china glaze four leaf clover (up and away)

it's been a while since i had china glaze on the blog, so i am going with four leaf clover from an ancient up and away collection from 2010, the same one as grape pop (rip).

four leaf clover is a definite must have for green lovers. it is one of the hardest shades to capture: it either turns out like  a forest green (which it is not quite accurate) or more teal than it should. nevertheless, it is a vibrant, awesome medium green.

formula is decent even after all these years. there is one strange thing though: it changes the shade a bit after you put the top coat on. the only one i ever experienced this with. i am adding old photos without a top coat, so you can clearly see the difference.

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china glaze foxy (vintage vixen)

china glaze's vintage vixen is a really awesome collection back in the autumn of 2010. i the only other polish i had was ingrid, and finally the time has come to show off foxy.

funnily enough, foxy is one of my first china glaze polishes and it got a chance on the blog only now.

it is kind of a burned red, dark orange sort of shade, perfect for autumn. the shimmer is rich and formula smooth and nice.

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china glaze liquid crystal (prismatic)

prismatic collection by china glaze back in 2012 was a very interesting collection of duochrome glitters, and liquid crystal was my pick.

liquid crystal is a really interesting polish and the "blue" one of the collection.  the main shade is a soft blue, filled with multicolored glitter. really, you can find everything here: silver, green, purple, orange, you name it. it dries almost textured but not too gritty!

the colour shift is not that strong but it's still visible. it could probably look better layered over something, but i keep forgeting to do that.

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china glaze 2nite (omg)

it has been 14 years (wow, time flies!), but china glaze's omg collection still feels fresh and current. after fyi and bff, i am showing arguably the biggest star, 2nite.

this polish is a true blue perfection. the holo effect is linear and one of the prettiest i ever saw. it looks a bit dull in the shade, but the second it gets a spark of light, it turns to magic. i included some pictures from the archive, just because i love it!

application is perfect, but i always use the aqua base for my linear holo polishes, so i don't know how it behaves with a regular base.

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china glaze blue bells ring (holiday joy)

blue bells ring is one of my favourite polishes from the amazing china glaze collection holiday joy. winter holly, angel wings, cranberry splash and glistening snow were already featured here. 

i've been drooling over bbr swatches ever since first pictures of holiday joy emerged, but when i finally got the bottle, i was utterly underwhelmed. it looked too silvery with only a hint of blue, nothing like the swatches. but, when i put it on my nails, i was amazed!

china glaze really knows how to make blue polishes with a twist. this one falls in the amazing category, together with blue iguana and frostbite. it is electric blue packed with silver foil shimmer, giving it a metallic look. it looks so amazing, the pictures don't do it credit! it is definitely a one coater, i added the second but it really wasn't necessary. the formula is on the thicker side, but it is easy to work with .

the only problem is removal. it doesn't stain the nail itself, but when you remove the polish, firstly the entire blue part goes away, leaving the silver foil. blue part stains the skin around the nails, but it disappears after you wash your hands a couple of times.

it looks the best on a cloudy day:

china glaze skyscraper (metro)

i feel like i've been neglecting my china glaze glitters, so i decided to wear skysraper from the metro collection for autumn 2011.

skysraper consists of a denim blue jelly base packed with dense silver glitter. since the base is jelly, for shorter nails two coats would be enough for perfect opacity, but you have to add a third one because of the vnl.

i chose to wear it in one coat over china glaze blue iguana, since it is much easier, but there are picture of it on its own at the end of the post.

overall, i love this polish, as many other cg glitters! it's not in the permanent range, but it's not that difficult to find.

china glaze hanging in the balance (cirque du soleil worlds away)

cirque du soleil worlds away was the last china glaze collection that i really loved and bought more than one polish. today i'm showing hanging in the balance, after running in circles and water you waiting for.

hanging in the balance is a really beautiful, vibrant medium blue creme. one of these shades that i really can't get enough of and wear them quite often. while everything about it is nice, it is a bit of a stainer so be sure you wear  a base coat.

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china glaze dorothy who (wizard of ooh ahz returns)

back in the day, we all got totally crazy about dorothy who from china glaze wizard of ooh ahz returns collection released back in 2009.

i still remember the day. i was living in slovenia, it was the height of the nailpolish craze and a friend sent me a message that she managed to snatch one for me. oooh, the happiness! and i mean, the hype was totally worth it.

dorothy who is, of course, all glitter. a beautiful medium blue jelly base filled with it. i mean, even the press release was on point: "blue polish with massive amounts of silver and blue glitter!".

let's go to the pictures:

china glaze bizzare blurple (wicked)

bizarre blurple is a china glaze gem from their wicked collection for halloween 2012. i already showed cast a spell, one of my favourite polishes.

i love both purple and blue polishes, but i just might love blurples the most. this one is leaning more towards blue than purple. from the bottle, it would seem that it is a duochrome or a metallic polish, but in fact it is just highly saturated shimmer, but pretty nevertheless.

it is well pigmented with no particular formula difficulties.

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china glaze heart of africa (pop top)

pop top was china glaze collection back in 2014, that had all the toppers and two base colours. the bases were the iconic white on white and today's star, heart of africa.

heart of africa is one of those burgundy shimmers that everyone has to have. it is a classic for a reason. china glaze people described it poetically: "deep thinkers glam it up in black cherry red that's ready to shimmy in the shimmers."

it is in my collection for so many years, and the formula is still great. a real, a little overlooked, gem of a polish.

china glaze bff (omg)

even 13 years later, i am still a sucker for the china glaze's original omg collection. after fyi, i am showing bff.

like all the other polishes in the collection, bff is also a linear holo. the shade is a soft magenta, very pretty but far from basic.

this, as well as the other polishes from the collection, are on the thin side, and work better with an aqua base. i sometimes forget about that and use a regular base coat, so it is not unworkable. i seriously still wish i had all of them!

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china glaze winter holly (holiday joy)

i am perfectly aware that being in the middle of a heatwave is not the best time to post winter holiday polishes, but here we are! so, today i am china glaze's  winter holly from their holiday joy back from 2012.

i can see why this one is perfect for winter holidays, it really has a sort of festive look about it. the tiny forest green glitter is really densely suspended in a clear base, with some gold holographic glitter that really makes it sparkle.

even though the first coat is a bit thin, it builds up nicely. i added a bit thicker second coat and thought i had a perfect coverage, but you can see some visible nail line in the pics, although it's minimal in real life. so, for longer nails, i reccomend either three coats or maybe a green polish as a base.

on its own, it has a matte, textury finish (liquid sand-type), so i didn't use a top coat with it.

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china glaze fyi (omg)

omg, china glaze's collection from 2009, was the first collection i fell in love with, and the first time i saw a linear holo. i am starting off showing the couple of polishes i own with fyi.

if i had an opportunity, i would definitely snatch all of the omg polishes. yes, they might be outdated, yes, there are more modern collections, but this one hold a special place in my heart.

fyi is the most neutral polish in the collection. it is beige, tan-like and definitely not to flashy. i like to think it goes well with my skin colour. as all the polishes of omg, it is a linear holo, with a slightly thin formula. as the majority of these old school holos, it works better with an aqua based base coat.

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china glaze angel wings (holiday joy)

we are nowhere near the winter or holiday season, but polish from china glaze holiday joy collection always seems to be a good choice, so i picked angel wings.

angel wings is basically a gold version of glistening snow. this polish is gold all over: gold glitter, gold holo particles, all jumbled in a clear base. it dries really quickly in a gritty, textured finish. i don't add top coat to these types of polishes, they are usually a tc eaters and in the end i end up preferring them in their intended way.

formula is good,  drying time is great and i find it to be a perfect holiday polish!

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china glaze white on white (core)

 it is time for the white staple, so i am showing china glaze's white on white from their 2014 pop top collection.

white polishes can be really useful. at some point i owned quite a few glittery polishes and i almost always prefered them over a white base.  even though i use it mostly for layering, i had to try it on it's own as well.

when it comes to the white polishes, they can be quite tricky, but i think that this one is pretty decent. i had no serious problems with application, and while it may look a bit streaky in the process, it is quite self leveling so the end result is quite good.

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china glaze unpredictable (new bohemian)

when i saw promo pics for china glaze 2012 bohemian collections, my eyes immediately popped out! i love duochromes, and i couldn't decide which one i liked better. i decided to get unpredictable, and then decide if i should get more. i believe i made a perfect choice, but regret not getting more.

the base color is a teal green with gold shimmer, so i guess you could say that it is a green/blue/gold duochrome.

the formula is good, although it leaves visible brushstrokes, but since this is expected for this type of finish, and since the color is sooooo beautiful, i'm letting this one fault slide. it is fully opaque with two layers.

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china glaze stella (retro diva)

stella is from one of the most classic china glaze collections, retro diva, that was packed with a lot of awesome polishes. i already posted about the stone cold classic, let's groove.

stella is a really stunning polish. a beautiful, magenta-toned deep purple with deep, almost metallic looking shimmer.

formula is also really nice, truly a classic purple shimmer and if you don't have one of those, i definitely recommend it.

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china glaze tounge & chic (autumn nights)

tounge & chic belongs to a 2013 china glaze collections, autumn nights.

when i initially bought tounge & chic, i couldn't get enough of it.  i almost missed out on it, because i thought i'm really overdoing it with these sorts of shades, but it surely is unique. then i kind of forgot about it, but that is about to change.

it's such a rich shade, dark, cool teal with metallic shimmer, definitely a stunner, since it never got unnoticed when i had it on my nails. for me, the only problem is that it is slightly thick, one of those almost one-coaters, and because of that (and the fact that i generally don't like cg's narrow brush), i could never really apply it perfectly, but that's a small price to pay for gorgeousness!

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china glaze stone cold (capitol colors)

it's time for some stone cold classics, so today i am showing china glaze's stone cold from the capitol colors collection for the spring 2012.

capitol colors was intended to be a spring collection, but i somehow picked up the more autumn looking shades (see gorgeous agro). it may be weird, but i see this polish as super elegant. i wore it to a couple of weddings, actually. maybe it's because of the matte finish, maybe because i see all shades of grey as elegant, even when they are asphalt-like.

the formula got a bit thicker over the years, as it happens with matte shades, so it is a one coater. 

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china glaze outta bounds (ski)

today's choice, china glaze's outta bounds, took me by surprise, when i learned it was released waaaay back in 2007, in the winter collection called ski.

this entire collection, of which i own only frostbite and outta bounds, has this, as they described it, "high luster pearl" finish. outta bounds is an emerald green shade, with metallic, shimmery finish.

the formula is tricky, but it is something to be expected from these sorts of polishes. it is both runny and thick at the same time, quite streaky, but still, i love the end result so i don't really see this as a huge problem.

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