Zoya Crystal

Crystal is my one and only Zoya polish. I have nothing against Zoya, it's just not a brand that's easy to get hold of in the UK. I found Crystal in a random nail salon when I was living on the Isle of Wight (or The Island as I like to call it) last year.

Zoya Crystal was part of Zoya's autumn/winter collection a couple of years ago. It's a blue foil with gold flecks, and it. Is. Gorgeous. Applying it was a doddle and it was opaque in two coats. I took way too many photos of it; the first four are in the shade, and the last two are trying to capture the last of the evening sun from my bathroom window! XD

Random fact: Crystal was the name of a hamster I had as a child. My pets all had silly names when I was little: Snowy the hamster, Crystal the hamster, Snuffs the rabbit (prompted a lot of "Snuffs snuffed it" jokes from people when he died. I was not amused), Smokie the guinea pig, Owen the guinea pig (named after Michael Owen), Roxy the hamster, and finally dear Claude. It looks like over the years I've matured from cute names to human names for pets!

What do you think of Zoya Crystal? And have you had any pets with silly names?

Nails Inc Regent's Park Road

I bought a couple of Nails Inc polishes on eBay recently, including Regent's Park Road. From the picture I thought it was just going to be a turquoise glitter, but it turned out to be one of those ubiquitous OPI Catch Me in Your Net / Zoya Charla / Essence Choose Me! / Orly Halley's Comet dupes (is there any nail company that hadn't made a version of this polish?!). In case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard of it, it's a blue/green shade with chunky gold shimmer that was opaque in two coats.

My camera tends to spaz out when it sees colours like this, especially in the sun, so my photos don't really do justice to this beautiful polish!

Are you a fan? Do you have any of the dupes of this nail polish?

Models Own Sophie's Pink

I have a confession to make: I only bought Models Own Sophie's Pink because we share the same name. That is literally the only reason. I know Zoya has a polish called Sophie, but that brand isn't widely available in the UK - and it's a reddish terracotta colour that's even less me than Sophie's Pink, which is a hot pink creme. The formula of Sophie's Pink was good; I used three coats in the photos below, but this was more out of habit than because it really needed the third. So without further ado, here is My Pink:

I had to use artificial light due to a distinct lack of sun, so the photos aren't very colour accurate, I'm afraid. It's not remotely coral like you see here; it's definitely hot pink. I actually think I like the colour more in my photos than in real life!

Have any of you ever bought a nail polish because of its name? Do you have a Zoya polish named after you?