China Glaze Holiday 2011 Let It Snow

Poinsettia. Three coats. Beautiful bright cherry red jellyish crème. Just short of a neon red. The word "chinoiserie" comes to mind, as it's something of a bright lacquer red. Almost leans coral in some light.

Winter Berry. Two coats. In full sun, my camera sees Winter Berry as not much different than Poinsettia, but in reality they're very different. The inset is MUCH more color-accurate (sorry for crappy pic quality here, this is how I record number of coats and it was never meant to be seen). Still jellyish (witness the glorious shine!), but more opaque than Poinsettia. So, not quite as bright as the full-sun view looks, more of a Bing cherry color.

Velvet Bow. Two coats. Another red jelly, this time deep, rich black cherry. Might do a third coat when I wear this one for an actual mani. Looks fantastic layered under both Twinkle Lights and Snow Globe.

Kinda picture-heavy, so the rest of the swatches are after the jump.

Ring in the Red. Three coats. This is a gorgeous, glowy red glitter, with at least two sizes of glitter. Dare I say, I actually kinda like this better than Ruby Pumps? It's brighter and even a little sparklier, and I foresee a comp post in my future. I added topcoat to this swatch, just to compensate a little for my application difficulties.

Champagne Bubbles. Three coats. This aptly named polish is a yellow-gold frost with mid-sized silver glitter particles that really do look like bubbles. It's just a bit too sheer and too yellow for my preference, but it's still a pretty polish, and I love the contrast of the silver glitter set against such a yellow gold.

Icicle. Two coats. Very nice silver foil. Classic and shiny.

Tinsel Town. Two coats. Silver glitter in charcoal jelly base. The glitter particles are at least two different sizes, adding a sense of texture. I didn't realize how blotchy this looked until editing the photos. It didn't look like that IRL, and it's strictly user error.

Blue Year's Eve. Three coats. Glowy cobalt blue glass-flecked jelly. I really wish I could have captured the depth of this polish - it's even more gorgeous in person! Really love this one. And no smurf fingers after swatching!

Holly-Day. Two coats. Lovely piney green creme with jellyish tendencies. It leans more yellow than blue, but not extremely so. It's really a very neutral, medium green.

Glittering Garland. Two coats. Gorgeous deep green glass-flecked jelly. Really stupendous! It is, however, very similar to Meet Me Under the Mistletoe from Orly's 2010 Holiday collection, just less blue-toned. If you already own MMUtM, you probably wouldn't NEED GG (but I'd still recommend it! XD).

Snow Globe. Three coats. Clear base with pastel iridescent hex glitter in at least two different sizes. Clearly meant to be a layering polish, and this is probably as close to my naked nails as you will ever see, but I wanted to show it by itself first. It's a repromote from the Specialty Glitters collection, and I have been lemming it since it first came out. So glad to finally own it!

Twinkle Lights. Three coats. First photo is stark, in-focus reality, to show the glitter particles clearly. The second photo is just a bit blurred to hint at the true awesomeness! Definitely view this one at full size. A gorgeous sparkle polish, consisting of red, gold and green glitter in a clear base. But this is truly a case of the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts. This flashes every color of the rainbow! Dazzling, and a must-have for any glitter fiend.

Finishing up with some bonus glitter shots, to showcase the two that are most suited to layering. From index to pinkie, we have one coat Snow Globe, then one coat Twinkle Lights, each over Velvet Bow, Snow Globe over Blue Year's Eve and Twinkle Lights over Holly-Day. Again, first photo in focus, and second photo blurred just a bit for more glitter impact. Can I just say gorgeous one more time?
One oddity I noted was that every polish in the collection, even the glitters, were just a bit runny. It made application somewhat tricky, since the polish really wanted to pool in my cuticles. Excess polish would also invariably run down the stem onto the brush, making it difficult for me to gauge how much to wipe off before applying. Of course, this could just be my own ineptitude, and YMMV.
Overall, another home-run Holiday collection for China Glaze. At first glance, it seems a bit similar to last year's, and I'll probably do a comp post between the two, but still enough outstanding colors and textures to keep it interesting. All photos were taken in full sun, with no topcoat (with one exception, as noted). All were deliriously shiny on their own, so no topcoat was really needed (though I always use one for full manicures). The must-haves, in my opinion, are Twinkle Lights, Snow Globe, Blue Year's Eve, Ring in the Red and Glittering Garland.

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were provided by China Glaze for promotional purposes.