Review: China Glaze Avant Garden part 1

Hello!

Today I have part of the China Glaze Avant Garden collection to show you. I bought most of the collection, and today I'll show you four of the polishes...including two pinks...>.>...well, what can I say, one of them I thought was red, but it turns out there's 4 pinks in this collection! Okay, it is a garden collection, and China Glaze went insane with the reds in their holiday collection, so fair enough. :) Anyway, I'll show you the rest in another post or posts. :)


First, China Glaze Life Is Rosy:

China Glaze Life Is Rosy in indirect light

China Glaze Life Is Rosy, direct sun

Life Is Rosy is, well, a rosy pink. Okay, all you pink lovers out there, you have to let me know...is it just because I don't like pink very much, or is this polish...boring? Idk, it just reminds me of the pinks a mauves that women used to wear to work when I was a little girl, back in the mid- to late-80s. Even if I'm not partial to pink myself, I can recognize why some pinks are compelling, and it just seems to me that this one has no...oomph. That said, the formula was great, so if you like the color, you're in good shape. Also on the positive side, I can see this being a really great pink for nail art, and as a nice pair of undies for glitter, because it would lay a strong foundation without taking focus away from the glitter.

Next up is Snap My Dragon:

This is a raspberry pink that flirts with the border of red, and even pulls a bit orange. See, now, this pink pops! It has shine, it has brilliance, it has life! In some other lights it looks pinker, and so it's not for me for every-day wear, but it's pretty and I'll most likely keep it. Again the formula on this was good. :)

Next: Tart-y For The Party:

Ah, okay, now I'm a little bit more in my comfort zone. This is a pretty muted lilac, which is how I like my pastels, cause I'm not big on pure pastels. This is the ultimate Easter purple for me! Yes, I have a feeling you'll be seeing it again around that time, probably stamped with those awesome Bunny Nails plates I just got. The formula on this was also good (before you start to assume they're all good, that will change next post on these, lol), it went on beautifully.


And finally for today, Fancy Pants! Bear with me on this one...this is one of those blue-purples that freaks my camera out, and I had a hard time getting a picture of it. I tried every trick I know for shooting purples that my camera reads blue, and nothing worked. The only pictures I could get that were close were horrible in terms of photography--blurry a bit, lighting bad, chip wear because I took these in a last-ditch attempt, etc. But here they are for what they're worth; keep in mind that even so, the polish is a little more purple than you see here still:

China Glaze Fancy Pants

China Glaze Fancy Pants

Fancy Pants is a dark bluish purple with a subtle copper shimmer--there's a Zoya it reminds me of, but this has less of a copper shimmer (I'll find it and report back). The formula is also very good, and if I could get a good picture, this is actually quite a pretty polish.

I even tried putting on a glitter (Whimsical Ideas by Pam Once Upon A Time), thinking it would help give the camera something to fix on; it worked to a degree, but mostly just washed everything out a bit (the pinky-purple shimmer you see is actually copper IRL). Nonetheless, I think this is a pretty pairing in real life, so I include it here for inspirational purposes:

Fancy Pants + Once Upon A Time

So far I really like this collection, even with the top-heavy amount of pinks. Of course, I tend to love China Glaze, so that's probably not a huge surprise!

Anyway, with that I'll wrap up for now, but will be back in the next few days with more of these gorgeous polishes!

Thanks for looking. :) Xoxox,
M.

(The polishes in this review were purchased with my own money.)