NotD - Almost a Raven

I’ve said it before, some polish colours are just too pretty to cover up and Zoya Adina is one of them. Accent nail!

Here’s what I used:

• OPI Nail Envy
• essence better than gel nails base sealer
• Zoya Adina
• LOOK by BIPA nail tattoo liner 3 black
• mix of essence ahoy!, China Glaze Electric Pineapple, Orly Hook Up and top coat
• mix of black liner (see above) essence midnight rocker and Zoya Ki
• Seche Vite
• essence matt top coat

First I applied my base coats, four coats of Adina and sealed it with Seche Vite.

Adina is one of Zoya’s amazetastic duochromes, shifting from a warm purple to a fresh green. The opacity isn’t all that great, four coats are barely opaque, though the shimmer does help disguise sheer areas. If you want to be thrifty, put a similarly toned cheap purple beneath a couple of coats of Adina.
The sheerness is, as so often, couples with a fairly runny texture. Adina applies very easily and levels very well. Close observance reveals some streakiness, but the shimmer hides that, too. The shimmer particles somewhat align with the brushstrokes, but less than I had expected. The round brush is very nice, quite full, supple and precise.
Overall definitely worth getting, the duochrome effect is nice and visible and I found Adina effortless to apply.

Here’s Adina in two coats without top coat:

And here’s Adina in four coats with Seche Vite:

Something about this polish made me think about Raven, despite my lack of familiarity with DC Comics. *shrugs*
Since I didn’t want to cover up more than one nail of such a pretty base colour I decided to go for an accent nail with just a Ravenesque hood/eye thing. I can’t imagine that she sees all that well with that pointy flap dangling over her nose.
Adina was too light so I darkened Zoya Ki for the hood. And then it somehow seemed like mattifying was the thing to do. Except the eyes, which I re-shinied.

I like this, it’s not really obvious which character it is and I like that open to interpretation thing. And Adina is gorgeous in a completely different way when matte. The shimmer vanishes, as do the brush marks, and the duochrome remains in a softer, but still distinct way.