The Many Sides of Zoya "Ki"

Please don't forget to click on all pictures in this blog for larger versions!

The bottle reminds me of a mood ring. The color is predominantly dark purple but you can see a green glow around the edge, with some thin lines of blue and yellow....those other "moods" waiting as your finger starts to warm up (uh, I mean, as your mood changes!).


At any rate, according to the Zoya website, this polish is a "Super unique, duochrome plum with blue and green metallic highlights. Best-Seller!" It is definitely super unique!!

The site also lists the following properties, which the cataloger side of me loves:

"Tone:Cool
Finish:Frost
Color Family:Purples
Intensity:5 (1= Very Shear to 5= Very Opaque)
Original Collection:Suede"

I am not sure I see the blue, but I noticed the dark green tones in the bottle edges immediately. The formula seems nice---thin but not super-runny, and easily manipulable. The first coat goes on a bit sheer and dark purple. I messed things up a bit, but I chalk that up to getting used to a different brand of polish.

I first applied this in the evening, and it showed purple with maybe a slight tinge of the green. I was then driving somewhere and at one point, a lot of streetlight was shining into my car, and I was fascinated that my nails at a certain angle were purely green! Wow! Very cool.

In daylight, the chameleon properties of this polish come through more strongly. In direct sunlight, the color is a nice shiny muted purple. Held it at various angles, though, Ki appears to be different colors. I found a post on Scrangie that expertly captures the nuances of this mysterious polish.

Below are my non-expert pics, including my attempt to mattify....not recommended! Please excuse the deplorable shape of my cuticles and application issues. My fingers have taken a beating lately with all the nail polish play and removal, and they weren't great to begin with. My next hobby should be testing cuticle oils and treatments!! :-)


Above and below, indoors by the window in daylight you can see purple but also the greenishness! Above silvery grayish green, below, purple.

More green:


Outdoors in the sun, the colors look purple-eggplant, except when they look green or silvery gray!




With an application (below) of Essie "Matte About You" it appears kind of a charcoalish brown, although you can see some purple in the light shining on the index finger. It looks kind of cool, but I don't really recommend mattifying Zoya Ki---it defeats the purpose of wearing this interesting and beautiful polish!!

You can order this polish directly from the Zoya website. If you haven't tried it, I don't care if it isn't new at this point: you have to see it in person to really appreciate it!!!