Wednesday, July 20, 2011

China Glaze Metro Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

China Glaze's 2011 fall collection is in the same vein as the other fall collections we've seen so far- murky, smoky, green- and brown-heavy with just a bit of purple. And I must say... much better in person than in the promo pictures. Take a look!


Brownstone. Right away this struck me as being similar to Color Club Charity Ball, which I sorta... hated. The main difference is that Brownstone is, well, more brown! Less red. Very much a rust or a burnt sienna. Warm, earthy, a little orangey. And now I have to say, I like this less red version! Very, very fall.


CG In The City. This one morphs a bit depending on the angle and lighting because there's so many kinds of glitter in here. From what I can tell, there's dusty purple, gold, silver and bronze. There might be more colors, hard to tell. The glitter is really fine and tiny, but it's not sheer. I did three coats. The end result is smoky and sparkly!



City Siren. A dirty, blue-based red creme. This one isn't a clean, bright red- this one is smoky looking. Sort of a cooler-toned version of Urban Decay F-Bomb. Makes me think of those old cosmetic ads where they always matched the nail and lip colors, and the nails were oval shaped.



Concrete Catwalk. A dark grey creme with a bit of blue to it. Pretty straightforward... Can't really think of much to say besides that! It's pretty but not terribly unique.




Lofty Ambitions. Makes me think of a darker, dirtier version of Cherry Crystal or one of those old China Glaze red shimmers. This one is more of a wine color- dark burgundy, a little silver shimmer running through it but not a whole lot of it. Not frosty, just subtle silver veining.




Midtown Magic. This is a very dark purple base- so dark it's nearly black. Touch of brown to it. Lots of very shiny flaky gold shimmer that looks bronzy through the layers of purple. Reminds me of OPI Designer Series Mystery with smaller shimmer flecks. Maybe even a lighter, less shimmery China Glaze Side Saddle.



Skyscraper. I know... I took an inappropriately large number of pictures of this one, but I couldn't help it! It's so photogenic! It's a deep, dusty blue jelly with a lot of little silver glitter. It's not as bright and vibrant as it looks here- it's more faded looking. It's a denim blue. I've only seen pictures of it, but it makes me think of the old China Glaze Denim and Diamonds blue... Maybe a cross between that and Dorothy Who?


Street Chic. A nice taupe creme. Little bit of purple to it, but just a hint, keeps it from looking too warm and muddy. At first I thought it was like Ingrid without the shimmer, but it's even warmer than that. As much as I love these colors, I can't help but get tired of seeing one in every collection. I'm all taupe/griege/gruple'd out!



Traffic Jam. In the bottle this looked like an awesome neon purple... But when I put it on, I realized that it was BERRY. My nemesis, berry! It was a trap! It looks more pink in the picture, but it has a more berry look in real life. I guess it's not that bad for a berry, but really not my thing.



Trendsetter. Yes! Now this is what I wanted to see! It's this year's Classic Camel- one of those crazy ugly-pretty colors. Trendsetter is a dingy dijon mustard base with a bunch of avocado mixed in... That actually sounds really good, maybe I shouldn't try to describe nail polish while I'm hungry. Anyway... The murky dirty yellow-green is accented with shiny yellow gold shimmer pearls to keep it from looking chalky. Love this. Absolutely love it.


Urban-Night. A vampy dark purple creme. The sunlight brings out the base color best, but the indoor picture is more accurate in terms of darkness and intensity. It's a red grape or plum color. It's lighter than that one that was in OPI Touring America.



Westside Warrior. Drab olive! I was hoping there would be more olives this fall. This one is smoky and greyed-out like all the others, but not as yellow toned. This one has a bit more blue to it. It's also a little darker (and it dries darker than it looks in the bottle) than the others, too.

The formula on these was good but extremely thick. I mean... really thick. But! Once you get a feel for the thickness of it, it's not hard to apply. It's smooth. All the shades are really opaque and you only need one or two coats. I did two coats of all but the glitters which are three (and they needed the third). Drying time was surprisingly good for such a thick formula. I preferred the thicker, more opaque formula on this collection to OPI's thinner, looser fall collection formula.

This collection has some of the same issues that OPI Touring America had- good colors, but easily duplicated. The purple creme, the grey creme, the taupe creme, the red creme... Not unique.

Despite that, this one does have a more unique shade selection (Skyscraper, CG In The City, Trendsetter, Brownstone, and even Lofty Ambitions) so it feels newer and not so recycled. I love the color selection- more camo green! Dijon! GLITTER!


For the most part, I like this. My favorites are the greens and glitters and I liked the nice opaque formula. I don't like the berry and the red isn't a type of red I usually choose (not bright enough!), but other than that, they're winners. Good smoky, murky, dirty fall colors.

(This was sent to me for review.)

33 comments:

  1. I am SO in love with Trendsetter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have got to see, I didn't expect to, but I like almost all of them :O!

    ReplyDelete
  3. trendsetter and skyscraper like me a lot *__*

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the swatches,SCrangie! My picks from this collection will be Brownstone,City Siren,Loft-ty Ambitions,Midtown Magic,Urban Night,and Westside Warrior.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love Skyscraper and Trendsetter! Westside Warrior is also calling my name. IN the City and Midtown Magic are definitely interesting as well. Thanks for the awesome swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'll be getting Trendsetter for sure!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like CG In The City ! so sparkle!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I haven't wanted to buy a complete collection of China Glaze in awhile. This one I do want them all. The last three are pretty amazing. That green is oh so gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Brownstone, Trendsetter, Midtown Magic, Westside Warrior and probably Skyscraper are on my list. Maybe Urban Night, the more swatches I see the more it piques my interest. Great swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I HAVE to HAVE Cg in the City, Skyscraper and Traffic Jam...oh, and Trendsetter

    ReplyDelete
  11. I didn't think I'd like as many as I do, but the majority of those are going on my want list!

    ReplyDelete
  12. will be keeping an eye on that Skyscraper!

    great swatches as always - thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm so excited for this collection to come out! I'm gonna need to get at least 4!

    Excellent swatches, Scrangie! The best I've seen! :D
    - Mary

    ReplyDelete
  14. I really like Loft-y Ambitions, Midtown Magic, CG in the City and Skyscraper. Thanks for the great swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely swatches - thanks for sharing. Love Brownstone, Westside Warrior and Street Chic. Your photos are always great.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Man fall colors always break my piggybank! I love all the cremes, greens, browns- it's my favorite season!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Is Brownstone similar to OPI I'm Suzi & I'm A Chocoholic or Crepes Suzi-ette? I love Trendsetter!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lovely swatches! I can't figure out why but I'm not feeling any of the fall collections so far. OPI, China Glaze, Color Club, even some of the fall Lippmanns...they all look the same to me. I like Trendsetter, but that's really the only one that looks very unique here. Still, nice colors...they've just been seen before.

    ReplyDelete
  19. O.O CG In The City, Skyscraper, and Trendsetter!!! WOW!!! Those 3 are must-haves for me! That was not an inappropriate number of pics of Skyscraper btw - it's gorgeousness requires lots of pics! :D I'm so excited for these! Thank you so much for these beautiful swatches! <3

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh dear, I'm a sucker for creme. It looks like I have to get all em cremes. Oh dear, this is bad. :( I blame it on your perfect swatches.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh I NEED Trendsetter... and Westside Warrior. And Skyscraper and CG In The City! Great swatches, been waiting impatiently for these :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thank you so much, everyone :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Your swatches are the best, I mean - look at them, all the polishes look so gorgeous, WANT. THEM. NOW.

    ReplyDelete
  24. OK so I have a glitter problem so CG in the city must be mine. Just saying

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi! Do you have any tips on how to get off really glittery nail polishes? I hate taking them off. I rub oodles of nail polish remover on my nails and glitter is just everywhere. :)

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Westside Warrior is so fantastic looking. There's so many others that I want.

    ReplyDelete
  27. So would you say CG in the City is definitely opaque at 3 coats? Did you do 3 THICK coats? :D

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hey!im currently looking for a red polish that looks exactly like OPI's Kangarooby cos thats been discontinued..will city siren fit that?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Angela, yes, definitely opaque at 3! I did normal, sort of thin medium coats haha

    *imperfection*, yep, I'd say they're pretty close!

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful. Refrain from using my comments for unsolicited advertising. If you would like me to check out your blog or product, please email me. Thank you!