China Glaze Sunshine Pop

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China Glaze Sunshine Pop, 2 coats. Nice, sunny yellow pearl. Formula was a bit thick, but not horrible, and it's probably the most opaque yellow I own. When I need bright yellow underwear, this is surely the one I will reach for. Appears to work well for stamping, on paper over both dark blue and plain white. Fantastic to have a yellow for nail art and stamping that actually looks yellow (without shelling out for Konad special polish)!

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Looks great under glitter. This is one coat Jordana Gemstones. Very carnival-esque.

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Some comps, showing off how opaque it is next to other yellows. No dupes here! Less raw egg-yolk than Let's Meet, but not quite as bright as Unzip Me. Similar in hue to Mellow Yellow, but that pearl finish and opacity set it apart.
What do you think? Do you wear a lot of yellow polish? Will you get this for nail art and stamping?

Disclosure: China Glaze Sunshine Pop was provided for review. All other polishes in this post were purchased by me.

China Glaze Dance Baby

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China Glaze Dance Baby, 2 coats. Cheerful bubblegum pink, with just enough blue to keep it cool. I love pinks that have a touch of blue, making them a bit different from your standard Barbie pink. Formula is China Glaze's usual for crèmes: thick but not too thick, relatively well-behaved and very opaque. Appears to work well for stamping, on paper over both dark blue and plain white.

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And my favorite, the glitter option. This is Dance Baby with one coat of Jordana Fairy Dust. Love that bling!

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The comps, two coats each. As you can see, Dance Baby is lighter with more blue than Bubblegum Pink. It's also lighter, but less purple than Splash of Grenadine. French Affair is a true pastel pink, showing that Dance Baby is much brighter.

Disclosure: China Glaze Dance Baby was provided for review. All other polishes in this post were purchased by me.

China Glaze Aquadelic Review

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China Glaze Aquadelic, 2 coats. Gorgeous bright, clear pastel aqua. I had to color-correct these photos a bit, because my camera saw robin's egg blue, when there is plenty of green in real life. So, my fingers weren't really so red, but the polish is much closer to color-accurate. Nice formula and opacity, and a bright, cheerful color that makes me happy. Appears to work well for stamping, on paper over both dark blue and plain white.

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Look at how prettily Jordana Celestial layers over Aquadelic, almost a perfect match! This is one coat of Celestial over 2 coats of Aquadelic.

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Now for some comps. I did three coats of each, to be consistent, but the two China Glazes really didn't need a third. Essie Turquoise & Caicos needed ALL three, and maybe a fourth, or underwear. As you can see, Aquadelic is the brightest of these, and actually very close to Tiffany blue (the prop I'm holding here is a Tiffany box). Aquadelic is my favorite of the bunch, and what I had hoped T&C would be.

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One more comp, because I found Ulta Mint Condition, and I wanted to try Essie T&C over a stark white base. Again, three coats of each, with Essie T&C over two coats Sally Hansen White On. The Ulta and Essie are very close to each other - both have a slightly dusty quality, and remind me of green sea glass. I'm really curious to know if they are close to Zoya Bevin or OPI Thanks a Windmillion. Anybody who owns either of those care to confirm or deny?

Disclosure: China Glaze Aquadelic was provided for review. All other polishes in this post were purchased by me.

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.

China Glaze Metro Collection

Skyscraper. Three coats, full sun, no topcoat. This little sparkler is a gorgeous deep midnight blue jelly with silver glitter in low light, and brightens to this beautiful indigo in full sun, as seen here. Love it! I don't own Essie Starry Starry Night to compare, but I don't think I really need to now that I have this.

Concrete Catwalk. Two coats, full sun, no topcoat. Lovely cool, dark grey creme. Much softer than stark black, but still edgy and fun.

Street Chic. Two coats, full sun, no topcoat. Nice neutral mushroomy taupe. Nothing groundbreaking here, but still a beautiful classic. For comparison, it's not as pink/purple as last spring's Below Deck, but more pink than OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Orly Prince Charming. I'll have to do a comp post w/photos soon.

I don't recall any application issues with these, other than that Skyscraper tended to be a bit blotchy for me. I love how shiny the cremes are!

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

China Glaze Metallic Crackles

Fashionably late again. 

Tarnished Gold and Cracked Medallion. I couldn't decide which to do first, so I did them both! TG is on index and ring, and CM is on middle and pinky. I really loved how these look over that rich blue. Gorgeous! This is one medium-thick coat of each in full sun.

Oxidized Aqua. This feels so retro '80s! Love it. I played with the coat thickness here, as you can see: thin coat on index, progressively thicker to pinkie. I really like this over neons!

I'm still loving the Crackle trend, even though others might be tired of it. And these foil-finish crackles are beautiful! I'm not saying we need to see any more crackle collections, necessarily, but I'm happy to play with what I've got.

*Disclosure: Some of the products featured in this post were provided by China Glaze for PR purposes.

Viva La Nails

I'm a bit late to the party here, as every other nail blogger on the planet has already long-since posted about Viva La Nails. This is the "Media Partner" sample pack they offered last year.

I was very impressed with the speed of shipping (9 days), from Latvia to Minnesota, USA. At the time, they didn't charge shipping for Media Partner packs, but I see that they do now (£2.95). Checkout was very easy, and they accept Paypal or credit cards.

I really like the variety they sent, featuring everything from rhinestones to water decals. The quality is topnotch, with vibrant colors and neat designs. I've spent hours looking at the pretty stuff I have, just planning manicures, and at the website, which is fun to wander around. They really have almost everything you could possibly want or need for nail art. And if you're like me, and need a little more inspiration and/or usage tips, they have some great video tutorials that are worth checking out.

Check out these awesome gold sequins! They're like little glowy gold mirrors on the nail. I used them a little too sparsely for my taste, because I'm a bit paranoid about using up all my awesome nail art supplies. I know, dumb, right? After all, they're supposed to be used! Next time, I won't skimp...

Here, I wanted to try the water decals, and I'm glad I did - these are awesome! They're really easy to use, and look great.

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by Viva La Nails.

China Glaze Island Escape Review

Today I have the China Glaze Summer 2011 collection for your viewing pleasure. Nothing stood out application-wise - they were all well-behaved. I did two coats for all, just to be consistent. The two creams are very well-pigmented and opaque in two, but the jellies are pretty sheer, so another coat or an 'underwear' polish would be needed if you dislike sheers. I think three of the jellies have the 'glass fleck' that China Glaze is so well-known for, because the glitter isn't completely uniform in size. It has the effect of tiny, irregular flakes, and dries as smooth as glass. I love the shiny, 'squishy' look they have, and paired with glass fleck, it's a homerun for me! This whole rainbow just screams summer to me.

108 Degrees. Sheer berry pink jelly with pink microglitter. Very pretty and sparkly, and perfect for summer.

Papaya Punch. True orange cream, bright but not neon. To my eye, this is an exact rainbow orange, and neutral enough to be flattering for most people, I think. It doesn't pull too yellow or red, and is perfectly opaque in two coats.

Electric Pineapple. An odd, green-leaning dusty-ish yellow. My camera apparently can't handle yellows very well. I tried to color-correct a bit, but in real life this polish is still more yellow than my pic makes it look. I don't have OPI Fiercely Fiona to compare, but I think it might be similar. Definitely not pineapple-colored, though, so I don't quite get the name. 

Cha Cha Cha. Pretty sheer grass green jelly with gold shimmer, not quite as bright as it looks here. The gold shimmer is the star of this show, and the shimmer is more old-school style than glass-fleck, so it's a little brush-strokey. It reminds me of Zoya Midori, so I'll have to do a comparison.

Blue Iguana. Sheer bright blue jelly with blue microglitter. I added a third coat on my ring finger here. Now, I could pretend that it was to show you that the color is buildable. But that would be fibbing. Really, it was to cover a smudge I managed to inflict during swatching. But look at how buildable the color is! 

Senorita Bonita. Beautiful red-based purple jelly with pink microglitter. I think this is my favorite, even though it's sheer. The pink sparkle is just so pretty in the sun, and I'm such a sucker for purple!

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by China Glaze.

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! 

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!