For a few seasons now, China Glaze has released thematic, well balanced collections. Their main seasonal collections have consistently included something for every taste. So, golf clap to China Glaze – their design department knows what’s up.

Like seasonal collections in the past, Romantique consists of two sets, one cool, the other warm. Most of these colors apply perfectly in one coat. One Coat. People have been saying that for a while but I dismissed it thinking that one coat meant one massive-absurdly-thick coat but no, really, opaque bottle color coverage in one normal coat. The theme in this collection is a frosty metallic finish. When I first saw the promotional images I thought these were going to be chrome, they aren’t. Instead the finish is shimmery, nearly foil like. These colors, with their amazing pigmentation and viscosity, are going to be perfect for use with the Konad. All these swatches are 1 coat of color over 1 coat of base coat.

A note on the color accuracy of these images: These colors, due to the finish, are really difficult to capture accurately with my lighting set up. Most of the colors are deeper in real life. Additionally, the finish is not uniformly reflective like it appears to be in some of these photos. These colors have  a lot of frosty sparkle. I really recommend looking at Scrangie’s swatches which were taken in sunlight, in my opinion her images are a better depiction of these colors.

China Glaze Awaken is described as a platinum silver, I think it’s more like a silvery charcoal. This color is grunge-y. To me it has a steampunk feel to it. This swatch is one coat of color, no top coat.

China Glaze Cherish is a metallic-y moss green. I couldn’t capture the color correctly, it’s much more green toned in real life. This swatch is one coat, no top coat.

Adore is a metallic-y turquoise. This one is a standout for me. I’m going to go nuts using this color with Konad over black. 1 coat color, 1 coat base.

Devotion is a metallic-y lavender. This is my second favorite from this set. It may just be me but I feel like this shade of lavender was made to be worn with this finish. 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

Harmony is metallic-y purple. My third favorite, I feel like this color flattered my skin tone the most – I consider myself a warm tone even though I’ve never really understood all that jazz about cool tones and warm tones. 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

Joy is a metallic-y purple toned mauve. This is 1 coat of color, 1 coat of base.

I’ll report back with my Konading experiments at a future date.

Some of you might not know this but I do take requests. If I have the color you want to see, I’ll get it up as soon as I can, even though I’m not as speedy as Scrangie is with her requests. Lippmann Nefertiti was recently requested by a woman looking for a good gold. Nefertiti is slightly lighter and less foil-like than OPI I Get a Kick Out of Gold. It’s very appropriately named. This shade of gold is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian sarcophagi. The texture is antique-ish, fairly unique. It’s not rough to the touch but it has a rough looking texture, almost matte. As far as application – I was impressed. Very easy to apply, perfect in two coats.

For this manicure I used one coat of Color Club Stuck on You, two coats of Lippmann Nefertiti, and one coat of Lippmann Addicted to Speed. Ever since Lippmann included a mini Addicted to Speed in the very popular Party Like a Rock Star mini set, everyone has been raving about it non-stop. All the hype made me decide to cheat on my Holy Grail, Seche Vite. Addicted to Speed dries *alot* faster, amazingly so. All the other common seche beefs were absent as well, no bubbles, no tip pull even with no tip wrapping. Addicted to Speed has a no fuss application that might be easier for people who have not yet mastered the application of Seche Vite. It’s not as glossy as Seche, which might actually appeal to some people. It’s worth the money though I admit that it’s a bit of a splurge. I’m going to hoard my bottle for as long as I can.

When I initially heard that China Glaze was putting out a whole collection of blues I just about died on the spot. Of course, I’m not completely satisfied – well I mean I am I with this collection… but now that I know China Glaze is open to a whole collection of one color, I want a whole collection of greens!! Ooh, I can dream, can’t I?

Now on to the commentary:

Scrangie has posted about issues with China Glaze’s application lately. I can honestly say that I didn’t have the same application problems with Rodeo Diva and Operation Colour. I did however encounter some application issues in this collection. Since the application issues aren’t occurring consistently, I don’t think it’s China Glaze’s formula that is the culprit. I can only imagine that there is some other explanation, although I’m not sure what that explanation would be.

Unfortunately, none of the new dark blues are exact dupes to other dark blues that might already be in your collection. The girls on the nail board believe that Calypso Blue might be dupish to NARS Midnight Express. I don’t own that one, but from the images I’ve seen, it looks much much darker than Calypso Blue. Nars Midnight Express seems closer to something like Color Club Naughtycal Navy.

As you can see above, China Glaze Calypso Blue is dark but visibly and obviously blue, as opposed to being ‘almost black’. This shade had great application, no issues. This one is my absolute favorite color from this collection, hands down.

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway is my second favorite color from this collection. Oh man, it’s just flat-out gorgeous. It has the same jelly-like quality of OPI Dating a Royal. Actually, I would say it’s the darker cousin of OPI Dating a Royal. I also didn’t have any application issues with this one.

This is a pretty true to life representation of China Glaze Bahamian Escape. However, it’s not as close to Color Club Blue Light as it looks in this image. They are similar but Bahamian Escape has a greener tinge to it. One of the girls on the Nail Board asked me whether Bahamian Escape is dupish to China Glaze For Audrey – not at all similar. Which can be either good or bad news depending on who you ask.

China Glaze Bahamian Escape was impossible to capture accurately. I’ve decided to start photoshopping colors that my camera fails to capture accurately. This is the closest to true life color that I could get it but it’s not grayed out in real life. As I’m sure you can tell, the image above is very different from bottle picture. That’s because the color dries several shades darker on the nail than the actual bottle color. The formula was chalky and a little thick. I got nearly full coverage with one coat. One coat coverage can be a double edged sword because most of the time it can also cause bubbling. I did get a few bubbles so I used 3 drops of thinner. The application was perfect after thinning.

China Glaze Caribbean Blue is a sky blue with flaky sugar glitter. Anti-glitter girls, don’t be alarmed. The glitter gives more of a subtle shimmer than full on bling. It’s definitely not ‘too much’.

China Glaze Blue Paradise is a frosty dark blue. This one was really thick and bubbly but, again, 3 drops of thinner made it perfect. My bottle may very well be a fluke, it’s possible that it might not be representative of all the bottles of this color. Let me know if you have similar application issues with Blue Paradise, but I don’t think anyone will.

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea is probably my third favorite from this collection. I’m really into these foil-y finish colors like Zoya Rea and Zoya Trixie. This foil-y light blue was fairly sheer. This swatch was 3 coats. This one has major bling potential as you can see below.

This swatch is Blue Island Iced Tea in full on sunlight – very pretty, very blingy.

We didn’t expect this Collection to be out until October but it’s actually available as of today on head2toebeauty.com.