Friday, October 14, 2011

China Glaze Let It Snow! Collection Holiday 2011 Swatches and Review

I love snow. I'm just not ready for snow yet, seeing as we've just entered the second week of October. I can remember it snowing in October before... Funny, because right now I have China Glaze's brand new Holiday 2011 collection and all I can think is that I want Let It Snow on my nails right now, but I don't want to actually let it snow for another few months... Now I'm rambling. On to the polish!


Blue Year's Eve. Sparkly deep blue glass fleck! The base is a sheer blue and the shimmer particles are a very reflective silver/blue/turquoise duochrome. This reminds me of old-style China Glaze!



Champagne Bubbles. Speaking of old-style China Glaze, how about this one? I swear there was a polish like this before from the Gold Diggin' Divas collection. This is a light gold metallic with smooth silver glitter. The glitter is tiny but it still shows through perfectly. I'm so glad that this polish works. Usually when you combine a metallic base with a traditional glitter particle, you get a horrible, lumpy mess. Not so with Champagne Bubbles. It's smooth all over and the glitter doesn't get swallowed by a too-dense base. Good job, China Glaze.





Glittering Garland. A dark green jelly base with light yellow-toned green reflective microglitter. Not a copy of the mythic Emerald Sparkle, more like an updated version. It's basically a cross between the original China Glaze Emerald Sparkle and NYX Las Vegas, which basically means it's AWESOME.



Holly-Day. So simple, yet so good. An extremely smooth and creamy holly green creme. Flawless. The color is good, the finish is good, the application is good. Reminds me a bit of Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle.



Icicle. Silver foil. I like silver foils and all, but do we really need another? It's really nice, very shiny and sparkly, but so easy to duplicate. Though, this one does seem more speckled than most silver foils, but still... Plain silver foil.



Poinsettia. This one is really cool. It's a bright candy red with a somewhat unusual finish. It's not a creme. It's translucent like a jelly, but it's also milky. A milky jelly. Creamy jelly? It's not dense and solid like a normal creme finish, but not totally clear like a normal jelly. I love it, it's really fascinating to look at!



Ring In The Red. A sheer pink-red base with both small and medium red glitter particles. Like Glittering Garland, this is an updated classic. It's definitely not a duplicate of Ruby Pumps, but it's not that far off, either. This one is really pretty by itself, but it's thin enough for layering. I'm really into layering red glitter over things lately... The rich red just adds that extra something, I don't know guys. I can't explain it. I just really like red glitter on things!



Snow Globe. I'm pretty sure this was part of that 50 Specialty Glitters collection from a few years back, so this might be a permanent color. But it's still cool. It's a clear base with tiny round and large hexagon pastel opal glitter. Nice alone (but be sure your nails aren't stained like mine) but great over pretty much any other color.



Tinsel Town. Ooh, this is different! Not really a Christmas-themed color, is it? It's super pretty, though. It's a smoky blue-grey sheer tinted base with multiple types of bluish silver and dark dark blue grey glitter. Closest thing to compare it to is the Milani One Coat Glitter in Silver Dazzle, but this is smoother.



Twinkle Lights. The party color of the collection. This is straight up festive fun in a bottle. It's gold, red and green glitter (small and round in shape) in a clear base. Good for layering, good alone.



Velvet Bow. This is sort of a dark wine/berry jelly... Burgundy with a bit of brown. It seems so pretty in the bottle, but I just don't like it on me! The application gave me a lot of trouble, too, so maybe it's affecting my opinion of it.



Winter Berry. Luckily, it's not berry! It's red. Medium red jelly. Every holiday collection needs a red, but this sorta just feels like filler to me. Nothing about it stands out as being different or unique, it's just... red jelly.


And some layering ideas:

Twinkle Lights over Winter Berry.


Twinkle Lights over Holly Day.


Twinkle Lights over Champagne Bubbles.


Twinkle Lights over Icicle.




Ring In The Red over Holly Day. Love this combination.


Snow Globe over Tinsel Town.



Snow Globe over Poinsettia.


Snow Globe over Blue Year's Eve.


The formula on these was mostly good. All but three were perfect. The ones that gave me trouble were Blue Year's Eve, which was too runny and gooey, Velvet Bow, which was a streaky goopy mess and Snowglobe, which was super thick, but that can be fixed with a little thinner. The rest applied perfectly even in two coats, but I did three coats of all just in case. Dry time is great. The glitters need a lot of topcoat to enhance the sparkle, but all except Snow Globe are nice and smooth.

My picks from this collection would be Glittering Garland, Holly Day, Twinkle Lights, Tinsel Town, Poinsettia and Ring In The Red. The rest are mostly okay, but those six stand out the most as being interesting, fun and extremely beautiful.

That Glittering Garland, though.... oh man. So hot. I think I need to try layering Ring In The Red over it!

(This was sent to me for review.)

49 comments:

  1. Hi Scrangie, thanks for the swatches.

    Holly-day is gorgeous. How does it compare to China Glaze's Starboard??

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  2. Greeneyespinknails, You're welcome :) Holly-Day is a LOT darker than Starboard, but similar yellowy undertones.

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  3. *jaw drops* Oh my! I think I need like, almost every single one of these! XD Tinsel Town is so different than I thought it would be! I love that it has blue in it, so pretty! I think the only ones I'll skip will be Icicle, Velvet Bow, and Winter Berry. I need the rest! Man, these are beauties! I love China Glaze! <3

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  4. Glittering Garland and Twinkle Lights are my favourites from this collection.

    Loved how you showed many layering combinations. That really helps me decide how I can change the personality of a polish by experimenting with other colours. :)

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  5. I love snow! It can be so much fun and it's makes everything so pretty..unless you have to shovel it. Or walk around in the freezing cold as it slowly but surely covers you. But I love it nonetheless. :)

    I haven't had much luck trying to make Emerald Sparkle mine so Glittering Garland is a definite must have for me! Funny that you mentioned it; I was about to cave and settle for NYX Jungle. China Glaze proved that patience is indeed a virtue. I need Poinsettia too. And Twinkle Lights. And Holly Day. And maybe some Tinsel Town as well.. Must update my letter to Santa!

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  6. I love Twinkle Lights, Tinsel Town, and Champagne Bubbles! Poinsettia looks interesting as well.

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  7. I thought Im the only one with trouble applying Velvet Bow but I see: Im not the only one :D

    But I love the color :)

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  8. All the swatches I've seen of this collection before now I've hated! You make the best swatches ahah.

    Definitely wasn't as wowed this year with the China Glaze collection as I was last year, these all seem pretty blah to me, done before.

    I do want snow globe though but just because I didn't pick it up before.

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  9. I need Tinsel Town!

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  10. I LOVE these!! Really love Ring in the Red and Snowglobe. Snowglobe reminds me of big fluffy flakes of snow. Do you know where I could get China Glaze polish in Canada?

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  11. LOVE Twinkle Nights over Holly-Days :D
    xxx

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  12. NEED Glittering Garland and Twinkle Lights!

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  13. I want all your picks except for Ring In the Red. Those greens are gorgeous. The glitters are spectacular!

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  14. Snow Globe over Tinsel Town is my fave combo of the bunch. Perfect for New Years ;)

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  15. Glittering Garland is amazing. Wow.

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  16. Holy cats I want Tinsel Town and Glittering Garland SO HARD, and they're already sold out on nailsupplies.us.

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  17. Amei todos !!!!! Principalmente o Azul que é última moda aqui no Brasil.
    Beijos.

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  18. LOVE LOVE LOVE! Especially Blue Years Eve, Tinsel Town, Poinsettia, Glittering Garland, Twinkle Lights, and Ring in the Red. The rest I will definitely pass on. I definitely have Snow Globe and have had it for a while so that one is older, maybe from last years?... Thanks for the swatches, now I know which ones I would really like :)

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  19. OMG, I love them all!! Thank you Scrangie for posting these beauties =)

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  20. I absolutely need a bottle of snow globe sooo pretty !!

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  21. I've started my hunt for a holiday red and Ring in the Red is totally calling my name!

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  22. Sucha A great collection, do you know when we can find it in stores?

    Also how does Glittering Garland compare to Orly's Meet Me Under the Mistletoe?

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  23. oh my goodness your swatches make me wish it was Christmas already! I'm your new follower! Hi! And beautiful beautiful nails, girl!

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  24. I really like this collection, and these are some great swatches. Really pretty.
    I especially enjoy Snow Globe over Tinsel Town, but I guess that Snow Globe looks great on pretty much everything. :) I'm glad to have that in my collection as well.

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  25. I need these in my life. Not sure where I'll find these in Japan though...

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  26. I like Poinsettia. That weird milky jelly thing is very intriguing to me (Deborah Lippmann does a LOT of those). I like to refer to them as "custards".

    Thanks for the swatches!

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  27. I love them!
    I bought Twinkle Lights, Glittering Garland and Ring in the Red.
    And you're right, Ring in the Red over Glittering Garland looks amazing, tried it a few days ago :)
    Saludos!

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  28. Great shades!
    The Ring In The Red over Holly Day combination is really amazing!!!

    Well Done!

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  29. I must have holly day and velvet bow. So me! Plus I was finally able to get my hands on a bottle of scrangie! You are a genius!!!

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  30. Am I wrong if I'm thinking you are kjoining very much swatches recently? Before with those duchromes and now with layering and various combos, like this post or the zoya holiday ones? I join the posts more, too!!!! :D

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  31. Gorgeous swatches, thank you Scrangie! Poinsettia must be a pannacotta finish, haha. I have been wanting to replace my gluggy bottle of Snowglobe for awhile now, this seals the deal!

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  32. Your swatches are so good! Weird though you had so much trouble with Velvet Bow as I had none at all. Actually love love love that one! Did you spot any pink/purple flash in Blue Year's Eve?

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  33. I am a nail polish freak and just fell in love with your blog :) I am your newest follower. I have never tried china glaze. how is it's staying power and where can i get it?

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  34. Gahhhhh want them alllllll!!!! This is what addiction feels like, right? ;)

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  35. I've been disappointed in a lot of ChG's collections of late, and I'm afraid this one's no different :(

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  36. I LOVE Winter Berry, Twinkle Lights and Holly Day! They are just so perfect for Christmas! (:

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  37. I'm in love with almost every color!

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  38. I need the two greens and Snow Globe in my life RIGHT NOW. I just started collecting polish about six months ago, and these will fill the gaps in my collection beautifully :D

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  39. Great colors ! I need Tinsel Town and Ring in the red

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  40. Woow, thank you for the swatches! I juuust bought Tinsel Town and Ring in the red online, I love them! Tinsel Town for new years and Ring in the red for christmas! Gorgeouuuus!

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  41. You're right about Snowglobe being a repeat - I'm looking on Head2Toe right now and they still have it up for sale in the Specialty Collection.

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  42. I absolutely love the look of Twinkle Lights! And it looks gorgeous over Holly-Day! These are amazing swatches, thanks, you've made my xmas shopping so much easier :D

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  43. Scrangie you should definitely try layering Snow Globe over Ring In The Red, it's my current mani for the week and I think you'll love the combo.

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  44. I have Glitterin Garland and I am totally in love with it.

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