*Of course, I do not KNOW if this polish was named after Cho Chang from Harry Potter…it’s just that she’s the only Cho I know, and it seems to suit her personality (more on that below).

So, a lot of the Spring collections didn’t really grab me that much in the end; as we drawer nearer to the release of the Summer collections, I realize just how few shades in the current season piqued my interest.  I considered a few from Essie’s Navigate Her collection – A Crewed Interest, Ole Caliente – but decided to pass in the end.  The shades in the OPI Holland collection were quite pretty, but none seemed well suited for my skintone – I only picked out two of the twelve.  I’ve been hemming and hawing over butter London’s Bossy Boots, but feel that I waited SO long that now the time has passed.  However, one shade that I was certain I wanted from the beginning was Zoya’s Cho from the True collection – a French Vanilla cream with the barest hint of shimmer. I don’t own many true neutral shades, as I tend to favor color over subtlety, but every so often I get the urge to wear something demure, and I decided that I should broaden my choices.  Cho is a lovely, warm-toned shade that I just knew would look flattering on my skintone, so I ordered it sight-unseen from Nail Polish Canada, for $8.75CAD (which is about $2 cheaper than it is here in town).

Above photos in artificial light

The first thing I noticed upon applying Cho was that it was just like many other pale, creamy shades – tricky to apply.  Shades like this are notorious for applying streaky (what’s the reason for that BTW? Anyone??), and this was no exception.  It wasn’t a terrible hassle, but it required three coats to reach full opacity with no patchiness or see-through spots.  The formula was of medium thickness and flowed easily enough, but just didn’t want to easily cooperate.  I think these are times when Zoya’s smaller brush works against it, as it would have been quick and easy with a wider brush with only a few strokes required (which would likely have minimized the streaking).

With flash

In any case, I got it on, and waited for the magic.  Essie’s Jazz, a cool-toned neutral that almost leans grey, makes my hands look stunning and elegant and quite frankly, awesome for being essentially a non-color.  Cho, on the other hand, was flattering but kind of…boring (and this is where the Harry Potter reference applies – Cho Chang was super lame!!  Crying all the time?  Helping rat out the D.A.?  UNCOOL, Cho, Uncool).  So uh, yea.  That’s essentially how I felt about this polish.  More effort than it was worth to end up not stunning me in the least.  Like Cho Chang, I didn’t HATE it, because that would imply I felt strongly about it, and that I did NOT.  It was just there – nice enough, but with no pizzazz for me to feel like it will ever be chosen over any of my other polishes.

Just for a quick reference, here are all three of my neutral polishes together (yes, only three…c’mon, my whole stash hasn’t even hit 100 yet! Gimme a break!):

Left to Right: Zoya Cho, Essie Jazz, OPI San-Tantonio

Left to Right: Essie Jazz, Zoya Cho, OPI San-Tantonio

The good thing is that they are vastly different from one another, so that might give Cho an extra boost in the repeat wear category, since she doesn’t have any competitors.  Ah well…I rarely wear a nude polish anyway, so no big issue.  And after wearing that for a few days – I’m ready for some color again!!!!

What do you think of Cho?  Lame like the HP character?  Or are you totally digging it??