Tuesday, December 21, 2010

China Glaze Naughty and Nice Holiday Collection

As promised, I have the China Glaze holiday collection. There's 16 polishes total, so I put a in a page break for the excessive pic load. They're a bit haphazard, and done at different times, so there are various nail lengths. If this bothers you, you're probably reading the wrong blog! Smiley
Cheers To You. From left to right: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. I found two coats to be plenty! This is a really nice silver foil that applies well and is flattering. Not unique, though.
Little Drummer Boy. One coat on all! I started to do my one, two, three, but after doing the first coat, I knew that no more were necessary. This is a gorgeous deep, navy blue with lighter blue shimmer. I ♥ one-coaters!
Frosty. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring. This is a very pretty pure white glass fleck, not frosty at all! Under bright light, you can see other colors hiding in the shimmer. I like this a lot, but wanted it to be a smidge more opaque, since at three coats in looks a bit thick.
Jingle Bells. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Beautiful warm gold shimmer, almost tan.
Jolly Holly. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring. This is a stunningly rich forest green with subtle gold and green shimmer. It leans more yellow than blue, but doesn't cross the line into warm, and is still very flattering. I may have to do another green comp soon!
Mrs. Claus. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and four on pinkie. I would call this a sheer raspberry jelly with copious silvery/pink glitter. It actually kinda reminds me of a frankenpolish where you start with a clear base and red glitter, and end up with the glitter bleeding and tinting the base (in the best possible way, though!). I'm wearing this right now, but layered over Phat Santa, because I wanted it to look a bit more red for Christmas. Love it!
Midnight Kiss. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Lovely champagne gold foil. Again, two coats is plenty, and it's neutral enough to be flattering on most people, I think. Very festive!
Mistletoe Kisses. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Evergreen jelly with copious silver glitter. At first glance, this is the green equivalent to Mrs. Claus, but there are subtle differences. The base is much more opaque, so wearing this one on it's own is doable, even for us sheer-o-phobes. ☺The glitter is smaller, more dense and definitely silver. I could be wrong, but this one might be unique!
Mommy Kissing Santa. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Glowy deep red/black cherry shimmer. Not unique, but definitely worth getting if you don't already have one you're satisfied with.
Ruby Deer on index and middle, Phat Santa on ring and pinkie. These two are so similar that I combined the swatches. I have one coat RD on index, two on middle, and one coat PS on ring, two on pinkie. These are smooth, non-streaky and jellyish, but paradoxically also well-pigmented. There is no topcoat on either, they are that shiny all by themselves! It's hard to tell in the photo, but RD is warmer, I would call it cherry, and PS is cooler, more raspberry. So, based on your skintone, you could pick one and be happy. Also, PS is ever so slightly darker. If you don't have a good red jelly/cream polish, I would highly recommend one of these to fill that gap.
Here's a shot of Ruby Deer and Phat Santa with flash. Obviously not color accurate, but might give you a better idea of the base colors. As you can see, RD has MUCH more yellow in the base, making it come off as warmer. Although, for the record, they're both fantastically flattering on my pale, neutral-ish skintone.
Naughty and Nice. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring. Gorgeous, vampy deep burgundy almost-black jelly. I don't normally like black-in-almost-all-light polishes (why not just wear black? Smiley), but this one's very pretty, if you do like them. Look at that shine!
 Peace on Earth. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Lovely olive green shimmer. Again, not unique, but the execution here is flawless! If you like this kind of color (and I do), I highly recommend it.
Snow. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring and pinkie. Pure white cream, good in two smooth coats. If you need a good white cream (especially for neon underwear), this is a good one.
Sugar Plums. LtoR: one coat on index, two on middle, three on ring. Deep plum shimmer with sparse holo glitter. I have so much trouble photographing glitter! This pic definitely does not do this polish any justice. The glitter is small, gorgeous and multi-colored, sparking bright blue and red, most noticeably. It's a bit gritty on its own, but a layer of topcoat takes care of that. Very elegant from a distance, but fun and sparkly up close.

Overall, this collection is fantastic! Almost every polish is smooth, non-streaky, richly pigmented, easily applied and screams Christmas! I adore the rich, elegant shimmers, while the glitters are fun and playful. The jelly/creams are a joy to work with, too, which is noteworthy for me. ☺ Love, love, love!

You might notice one polish missing from this post, but that's because I'm saving the best for last: that crown jewel Party Hearty deserves a post of its own, where I feature one coat over each of the other polishes in the collection. So, hopefully tomorrow, come back for the Christmas tree puke!


Disclosure: All of the polishes in this post were sent to me by China Glaze for review purposes.

2 comments:

  1. Sarah -- what is your favorite brand of one-coat polish? Either designed to be one-coat, or just a happy accident?

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  2. Hi Z! ☺ One-coaters are so hard to find, and I don't think it's so much a brand thing. But I have good luck with China Glaze and Sally Hansen. We could talk more on Saturday, if you want.

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