China Glaze - Whirled Away

As you saw in my last review, I recently picked up "It's A Trap-eze" and "Whirled Away" by China Glaze. These polishes are from their Cirque du Soleil collection.

"Whirled Away" is very similar to Cover Band Lacquer's polish "Sticks 'n Stones." Again, I'm glad that a big league company is taking cues from indie brands, which also makes the polish more affordable and easily accessible, but I dislike taking business away from indie companies. It's a catch-22, for certain.

"Whirled Away" has a clear base with large, white, hex glitter. Then there are the little black strips and medium-sized, black, hex glitter. I found the application to be pretty tricky. Because the brush is black, it's difficult to gauge how much black glitter is on it. And because the glitters are so large, you have to think strategically when placing them. As you can see on my middle finger, when I simply brushed the polish on the way I usually would, all the glitter got hung up on the middle of my nail. Part of me thinks it would be easier to have loose glitter and manually apply it.

Overall, I like the look. As soon as I saw it, I thought of the Formica tabletops from the '50s, so I decided aqua and pink would be awesome as base colors. I used NYX Girls "Kinky Pink" on my pinky and thumb. Then I used Sleek's "Turquoise" on my ring finger. Barry M's "Bright Pink" on my middle finger and Barry M's "Flamingo Pink" on my pointer finger. On my thumb, I sandwiched the two polishes. I kinda like that effect, but I think I prefer "Whirled Away" as a topcoat.

Last but not least, it took around 3 coats of Seche Vite to create a nice, smooth finish...which, in turn, made the polish like a tiny piece of armor that came off in one sheet a few days later. :/ Darn that Seche Vite!

It's A Trap-eze, Baby!

This blog is not a cut and dry nail polish review, a few factors came to mind when writing this. (Just so you know.)

First of all, I've been wanting to try a polish like this ever since Nails Inc came out with their "Sprinkle" collection. And there are many indie sellers who have created similar polishes. This is where my internal struggle comes into play.

As an artist, I want to support small, indie sellers. But it's a struggle when there is not enough supply to meet the demand and a lot of these sellers burn out from the rush of business and then fall off the radar for a while. It's tricky, at best.

I can appreciate that China Glaze is taking notice of the indie trends and came up with two polishes that reflect those trends in their new Cirque du Soleil collection. In this review, I'm only reviewing "It's a Trap-eze", but I will be writing a review for "Whirled Away" too.

The polish is lovely. It has a milky white base and is PACKED with glitter. The glitter is made up of a rainbow of colors and various sizes. I was surprised to see it was a shiny glitter and not matte. I've heard this polish described as thick and chunky, but I think that's only as a result of all that glitter!! I really had no problems with application.

I decided to swatch this polish three different ways: on my pinky there was no base color, my ring finger had a link base and my middle finger had a baby blue base. In my opinion, I like the pinky the best. I like the layered look, where the glitter isn't so sparkly and metallic. I also found that the other two fingers did not get a smooth finish, even with multiple coats of Seche Vite...

which brings me to my next dilemma.

For the first time ever, the SV shrank my polish. The middle and ring fingers were the worst, but you can see it on the pinky too. It made the polish look think and awful around all edges. And of course, a day or so later, the whole thing peeled off in one piece. :/

Despite my various difficulties, I think the polish is quite pretty. I only plan on using it over the regular color of my nails and work in light, thinner layers. If you've wanted to try a translucent polish with glitter, but haven't or can't afford to get your hands on an indie polish, this is an alternative.