I'm Loving: Zoya Remove + nail polish remover

I plan to start doing more product reviews here on Pretty Clever and as part of that today I'm introducing a new series entitled I'm loving, which will feature the products I use on a regular basis. Of course any reviews here on Pretty Clever are my own opinion, and what works for me may not necessarily work for someone else. Also, I promise that my reviews will always be honest, regardless of whether the product has been sent to me for review or not (and if the product has been sent to me for review I will always make that clear). If you have any questions or comments about any of the products you've seen here ask away - I love hearing from you!

Today I'm featuring a product that for me is the be all and end all of nail polish removal: Zoya Remove +. I change my polish daily, and have very soft weak nails, so my nail polish remover needs to be gentle while still removing the polish effectively. I've tried a myriad of different removers in my time, and they've all worked to a greater or lesser extent. I keep a bottle of pure acetone on hand for removing those pesky glitter polishes, and it works brilliantly but dries my nails and skin out horribly. Most acetone-based formulas tend to be drying, and I've often found that the ones with added moisturisers to combat this will leave an oily film over the nails which itself needs to be removed or the nail polish won't adhere properly.

Acetone-free formulas, while being kinder to nails, generally don't remove the polish as well and I often find myself scrubbing at my nails to get the last of the polish off which in itself is very damaging. I've also found that many non-acetone removers have a very unpleasant scent - one was so bad it went straight into the bin because of the nausea and headaches it brought on!

Zoya Remove + is a low-acetone formula which claims to "moisturise, nourish and fortify the nail plate and also act as both a nail cleaner and nail prep, removing all traces of nail lacquer without streaking or staining", and I have to say it does what it says on the bottle.

I was pleasantly surprised that a low-acetone formula could remove polish as well as this - it's surprisingly close to pure acetone in the removal stakes, yet not at all drying. In fact quite the opposite - my nails and cuticles looked healthy and moisturised after using it. The nail plate is left shiny and clean with no filmy residue.

Remove + is described as having a lavender fragrance, and certainly it is pleasantly fragranced (I think I can detect lavender in there) - there's no having to leave doors and windows open while using it and no headaches from the fumes.

The 240ml Big Flipper bottle is a handy fella, with a flip top lid and pump action dispensing mechanism allowing for one-handed use, and a 960ml refill bottle is also available - very handy for someone like me who goes through a lot of nail polish remover.

Price-wise Remove + is at the more expensive end of the spectrum. In New Zealand the 240ml Big Flipper is NZ$29.00 which obviously is considerably more than your standard drug store nail polish remover, but the 960ml refill is NZ$40.00, so for NZ$11.00 more you're getting four times the amount.

For product availability near you see the Zoya website. In New Zealand the Zoya range (including polishes) is available online from Sudo-Mistair, who also stock the Qtica range - note the prices on their website and quoted above are exclusive of GST. I've purchased from them several times and I am impressed with their customer service and speed of delivery.

What about you, my pretties? Have you tried Remove + and what do you think of it?

Today's nails: Color Club Blue Light and Zoya Midori

Color Club Blue Light is the first Color Club polish to give me application problems, but look at how pretty it is:



What this picture doesn't show is the brightness of this colour. It was on the Color Club Neons stand, and while I wouldn't quite describe it as neon it is a very very bright pale blue. If Essie's Shelter Island had a baby brother, this is the colour it would be. Annoying formula though, really streaky, lots of cuticle drag and even by the third coat the surface was very uneven, definitely not self-levelling. Thank goodness for Seche Vite though, with a coat of that it came out looking smooth and glossy, and it did keep one of the good traits of Color Club polishes in that it was super quick drying.

I wasn't at all sure how Zoya Midori would look on me. All the yellow greens I've tried in the past have looked ghastly against my skin, no matter how much I love the actual colour. Midori is a winner though, it really works for my colouring:



Gorgeous colour, I'm so pleased I finally have a yellow green I can wear. There is a lot more yellow in this colour than the photo shows. Oh and apologies for the smoodgie bits, I had a shower after I put it on! Two coats to opaque and lovely application (can Zoya do any wrong with their formulas?). I recently splashed out on the complete Zoya Colour Lock system (polish remover, base coat, top coat and quick drying drops) and while I'm impressed with the products I think I prefer the glossy smooth look that Seche Vite gives me as a top coat. The polish remover is great though, for an acetone free remover it does the job brilliantly and it doesn't smell too bad (I've had some acetone free removers in the past that I've had to throw out because the smell was so bad it made me nauseous).

Apologies for the raggedy state of my cuticles in the pics, I did mention that my nails are I are not on speaking terms currently didn't I? More moisturiser for me!

Hauls, lots of hauls. And an apology in advance

I've been a bad, bad girl my pretties! Remember when I said that I wasn't buying any more polishes in the lead-up to my Melbourne trip? Yeah, about that ...

First up, here's my haul from the BB Couture sale. Which you already knew about, so it's all good:

Left to right: Top Rock Top Coat, Green Goblin and Laguna Lagoon.

Left to right: Midnight Malibu, Spellbound, Midnight Desire, Maleficent Magenta

Left to right: Moon Over Manhattan, Sea of Cortez, Zuma Wave Rider

I'm not sure I actually realised how many purples I was ordering. It's a good thing I like purple.

Anwyay I was absolutely determined that was going to be it for a while. Determined. But then I stumbled upon the polish purge sale that Grace over at The Kitchen, The Closet and the Laboratory was having, and got a few polishes. Just a few. And hey, it's supporting a fellow blogger so totally justified, yeah? Yeah?

Left to right: O.P.I. Glamour Game, BB Couture Electric Avenue, Essie Barbados Blue

Left to right: China Glaze Watermelon Rind, China Glaze Coconut Kiss

Left to right: Orly Country Club Khaki, Orly Enchanted Forest

Left to right: NailTek Quicken fast dry top coat, NailTek Foundation II ridge-filling nail strengthener

Left to right: Zoya Raven, Zoya Irene, Zoya Midori

My first Zoyas! And there's a whole heap of colours in there I've been coveting for some time, so yay for Grace!

And last - because you just knew there would be more - I was out with 10 Year Old Son today helping him choose a present for 13 Year Old Daughter's upcoming birthday, and accidentally bought these when we were buying her present:



A set of neon minis by mwah!. The colours don't have names, but the set was only NZ$12.00. They're more for 13 Year Old Daughter than me, and I was going to hold off giving them to her until her birthday but couldn't wait. I have no information about mwah! polishes, they tend to be stocked in clothing stores like Jay Jays. I already have a couple of their colours and they're not bad.

Blog posts might be a little thin on the ground for the next couple of weeks. As well as my upcoming Melbourne weekend to prepare for (only a week and a half away - YAY), 13 Year Old Daughter becomes 14 Year Old Daughter this Thursday. How this happened I don't know, it seems like only a couple of years ago she was this little:



I am going to be SO unpopular for posting that! Look at her little Buddha Belly!

So as I was saying, 14th birthday coming up, and a gaggle of teenage girls (actually it should be a giggle of teenage girls) are coming over in the weekend for the Sleepover Party Extraodinaire! Which means lots of organising for me, and apparently lots of painting of nails. So in between running around like the proverbial headless chook over the next couple of weeks I will try to keep up with the posting, but I apologise in advance if I'm absent. I will make up for it when I come back from Melbourne, with lots of "look at the cool stuff I bought" posts, I promise.