China Glaze Hot Flash

Bidding adieu to pastels for the nonce, I've been so wowed by various blogger swatches of the newest collection from China Glaze, a series of twelve neons and brights called Lite Brites, that I impulsively ordered a couple of them from Head2ToeBeauty. This sort of impulse buy is my preferred approach to selecting from large mainstream collections, because anything more considered quickly becomes overwhelming and I end up with none of them. Can't say that for this collection now, and it's about time I experienced a China Glaze neon.

I zeroed in on the neon red of Hot Flash from the get-go, having long loved Misa's Bikini with a Martini. Hot Flash is less neon than the Misa, but it's also more complex, a brilliant changeling shade with aspects of both crimson and scarlet. At arm's length in bright ambient light, it's a marvelous coquelicot color, just like wearing a bouquet of poppies on your nails. The closer your scrutiny, the easier it is to see its cooler tones. It deepens a touch in low light and shade to a more classic but still very bright red along the lines of lust from the ISCC-NBS color list. Deliciously rich and saturated, in shade mode this polish reminds me of fine highly-polished Mediterranean red coral or a high-end summer red lipstick. It has a creme/jelly hybrid formula with degree of translucence that gives it a juicy, squishy look on the nail, intensifying both the brilliant color and its native exuberance.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Hot Flash is fluid, creamy and dense with a medium viscosity and a lush, self-leveling glide over the nail -- an impressive, user-friendly formula that is easy to manipulate with China Glaze's slender round flexible brush. Pigmentation is very, very good. It gives the impression of potentially being a one-coater, but the built-in translucence of the crelly formula requires two medium coats for evenly opaque coverage, possibly three if you prefer very thin coats. Cleanup is amazing. Not only is there barely a hint of pigment travel, but there's also almost no residual staining. Huzzah! Hot Flash dries naturally in very good time to a somewhat satiny-looking finish that wants a good topcoat to reveal it's crelly nature. 

Photos show two coats of Hot Flash over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

China Glaze Hot Flash

This is the perfect red to wear with nautical outfits. It pops beautifully with blue and white, and is especially amazing with navy.

Sweet! 

love,
Liz