China Glaze Elephant Walk

Elephant Walk was released by China Glaze as part of its On Safari collection for fall 2012. Officially described as a cool graphite grey, Elephant Walk is a medium grey with ultra fine silvery shimmers that are not all that forthcoming in the bottle but provide a lovely sheen across its surface on the nail. It has a tiny bit of a green undertone to it that is especially apparent in the bottle. If it's been sitting for a while, as mine has, the green gravitates towards the neck and the base and even after rigorous shaking you can still see it. But for me, this is a perfect medium grey. 

Application was pretty nice. The consistency of Elephant Walk is fluid, creamy and dense, very pleasant to paint with. The formula was a tad thicker than what I typically encounter with China Glaze, and likes to go on in medium coats. Pigmentation is very good with nearly opaque coverage in one medium coat. I used two medium coats to ensure fullest coverage, best representation of the color and to give it the opportunity to camouflage my nail ridges, at which it was fairly successful. I've read other reviews where complaints were made about this polish's self-leveling properties, but I found it self-leveled fairly well when applied in medium coats. Elephant Walk cleans up easily and dries naturally in average time to a shade that's slightly darker than bottle color and a glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Elephant Walk over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

China Glaze Elephant Walk

According to Wikipedia, grey is an intermediate color between black and white and as such is an a achromatic color, or color without color. Despite the fact that many nail polish enthusiasts love it's influence when blended into other colors, it seems like grey on its own is a somewhat polarizing neutral. People either love it or couldn't be bothered. I love it, it's my favorite medium-toned traditional neutral and I think it's sleek, buoyant and stylish as a nail polish color and one I consider to be eminently wearable in any season. I think Elephant Walk will make an especially classy darker polish come summer, which for us here in NC is right around the corner.

love,
Liz