Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Charla was released as part of Zoya's Sparkle collection for Summer 2010. Zoya calls it a "tropical blue sparkling metallic," which while a bit terse is not inaccurate. But Charla is a polish that deserves a more florid, grandiloquent description. It's a radiant aquamarine glass fleck shimmer, with golden highly reflective flaky glass flecks glowing from within a strongly tinted blue-green translucent base. It is every bit the mermaid polish. The brilliant cerulean blue base tints the flecks and gives them an almost duochromatic blue to green effect that produces an effervescent scintillating sparkle and a beautiful complex speckled foily finish. This one's a stunner.

The brilliance of the color belies a somewhat sheer formula requiring multiple coats for complete opacity. Charla has a well-behaved consistency, though, liquid but with sufficient viscosity not to run or pool. It applies easily in thin coats. Clean up is easy if done promptly, and Charla dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish.

I wore this polish as a two-coat manicure for a day and was happy with the coverage. I took photos the next day, applying an extra coat before doing so and was glad that I did. Outdoors in direct sun, the sheerness of the base is very apparent.

Photos show three coats of Charla -- a two-coat manicure over treatment and basecoat plus topcoat with an additional coat of Charla on top of that -- with NO topcoat.

Zoya Charla

  

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

Zoya Charla

How delicious is that foily speckled tropical sea blue, eh? Charla was one of the very first polishes I bought from Zoya and I remember being startled and amazed by the rich saturation of brilliant color. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I think I spent the whole weekend in my lightbox bathroom, twirling my hands around in the sun coming through the skylight and staring at my nails. Then, as now, I applied a coat of Maisie over it and whoa, it blew my hair back!

Maisie was released as part of Zoya's Fleck Effect collection for spring 2012. It is a flaky topper described by Zoya as having a sheer turquoise base with reflective mylar flakes that shift from bright green to blue. The flakes are abundant and light responsive enough for Maisie to produce an almost duochromatic effect when layered over Charla. Over other polishes, Maisie's mylar flakes have flashes of iridescence with additional chromatic displays depending upon the color of the base and the type and angle of light.

I applied Maisie directly over my Charla manicure. Application was easy and smooth. Maisie has a very jelly-like base that is a little bit thicker than the typical Zoya polish but still liquid and self-leveling. It doesn't dry too fast, as some jelly based polishes can do, so there is no excessive thickening of the polish during application. The flakes vary in size and some are fairly large, so I did get the occasional protrusion over the free edge. Pushing the offending flake back so that it is fully ensconced on the nail is easy to do while the polish is wet. If they remain until after the polish has dried I recommend gently filing the excess away with a glass file.

Photos show one coat of Maisie over the Charla manicure above with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

bottle shot: Zoya Charla, left, and Maisie, right

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla on the nail, Maisie in the bottle

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla on the nail, Maisie in the bottle

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Zoya Maisie over Zoya Charla

Maisie just sort of raises the roof on Charla's mermaidian nature and gives it a vivacious green/blue duochromatic semi-metallic glow into the bargain. Take the iridescence of peacock plumage, rachet it up a couple of notches, and this is what you'll get. To me, this look is all about a special occasion, of whatever sort. It is intensely vivid and strong, strong enough to pull together disparate but complementary parts and complete the outfit. It is as dramatic as anything I can imagine aside from red or black, and certainly as dramatic as any darker jewel tone.

The added wash of green provided by Maisie's flakes make me think that this is a fabulous Christmastime combo, especially for tropical climes.

And it deserves all the attention it will surely get!

love,
Aunt Liz