Today I'm finally showing you swatches of all 12 of the beauties in the China Glaze Sunsational Collection for Summer 2013.
I don't often do this, but I splurged and bought the entire collection. All the colors were just so me...
The collection is split into two halves - the cremes and the jellies.
For those of you not familiar with those terms, cremes are opaque polishes with no shimmer, and jelly polishes are semi-translucent with a "squishy" look to them.
Several early reviews complained a lot about the formulas and that made me sad because I wanted them so desperately and I wanted them to be perfect. Despite the bad reviews I bought them anyway - and I was happily surprised. I'll comment on that as we go.
What I love about the colors in this collection is that they are mega vibrant, but without that extreme neon quality that some polishes have, which tends to look horrific on very fair-skinned ladies like me.
And neons are notoriously hard to photograph but I think I did a pretty good job!
I'm going to start with the cremes because I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.
China Glaze - Bottoms Up
This is a light-n-bright pink. It reminds me a lot of two of my favorite pinks - it's like a cross between China Glaze - Dance Baby and Color Club - Peppermint Twist. So naturally... I adore it.
This one is a three-coater to cover any bald spots, but it was not difficult to apply.
China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer
Almost neon mint? Yes please.
This is the most problematic, formula-wise, but still not awful. If you don't use a light touch when applying, you can end up dragging the coats and leaving bald spots. But if you just give yourself a little extra time between coats, you should be fine! It dries semi-matte, and I did three coats.
China Glaze - Neon & On & On
I love this color! It's what I wanted CG Flip Flop Fantasy to be. Again, it is neon, but not eye-searing, so I can still wear it without my skin looking gray and dead. Haha!
Three coats, no real formula issues. Dries a little bit matte.
China Glaze - That's Shore Bright
I love it I love it I love it I love it. Total favorite. Definitely has soared into my top faves of all time list.
It's a perfect ultra-vibrant purple creme. The formula on this one is fantastic, actually - 2 coats. It does dry semi-matte however which is the only thing I would change about it.
Did I mention I love it?
I've shown it already here in a leopard mani with the mint as well.
China Glaze - Sun of a Peach
LOL at this name. I love it. And the color is great! Neon peach. Into it. A lot.
Decent formula - 3 coats.
China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle
Again, a really good name! Kudos, CG. This polish is a really vibrant aqua-blue. Not really neon, per-say, but definitely bright! I reeeeally like it. This one was probably the second-hardest to apply, for me, but definitely not bad enough that I wouldn't use it again. As I said with the mint, just use a light touch and give yourself a few extra seconds between coats.
Jelly time!
China Glaze - You Drive Me Coconuts
This is an amazing super-bright hot pink jelly. The most opaque of the jellies.
This pink is as bright as you could possibly want but still looks great on my pale skin!
This one needed just three coats for good jelly-coverage (practically no visible nail line) and I had no issues with the formula. I'm in love with it. I'm also in love with the name.
Hooray for Barbie pink!
China Glaze - Are You Jelly?
Another winning name. And a winning polish! I love this one! The second most opaque of the jellies, it is a nice medium purple. And I'm really shocked that my camera has captured it so accurately! Purples can be a pain. But not this one!
I've shown three coats and my nail line is still visible but just barely.
China Glaze - Shell-O
You've seen me post this one twice now in other posts (here and here) so obviously, I'm a fan!
I did do four coats to achieve the coverage you see here, but the formula dries quickly and without dragging so the four coats are easy to do without cursing about how many coats you're doing. And I think the color payoff is worth it! My nail line was not visible in person. I really like this color and it looks soooo good on toes. Very summery.
China Glaze - Heat Index
These final three jellies are where the opacity starts to fall off... This one is okay but not as opaque as I would like. I've done four coats and as you can see it is still very translucent. But again the formula is thin and dries quickly enough that I didn't mind doing the four coats.
The color is great, if you've got short nails and no big obvious nail line, you could totally be all over this one. But for nails with a free edge like mine... Not really into this look.
China Glaze - Isle See You Later
Holy sheer blue Batman. The third picture shows just one coat so you really get an idea of how sheer it is. It's like slightly tinted water. Haha! The top pic shows FOUR coats but it looks like what one coat should be.
I really hate this on its own. BUT. Never fear!!!
It can make friggin' awesome gradients! Check out my post on that for more info.
China Glaze - Keepin' It Teal
Another mega-sheer. This is four coats. It's a bit better than the blue but not by much. I wish it were more opaque... The color is so pretty!
I've done the gradient thing with this one too and it's awesome that way, so, I still like it.
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Overall, I'm delighted with the collection. Yes, the cremes can be a big of a drag (literally) but some patience is all it takes for them to be beautiful. And who can deny those colors? And while yes, half of the jellies are way too sheer, they are useful in their own way by making stellar gradients!
So I'm really pleased with this collection and so happy that I decided to splurge and buy them all.
(And I'm really happy there is no orange or yellow. HAHA!)
Hope you guys liked these swatches! Yay!
I got the cremes and I have to say, they did a great job capturing summer in those colors! Great swatches.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the swatches of the whole bunch - this is such a pretty collection, as you said vibrant & nice colors. I've got 2 of the on their way coming to me, That's Shore Bright and Too Yacth To Handle. I've read some variant opinions about the formula, your too Yacth To Handle wasn' that good application-wise, but some other blogger mentioned it was okay... Hopefully mine ain't the worse!
ReplyDeleteHighlight of My Summer, Neon & On & On, Sun of a Peach and Too Yacht To Handle are my favourites! :D
ReplyDeleteI need ALL of these! Especially Highlight of My Summer!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you like about Neon On and On vs Flip Flop Fantasy?
ReplyDeletewell I haven't put them side-by-side just yet, but I think N&O&O is just that touch less eye-searing that makes it look better on my skin than FFF. i should do a comparison!
Deletei am deeply in love with 'highlights of my summer', such an amazing neon mint :)
ReplyDelete(roni)
OMG there are so many in there I have to have! Where did you find them? My local Chatters and Sally's didn't have these last week (I;m in Ottawa)
ReplyDeletethey were at a professional beauty supply really early. they should be starting to pop up everywhere now though! keep looking :)
Deleteperfection. they look great on you!
ReplyDeletelove them all, the ones that actually cover. so pretty and bright :)
ReplyDeleteSome colours are pure awesomeness! I love this collection *__*
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, I can't wait to get my hands on these!!
ReplyDeleteAs far as application wise some polishes do require a light hand and some patients. I only picked up the last 2 jellies the sheerest ones. I wonder if I add a drop or 2 or three...of an opaque polish similar in color should thickened them up abit.
ReplyDeletei LOVE how fun and bright the cremes are. i would use the jellies for tints instead of polish on their own. like you can put a coat over some nail art to give it all a blue tint, like a photo filter.
ReplyDeleteCurse yooou Rebecca! I really want not to want these because of what I've read about the formulas but the cremes especially look banging on you. Ahhh!
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ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the China Glaze Sunsational Collection! The colors are vibrant, yet subtle and the texture of the polish is smooth and long lasting. what is troypoint It is the perfect collection to add a pop of color and sophistication to any look. I highly recommend.
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