Review & Swatch: Zoya Jem

Update (9/7/11): It's the weirdest thing, as the polish has gotten some wear it's actually beginning to show more flash of the amber/gold speckles (see below)!

I purchased a bunch of polishes from Zoya not too long ago and Jem was by far one that I was most interested in trying. Not only did it remind me of Jem and the Holograms (a favorite cartoon from when I was a kid, which probably dates me a bit), but it sounded as though it looked gorgeous. Jem is from the Mirrors half of Zoya's Smoke & Mirrors fall collection.

Zoya Jem

Color Description
Zoya's site describes it as: "A dark red-toned purple base with metallic dark pink highlights and subtle gold duochrome flecks.? This shade has it all; bold color, vampy drama, bright sparkle and a glam rock persona."

In my opinion, it's a super deep plum purple with pinky-purpleish microglitter (not chunky glitter).  

In the Bottle v. On the Nail 
This may be one of the biggest bottle v. nail disappointments I've purchased in a long time. I was so sad! The color base color itself is gorgeous, but where's the amber/gold flash?

Brush
Typical-sized Zoya brush

Ease of Application
This polish applied fine, though it was on the thinner side I noticed. I had to either load my brush up a lot or reload my brush and continue working on the same nail.

Opacity & Number of Coats
If you've read my past polish swatches you know I have an unsaid 2-coat rule. I rarely use polishes that require more than 2 coats. This was completely opaque in 2 coats, but I did a 3rd hoping that the flash of amber/gold would magically appear. It just didn't really happen :( I saw a slight, slight flash outside, but it's not obvious at all.

Zoya Jem - you can see a super, super subtle amber/gold flash along the line where my skin and nail meet toward the left side of my nail. You can't see this in-person inside and it's super subtle outside.

Zoya Jem - Again, by taking a macro shot of my polish I was able to catch the super subtle flash of amber/gold alone the left side of my nail. This was not at all visible to my naked eye inside under a regular bulb or daylight bulb.

Update (9/7/11):  This is what I began to see 3 days after application. I managed to capture it with my DROID. You can see it on the far right and middle finger) Weird, right?

Drying Time
This actually dried a bit faster than some of the Zoya cream polishes I've tried. I would say it's pretty average in that regard. This is also harder than the Touch Collection, which I found to be super soft.

Price
This sells on the Zoya site for $8 per bottle.

Loath, Leave, Like, or Love
I really, really wanted to love this. If I could see the flash more I'd die over this color, but since I can't see a flash of anything unless I'm outside (and even then it's super subtle) I'm wavering between leave and like. I could leave it because it doesn't have a strong flash, but the sentimental side of me likes the fact that it reminds me of a childhood cartoon I loved and it's still a pretty color ... just not quite what I was hoping for. Sigh. Disappointing :( Looking at the bottle (see above) I had my hopes so high!

Update (9/7/11): Apparently Zoya Jem, like a fine wine, gets better with age. After wearing it for 3 days, I began to notice that that flash of amber/gold became a tiny bit more obvious at times. It's still not super obvious, but better. I really like it! It's not quite as much of a duo as I'd hoped, but it's so fabulous I can't help but love it anyway ;)

You can view Jem on Zoya's website HERE.

Have you tried Zoya Jem? Could you see the flash of gold?