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| Indoors, artificial light, no flash. Ignore the red in the middle, that's actually the reflection of my red Olympus camera. |
Today I have my picks from the newest China Glaze collection--the Bohemian Collection! I was lucky enough to snag this before they're supposed to go on sale thanks to the kind lady at Sally Beauty on Saturday. I just realized that my bottles have black caps and all the press I've seen for these has them wearing silver caps. I wonder what's up about that--has anyone seen these with the silver caps? Are they different?
I'll start with my favorite: Swanky Silk:
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| Indoors, artificial light, no flash. |
This is Swanky Silk at three coats with one coat of Sinful Colors Nail Hardening Base and one coat of Seche Vite. This was a bit sheer on the first coat, but by the third, it was opaque and had a fantastic depth to the color. The formula on these is slightly runny/watery but controllable. This one dried to an almost foil-like finish. It does show a little bit of the brush strokes, but nothing to worry about as long as you are careful. The duochrome effect is, sadly, very slight from a greenish-gold to a pinky-champagne. Even though the duochrome shift is underwhelming, I think this is a very elegant and beautiful color. I can see myself wanting to wear this in fall a lot.
Before I took this off, I wanted to experiment a little. I was curious to see what a gradient would look like with two duochromes, so I used the method made famous by Sammy over at the Nailasauras to make the gradient with Swanky Silk and Unpredictable. I was blown away by how gorgeous it ended up being. So much so that I didn't want to take it off... so I didn't! And you'll get a sloppy right-hand swatch of Unpredictable as the result. But here it is topped with Seche Vite:
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| Outdoors, natural light, no flash. |
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| Outdoors, sunlight, no flash. |
Using the sponging method really brought these polishes to life. It took care of the brush stroke problem and made them super sparkly. Check out these sparkles!
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| Outdoors, sunlight, no flash. |
I'm still wearing this now, and once I swatched Unpredictable on my right hand, I did this same thing. It's gorgeous! I keep staring at my nails!
As I mentioned, I used my non-dominant hand to do the next swatch. It is less than stellar--and definitely a lot more sloppy. I need practice! Here is three coats of Unpredictable, one coat of Sinful Colors Nail Hardening Base, and one coat of Seche Vite:
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| Outdoors, natural light, no flash. |
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| Indoors, artificial light, no flash. |
Unpredictable shifts from a greenish-gold to a greenish-blue. It had the same formula as Swanky Silk. It dried to less of a foil-like finish and far more metallic. As a result of this, it shows brushstrokes pretty bad and also highlights any flaws in the nail or the application. I'd suggest sponging on a final light coat of this to alleviate that problem, even if you don't do a gradient effect.
Overall, I'm happier with these than I thought I'd be. I was initially underwhelmed by the swatches I'd seen and disappointed by the weak duochrome effect. So, I only picked these two up because they looked the most unique. Now, I might consider snagging more if I see them on sale. I'm curious to see what other color combinations would make great gradients. I bet Swanky Silk with the purple of No Plain Jane would be stunning!
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| Indoors, artificial light, no flash. |
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| Indoors, artificial light, no flash. |
More soon! ^_^
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