Zoya Truth and Dare Fall 2009 Collection plus my first ever giveaway!

I know, I really dropped the ball on these. I should have had them posted ages ago. I had a really off week. It happens to everyone once in a while. Well, here they are now, better late than never, and to make up for it I have a special surprise at the end!

TRUTH

Anaka. Shimmery dark pink. This color is ridiculously pretty. I don't even like pink and I love this. It's on the darker side as far as pinks go, but it has so much depth and shimmer that I can't stop looking at it. It has little golden and slightly iridescent flecks and also a very faint blue reflection. Unusual choice for fall, but I'm not complaining.

Drew. Soft mauve pink shimmer. This one feels a little more fall-like! It's a greyed-out medium pink, I'm calling it mauve. We used to have carpet this color in the 80's. You may think that's a bad thing, but it's the opposite- I like it because it reminds me of those happy memories.

Isla. Blackened red shimmer. Whoa. When I first saw the promo pics and color chips for this, I was thinking... Oh joy, another red shimmer. But wow! I didn't expect it to be this hot. It's one of those reds that looks black on the edges and bright in the middle. I love colors like that. Surprise favorite for me.

Kalmia. Red and gold shimmer. I don't know if I can truly call this copper, but it's sort of coppery looking. Very metallic. Not quite rose gold, not really copper... It's more of a red-gold fusion. Unlike most metallic shades, this one doesn't show brushstrokes.

Penny. Golden metallic shimmer. Since this is called Penny, I feel like I should be calling it copper, but it looks more gold to me. A warm, orangey gold. It's bright and shiny, also very metallic and it shows a little bit of brushstroke but nothing major.

Salma. Red shimmer. This is a loght warm red, almost kind of orange looking. This is probably the most fall-like shade for me, it reminds me of maple leaves changing colors and gently floating to the ground.

DARE

Ciara. Warm red-purple creme. This is a bit softer and more purple in real life. All of these Dare colors were so hard to capture! Reddish purple creme. Pretty straightforward.

Demi. Medium purple creme. I love this!! This color also looks different in real life. It's a fantastic purple creme, but it's a little more dusty looking and it's a lot richer and deeper. Photographing these was more difficult than I anticipated!


Envy. Blackened green creme. Wow. Seriously. Wow. Deep, dark, leafy green. Like the forest at night. Beautiful. It has a slight amount of shimmer that is really only barely visible in very bright light. I'm declaring it a creme for sanity's sake. It also has this interesting textured look- like there's a bunch of little green spheres in a green base.


Ibiza. Shimmering midnight blue. Dark, velvety, mysterious. This is a very dark blue, not quite black-looking but pretty much as dark as blue can be before it looks black. It has a little bit of soft shimmer to keep it interesting.

Pinta. Dark purple creme. This picture isn't even remotely color accurate. I couldn't capture the purple color of this polish at all. I'm only posting it here so the set of pictures can be complete. In real life, this isn't blue. It's purple. Deep, dark, sexy purple. It is gorgeous. You might just have to see it for yourself because I don't know if I'll be able to keep it from turning blue in pictures.

Vanessa. Deep berry creme. This is darker in real life. This is a straight up, no-frills berry creme. Not much else to say about it! Reminds me of Moxie.


I didn't expect Dare to be such a challenge to photograph! All of the colors kept changing on me! If I can get better pictures, I will. But, at least between my bottle and swatch Dare pictures you can get a general idea of what they look like.


Anyway. Formula was good on these. Very good. Smooth, even-textured, not thick or runny. They didn't give me any application problems at all. The opacity was great, almost all of them were two-coaters, but I did three on everything just to see how they looked that way. The polish itself is perfect. The only thing that gave me a hard time were the brushes- all of the brushes in these seem to be cut at an angle... almost in a V shape... I'm thinking they got a bad batch of brushes, because I've never had problems with Zoya brushes before. They normally fit my nails like a glove and give me perfect coverage, but these made me have to actually pay attention to how I used them.


My favorites from these collections are Anaka, Isla, Demi, Envy and Pinta. Anaka and Isla really surprised me, they were totally unexpected but entirely gorgeous on the nails. Demi and Pinta are perfect purple cremes, and there are not enough good purple cremes in the universe. Envy... do I really have to say anything about Envy? It's dark green. It's fan-freakin'-tastic!!!

So, now for the surprise!

These polishes aren't available until July 15th, but Zoya and I are giving you a chance to get your hands on them before they're released! You'll be the only one besides the media to have them!

I have a full set of Truth and Dare polishes up for grabs. That's the entire fall collection, all twelve polishes. Starting from right now until noon Central on Friday, you can enter your name and email for a chance to win both sets before they're released. I'm leaving this open for everyone, both US and International.



The winner will be drawn at random. Good luck!! :D