Hi everyone! Happy Friday! How are you?

Today, I'm super excited to be sharing the lovely Zoya Seashells Collection with you! This is a set of 6 new PixieDust finishes for Summer 2016.

The original press release for this set doesn't differentiate between these and the original PixieDust finish (very light, subtle texture) and the Magical Pixies, ect. (bigger hex glitters, more textured.) It just describes them as "PixieDust," so stay tuned to find out how they compare texturally at the end!




L to R: Cece, Bay, Tilly, Levi, Zooey, Linds



A note before we start: In all swatches, only the middle nail has top coat to show the contrast between the natural PixieDust finish and how it looks glossy.

The glossy nail has 1 coat of American Classics- Gelous + 1 coat of Glisten & Glow- HK Girl to completely smooth the texture.You'll see that with some of these shades that combo smooths and glosses pretty nicely, but for others, the polish is a little more "hungry" ^eeek, and still appears slightly textured.

Let's get into it!


First, here is Zoya- Linds:


Linds is a saturated medium red Pixie Dust with golden yellow shimmer as well as magenta microglitter. This looks much warmer-toned in the bottle than on the nail. Definitely is a blue-based red once you apply it to the nail!

Artificial light, two coats:




Formula: It's easy to control: medium consistency, and glides over the nail quite well as long as you adequately load the brush. It's pigmented too, and was pretty much opaque on the first coat, although I used two for swatches to be safe. Like all PixieDust finishes, it dries down very quickly! Nice!
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Next, Zoya- Zooey:


Zooey is a medium, warm-toned (coral-leaning) candy pink with medium holographic hexes and golden shimmer.

You'll notice that this one is a little more coarsely textured due to the larger hex.

Artificial light, two coats:




This one in particular really reminds me of a seashell- the golden shimmer is so prominent...and, ah...I know this is pink, but I'm just speechless!

Formula: It's very, very similar to Linds: easy to control, medium viscosity, streak-free on the first coat, and dries down super quickly! Opaque in two easy coats!
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Here is a golden hue, Zoya- Levi:


Levi is a soft golden champagne PixieDust with medium holo hex glitter (like Zooey) as well as yellow-green? shimmer. I don't hate this shade by any means, but it's certainly unflattering on my skin tone!

Artificial light, two coats:




In person, the color is more yellow-toned and golden than in the two macro photos at the end^. It's much more like the first photo.

Formula: It's the same lovely texture as the others, except maybe slightly sheerer? It still covers without streaks on the first coat and builds to easy opacity in two. Nice!
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Next, Zoya- Tilly:


Tilly is a cool, purple-toned silver PixieDust with holographic microglitter as well as some purple microglitter. The hexagonal glitters in this one aren't quite as large as the previous two. I loved this shade on my skin!

Artificial light, two coats:




Formula: It's maybe also on the slightly sheerer side, but still not really "sheer." It's very buildable and definitely opaque in two easy coats like the others! I wore this one for a few days on my non-swatching hand, and it held up pretty nicely!
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Now, a pretty blue, Zoya- Bay:


Bay is blue PixieDust filled with yellow-green/ gold microglitter and cooler-toned blue microglitter. I can't decide if this is more of a cool-toned or warm-toned blue- I think due to the difference in tones of the different microglitters! A very mermaid-y color!

Artificial light, two coats:




Formula: It's very similar to the others: easy to control, dries down quickly, opaque in two coats! This is getting repetitive, but very nice!
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Finally, a green, Zoya- Cece:


Cece is a warm-toned, grassy green Pixie Dust with yellow shimmer and microglitter...as well as some darker microglitter specks.

Artificial light, two coats:




Also not super flattering on my skin tone, but not many greens are, to be honest.

Formula: It seems slightly more viscous than the others? Not thicker, just maybe more syrupy? Still, it's easy to control, pigmented, dries down quickly, and opaque in two easy coats!
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Ready to see how these compare to some other PixieDust finishes?


Top Row: Zoya Seashells

Bottom Row:

• Godiva, Liberty, Chita (2013 original PixieDusts) 
• Cosmo, Arlo (Magical Pixies, Spring & Summer 2014)
• Arianna (Ultra PixieDusts, Fall 2014)
• Imogen (Wishes/ Magical Pixie, Winter 2014)

Same arrangement, different angle to maybe show differences in texture/ sparkle:


Here's an extreme close-up of what I feel are the three main "types" of PixieDust finishes Zoya has released:


L to R: Zoya- Godiva (original), Zoya- Levi (Seashells), Zoya- Cosmo (Magical Pixie)

I think you can really see here the differences in particle size and density which account for the overall differences in "coarseness!" I really just love the subtle sparkle of the original PixieDusts!
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Overall, I'm happy to see more PixieDusts from Zoya, and I think the color selection here hits a nice sweet spot for Summer as well as coordinating nicely with the Sunsets polishes. That said, it's a bit frustrating to me that Zoya is using the term "PixieDust" quite loosely as an umbrella to describe any of their textured finishes! I really had hopes that these would be in the vein of the original, sparkly, subtly-textured PixieDusts a la the Spring, Summer, and Fall 2013 sets. In actuality, they are somewhere in between that finish and the Magical Pixies that started appearing in 2014. They remind me more of a lot of OPI's textured polishes. (Zooey and Levi in particular are coarser than the others due to larger holo hex.)

That's not to say that these are unsuccessful in my eyes- I just prefer the original texture by a mile! Unlike the coarser Magical Pixies, these PixieDusts are easy to apply (like the originals), but they are a little grittier and more scratchy-feeling to wear than the original PixieDust finish. After a couple days of wearing these, I'm quite ready to put on something smoother! Actual application for all of them is great though. I have to mention that I didn't do cuticle cleanup for any of my swatches just due to how easy they are to manipulate! And, of course, my favorite thing about PixieDusts in general is the super quick dry-down time which makes them amazingly flexible for when you're in a rush!

Texture aside, these shades are all beautiful! My favorite is easily Tilly, and Linds and Zooey are close seconds!







Don't forget! There's still an active giveaway for this collection + the Zoya Sunsets! One lucky person will win both complete sets, and two others will win sampler sets of these Summer collections! :D




*Disclosure: polishes in this post were provided to me as press samples for honest review, and all opinions are my own.