China Glaze Awakening Collection for Halloween 2010

Halloween is one of my favorite things ever so I'm always super excited when Halloween-themed things come out... I have Halloween socks, Halloween nail art decals, Halloween lipstick, Halloween t-shirts, Halloween washcloths, sheets and shower curtains, Halloween dishes, Halloween candles.... you get the idea, right? Of course Halloween nail polish gets me giddy.

These brand new China Glaze Halloween polishes that just arrived on my doorstep totally brightened my day... take a look at the Halloween awesomeness:


Ick-A-Bod-Y. Not sure I quite get the name. I get Ichabod, like Ichabod Crane, but Ick-A-Bod-Y? Like... gross, ick, body? Zombie/corpse reference? Just being cute? Doesn't matter, this polish could be named Poop-On-A-Stick and I'd still love it. It's bright shiny orange glitter suspended in a dark smoky yellowy-green jelly base. The glitter is very dense so you don't need to layer this. The green base is a really nice surprise, too. It's not noticeable from a distance, but up close you can see the deep murky green peeking out from in between glitter particles. Very awesome. A+, China Glaze! As soon as I'm done with this post, this is becoming my new mani.


Mummy May I? Cute name!! Maybe OPI should take a hint from China Glaze... Mummy May I is a much cuter and less groan-inducing name than "Tattoo You Want Candy?" ... so... anyway... the polish... It's a bright pink/purple/fuchsia glitter in a dark purple jelly base. When you apply the first coat you can definitely see that the base is a deep, dark purple but on the second coat it just looks black. Maybe black with a hint of purple tint. Softer looking than straight black. And... a little Bad Romance-y, no?


Zombie Zest. YES!!! A zombie-themed polish!! I think this is my first... my first zombie themed polish. I have a bit of an obsession with zombies... so... pretty awesome. This is a murky, swampy, decayed-looking green jelly with lots of iridescent glittery reflective flecks of shimmer/glitter. It's yellow-based but has flickers of blue, moss, olive, gold and a little bit of orange at the right angle. Perfect Halloween color if you ask me... Is it a "rotten kind of cute"?


I was wearing SpaRitual Optical Illusion when these arrived and it immediately struck me that Zombie Zest and Optical Illusion seemed really, really similar, so I did a side-by-side to compare:


Now... honestly... can you tell which is which? Cause I can't. Take a guess! Give up? It's:

Index and ring finger are China Glaze Zombie Zest.
Middle and pinkie finger are SpaRitual Optical Illusion.

Three coats of each. I'm going to go ahead and declare these 'dupes'. Identical. They don't look the same in the bottle to me but they sure look the same on the nail. Which should be good news for a lot of people since China Glaze is a lot less expensive, much easier to find and has a way better formula.

The formula on these was decent. A little bit runny, but not unmanageable. I did three coats of each but only Zombie Zest needed a third coat. The glitter in Mummy May I and Ick-A-Bod-Y are a little bumpy so you will want a nice thick topcoat. I have not tested the dry time, but I'm about to do a manicure with Ick-A-Bod-Y so I'll edit this when I find out what it's like.

Super awesome set of polishes. I'm a happy Scrangie right now.

China Glaze also sent along their Breast Cancer Awareness October collection of pinks which I have swatched, I'll post them later this week if anyone is interested!

(These were sent to me for review.)