Zoya Purple and Dark Mauve Cremes Comparison

Good evening! Today I have for you my massive comparison of Zoya’s Purple and dark mauve cremes! It seems like every fall, like clockwork, Zoya puts out at least one of these dark purple cremes – and of course I always get them! But seriously, last fall’s Urban Grunge had Tara, 2015’s Focus had Lidia, 2014’s Entice had Margo & Veronica, 2012’s Designer had Toni and Monica, 2011’s Smoke had Anja (and you’ll be seeing all of them here today!) The only polish of Zoya’s I could think of that I don’t have that I wish I could compare to the rest of these guys is Lael (which was ironically one of the first of these color polishes that Zoya ever did), which I’ve heard is incredibly similar to Lidia (that’s why I’ve never bought it). Once my swatch sticks come in, I’ll do a picture of this comparison on those, so you can see how the polishes compare dried. I’ll also, once I can put them all onto swatch sticks, throw in some non-Zoya dark purples too. And, if next fall (and the fall after that and the fall after that) they release another one of these dark purple cremes, I’ll be sure to update.

From left to right – Normani, Mary, Debbie, Marnie, Veronica, Toni, Margo, Tara, Anja, Monica, Lidia, Katherine, Casey, Sloane

Normani through Veronica

Zoya Normani (Naturel 1, Winter-Spring 2014) – I’m going to do a whole other comparison for just the Naturels, but I wanted to include this along with the other purples. It’s more of a sable brown color with some purple undertones, so I wanted to throw it in.

Zoya Mary (Naturel 3, Winter-Spring 2017) – Mary leans a little more brown than most of the other polishes in this lineup, but since it’s still a little raisin-y I threw it in. Again, I’ll talk more about Mary in my full Naturel comparisons.

Zoya Debbie (Naturel 3, Winter-Spring 2017) – More of a plum brown. Again, I’ll talk more about Debbie in my Naturels post.

Zoya Marnie (Naturel Deux, Summer-Autumn 2014) – The reddest of these darker Naturels, but still browner than Veronica. Compared to Veronica, it’s also much more muted.

Veronica through Tara

Zoya Veronica (Entice, Autumn 2014) – Distinctly the reddest of this set, and I’ll also include Veronica when I do a Zoya berry-reds comparison. It’s closest in tone to Toni, but Toni is much more dusty in tone. It’s distinctly berry compared to Margo, but they’re both of a similar brightness.

Zoya Toni (Designer, Autumn 2012) – Kind of a dark beet red with some plummy tones. The Designer set in general was a very dusty set, and Toni and Monica are probably the least vibrant of the comparison (Veronica and Margo being the brightest). Color wise, it falls between Veronica and Margo.

Zoya Margo (Entice, Autumn 2014) – The brightest of the dark purples, and also a very warm one. The biggest difference between it and Tara is that brightness.

Zoya Tara (Urban Grunge, Autumn 2016) – The most mid-toned purple out of all of them – Not as warm as Veronica, Toni, or Margo, not as cool as Monica or Lidia, not as light as the Naturel purples and not as dark as Casey, but that said it’s really close to Anja, the closest of any two polishes in the lineup. Anja’s darker – Tara looks like Anja with a drop of Margo in it – but otherwise they’re very, very close.

Margo through Lidia

Zoya Anja (Smoke, Autumn 2011) – The darkest of the very warm toned purples, Anja looks distinctly red compared to Lidia.

Zoya Monica (Designer, Autumn 2012) – Like Toni, Monica is rather dusty compared to everyone else (these pictures refuse to show it.) It’s much more cool toned than Toni and is a lot lighter than Lidia.

Zoya Lidia (Focus, Autumn 2015) – I haven’t worn Lidia in a while, but I recall her drying a lot darker than in the bottle. I’ll have to try her again once I get the swatch sticks. She’s also much more blue toned than a lot of the rest of Zoya’s dark purples, but not super blue toned.

Monica through Sloane

Zoya Katherine (Gloss, Autumn 2012) – This is actually a jelly polish, so unless you build it up it’s not that dark. This is another one I haven’t worn in a little while, but I recall it looking at three coats like a jelly version of Monica (fitting, as they came out at the same time.)

Zoya Casey (Core Lineup) – By a wide margin the darkest of the purples, Casey comes off as black in a lot of lightings.

Zoya Sloane (Pulse, Autumn 2008) – Yes, Sloane has shimmer in it (and when I do my post on comparing shimmery purples she’ll be there too.), but it’s subtler than most so I threw it in. It’s a bit like a shimmery version of Anja.

Let me know if you have any comparison requests and I'll try to make them happen!

All of these polishes are available at Zoya.com.

First Post: Mani of the Day - Julep Gemini over Deborah Lippmann Defying Gravity!

Hello and welcome to Lady of the Lacquer! I'm Gina, your lovely guide through the world of nail polish. For my first Mani of the Day, I present to you Deborah Lippmann's Defying Gravity from the Wicked Mini Trio topped with Julep's Gemini from their 2016 Zodiac Collection. Now, I'm going to let you in on a little secret - I don't really care, for the most part, for green nail polish. I know, only my first blog post and I have to turn in my nail polish lover card. Not to say I hate all green nail polish, but it's one of the colors I admittedly wear the least. While everyone else always flocks to get the new green or blue in any collection, I sneakily grab the reds and pinks and head to the checkout line as incognito as possible. Plus there's a lot of shades of green I just don't wear on my fingers particularly olive green (I'm really not looking forward to reviewing the Zoya Wanderlust collection, because I'm going to like Mandy and Journey and Sonja and the pink crèmes and hate Arbor and Scout. I think Scout kind of looks like cat vomit. There, I said it.)

The greens I tend to like tend to be emerald (like Lippmann Laughing to the Bank), minty (like China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint), sea foam (like Julep Alyssa or Orly Vintage), or teal (like Zoya Cecelia). The greens I like that don't fit into any of those categories I could count on my fingers. But these two are absolutely wonderful.

Deborah Lippmann Defying Gravity is a jade-green (more along the lines of OPI's Jade is the New Black as opposed to Chanel Jade) crème with the formula we all know and love from Lippmann, two flawless coats. Now, Defying Gravity was from the time before the Gel Lab Pro formula, which almost paints itself, back then Lippmanns weren't as guaranteed to have the best formulas ever. But Defying Gravity is amazing anyway. And, as much as I like Zoya's new Elphie Pixiedust polish, Defying Gravity is still the best Elphaba themed polish in my book. Defying Gravity was formulated to match the green Elphaba makeup they use on Broadway, and I love that so much. I'm going to do swatches of this solo at some point.

Julep Gemini is described as a "chartreuse" by Julep, but I must say it's a little darker than what I think of usually as chartreuse. I thought chartreuse, by its very definition, was lighter and brighter than this. I'd probably call it jade like Defying Gravity. I was expecting it to be far sheerer than it was, but I'd say you could get this opaque in two to three coats. I just wanted to preserve my bottle. It's so beautiful. That said, I was expecting this to be a stronger duochrome, more of a golden green to jade green, but it's mostly the same color throughout the nail. Of the three Zodiac polishes I've worn so far (Gemini, Cancer, and Leo), this is surprisingly my favorite. Cancer was unfortunately incredibly bubbly on me (but I must say I was incredibly surprised with its opacity. I was expecting it to be the sheerest of the lot, but I wore it over a red crème and I couldn't see any of it under one coat of Cancer) and Leo, while rather nice, wasn't quite as enchanting as Gemini.

 This is one coat of Gemini over two coats of Defying Gravity. It looks a little olive-y here (I'm having some trouble with the color temperature on my camera), but it was much cooler toned in real life.

The Wicked trio came out almost four years ago, so you won't be able to find it in any stores but eBay might have some. Defying Gravity also came with pink shimmer Popular and green glitter One Short Day (the later of which I no longer have, thanks to a mishap.)

Gemini and the rest of Julep's two Zodiac sets are available here.