Lacquer Slacker Liz: China Glaze

Showing posts with label China Glaze. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

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

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

Sunday, November 1, 2015

China Glaze Tongue & Chic

Tongue & Chic was released by China Glaze as part of the Autumn Nights collection for fall 2013, described as a "playful emerald shimmer." Marketing speak just kills me. Why can't they have concept and design people describe the polish? Of course, in the best of all possible worlds they'd be hiring polish enthusiasts to write the descriptors. Film at eleven.

I was inspired to seek out Tongue & Chic while looking at Rach's post about it on stuff i swatched. It's almost impossible for me to see one of Rach's manicures and NOT want the polish, but her photos of this one provoked such an exaggerated covet response that I had to go buy Tongue & Chic on ebay before I'd even finished reading the whole post. It's a gorgeous darkened blue-green shimmer polish, a teal shade with a strong cerulean vibe and beaucoup superfine metallic silver particulate shimmers that give it it a gentle semi-metallic aspect. It's one of those silky, lustrous, lit-from-within shimmers that brighten along the axis of light and deepen dramatically around the edges, giving the polish a sensational crepe de chine kind of chromatic dimensionality. We've seen a lot of these deep blue-green/skobeloff/pine shades this fall, and Tongue & Chic's variation of it might be just that except for a certain ornate quality that sets it apart. Its blackened look and the subtleties of its shimmer make for a sort of Victorian sensibility. On the nail, it has a formal, almost restrained feel to me that I find quite unusual for a teal, even one as deep as this.

Application was really wonderful. The consistency of Tongue & Chic is fluid, smooth and dense with a velvety glide over the nail and a beautifully balanced viscosity for painting. Pigmentation is outstanding -- this is an easy one-coater for those with smooth, regular nail beds. My ridges required three coats to camouflage completely, due in part to the polish's tendency to go on in thin coats. Cleanup is fraught with pigment travel as you might expect from such a saturated blue-green. I could have been more careful with the process -- I thought I'd done a pretty swell job until I saw the photos. Oh macro, you are cruel! Tongue & Chic dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best.

Photos show three coats of Tongue & Chic over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Tongue & Chic


China Glaze Tongue & Chic

If you notice, I have yet to bring down the nail length on my left hand so that it matches the right. Apparently, I am now vain enough about my photos to tolerate the obvious indiscretion of displaying varying nail lengths... but for how long? I mean, surely some sense of propriety will hit me at some point.

Ya think?

love,
Liz

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

China Glaze Thunderbird

A couple of weeks ago or so I came across a post by Johanna of Paillette featuring three older shimmery reds by China Glaze. Each one was so beautiful that I immediately searched them out on ebay and bought them.

The first of these reds is Thunderbird. Thunderbird was released by China Glaze as part of the Retro Diva collection for fall 2009. This is a deep magenta-based garnet red encapsulating ultrafine pearly tone-on-tone shimmers. It's one of those fine semi-metallic shimmer polishes that looks like it's lit from within on the nail, with a central gleam of bright color along the axis of light shading to a mysterious near-black at the edges, especially in low light. Vampy and glamorous, it's a beautiful polish with an old school candy apple red feel, and reminds me of Zoya Isla but with a little more drama perhaps. Oh and I love the name!

Application was great! The consistency of Thunderbird is fluid, light and smooth with an oily look from the superabundant shimmer load and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is very good, with evenly opaque coverage in two coats but it took an additional coat to completely vanquish my nail ridges. For most folks, though, two trouble-free coats will be enough for a perfect manicure. I've become so used to the flattened, wider type of brush that so often accompanies indie polishes that it takes me a nail or two to reacquaint myself with the dynamics of the China Glaze brush, which is long, round and relatively slender. It's quite flexible and easy to manipulate, though, and once I've re-oriented my painting I very much enjoy using it. Thunderbird cleans up beautifully for a deep red, with neither pigment travel nor staining, and dries in good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of Thunderbird over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. We're overcast and rainy here today and the low light made it difficult to capture well-focused pics. My camera was already a little confused by Thunderbird's glowing shimmers. And my apologies for the flaky fingers. Time for a rendezvous with the salt scrub!

China Glaze Thunderbird

This is the kind of glowy red that polish enthusiasts enjoy associating with the holidays, no? Not unique, but still delicious to the eye for those who appreciate the sleek drama of that lit-from-within look that a pearly shimmer like this provides.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

China Glaze For Audrey

For Audrey was released by China Glaze in 2007, either as a stand-alone limited edition tribute to Audrey Hepburn and her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's or as part of the Something Blue 2007 bridal collection or both. It also appears in the China Glaze ombre set, Wait Teal You See. In any case, it has long since become part of the China Glaze core line and attained icon status amongst polish enthusiasts. As Ruby Pumps is to sparkling red shades, For Audrey is to minty blue/aqua/turquoise shades. It's a near match to the famous signature color of Tiffany and Co. as well as to the equally renowned (among beaders and rock hounds, anyway) gem turquoise from Arizona's Sleeping Beauty mine, a light creamy robin's egg or celeste blue from the cyan family that is unmuddled, clean and fresh. It's a polish that goes into regular rotation for polish enthusiasts' spring and summer wear, a beauty by your favorite body of water, for showers and weddings, at outdoor concert picnics or any activity where you want something cool and breezy on your nails.

Application was fantastic! The consistency of For Audrey is quite fluid but not runny and very smooth with a buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is also excellent -- with a well-loaded brush and the proper mojo this could be a one-coater. Two thin coats and smooth nail beds will net completely even opaque coverage, but for the purposes of this post my furrowed nails required three coats to vanquish any hint of ridges. This is typical for me and thinner formulas, even ones that self-level as well as this one does. Cleanup is a snap. For Audrey dries naturally in average time to a shade that's a little cleaner and bluer than the bottle color alone would lead you to believe and a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of For Audrey over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Only a few bubbles in the Vite today, hooray!

China Glaze For Audrey

For Audrey has been a long time coming to this blog, since it had long before achieved cult status when I first began almost three years ago. I got mine only recently off of ebay -- at about the same time that I purchased Breakfast at Tiffany's from indie polish maker Polish My Life. Again with the simultaneous similar color purchase! My subconscious at work... or my conscious mind slacking off! I know that China Glaze is most economical to purchase from polish and nail supply etailers like NailSuppliesUS, Head2Toe Beauty and 8to8 Beauty Supply, but I do not have the self-control to polish shop with such a huge bounty of brands and colors spread before me. If you do, I highly recommend NailSuppliesUs, run by David Trans of TransDesign. Shipping is by Federal Express, so it's little higher than some other polish etailers, but your purchase arrives lightening quick and they have a great inventory with excellent prices.

Back to this polish, it's everything I hoped for. It's a soft bright that's sleek and graceful on the nail, with a buoyant, cheerful nature. So pretty! I love it!

xo,
Liz

Thursday, February 12, 2015

China Glaze Ahoy!

The true name of this polish is Ahoy! with exclamation mark but for the purposes of this review I'll be omitting the punctuation.

Ahoy was released by China Glaze as part of the excellent Anchors Away collection for spring 2011. This is the collection that gave us Below Deck, First Mate, Pelican Gray, Sea Spray and White Cap, among others. Ahoy is a deep but bright magenta jelly filled with golden glass fleck shimmers. The translucent magenta base tints the appearance of the glass flecks, lending various shades of gold, pink, blood orange and red to them as they refract light through the layers. With topcoat, Ahoy has a gorgeous glossy glow on the nail with that plump, juicy quality beloved in jellies. The interior sparkles peek through the vivid, fiercely feminine deep magenta base like fairy lights through a magical mist. So pretty!

Application was great. The consistency of Ahoy is quite fluid and light but not runny as long as its applied in thin to medium coats. It has a smooth, easy flow over the nail and good self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is very good for a jelly, with even opaque coverage and rich, vivid color achievable in two medium coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, with no undue clinging on the part of the glass flecks and little to no residual trace of staining from the pigment. Ahoy dries naturally in fairly good time to a shiny finish with a slight visual texture from the glass flecks, easily smoothed with a layer of topcoat.

Photos show two coats of Ahoy over treatment and basecoat with a generous topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Ahoy!

This one has so much more impact on the nail than I was expecting from the bottle, where to my eye it appeared sort of cloudy and diluted. The color is deep, intense and vibrant, tiptoeing up to the line between magenta and red with just enough blue in it to keep it on the pinker side. I love deep pinks and this is a fabulously fierce one. It has an unabashed self-confidence on the nail, almost as if to say, "Bring it!" Whatever "it" is, this polish can handle it.

love,
Liz