Zoya Carly

Carly was released by Zoya as part of the Surf collection for summer 2012. Zoya describes Carly as a "very rich, bold, red-toned dark purple with iridescent red and silver metallic shimmer and a dense foil finish." You can't tell from looking at the bottle, where the polish has sort of a meh so-so look, how beautifully it turns out on the nail and Zoya's description is quite apt. Carly is a gorgeous, vibrant medium-dark well-saturated warm plummy purple packed with silvery metallic shimmers that read through the plum-colored base as magenta, adding to the richness and depth of the color. It has a brilliant magenta flash along the axis of light and deepens along the edges to a dark red purple. The shimmers in Carly are quite finely milled as opposed to the flakier shimmers that I usually associate with Zoya's foils. 

Application was great. The consistency is of the sort that Zoya does so well, fluid, creamy and dense, with excellent self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding. Carly is a one-coater, although I did two to straighten up some of my lines in the first coat. I had a lot of cleanup to do (it was a shaky hands day), which freed the shimmers to disperse themselves freely about my nail environs, but this wouldn't be a problem for someone applying with a steadier hand than mine. Carly dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. 

Photos show two coats of Carly over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat. I was wearing a light blue top when I took these, so if you notice some blue reflected by the polish, that's what it is.

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Zoya Carly

Beauty, eh? This is a great polish in a vivid, striking color with an easy application and a beautiful shimmery finish. What's not to love? I especially like the plummy hue, it's nicely balanced between red and purple without leaning too far into fuchsia territory. It reminds me of the color used in the classic diamond-patterned harlequin costume. Green is the traditional complementary color to purple, but this color also looks great with turquoise, aqua, cerulean and other blue-greens as well. I think it'd be a nice pop with navy too, and yellow. Because it's so well-pigmented, Carly would work well for stamping and other nail art. Just a great polish to have in your collection!

love,
Liz