Swatch Spam!

I just feel like posting some swatch spam, so here it comes!

 China Glaze Bat My Eyes

 

 OPI Casino Royale

 OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 Jessica Prima Donna

 Butter London Swinger

Pretty Serious VT100

 Jessica Blue Aria

 Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots Clearly Spotted (over purple)

 OPI Skyfall

 OPI You're So Flippy Floppy

 Sephora Color Hit Blackjack

Ozotic Beam 905 with Northern Lights Gold Topcoat

Essie Bikini So Teeny

China Glaze Magnetix You Move Me

 China Glaze Infra-Red

Depression Open Thread

China Glaze Boogie Down

This is a little check-in post just to say hi, I'm here, I'm not planning on abandoning my blog, but I'm having some life challenges at the moment and I haven't been able to devote much time to swatching. I want to do something a little different during this downtime, and here's what I'm thinking:

Need to talk about anything?  Depression?  Health issues?  If you'd like to vent or ask questions, use the comments thread on this post to engage with each other (and me).  I know it's nice to find out that you're not alone in your struggles, and you know I won't judge, so if you wanna talk about something, please do!

Thanks for sticking with me :)

China Glaze Crinkled Chrome Textured Polish Collection 2014 Swatches and Review

 

China Glaze Aluminate

(A-LU-MIN-ATE!)

China Glaze Crush, Crush Baby

China Glaze Don't Be Foiled

 China Glaze I'm A Chromantic

China Glaze Iron Out Details

China Glaze Wrinkling The Sheets

The formula on these is very good.  They're thick but easy to control, and completely, 100% opaque in just one coat. In fact, they look better at one coat than they do at two.  They have a true chrome finish (think China Glaze's Khrome collection from 2009) that becomes reflective when dry.  They have some sandy grit like other sand/textured finish polishes, but they also contain white matte bar glitter for extra texture. They dry almost immediately.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about these yet.  My gut reaction was, "oh, lumpy-looking chromes.... okay," but they're growing on me.  To tell you the truth, I was expecting them to crinkle up almost like a crackle polish as they dried, so the grit texture was a bit of a surprise to me.

Still, it's a unique idea that I haven't seen done before, so that's pretty cool.  Good formula at least. 

This collection is available now!

(collection provided for review)

China Glaze Autumn Nights Collection Fall 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Autumn Nights Fall 2013

 China Glaze Goldie But Goodie

 

 China Glaze Gossip Over Gimlets

 

China Glaze Charmed I'm Sure

 China Glaze Don't Make Me Wine

 China Glaze Kiss My Glass

 China Glaze Public Relations

 China Glaze Queen B

 China Glaze Red-y & Willing

 China Glaze Rendezvous With You

China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans

 China Glaze Strike Up A Cosmo

China Glaze Tongue & Chic

 The formula of the frosty shades was disappointing but not surprising.  They had a thick, stringy texture and applied streaky, with pooling at the edges and visible brushstrokes that only diminish slightly when dry.  The formula on the rest of the shades was stellar; no problems or texture issues whatsoever.  All dried quickly and were glossy even without topcoat.

I love the foils in this collection.  They're a little different than the standard single-tone foil because they have flakes of gold in them.  It's most noticeable in the photo of Gossip Over Gimlets, so be sure to take a good look at that one.  I believe China Glaze is calling these new two-tone flaky foils "aluminum finish."

 

Aluminum finish? Awesome.  Frosts, though?  Please, no.  Just.... no.  Public Relations and Kiss My Glass were intolerably bad for me, but the other shades weren't as streaky or as thick as those two.  Tongue & Chic and Don't Make Me Wine are closer to a regular shimmer finish than a frost or metallic, but still show brushstrokes if you're not careful.



(collection provided for review)

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection Holiday 2013

(samples provided for review)

 China Glaze All Wrapped Up 
Full-coverage indigo-blue microglitter in a clear base.

 China Glaze Bells Will Be Blinging
 Light teal/aqua blue microglitter and small hex glitter mixed with larger silver holographic hex glitter and bar glitter.



China Glaze Be Merry And Bright
 Large and small purple and magenta hex glitter in a clear base. Glitter is dense enough to be worn alone at three coats, but also makes a good glitter topcoat at one coat.

China Glaze Blue Without You
Cyan blue foil with sparkly silver flecks.

China Glaze Elfin' Around
Warm orangey-coral red foil with light gold shimmer.

China Glaze Just Be-Claws

Rich poinsettia red foil with red sparkle.

China Glaze Mingle with Kringle
Warm gold foil with chunky yellow-gold foil flakes.

China Glaze Put A Bow On It
Full-coverage plum purple microglitter in a clear base.

 

China Glaze Santa Red My List
Cool dark pink foil with silver shimmer.

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You

Girl, there are really no words strong enough to describe all my longing for snow-textured polish.  I don't want my feelings restrained.  Oh, babe, I just need you like never before. Just imagine you'd come through this door. You'd take all my sorrow away.  There's Snow One Like You.

SORRY.  Sorry!  This is a white semi-sheer creme base with large matte white hex glitter and a large amount of textured grit. 

China Glaze This Is Tree-Mendous
Warm golden green microglitter, gold microglitter, and slightly larger (but still tiny) blue-green glitter in a clear base.

China Glaze Your Present Required

Large matte white, cobalt blue, light purple, and light copper hex glitter with smaller copper, green, and white hex glitter, plus very small matte white glitter in a clear base. Good as a topcoat or worn alone with two coats.

The formula on these was varied.  The tiny glitters and the foils were thin, smooth, and perfect.  The larger, chunkier glitters and the textured shade were thick and somewhat gooey.  To apply the large glitters, I needed to dab the polish onto the nail to get even glitter distribution.  Dry time on all shades was fast.  

It doesn't really feel 'holiday', does it?  It doesn't to me, at least.  It is heavy on the red like a typical holiday collection, but there's a lot of other non-traditional shades mixed in here as well.  Your Present Required doesn't look like any other color I own, so that's pretty cool.  The fine glitters are full coverage and extremely sparkly, which I also appreciate.  The foils are shiny and reflective like foils should be, but the colors themselves aren't particularly interesting or new. 

The one problem I have with this collection is the textured polish, There's Snow One Like You.  It looks promising, but it's so incredibly thick and lumpy that I had a very hard time applying it.  It's like there's too much texture. It applies clumpy and all the glitter and grit stick out at weird angles because it's so dense.  Maybe that's the point, though?  To look like freshly fallen snow, while it's still fluffy.

 The China Glaze Happy HoliGlaze Collection is available now!

(samples provided for review)

China Glaze Texture Collection Summer 2013 Swatches and Review

China Glaze Texture Textured Polish Collection

(press sample)

Here's China Glaze's entry into the textured polish arena.  So far I've mostly worn glitter-based textured polish, but I gotta say, the texture really stands out on matte creme colors like these. I've grown to like the glittery kind, sure, but some of them just look like you forgot to put on topcoat. These are not like that.

China Glaze Bump and Grind.  

Bright fuchsia-coral creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze In The Rough.  

Light yellow-toned green creme base with sandy texture. Reminds me of really cheap guacamole, the kind that's probably only 2% avocado. 

China Glaze Itty, Bitty and Gritty.

Bright pink coral creme base with sandy texture.
p.s. itty bitty gritty committee 

China Glaze Of Coarse!

Medium sky blue creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze Toe-Tally Textured.

Light yellow-toned orange creme base with sandy texture.

China Glaze Unrefined.

Light pink creme base with sandy texture.

The formula on these is gritty (obviously).  There are two things to be mindful of when applying this formula: One, the grit can clump together, so you may need to brush over it a few times to get it evenly distributed across the nail.  Two, if the base to grit ratio is wrong, some spots will look smooth and shiny instead of evenly textured.  Thin, even coats are a must if you want a uniform look.  Other than the grit (think of it like glitter), it applies like a normal polish.  These are opaque in two coats (what I'm using here) and dry to a semi-matte finish.

I gave each of these about 15 minutes to dry before photographing them and they all seem to retain a slight amount of gloss rather than drying to a true matte finish.

If you're looking for something unique, unusual, and hell, even flat-out weird, this is it.  The textured look is odd enough, but combined with the unexpected base colors (spring green??) in the collection they're just completely bizarre.  I like bizarre.  Toe-Tally Textured is my favorite here (I just really like orange), but if you want to go all out crazy... In The Rough.  Such a strange polish.

These are available now!

(Samples provided for review.)