China Glaze Electropop Collection Spring 2012- Swatches and Review

China Glaze's spring collection is here, and not a moment too soon! It's full of bright, happy colors and some sweet pastels too. 

~*~*~*~

     

Aquadelic is a creamy, perfect turquoise. This might be my favorite in the collection. It's so great! In relation to For Audrey it is brighter and a tad bit more blue. This applied like a dream. Two coats.

Dance Baby. Super sweet bubblegum pink- very girly. This is perfect for spring. I saw this and I knew I'd be wearing it a lot; I love pink. Two coats.

Electric Beat. A perfect  soft cornflower blue/periwinkle. WAY better than Secret Peri-wink-le. It's creamier, and smoother and much more opaque. It was perfect in two coats.

Fuchsia Fanatic. This is one of those crazy berry-based shades that wants to turn really red when photographed. It's not this red. It's more fuchsia, hence the name. The China Glaze picture shows the color much better: 

Fuchsia Fanatic

Gaga for Green. Nice, yellow-based green creme. I was really surprised by this one. In the promo pics and in the bottle it looks like its going to be this crazy bright green, but it actually has a very nice softness to it that I like.

Gothic Lolita. This one really surprised me too, because it's such an awesome purple! Light, but almost medium, red-purple, that has very faint red and blue shimmer. It's more of a secret shimmer than anything else because it only comes out when the lighting is exactly right. You can't really see it in my picture, but if you look at the bottle, see the weird blue and red line on the front? That's where some of the shimmer has collected because of how the bottle was sitting when this was being sent to me. 

Kinetic Candy. Light baby blue. Another polish I can't wait to wear, that's also great for spring. 

Make Some Noise. This is almost a red. It leans between red, orange and coral. Very neat. This one seems to have a semi-jelly finish (just a little bit sheer, but still squishy looking) compared to all the other colors, which are dense, opaque cremes. 

Sunshine Pop. Bright yellow shimmer. I'll say it again: I hate yellow nail polishes. They just make your nails look dirty! The formula on this one was a little funny compared to all the others, but it is a yellow, so that's to be expected. It seemed thicker, and it was harder to control. Three coats, just to even everything out.

Sweet Hook. Beautiful light purple creme. Honestly, this one isn't very unique, but if you don't have a good pastel purple in your collection, this is a good one to consider.

Techno. This one is a re-promote. It's a clear base with tiny silver-based holographic glitter and larger hexagon silver holographic glitter. It's very sheer (three coats here) so it's perfect for layering as a glitter topcoat.

Wicked Style. Another one of those shades that wants to turn orange-red for me! I'd still call it coral, but not an orange-coral.. more like raspberry coral, if that exists. China glaze calls this "party tropical punch" and I'd say that's a pretty good description. Again, the promo pic shows the color better: 

Wicked Style

Since Techno is so nice for layering, I thought I'd try it out over a few of these. I wanted to see it over a few bright and pastel colors, but I wanted some darker colors too.

 Techno (one coat) over Aquadelic

 Techno (one coat) over Dance Baby.

 Techno (one coat) over Electric Beat.

 Techno (one coat) over Gothic Lolita.

Techno (one coat) over Sunshine Pop.

The formula on these were great, for the most part. I only had trouble with Sunshine Pop, which was thick and goopy, and Gaga for Green which was thin. Otherwise these are dense, creamy, opaque colors that were nearly perfect in one coat. I did two coats on everyone, except Techno and Sunshine Pop, but they didn't need more than that. These dry quickly and to a glossy finish, except Techno, which dries dull without topcoat. The brushes were all even, and defect free.

However, I feel like I've seen most of these color before. It's like a cross between Up and Away, Ecollection, and Custom Kicks collection. I'm not saying I don't like it, because I love every color, but maybe China Glaze needs to branch out from the colors they've already given us. I can't really think of anything I'd change about the collection. I love how the colors look on my nails, and the bright-but-soft colors are a great splash thrown in with the pastels. This feels really carefree and lighthearted, which was what I loved about Up and Away from 2010. 

Overall, I like this collection. A lot. Especially Aquadelic, Gothic Lolita, Electric Beat and Dance Baby. Always nice to have cheerful colors this time of year. The easy, streak-free application and smooth formula on these seals the deal for me. Great collection. 

This collection will be available starting in February. 

(This was NOT sent for review. I had to pay for this collection with MY OWN MONEY.)

31 Day Challenge: Day 14

Today's 'challenge' is FLOWERS. I originally wanted to do a water marble flower design, but I decided against it, and went with fimo rods. I chose five sticks (my thumb is not pictured) and did a plain french tip with glitter, and stuck them on where they looked nicest. Here's the results:

I used one coat of ChG Innocence, did my tip with the Stripe Rite, then two coats of OPI DS Coronation, and finally a coat of Seche. :)

Please excuse the gross cuticles, winter wind does a number on my skin. My favorites were my pinkie and ring fingers, the blue flower and the orange flower. 

To be honest, the fimo came off as soon as I took the pictures. They were curling up, and the top coat was doing nothing to keep them on, so I tore them off, thus ruining my manicure, and making me sad. I've already done the delicate print manicure, and I loove it! I think it's my favorite of the challenge so far. I'm really proud of it. 

Well, I'll leave you to wonder about the mysteries tomorrow holds. 

Thanks for reading!

~Emily

31 Day Challenge: Day 11

Today is Day 11: POLKA DOT nails. I had done today's manicure in the past, and I really liked it, so I decided it would be much more fun to do than a boring base-color-and-dot manicure. This is what I came up with:

For this I used:

Silver- China Glaze Cheers To You

Dark Neon Pink- China Glaze Pool Party

Light Neon Pink- China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Neon Orange- Color Club Koo Koo Ka Choo

Neon Yellow- China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

Neon Green- China Glaze Kiwi-Cool-Ada

Neon Purple- Color Club Mrs. Robinson

I didn't use any topcoat, because I liked the way the semi-matte dots looked against the foil. Hope you enjoyed! See you on Day 12.

Thanks for reading!

~Emily

31 Day Challenge: Day 10

This is the actual manicure for today. Today is Day 10, GRADIENT nails, and I decided to do a sponging manicure, pink to purple. I used all Zoya nail polishes, because they all flowed very well. Light pink, to darker pink, to red-purple, to purple. :)

This is Zoya Lolly, the base for my mani. Two coats, and it's completely opaque. It was smooth and dries very fast, and very matte. I immediately thought of this when I knew I wanted to do a pink to purple gradient, and it also gives me a great, and kind of annoying, earworm for Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, (get your adverbs here...) from School House Rock.

 I proceeded by adding Zoya Gilda to Lolly when it was completely dry. This intensified the bright pink of Lolly by like, ten times. You can't tell from the pictures, but it does. I love this. I'd wear it everyday in the summertime.

 Next I taped off my nails, (like with water marbling, just less carefully) to prevent the polish getting on my cuticles while sponging.

This is the finished product. I sponged Zoya Alegra, Valerie, and Mimi one at a time in that order. Alegra was lowest down on my nail, Valerie higher, and Mimi more towards the tip. I really like this, too. It's not exactly how I pictured it in my mind, but nothing ever is. I still think it's super-cool. Love.

Thanks for reading! See you on day 11!

~Emily

31 Day Challenge: Day 8

Hey everyone. 

I've been home sick for two days now, and I figured it was time to do this post. I'm too lazy for my own good. It's not going to be a very exciting post, but hey, I'm sick. 

Day 8 is METALLIC nails and here's what I used:

Mr. Wrong is a mostly grey/purple base foil with blue and gold flakes mixed in. It's super sparkly when the sun hits it, and I could wear this all winter. I get tons of compliments when I wear it. A definite must-buy. Hard Candy nail polishes are available at Walmart. That's the only place I've seen them. Until tomorrow! I'm really excited for the next day. I'm doing the mani tonight! :)

Thanks for reading

~Emily

31 Day Challenge: Day 6

Hello! 

This is my second post tonight and I am feeling pretty good! Today is Day 6, VIOLET nails, and I chose an oldie, but goodie: China Glaze IDK:

close-up of the amazing holo-goodness

:) I love holos! They are super pretty. Although it is storming at the moment and I probably wont be able to fully enjoy this, I still like it. This is from the OMG! collection and in my opinion it's one of the better ones. The light holos look better to me. They seem to show up more... This was two coats and topcoat. Sorry for the strange pictures but I was trying to get different angles to show more of the shimmer. See you tomorrow, (I promise this time!)

Thanks for reading!

~Emily

31 Day Challenge: Day 1

The Day 1 challenge is RED nails so I decided to go with something that may turn a few heads. China Glaze Raspberry Festival:

It's a two-coater, and it's very sparkly. :) I love this. I had actually been wanting to wear this for a while, and had never gotten the chance, so this is just perfect! I wish it were sunny though, so I would be able to see it at it's best before I take it off tomorrow. :) All for now!

Thanks for reading! 

~Emily