Zoya Sam

I got a request to swatch Zoya Sam last night, so being the good girl that I am, here it is :)
Sam is a gorgeous deep red jelly. I just looks so squishy and wet. I was afraid to touch it for a long time for the fear that it would still smudge... I'm glad to report that it is actually dry even when it looks wet ;)
This is three coats plus a top coat.

And it just loves showing all it's jelly potential when it is out in the sun.

I just love this color, so yummy! :)
The formula was pretty thick, but still went on well without dragging. I did three coats because I wanted to see how it builds up, but it was opaque after two.

I did get a bit of a deja vu feeling as I was putting Sam on though. It was less than two weeks ago that I swatched Merlot, the deep red jelly from Sally Hanson's Hard as Nails collection. I decided to do a quick comparison. I put on four coats of Merlot and still the three coats of Sam.

Zoya's Sam is just the teeny, tiniest bit darker than Sally Hansen's Merlot. My boyfriend could not tell the difference just looking at the nails. SH has a much thinner formula so I did 4 coats. It also can have a tendency to drag and create bald spots if you rush between coats.

Overall the color and look is very, very similar. Unless you know which one is which and are looking for differences it is pretty hard to notice any. It all comes down to how much you want to spend (Zoya $8, SH ~$1.99), how important formula/number of coats is to you (Zoya=3, SH=4), how important ingredients are to you (Zoya ~7, SH too many/too small to count).

So which would you choose?

Brand: Zoya Collection: Vibe Color Name/Number: Sam, ZP452 Formaldehyde, Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP) and Camphor free Vegan friendly

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)