Zoya Summer 2014 Bubbly Collection: Muse

Swatches & Review

Muse is a shade from Zoya's Summer Bubbly Collection. Unlike the Tickled Collection, which consisted of cremes, the Bubbly Collection has six glitter jelly shades. I would call it a glitter jelly because the base color of the nail polish itself is sheer, and the glitter is not gritty at all once it is on the nails like regular glitter finish nail polishes so it looks more like a glitter-jelly sandwich.

Zoya describes Muse as "a blue raspberry holographic fizz with a subtle vein of gold," which looks like it in the bottle.

For the swatches of Muse, I took all the pictures in this post in low-light/in the shade. I originally swatched all of the shades from the Bubbly Collection under sunlight without being able to view it on my camera (the screen broke so the only time I was able to see it was after I uploaded, big mistake =x) and once I uploaded it all after swatching onto my computer, they were basically horrible looking under direct sunlight, so I had to redo it and I started with Muse.

Muse is a gorgeous blue-green that reminds me of a mermaid's tail. The first coat was very sheer, but by the second coat, it looked fully opaque in shade, however, you would be able to see the nail line under direct sunlight so I would recommend three coats with this. Compared to the bottle, I feel like you see more color variation of the glitters in it instead of on the nail because the blue base totally covers it.

For Muse, I actually wore this shade for the whole week without a base coat and a top coat to see how it wears. Normally without a base coat & top coat, blue colored nail polishes will stain my nails like crazy and it will chip a lot by the 3rd day. I did not find that with this because by the 5th day, I only noticed some minimal tip wear, which was crazy good at lasting on my nails. During that time, I have washed many dishes, my hair many times, and my three dogs and it did not peel or chip. When I took it off, there was no staining, but the glitter itself sticks on the nails even after the color of the nail polish is gone, which kind of irritated my nails (from my previous infection) because my nails itself has been thin and peeling a lot so the glitter sticking on it was painful to remove each time I had to remove them (it felt like I was peeling skin off of myself when the glitter came with it). The wear and no staining was what made me like the formula of this.

When Zoya first introduced this as a scattered holographic collection, I was expecting it to be like the previous ones from their Holiday collections such as Dream, Blaze, Aurora, etc. However, this was totally different so I was a bit disappointed because it does not really seem that holographic.

Overall, I really liked the color (when it was in the shade), formula, and the wear time. No staining for a blue nail polish is also a plus. I just wish the glitter would "pop" out more and have it look better under direct sunlight. Under direct sunlight, this polish looked "bleh" like it was not interesting at all, but I liked how it looked in low-light, and pretty much the same applied to all the other colors I have tried in this collection.

Muse retails for $9 and can be purchased at Zoya.com.

*Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided to me for my honest opinion/review from the brand. I was not paid for this review & all opinions are my own.

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BA Star Tropical Eyeshadow Palette

Swatches & Review

For this month, BrandBacker has partnered with BA Star once again for their Summer Tropical Palette and I was sent the BA Star Tropical Palette and an eyeshadow primer for free to review as part of the campaign. Unlike the Midnight Smoky Eye palette that I have previously reviewed, this palette is filled with fun, bright summer colors!

The packaging for this is the same as the Midnight Smoky palette, which is plastic with five pans for eyeshadows.

Like how to reviewed the Midnight Smoky palette, the top part has no primer, and the bottom half has primer, which is more noticeable with the purple shade because at the half, the color payoff is a bit more intense than the top part.
I will go from left to right because there are not names to each shade:
1) Lime green with a metallic finish. I used two swipes in swatches because it applies sheer, but a primer helps intensify it a bit. I also found it a bit powdery.
2) Bright metallic blue. I used two swipes, but it isn’t as sheer as the green.
3) Metallic purple. I used four swipes because this applied very sheer.
4) Bright pink. This seems more of a satin since it isn’t as metallic, but it’s not matte either. This was very powdery, but pigmented. I used two swipes for this.
5) Metallic silver. This is also sheer, but would be nice to use over the other colors for more of a pop of metallic.

I found that most the shades applied sheer except the blue and the pink, which were very pigmented. However, the pink was a bit chalky and very powdery. All the shades are build able, and I feel like using a white base would make the colors pop more. The primer helped a bit, but it did not really make too much of a difference and it feels heavy on the skin, which is why I probably would not prefer using this primer. However, I recommend using a primer (any kind you prefer) because without it, the eyeshadows will stain your skin. Although the shades do apply sheer, I actually like this palette because it is perfect for summer and the shadows do stay on for a while without rubbing off easily.

From now until July 4, 2014, you can purchase this palette for 50% off with the code 50TROPIC if you are interested in buying this product.

This palette retails for $8.75 and can be purchased at www.bastar.com.

*Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided to me for my honest opinion/review from the brand via BrandBacker. I was not paid for this review & all opinions are my own.

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