Bloom Town — Perk Up Your Nails With The Zoya Spring 2016 Petals Collection

As spring flowers bloom and the once-dreary skies and snow-covered expanses become a not-so-distant memory, nail polish colors also tend to experience a reawakening, moving from dramatic, indulgent, even gothic shades to exuberant brights, pretty pastels, and glistening metallics. For Spring 2016, Zoya looked to a classic — and yes, expected — inspiration: blossoms. But in typical Zoya fashion, this age-old theme is explored in a novel way, through a fantasy-prone and innovation-bent lens. The Zoya Petals Spring 2016 nail lacquer collection, then, includes a pastel pink and a cream salmon shade, a sparkling fuchsia, and a magical periwinkle, but all of these shades incorporate a distinctive element — whether it’s the color of the glitter blended into the formula, the balance between warm and cool undertones, or the degree of sheen — that makes it feel like a breath of fresh air.

The six nail lacquers in the collection are: Azalea, Tulip, Aster, Zahara, Leia, and Laurel. Each 5-free nail lacquer retails for $10 at Zoya.com.

Now, I usually swatch all six shades in every Zoya collection but, this time around, two bottles arrived cracked so I was unable to swatch them (apparently, the postal service was a bit enthusiastic when transporting the box). This, of course, is no reflection of Zoya as they carefully package all of their orders and I’ve never, in all these years of covering the brand, had any bottles arrive cracked or broken. It’s just one of those things that occasionally happens. That said, I have swatches of four of the shades below — and they are amazing! So, without further ado, let’s get in petal-pushing mode!

AZALEA

This is likely one of the more conventional shades in the Petals collection which is simply to say that, while pretty and lively, it’s not necessarily novel. It’s a standard fuchsia pink with mainly blue undertones (the color reminds me of one of those faux fur jackets or feather boas Elle Woods would have worn in Legally Blonde which, for the record, is actually a compliment!). What makes this shade a bit more unique than other fuchsias is that it features a white and fuchsia flash that makes the color glisten and gives it depth and dimension. Unlike a metallic shade that might, while shiny, read a bit flat, this one’s sheen seems to move and morph, and therein lies its charm.  Sure, it’s not the most revolutionary shade in the world, but every girl needs a great fuchsia in her nail polish collection, and this one is as darling as they come.

ASTER

Arguably my favorite shade in the Petals collection, Aster is a periwinkle blue with flecks of fuchsia glitter that give it a near-lavender look in certain lighting and which, moreover, give the shade an almost dew-like glisten — which, of course, is only fitting for a collection inspired by flowers. The color dances on the line between blue and purple, and that’s what makes it a pitch-perfect periwinkle hue.

ZAHARA

There’s a mood-lifting quality to this perky shimmering coral nail polish. Just seeing this  warm and sunny color on my nails makes me smile. What I love about it is that it’s not quite a pink or an orange shade: it’s almost peachy but not yellow enough to fall into that realm,  it’s almost a salmon shade but not quite pink enough to be classified as such. I also appreciate that it has the subtlety of a pastel shade, but its brilliant shimmer and its opalescence, transform what would have been a daintier hue.

LEIA

When you look at Leia inside its bottle, it appears to be a metallic, icy white shade, but it’s so much more! Yes, at its core, this is a sheer white polish, but it’s saturated with green, fuchsia, and gold flecks that give the polish a magical iridescence. It’s like a Star Wars hologram — well, imagine Princess Leia’s white gown in a hologram and you’ll get my drift. That said, the polish is incredibly sheer (it took me three coats just to get the degree of coverage shown in the above photos) so, if you want full opacity, you may want to consider applying a layer of a cream nail polish and then using Leia as a top coat. If, however, you like that transparency and feel like it compounds the surrealist feel of the hue, by all means wear it on bare nails like I did!