CG describes Swanky Silk as "brilliant beige with peach undertones." I agree except for two things. First, instead of peach, I'd say that the colour is a light pinky purple. Second, there is no way that it's an undertone. The duochrome in this is just absolutely ridiculous! In a good way! Unfortunately, when I asked my camera nicely to photograph it, it said "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO." You can see a bit of that pink flash in my pictures but it is SO much more obvious in real life.
Here is my bottle picture!
China Glaze's official press release picture is way closer to how it actually looks!
Again, hints of duochrome but way more obvious in person!
Next up we have Rare & Radiant, which is an "extraordinarily rich gold" that has a deeper teal duochrome. The effect is very strong in this polish too. Even better is that it comes out to play in pictures!
Bottle picture! You can see how strong the duochrome is!
All the colours out to play
A nice shot of the gold that is the main colour of this polish.
Here we have Unpredictable, a "multidimensional gorgeous green." It is a lighter green with a teal duochrome. The duochrome is strong in this one too! Not much else to say, here's some pictures. :)
Obligatory bottle picture. Pretty!
Nice duochrome effect on the nails.
I must warn you that we are coming to the part where I stopped being impressed.
No Plain Jane is next on our list. It's purple with a green/grey/gold duochrome. The effect in this polish is a lot more subtle than the previous three, but it can still be coaxed out at the right angles! This one isn't my favourite, but it's definitely not my least favourite either.
Bottle
Pretty purple
The duochrome payoff!
Next up we have Deviantly Daring, which China Glaze describes as "adventurously bold peacock teal." I'll buy that for the colour. This colour has a fairly strong duochrome in the bottle, but it doesn't really translate to the nail. It's a shame, because I really really like it in the bottle!
The bottle! Isn't it pretty?
The most duochrome I could get this polish to show
Full frontal, baby.
Finally, we have my least favourite of the colours: Want My Bawdy. I hate the name and I hate that it's really not that much of a duochrome at all. It's a ballpoint pen ink blue. You know how pen ink has that purple flash to it under some lights? I feel like that's what they were trying to go for with this one. The blue on its own is nice, I guess I'm just disappointed that something like this is in a collection full of fabulous duochrome yumminess. It reminds me of Blue Year's Eve. Anyway, this, like all other blues, did not want to photograph the right colour so keep in mind that it is deeper than what you see here. Also, my camera took all the purple tone out of the pictures. I tried my best to alter them (which is my my hands suddenly look purple), but yeah. Let's just stick with the ballpoint pen ink analogy. :)
Bottle picture. Actually a little more purple than this in person.
On the nail. Nice blue, just meh everywhere else.
Now, I wasn't ready to give up on these. They are fairly opaque but I wanted to see if layering them over black would make the colours pop a little more. Short answer is yes, yes it did. I have on one coat of each colour over one coat of black.
Left to right: Deviantly Daring, Unpredictable, Rare & Radiant, Swanky Silk
Pinky and ring finger: Want My Bawdy. Middle and index finger: No Plain Jane
Okay, so let's get into how I feel about this collection. I have mixed feelings.
What I liked:
- Most of the colours are gorgeous and have a vivid duochrome effect. My fingernails looked like beetles!
- There is the option of wearing these on their own because they are opaque enough, or over black for that extra pop of colour.
What I didn't like:
- These were SO brush strokey. They sort of settled and I guess that is to be expected from a chrome, but I spent a lot of time trying to get my brush strokes juuuust perfect. I like my manicures to be quick and pretty.
- The duochromes weren't very strong in a few of the colours. I understand that a strong duochrome might not be everyone's thing, and that China Glaze probably wants there to be something for everybody in their collections, but I was just a little disappointed.
- The colour range. Honestly. There are way too many variations of green/blue/teal here for my liking. They had the chance to do anything, something awesome that the world hasn't seen before... and there are three colours that are just basically the same. Disappointing.
At any rate, this collection will be out in August, but you can find it on Amazon or ebay right now! What do you guys think of this one?
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