China Glaze Tinsel Town
Tinsel Town was originally released by China Glaze in 2011 as part of its holiday Let It Snow collection, but this pretty dazzler is great for any time of the year and right now is feeling awesome for fall. It's one of the "smooth" glitter polishes that China Glaze does so well, packed full of glitter in a jelly base but drying to a satiny smooth finish with just a hint of texture.
In Tinsel Town, the base is a transparent deep navy blue that appears charcoal or near-black on the nail unless closely examined. The glitters are a sparkling silver in square micro and small hex sizes and lay smooth and flat on the nail surface like scintillating pavers underneath the transparent dark navy blue base.
The formula of this polish is excellent, especially considering that it's almost all glitters. It is smooth and fluid and slightly stiff, and applies easily. This is one of those polishes that the minute acetone hits it sends little silvery particles everywhere so clean up, should it be necessary (which in my case of course it was), can feel like an exercise in futility. With patience and an acetone-dampened clean up brush I managed to sweep off most but not all of the silvery stuff.
Coverage is excellent also, with complete opacity in two easy coats.
Photos show two coats of Tinsel Town over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite followed by another of Poshe for extra gloss. Mortification du jour: parched cuticles and nail surrounds that are stained a faint yellow green from an earlier quixotic nail art attempt with Nubar Hot Lime as the base. What was I thinking?
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
 |
| China Glaze Tinsel Town |
Those last three photos were taken in the kitchen under the halogens to see whether I could coax out some semblance of how the sparkle appears in person, to no avail. Tinsel Town is one that needs to been seen in motion to get the full sense of it. It is a much more cohesive polish composition than it appears in the pics, which to me make it look simply like silver glitters scattered randomly across the nail. Even though, actually, that's what it is, it works better than that. It looks better than that. It FEELS better than that.
It's ornate and festive, but also organic, as though my nails were paved with mica slices. And when direct light hits it, the sparkle is not so much dazzling as it is beautiful... like the way the scales of tropical fish sparkle under an aquarium light or the way sunlight sparkles on the surface of a lake in the distance.
Deeply cool, Tinsel Town. I like it very much.
love,
Aunt Liz
Amazing this is only two coats! It looks super saturated with glitter, gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteThank you my dear. This polish is awesome, and the icing on the cake? Removes just like regular polish. No foil, no foul!
Delete