hell my fingertips and cuticles have been swelling and flaking even when I'm babying them. Well, it turns out that I have extremely sensitive skin on my hands (just like my face - I can't use any soap products, lotions, or chemical products on my face unless I want to be red as a tomato, shedding like a snake and feel like thousands of tiny needles are poking me in the face), and all those wonderful cuticle products I've been using have actually been irritating the hell out of my skin. So I get to be very very light with the cuticle remover, and can't use it too often, as well as cutting out most of my cuticle balms and oils in favor of all natural balms or Olive Oil. Fun stuff. Anyone have any recommendations for good cuticle removers and creams/balms that don't have a ton of irritating chemicals or acidic ingredients? I'm tired of having swollen cuticles and painful fingertips.

Now, on to the polish!

I really felt like wearing Sexy Divide today. I have been holding on off on wearing her for some time now, and I just had to give in today. I love Sexy Divide like crazy..one of my all time fave purples.

Sexy Divide is from Essie's Winter 2008 Collection. She's a bright, saturated purple with pink and blue shimmer, and another color that I have yet to see look as wonderful in swatches as she does in person. This is one color that I will never be without!

Here is Sexy Divide on her own:

Isn't Sexy Divide....well, sexy? I couldn't' really manage to catch any of the blue shimmer in my lightbox. It seems to really only come out to play in sunlight, which I am all out of at the moment. It's been a bit gloomy here this week. Formula on this gal is a little on the thin side; I used 2 coats but seeing it in pictures, it really could've used 3. Otherwise this polish is perfection and I really have no complaints.

I wore Sexy Divide alone for a day, but I just couldn't wait to play with China Glaze Luxe and Lush, so decided to layer it over SD. I'm still not sure if I like this combo, but at least you can see all the colors that Luxe and Lush has to share. L & L is from The China Glaze Hunger Games/Capital Colours Collection, and is one of my very faves. It's a flakie polish, but these flakies are very thick and chunky, and there is a lot of playing with flakie placement with this girl. So far she looks a little different over every color I have tried her with, but showed more color with Sexy Divide than any other.

Luxe and Lush tends to lean the usual copper/green/teal that we're used to seeeing with Flakies over most polish. Layered over a deep purple she shows all of those colors at once, instead of flashes here and there. However, Luxe and Lush has a secret! Hopefully I'll be able to swatch them on my hands soon, but on my color wheel when I layered this baby over deep pinks, teal and baby blue? The colors morphed into more of a fiery red and irridescent blue. Very cool. I foresee this polish getting a lot of use, and I apologize in advance if I end up spamming you with it.

Formula wise Luxe and Lush is VERY thick, and if you want more than just slight scatters of flakies you'll be spending some time pushing flakes around on your nail. I started off that way with my thumb, but my time to play was running out, so I just used 2 coats and hoped for the best. The flakies themselves are also very heavy, leaving the nail slightly textured. Nothing a coat of gelous can't smooth out if you like your nails to be smooth.  I'm picking up a backup bottle of L & L tomorrow since I just love the heavy mylar flakies so much.

I can't wait to wear this layered over Stone Cold! I think that's my very fave combination right now. Are you planning on picking up Luxe and Lush? What do you think of these chunky flakies?

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber