China Glaze - Pastels

Hi! I'm going to show you some pretty China Glaze pastels today! It's not spring, but who cares! Anyway, here in Singapore it's always summer anyway.

L-R: Lemon Fizz, Refresh-mint, Kinetic Candy,
Something Sweet, Sweet Hook

It's been a while since I posted.. I've been pretty busy with work and housework, and my nails are in a horrid state, making me very unwilling to post anything. They were already short because of practising my guitar, and after doing a lot of housework all 10 of them split entirely and I had to cut them down to the meat again. *sniff sniff*

Anyway, I finally took out my pastels given by my colleagues for my birthday and did a skittle with them. I finished with a fine glassfleck topcoat called White Cap.

For a full review on White Cap, please click here.

L-R: Lemon Fizz, Refresh-mint, Kinetic Candy,
Something Sweet, Sweet Hook

They look a little pale here, they are all slightly brighter (except the Lemon Fizz, that one is slightly more muted) in real life, but these colors are all really hard to photograph. There is also no sun at all, making it harder to get a good shot >.<

The below pictures are all taken in daylight - shade. I have a more color-accurate picture at the end for you, without White Cap, which was taken with flash.

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz + White Cap

Lemon Fizz 80941
I actually reviewed this color already, click here for the post. The color is from the Up and Away collection spring 2010.

This is a very good yellow, good coverage in 2-3 coats, creamy and pigmented. Easy to apply, self-leveling. Love it! It is slightly more muted and pale than the picture. Beautiful, baby-chick easter yellow.

I did some nail art with this yellow as well, if you're keen, you can click here. Only now I realize I already worn this color 3-4 times in 1 month time, that's like.. a record. And it's a yellow. I suppose that just says how nice this color is~

China Glaze - refresh-mint + White Cap

Refresh-mint 80937
This color also comes from the Up & Away collection for spring 2010. overall I really like this collection.

I don't know where to start on this color though, this was a disappointment since I first got it. It was on my to-get-or-not-to-get list for a long time. And I was looking for a pastel green for a while, and this one is so popular and I liked many of the swatches I had seen online. I actually craved for something like.. Gargantuan green grape by OPI. Faithful to China Glaze as I am, I tried looking for something like that in their line, but could not find it.

When I got this.. I couldn't find anything green inside the bottle.. some greyish pale blue, like the sky in winter in Europe, when it's cloudy for days and days in a row. Only in certain lights can I see the slight green tinge to it.. and this is in my humble opinion, not mint-green AT ALL! Like, not at aaaalllll! Only certain lights (artificial light mainly) will reveal green, in any other light looks like a dirty grey/pale blue. It does turn out quite nice with White Cap, a bit of a winter-snow manicure, but just not the color I intended to get. I don't want to make this color appear to be awful, I know so many girls love love love it, but I am not one of them. I think I am just disappointed it wasn't what I was looking for. And it brings out the red in my skin ever so slightly.

The formula is pretty okay on this one, very pigmented and full coverage in 2 coats, but it is a bit streaky and thick. You need to apply it with a lot of care, and try to apply it evenly.

China Glaze - Kinetic Candy + White Cap

Kinetic Candy 80735
This is a color from the Elektropop collection for spring 2012. Another collection that I love.

This may look similar to Refresh-mint from the pictures, but it is much warmer, really baby-blue. I love this, the color is very nice and the formula is fantastic. The picture is too pale, it is darker in real life. The color goes well with my skin tone. I am sure I'll be using this quite a lot! Will be nice to use as a background for nail art too.

It applies like a dream, very smooth, self-leveling, opaque in 2 coats. Wonderful formula, especially for a light white-based color! Not too thick or thin. This is one of my favorites from this bunch.

China Glaze - Something Sweet + White Cap

Something Sweet 80932
I was looking for a pastel pink, and there are many around. After much researching, I decided on this one, because I like the collection it was launched in (Up & Away) and I like the soft warm baby-pink. Also read good reviews on the formula.

The color is just what I wanted, very warm soft pale pink, though it doesn't look as good with my skin tone as I would want to. However, the formula is not the greatest. I needed 3 coats for full coverage and it tends to get streaky and patchy, it doesn't level out as well so you need to apply this with a lot of care. I think it worked best using 1 thin layer to start with, let it dry well, then apply 2 more coats, use a more generous last coat so it will level out easier and applies a bit smoother.

I guess the efforts are worth it as the color is so sweet. I also wonder how this compares to the more recently launched Pink-ie promise (Avant Garden spring 2013). And it looks even sweeter with White Cap on top. Real life color slightly more blue-tones than shown in the picture. It's not so peachy colored.

Overall a nice color, okay-ish formula, but there might be similar colors out there with a better, more pigmented and buttery formula.

China Glaze - Sweet Hook + White Cap

Sweet Hook 80745
Sweet Hook is another color from the spring 2012 Elektropop collection. This might be my favorite of this bunch! The color is a very sweet pink-leaning lilac, I absolutely love it! I like it more without White Cap. Dires up very shiny by itself too!

The formula is amazing too, Thickness is just right, very smooth, 2 layers give full coverage and it levels out perfectly. Nothing bad to say about this! I am wearing this on my toes for the whole week already as well, wanna see? Ignore the chips, it went to a lot of scrubbing and housework already. =P

China Glaze - Sweet Hook + Seche Vite

Actually, this toetsie-picture is really color accurate! Taken with flash. Sigh, really love this color so much, and very flattering for my skin-tone.

End result:

China Glaze - pastels with White Cap

Like a rainbow unicorn, right? I'm still not sure whether I prefer with or without White Cap, it makes it a bit too sweet for me with the shimmer.. Picture taken with flash.

 Without White Cap:

China Glaze - L-R: Refresh-mint, Kinetic Candy,
Something Sweet, Lemon Fizz, Sweet Hook

The above picture was taken with flash, and is pretty color-accurate for all colors except lemon Fizz. Lemon is slightly lighter in real life.

And the winner is:
My 2 favorite colors (and also the best formula): Sweet Hook and Kinetic Candy.

China Glaze - Sweet Hook + Kinetic Candy

Which ones are your favorites? What pastel colors do you like?

China Glaze - White Cap

Hello, I'd like to show you White Cap, a glassflesk shimmer from the Anchors Away spring 2011 collection. And come on, what a cute name. It reminds me of little white mushrooms and little leprichauns. =x

I didn't like this collection too much, but I love the China Glaze glassflecks so White Cap got my attention. Would it turn any plain polish into a glassfleck!? Well, almost! because this is great for layering!

China Glaze - White Cap

White Cap 80970 - I am not sure if this fully qualifies for a glassfleck, but they sure look like it. The shimmers are floating in a semi-transparent milky formula. Application is easy and smooth. I have not used it often, but it is fun!

You can use it as a normal polish too, but I don't like the look much. The gold glow of it makes your nails look really yellow and gross. (My nails are already yellow and gross without it, so it's even worse xD) It is really much more suitable for layering over other colors, and I am pretty sure that's what China Glaze intended for this color.

The actual color is hard to determine, it depends on the light. In most lights it looks like a silver shimmer, but in the sun it turns gold, and under artificial light, it even turns to a multi-color pastel shimmer! Do you know how Snow Globe looks like? The color shift is similar to that, pastel like pearlescent twinkles.

Used as a top coat it gives your polish an almost pearl-like or frosty finish. It really shape-shifts depending on the light. A very fun polish to play around with.

China Glaze - White Cap

I took many pictures to show you what this color looks like, but it's so hard to capture! The above picture, made under natural light (shade) shows the pearlescent quality and the fine glassfleck shimmers. The flecks look silver while the overall glow is gold. It's magical!

You can also see the milky base well. Not to worry, it does not dull your base color!

China Glaze - White cap - Blurred out shot

I tried to photograph how it looks when it shifts to the fairy-like multi-colors, but it proof impossible to capture. Only the above shot, which is a horrible shot it inself, shows a slight sparkle of green and yellow. You'l have to take my word for it.

And this is how it looks like when worn layered over a base color, shown different colors:

China Glaze - White Cap on pastels

As soon as I have shots of White Cap on other, maybe darker colors, I'll update this post. I also should post a swatch of the color on natural nail. And I am sure this would look amazing on plain black creme, or gray. Once my current mani wears out, I'll update this post with more looks. <3

If you are curious about the pastel colors used in the above picture, please click here for a full review.

08-09-2013: Hi, quick update for you! I took some swatches with darker colors for your comparison. I quickly did these swatches a few days back, my friend wanted to borrow White Cap so quickly made swatches so I could pass my bottle to her. I don't have too many creme's, I chose those I thought would turn out nice.

The colors I used below to show you are: L-R: Fuchsia fanatic, Life is Rosy, Exotic encounters, Westside warrior and Call of the wild (all China Glaze colors).

China Glaze colors before adding White Cap

China Glaze - Dark cremes + White Cap

China Glaze - dark cremes + White Cap

I think my favorite combi's are Exotic Encounters (from the 2012 autumn Safari collection) and Westside Warrior (from the 2011 autumn Metro collection). Like a mermaid's tail, very pretty and I kept looking at them! The combi with Call of the wild somehow reminds me a little of Wagontrail, an oldie from the (was it 2005?) Rodeo collection. But it's a little dark for my liking.

I really disliked how it looks with Life is Rosy, very grandma hehe. if you are interested in a full review for Life is Rosy, you can click here, it's pretty cute by itself.

And the combi with Fuchsia Fanatic.. I came to the shocking discovery... This is exactly like the China Glaze glassfleck called Strawberry fields! I tested my friend, who loves Strawberry fields, and asked her if she liked my polish. She straight away said "That's Strawberry fields"! But it was Fuchsia Fanatic + White Cap. Well, maybe it'll give you a better idea of the kind of finish this polish will bring you. Below my thumb next to my bottle of Strawberry fields, sorry for the blur shot! I wanted to show the shimmer, but it wouldn't want to show well in a clear shot.

Nail = Fuchsia Fanatic + White Cap
Bottle = Strawberry Fields

Well, hope these extra shots with darker colors will give you a better idea of the diversity of looks you can create with this fun polish! Please excuse the horrible state my nails in, and the smudges on my cuticles. 

I didn't have a lot of time >.<

Do you like white Cap? Do you use it for layering or on your natural nail? What base colors do you like to use under White Cap?

Nail Art - Pansies with China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Hello, I did a bit of simple nail art today, and want to share it with you. It's pretty easy to do, all you need is a dotting tool and nail polish.

I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and Gaga for Green for the base. If you want to know a bit more about the base colors, click here for the full review.

Shades used for the flowers L-R: Fancy Pants, Solar power, Gothic Lolita

For the flowers, I used Solar Power, Gothic Lolita, and of course, Fancy Pants! Fancy Pants is the perfect pansy-blue! If you are keen to see a full review for the shades Gothic Lolita and Fancy Pants, you can click here.

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz - Pansies

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz and Gaga for Green - Pansies

I just used a medium dotting tool to dot on the purple-blue leaves, then added the middle heart of the flower in yellow with a fine dotting tool. The leaves are drawn with dotting tool as well, and I used gaga for Green for them.

I already added a fast-dry top coat (Seche Vite) to the base color and let it dry well, before I started drawing the flowers. To make sure my base is dried properly and won't smudge any more (I'm so clumsy). I used another coat of Seche Vite once the flowers were a dry enough. So the flowers are trapped between 2 layers of top coat.

It's pretty easy, so you can even use your left hand to carefully make these tiny cute flowers. (Or your right, if you're left-handed =P) I promise, anyone can do this! you don't need a super steady hand for it.

Pansies and violets are one of my favorite flowers! They're so sweet and colorful! You can just change the colors and turn them into anything, white, yellow or pink daisies! You can also experiment with the background. These can be turned into anything you like!

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz and Gaga For Green

Hello! Today I tried this polish which was gifted to me for my birthday.

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz - Bottle shot

This is Lemon Fizz 80941 by China Glaze, and it's a pale yellow pastel creme. This color is from the fantastic 2010 Up and Away collection for spring. And it definitely calls Spring! It reminds me of daffodils, sunshine, Easter and also of creamy butter on a piece of toast.

Surprisingly, for a yellow, a pastel and a creme (3x nail polish horror), application is pretty okay. Really! In fact, better than some of my other pastels in pink and blue. I needed 3 coats to cover up all the patches. But it is really pigmented and creamy. I started with a thin coat, then applied 2 generous coats. It did not level out fully, but after using a top coat (I used Seche Vite) the result was quite smooth!

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz - Natural light

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz - Natural light

The above pictures looks a bit brighter than the color actually is. It is more soft, pastel baby-chick yellow. The below pictures taken in natural light are more color-accurate.

I quite like this color. It's very sweet. The color is a little pale for my skin, maybe I just need to get used to it as I never wore this kind of light color before.

But I did a little nail art on it, if you want to see it, click here.

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz and Gaga For Green - Bottles - Artificial light

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz and Gaga For Green - Natural light

I combined it with a beautiful green color called Gaga For Green, which was a little surprise for me. This is definitely a kind of jelly finish, not a creme! And application is fantastic! The color is a beautiful warm medium green, like grass. It is warm, but at the same time it's bright!

I did 3 coats, but 2 would have been enough as well. So maybe it is a bit more pigmented than the average jelly. Dries up extremely shiny like jellies do, and the color is really amazing, I absolutely love this, the formula and the color! I have the same color in my living room, see! I should give a full review when I am wearing this as a full mani, here it's just 2 nails. More like an experiment to see how it would look with lemon Fizz as I thought the bottles together looked very spring-y and fun.

My nails are so uneven lately. I picked up playing the guitar again and to be able to press down the strings, you need to have your nails short. So now my left hand constantly has short nails, though I'm trying to grow back my thumbnail a bit. And then my right hand, the middle nail keeps breaking and splitting. Such a mess. Lucky I can cover up most damage with my polishes anyway =p

Quite a short one today! I'm quite tired, because my husband took me out shopping and I got some new clothes, and we went to eat ramen together. Such a sweet hubby. <3

Do you like Lemon Fizz or gaga For Green? Do you have any of them?

China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard and Turned Up Turquoise

I am really in the mood for brights lately, and recently I was gifted China Glaze I'm with the Lifeguard, which is my first true neon and suits my mood completely. I am absolutely loving it! I am combining it with Turned up Turquoise right now, a combination I personally love. This manicure makes me so so happy =D

I'm with the Lifeguard and Turned Up Turquoise

The bottle shots look muted and blue-toned, please do not refer to them for the color as they are not very accurate. I do apologize for this. Please refer to the other nail shots for the colors, which are all pretty color-accurate ^_^

Both are neons are both have a fine shimmer inside, which is one reason to love them even more. The shimmer makes them easier to apply and gives them a little extra something, these babies pop and make an amazing summer manicure. Or, actually any time of the year. I don't care, whatever makes me happy~

I'm with the Lifeguard and Turned Up Turquoise

Turned Up Turquoise is from the China Glaze 2008 Ink collection. I'm not sure how the rest of this collection is like, this is the only one I own and tried before. It is a beautiful bright true turquoise shade.

I did 2 medium coats for this mani, but as it was a little patchy here and there, I did some touch ups which are now invisible. The pigmentation is really good for a neon. The trick with this one is to not be too stingy with the amount you put on your brush, to apply with very little pressure, and not to touch up/re-stroke on fresh strokes until your coat dried. I did that, and it caused me to have cuticle drag, which is so hard to cover up! Though this one let's you patch up without looking too obvious, so that's great. So 2 medium coats, + here and there some touch up.

The polish levels itself out pretty well. Just remember to be careful not to put too much pressure on the brush. All in all, the formula for this one is pretty great. Not too thin, not too thick, no flooding and very pigmented.

I'm With the Lifeguard is from the China Glaze 2012 Summer neons collection. A very good collection with good formulas and nice colors. Splish Splash and Pink Plumeria are two other of my favorites from this collection. Lifeguard is a beautiful bright neon green, and I believe this color has been launched due to the great demand for a re-launch of Limonyte - A long-since discontinued and amazingly popular cult-status color by China Glaze which looks nearly the same, though I do not own it. Let's all hope Lifeguard will make it into China Glaze's core collection.

The formula for this one is a bit more thin, and it is a bit more tricky to work with. Because the color is so bright and contrasts with your skin so much, every little patch is visible. I used thin coats to slowly build up opacity, this is 4 coats. I would have gone with 3, but I know photos will show up patches not visible to the naked eye, so because I want to share it with all of you, I did a forth, very thin coat to cover up some minor patches.

It looked a little bumpy as well, did not even out so good. But with a top coat this is fixed pretty good. The trouble is totally worth the beautiful color result.

Look at that sparkle that the sunlight reflects~!

The above photo is pretty true to the real color. It's that bright! All pictures are made in the direct sunlight, unless otherwise stated. I have no garden or balcony (sobs), so in the few hours the sun hits through my bedroom window, I try to quickly go and make all my swatch pictures hehee.. I also knocked something and now there is this crater on my middle finger.. grr! Hate it when that happens. Kindly ignore it. I'm not gonna patch that up because I know I'll only be making it more obvious rather than hiding it.  ^_^ Talking way too much, back to the polish!

These will, as expected, dry up matte (below picture, also see how bumpy Lifeguard looks without topcoat?) When they do you can barely see the shimmer. But once you put your top coat it's like magic, all the shimmer starts coming out. It's gorgeous!

Lifeguard and Turquoise - Sunlight, no top coat

I used Nail Tek II for my base and top coat. Shiny and will make it last the whole week! (And my nails are so weak and brittle so that if I don't use Nail Tek, they'll just snap double and ruin my whole mani). If I should have any Holy grail, this product surely must be it.

I think both shades are fan's favorites. I certainly adore them. I couldn't chose a favorite out of the two. Well, if I must.. I'm With The Lifeguard! Hehe.. China Glaze is so good making this type of colors. I also put it on my toetsies! Wanna see how that looks? I know, looks a little messy, but no one is going to notice that until you make a picture, so I don't care. ^_^

I'm with the Lifeguard on the toes

I love how this kind of brights make you look tanned. I feel like going under the sun now, maybe I go for a cycle in the park after I finish my laundry. Oh before I forget, I give you my full hand shots, so you can see how the end result would look. These are all pretty color-accurate~!

Another shot for you, to show how it looks in the shade under artificial light (daytime, no flash):

Full hand shot - artificial light

What a great start of august, and a great start of my 'mini summer holiday'. Ahh what shall I do next? I have so much time for myself! I think I am going to the park now and bring my book. I'll finish my laundry tonight. I promise ^_^ have a great week to all of you, whether you're free from school, whether you're working, or whatever you do~!

With love, Eileen

China Glaze - Sunsational - That's Shore Bright

Today I want to show you this very cool color from the 2013 Summer collection Neons on the Shore/Sunsational. This collection is devided in 6 cremes and 6 jellies. I have read many reviews and was very unsure whether to get any, as so many girls are so negative about the formula. I really loved this purple creme, and as people have been saying this has the best formula out of all the cremes, I went for it.

Update 7 November 2013: *I have finally gotten myself Too Yacht to Handle and Highlight of my Summer, from the same series, as well!  You may find Highlight of my Summer over here, Too Yacht to handle here.*

That's Shore Bright + Top coat

No regrets! This is That's Shore Bright, a beautiful creme, not quite neon, but definitely bright! The shade is amazing, very unique to me, and I love it the same way I love Gothic Lolita, which is another China Glaze shade that is in the same league, a gorgeous medium red-leaning purple. See Lolita's full review here. I actually think I will love all cremes in this collection, and now I have tried this one, I am feeling pretty safe to try the rest. Because, really:

The formula is pretty good! Especially for a creme AND a neon. We all know how hard cremes can be to apply, and I do have a personal problem with cremes. If the formula is bad or thick, I will never get it on smoothly. But really, and this is coming from me, this formula is not bad! I did 2 thin layers for the pictures below, and coverage is fantastic. Very pigmented! Because 2 thin layers is enough, you can avoid this from getting too chunky or uneven. So go easy on your amount and it should come out just fine. Application is pretty smooth and creamy, thickness is just nice, no flooded cuticles and no chunks.

What I did experience is that I had some swirls of white pigment on my first few nails, so you gotta shake your bottle very well before using it. The polish does level itself, but not as much as I would've liked. Be gentle on your brush strokes, and remember to use thin layers!

It dries up in this beautiful satin finish (see below picture, please ignore the smudges, I don't clean up until I'm all done hehe). Everyone who used neons before, will know that neons dry up matte. And I will always, always put a top coat to make it shiny and to make the color pop. Well, this is actually the first polish I would wear on it's own, because the finish is so amazing and cool. It's not matte, it's like satin, and it feels like satin too! I keep touching it =X I did use a top coat though, to make it more durable (my precious Nail Tek II). The dry time is, this being a neon, very fast, which is another thing that I love about it.

That's Shore Bright - No top coat

This is one of my favorite polishes for this summer. And the formula is pretty good, so girls, do not hesitate on this one because of bad formula reviews. It's really not so bad.

I am going to get the other cremes next month (save up hehe) and I am expecting Sun of a Peach and Highlight of my Summer to be the worst formula-wise, as those type of colors are usually pretty horrible to apply. But then, if this beauty can make it, how bad can they really be? I'll just have to find out myself because I love love love all the swatches I have seen from them. I will post on them when the time comes.

Here are the other pictures (all artificial light) I have for you for That's Shore Bright:

I am not so into the jellies part of this collection, the only 2 colors that speak to me are Isle see you later and You drive me coconuts. But as Isle see you later is so so sheer,I might just pass, and I am still not sure about Coconuts, as I have NO bright neon pinks yet and not sure if it would suit me.

Oh, I have one more shot for you, which is a comparison to some random pink and blue colors, as to give you a better impression of where on the rainbow this color fits in. You see it leans much closer to Strawberry Fields, which is a hot pink, than to the blurple Fancy Pants and blue Splish Splash. So it's a really red-leaning purple. I love this kind of purple! How about you?

That's Shore Bright - color comparison - L-R: Strawberry Fields,
That's Shore Bright, Fancy Pants, Splish Splash

This post is a happy start of my holiday! My birthday is coming soon and as my own birthday gift, I took the whole week off! I am not returning to office until august 14! My dear colleagues have gifted me.. *drum ruffles*.. nail polishes! Actually, we all have wish lists so as to make sure we buy each other gifts we really like/want. Is that cheating? Who cares! Anyway, so I'll have a lot of fun testing those out over the coming week.

They're all pastels, I have been desperately avoiding them out of fear for not matching my pale skintone and the thick patchy formulas and my great fear for creme application. But hey, sometimes we gotta step out of our box and get in for some pleasant surprises! Since I discovered China Glaze my fear for cremes has somewhat lessened and slowly my collection is getting some really pretty, gorgeous and good formula cremes. I think I'm going to love these pastels too. Get ready for pastel reviews over the coming weeks. <3 Hope you have a great weekend!

With love, Eileen