Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Zoya Muse Collection, Swatches and Review

Press Sample

I let my Zoyas pile up while I had nail break after nail break since literally Halloween. And they are still broken. So I finally went to tackle some swatching. I’ll have lots of Zoyas for you this month as I did last month! The Fall 2025 Muse collection is not necessarily Autumn exclusive. In fact, I have been wearing black nails (who am I?!) for the past few weeks so I feel like I like this collection more right now than I would have in September! 




Hebe: 2 coats. A creamy rosy beige nude, soft as the blush of a goddess. This is a great neutral, but is a little too close to my skin tone that it gives me lobster hands. I can see myself using this as a base or an accent for nail art, but I do not think I would ever use it as a full manicure in the future.




 

Bari: 2 coats. A rose-terracotta cream with autumn warmth. Again, like the previous color, this one is too close to my skin tone that it continues to give me lobster hands. It has a great formula and for the correct skin tone, this would be a gorgeous neutral. 




 

Samara: 2 coats. A dusty mauve cream softened by dusk. This was almost a one coat. This is more my color as it is almost like a purple neutral and it is really pretty and dusty. It reminds me of old colors like Rue and I am sure they are similar to each other but this one definitely I can see has more pink in it. This is a really pretty color and my jam.




 

Winona: 2 coats. A muted berry cream muted like memory. These descriptions are officially weird because I do not know what it means to be muted like memory. Either way, this is a really pretty color and again it is more of my jam as it looks like a berry jam, literally. I have been really impressed with the formulas on these colors so far.




 

Velma: 2 coats. A subdued sienna red cream, the heart of a whispered secret. Okay now this one is a raspberry jam. I love this as a go to neutral because I am not a straight red nails kind of gal. Again, though I feel like I have seen this color before but nonetheless it is still really pretty. This one is a little bit of a stainer so be careful with removal.
 



 

Zarin: 3 coats. A rose-gold glitter with whispers of holographic celestial fire. This one would probably be better layered over another color, but it looked opaque in the bottle so that is what I am showing you here. I do like the larger glitters in this one and actually wish there were a bit more. It makes it different from other Zoya polishes. This one is like a glittery mannequin hands for me.
 





 

West: 2 coats. A dusky pine cream veiled in shadow. I really like this color but as I put it on, I went ‘this one is going to stain.’ I love the dusky green as it is dark and moody. What was awesome was color me wrong, this one did not stain at all. So now I am excited to have this color for the future. 
 



 
Starling: 2 coats. A muted periwinkle with a melody of pink iridescent glitter. I wish this one leaned more periwinkle blue and not purple because it sort of reminds me of like a Barbie color. I think it is really pretty. It is just not something that I would personally reach for. My niece is going to love this one.
 
 



 
 
Daphne: 2 coats. A smoky blue violet cream, echoing a midnight dream. I saw the description said blue violet so I did this color next, but it really is purple and not really blue at all on me. It is a pretty dusky eggplant but again I do feel like I have seen this color before. I will have to go through my collection to see if I still own any that remind me of it. Surprisingly, this one did not stain me that badly and it was super minimal. So for now, I am keeping this one.
 

 

 

Navy: 2 coats. An inky midnight navy cream with profound elegance. What a creative name! lol. This is a basic navy and again I just knew it would probably stain my nails. I’m not sure how this differs from previous Zoya navy blues, but I tend to purge them so I cannot really compare. As I put this on, I realized I judged it way too quickly as it is super shiny and has a jelly finish. I did not wear it too long so it did not stain that badly so I think I might keep it because it was actually really pretty on for just a basic navy. But it did stain a little so I wonder what will happen if I wear this as a full manicure or if I’m risky enough to do so. 
 



 
Octavia: 2 coats. A shimmering violet magenta pearl with jewel-like intensity. I agree with the description that this is like a jewel. It is really pretty. I am not a purple lover as you know, but for some reason, putting this color on it, I was like this is beautiful and sexy. The shimmer is much more prominent in person than in my photos. I am shocked that I really like this color.
 



 

Emery: 2 coats. A blackened espresso gold velvet metallic, deep as a muse’s velvet shadow. I love this color. I am just in a super dark and moody nail polish color palette right now and I love that. This is almost like a super dark gray and the shimmer is really pretty in it.
 



 

While this was a fall collection, I think if I had swatched it back in August that I may not have liked it as much as I do now. I am in a dark nail polish mood and so putting these on made me happy whereas maybe in August I may not have been into it. Overall, this collection is made up of colors that have an excellent formula so I cannot ding it for that. Most of the colors are ones that I feel like I have seen from Zoya before and maybe they need to have a refresh to get some more original colors. I feel like this is why they did not do a holiday collection and they have been focusing on the color of the month lately although even that hasn’t been consistent throughout the year. Let me know if you want to see any comparisons!



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