Hello again! I am having a major freakout over here because I just found out that my local theater is in fact showing HP at midnight, so I'm trying to figure out whether or not there are still tickets and whether or not I can go. I tell you this because I may be a little fragmented in this post due to my freaking out. Anyway, Mirrors is the non-creme half of Zoya Smoke & Mirrors. I say non-creme because not all the polishes have the same finish.
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First, we have Nimue, a "smoky rich thistle metallic." A purple-grey frost, Nimue isn't the sort of polish I would tend to pick out on my own - I'm not a huge fan of frosts, and brushstrokes tend to make my stomach curl up. However, I do quite like the base color and brushstrokes are minimal, so I can definitely see myself using this as a base for layering, if perhaps not on its own. Nimue was opaque in two coats.
outdoors, sunlight
outdoors, shade
Marina, the second color in Mirrors, is a "smoky steel blue metallic" that, again, is more of a frost than a metallic in my opinion. I like this one a bit better than Nimue, partly because its brushstrokes are even less visible. However, the color is not something that particularly stuns me, though that's just personal preference. I used two coats.
outdoors, sunlight
outdoors, shade
Tao, a "smoky slate gray metallic," is the last of the frosty Mirrors polishes, and my favorite out of the three. It's opaque in two coats, I can see myself wearing on its own, and I do like a good gunmetal grey. It could be just me, but I think Tao has a bit of a green tint in real life, though it doesn't show up in my pictures. However, I still think I would like the first half of Mirrors infinitely more if they were in the same sort of finish as Yara and Neeka.
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outdoors, shade
Oh. My. Goodness. Yara is so effing gorgeous! Zoya calls Yara a "sparkly olive green metallic," but that doesn't really capture how amazing this polish is. I adore this finish, which reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H, I love olive green, and I love gold glass flecks. Put it all together, and you have one amazing polish that's opaque in two coats, though it barely needs the second. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I wear this roughly two zillion times this fall.
outdoors, sunlight
outdoors, shade
My pictures do not do Neeka, a "sparkly amethyst purple metallic," any sort of justice. It's a grurple (what an unattractive adjective) with gold and silver glass flecks, though it's more purple than grey, as well as more purple than it looks in my photos. I used two coats, but only to cover up one bald spot on one nail - otherwise, it would've been fine with one. I'm sure you could use one thick coat and be perfectly fine.
outdoors, sunlight
outdoors, shade
Like those of Neeka, my pictures of Jem don't quite do the polish justice. A "sparkly fandango pink metallic," Jem looks like a burgundy/gold duochrome in the bottle, but is just a burgundy shimmer with some gold shimmer thrown in (though it's not as obvious as in Zoya Zara) on the nail. It's still a very pretty color, but I do feel slightly disappointed. On the bright side, it's opaque in one coat! Also, my apologies...as you can probably tell, I forgot to do cleanup on this one, and I didn't feel like reswatching it. Oops.
So, that's the end of Zoya Smoke & Mirrors! To recap, my favorite out of both collections are Jana, Dree, Yara, and Neeka, and my overall favorite is definitely Yara. What do you think? Will you be buying any of these?
These samples were provided to me by the PR company for review. However, this will never influence what I say in a review. For more information, see my disclosure policy.
