Zoya Ultra PixieDust Fall 2014 Swatches & Review

I personally don't gravitate to many of the trendy polish fads that start up every now and then. For example, I hated the crackle effect. I remember trying it as a kid (way before the polish days you've all come to know me for), and it never worked as it was shown to. Lo and behold, when it was rereleased a few years ago, nail artists everywhere continued to struggle with it.

"Stop trying to make crackle happen Gretchen, it's not going to happen!"

My pessimism carried forward when the pixiedusts and sand polishes hit the scene. After trying a few of both, I'm pleased to say I liked them! Sand polishes are kind of gritty, but generally have the same color throughout, whereas the Zoya Pixiedust polishes include dynamic glitter, especially their Ultra Pixiedust shades.

Though they aren't rockable for long (you can't wear a top coat with them if you want the gritty effect), they're pretty unreal while they are on. I think they look like raw diamonds, crumbled up on your nails. So I 'sprinkled' my nail with a trail of Ultra Pixiedust (in Oswin) for this diamond road look.

The smooth creamy base (You're So Vain-illa from OPI) totally pops the red brick road!

Now let's take a look at these colors individually after the jump.

Oswin (2 coats) - I achieved the best matte grit effect with this polish, which is the most red of the 3 colors in the Fall 2014 Pixiedusts. This could have been due to application, which is really quite different than other polishes. Zoya recommends using no base coat and no top coat.

Arianna (2 coats) - As you can see, I got a little more of a wet sand look with Arianna. It's dry to the touch in the shot, but I did use a base coat, so it may not have fully dried underneath. Arianna is a little more magenta than Oswin, but still uses only red glitter.

Noir (2 coats) is a dark wine-colored jelly base with not only red glitter, but magenta, so it pops more on the nail than the other 2.

Ultra Pixiedust shades are $10 each, available at Zoya.com.

If you have some, how do you use them for nail art? Have you tried anything new with these textures?

The products in this post were given for review purposes. The reviews are based entirely on my experience with the products and were in no way influenced by anyone.