Thursday, October 15, 2009

China Glaze Khrome For Fall/Winter 2009

When I first heard that China Glaze was doing more chromes, my first thought was, "Oooh, Konad!" and then, "Didn't the do chromes already this year?"

And then I tried them... These chromes are much different than the Romantique chromes. Still good for Konad, but the Khrome collection chromes are nearly mirror-like.


2030. An excellent soft gold chrome. Very smooth and reflective. China Glaze calls this a warm gold, but you know, I think it seems pretty neutral to me. Which is a good thing!


Hi-Tek. Low life... hi-tek... the vectors in control, long live the new flesh... Ahhh, I just love it when a polish name gives me an earworm! Better yet when it's one of my favorite songs! Anyway.... Hi-Tek is a bronzy, coppery warm toned chrome. Maybe even what I'd consider rose-gold. Very smooth and reflective, all of these chromes are super reflective! You can see how nicely decorated my bottle is... Hehehehe :) Of all the bottles that I would expect to break in transit, I'd never expect a China Glaze! They're so sturdy! I was shocked! But it's okay, I think my bottle of Hi-Tek kinda looks like a trophy:




Metallic Muse. Blue-green "seafoam" chrome. The picture really says it all. Shiny, reflective seafoam chrome. Beautiful color for a chrome, too.



Millennium. Superb pure silver chrome. This is my new favorite silver chrome. It really doesn't look like much in the bottle, but when you apply it and it starts to dry, the mirror-like shine starts to appear and you just go "whoa."

Robotika. Soft warm-toned plum-brown chrome. This one kinda reminds me of an old penny- not so old that it's turned completely brown but one that is definitely not its former shiny copper self. I really like the name of this one. Except... it makes me think "Robotnik"... bonus!


Sci-Fi. A silver chrome base with a blue-lavender tint. I wore this one for a while and noticed that it seems to change tones in different lights. Indoors at night, under my kitchen light it looked like a pink-taupe and outside it looked grey. It's a chameleon!

Just for reference, here's one of the Romantique chromes:

Devotion. The Romantiques are reflective, but not as reflective as the Khromes. The Romantiques also showed the brushstrokes in the polish, which the Khromes don't do.


There are a couple of things you need to know about chrome polish formula. One, it dries super, super fast so it's a good choice if you're in a hurry. Two, it shows every single flaw on your nail. Before using a chrome polish, you'll want to either buff out your nail ridges or apply one or two coats of a ridge-filling basecoat, or my recommendation- BOTH. I have ridges- pretty bad ones on some nails- and there is no hiding them in a chrome polish.

These particular chromes, or Khromes rather, have excellent formula. It's smooth and even and extremely opaque. You really could get away with only one coat with most of these- I did two. The drying time is excellent. You can put two coats of one of these on right before you walk out the door and be fine. As far as topcoat goes- I don't think it even needs it. Actually, I think they look better without topcoat. These are some of the most reflective chromes I've ever worn-much more reflective than the old Sally Hansens or Avons or Revlons. This is probably the closest you can get to Minx without using foils. It's not a true mirror-look like Minx, but it's the closest I've seen in polish.

My favorite thing about chromes is that they are *perfect* for Konad. I used two of these for Konads recently, and they turned out AWESOME. Observe:

2030 over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Not the best picture, it was taken inside at night. This is my favorite Konad I've done so far. It looks amazing in real life, you have to try it for yourself! The glitter from Emerald Sparkle flashes through between the lines of the design... ugh... so awesome. I think the plate was M73.


Millennium on Orly Matte Vinyl. Chrome on matte is another cool look. It's really bold! The only thing is that the two polishes don't get along well- stuff doesn't seem to want to stick to the matte- and the lines come off in whole pieces after a while. I don't remember what plate number this is- it's one of the "Special" plates- this one is the cowboy plate with the badge and the rodeo thingy.


Overall, I dig these. Good application, amazing for Konad. The colors themselves aren't that special, it's the finish that makes them. I love the futuristic names! Maybe, in the future, robots would wear this polish... And I bet Future Sailors would too.

These are available online and at Sally, but I haven't seen them at Ulta yet.

40 comments:

  1. I think chromes are super sexy. More reflective than those chrome SHs you say? Wow.
    Dana Cerise

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  2. That Konad with the guns is AWESOME! That pic alone makes me want to try Konad, but I'm still scuuurd, haha!

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  3. ooo, these are gorgeous esp the kondad stamping.

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  4. Gorgeous! I love the gun Konad on matte! Makes me wish I had gotten that Hot Topic "fauxnad" when I had the chance...

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  5. LOVE IT!!! Must...have... now...

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  6. I have to get them all! YaY ChG!
    PS I love the show gun konadicure,You are so cute!

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  7. I love these - I have Metallic Muse & Millennium & have worn both right after purchase. I need to get the rest.

    I think chrome with matte > plain matte ... I wonder if the problems with it coming off are really a result of stamping on matte, or more from lack of topcoat? A matte topcoat might help but not sure what that would do to the chrome finish - although it might be fun to find out =)

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  8. These are awesome, I have to get some!

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  9. love how the chromes looks with konad!!! especially the last one!! :)

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  10. Ditto to this post>>>>>"Would you, could you PLEASE,please please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top do a nail painting tutorial!?? Your nails always look so freakin beautiful!!! & I soooo need some pointers." Please :)

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  11. Love the Konad over Emerald. I find chromes boring though so would never do a plain chrome.

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  12. Thanks, Scrangie! I've been looking for a truly metallic gold to Konad with, and it looks like 2030 is exactly what I want. Millenium is coming home with me too.

    I have the huge ridges as well. :( Note to self, get out the buffer before doing a mani with these.

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  13. Wow, these look gorgeous! I love the first KOTD - so beautiful!

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  14. wow...I wasn't crazy about the khromes at first, but now I want ALL of them.
    and I love how that last nail on you konad says "ang" instead of "Bang" hehehehe :D

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  15. I almost picked some of these up today but decided to get something else. Now I'm kicking myself!

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  16. I love these -- I ordered each and every one of them this week and I am watching for the nice FedEx man to come soon!

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  17. I LOVE your swatches! I have been lemming 2030 and Millennium for a while now. I am so glad to hear that they are as close to minx as polish can get (so far). This makes me want them even more! I can't wait to try them out! Thanks again!

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  18. I am not a fan of those Konad plates, but I LOVE the one you did with the matte black and gold guns. That is sheer brilliance!

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  19. The polishes are pretty but "Khrome" makes me think of the Kardashians, haha. I half expected the colors to be named Khloe, Kim, Kourtney, and some other assorted K names.

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  20. Chiming in...the "bang!" mani is awesome...almost awesome enough to force me to buy Konad!

    I was avoiding the Orly Matte Vinyl but I think that I'm going to need to pick one up. It looks much smoother than black lacquer + matte TC.

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  21. I saw these when I was browsing Transdesign yesterday and writing down every possible ChG and OPI color I might want, ever. They looked good...but I wasn't sure how they'd apply. Nice to know!! I'm also definitely adding a few more colors to my list (already had Metallic Muse and Robotika down, now to add Sci-Fi and Hi-Tek.

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  22. I get to blame you for the trip I took at lunchtime to find these. I got the Gold and Silver, still would like to have the Copper toned one. Now I just need a few Konad disks and my hobby will be in full swing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the gold over green. Beautiful!

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  23. Wow, these look amazing!! And I especially love your konads! :D

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  24. I am LOVING this collection! The colors are so beautifully vibrant!

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  25. Your Konads are TDF. Wonder what Chrome would look like with Zoya Luna on top.

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  26. scrangie, you make me want things I didnt think I wanted, the khromes are gorgeous, I have metallic muse and feel like I need the rest now too!

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  27. You do an awesome job swatching your polishes! Thanks for showing these off too. I'm really impressed by how awesome the Konad looks, but I usually feel that way when I see Konadicures (:

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  28. Thanks for the awesome pics! I'm convinced! Just purchased 4 of them from Head2Toebeauty.com!

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  29. Millenium looks AMAZING! And I love your black matte Konad manicure!!!

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  30. GREAT post! I figured the Khromes were just going to be dupes of the Romantiques, but you really addressed my (secret) questions. Thank you! And that stamping job looks amazing! :)

    Hope you're feelin' well!

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  31. Colette raises and interesting point, if you used a matte top coat over the Khrome+matte Konad, would it stick around longer? Only one way to find out really...
    The second Konad is just the best.
    I still am hanging on to my one, beat up old bottle of Sally Hansen silver Chrome polish from the 90's. I'm glad I can replace it now with something a little nicer quality ;)
    Videodrome was on TV tonight! So weird that you mention it. But now I'm wondering why there isn't a dark metallic brown named Dalek.

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  32. OMG So much more than I expected!
    The "gun mani" is awesome!

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  33. You can now get the oryl matte nail colour at Sally now. Jus to tell you, Scrangie.

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  34. Scrangie - I love you. Thanks for posting this + showing me the beautiful konading!!

    I think this surpasses my super old Sally Hansen Nail Makeup I have been using for konading!! I only wish they had some darker colours like purple, red, green etc...

    Beautiful swatches as always.

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  35. I just stumbled across this review to choose a Khrome color and I think it's freaking brilliant you managed to put a Grendel song in it :) The singer happens to be a friend of mine and it's always fun to see how well-known they have become, even overseas! Also, thank you for this review, your reviews and pictures are always a great help in deciding which colors to get <3

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  36. I just stumbled across this review to choose a Khrome color and I think it's freaking brilliant you managed to put a Grendel song in it :) The singer happens to be a friend of mine and it's always fun to see how well-known they have become, even overseas! Also, thank you for this review, your reviews and pictures are always a great help in deciding which colors to get <3

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    1. Ahh! I love Grendel, one of my favorite bands of all time! So awesome that you picked up on the lyric. And also so awesome that you know VLRK! I'm jealous :D

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  37. So wish they would do these over again...the only chromes that did not end up all brush strokey and not looking totally frosted out.

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