China Glaze On Safari Collection: 'Native'

Hello again!

Yesterday I showed you the 'Tourist' half of China Glaze's On Safari Collection, and today I'm gonna go 'Native'. This is the more colorful half of the collection, and, in my opinion, the more fun half. As with the other half of the collection, which you can see here, these are all shown with 2 coats, and one coat of China Glaze topcoat; the pictures with glitter do not have topcoat over the glitter.

First up, Elephant Walk:

Elephant Walk in the shade

Elephant Walk in the sun

I was looking forward to this one, because I need a soft gray in my collection. Even so, this exceeded my hopes. It is a soft gray with a blueish feel to it, bordering on the line of a slate blue--plus it has a lovely soft grey-blue shimmer to it. I'm not sure what exactly it is about the shimmer, but it gives it a gentle, feminine feel that I really like--I couldn't stop waggling the fingers. :) Also, this applied like a dream. :)


And next, Exotic Encounters:

Exotic Encounters in the shade

Exotic Encounter in the shade

Exotic Encounters is a teal creme. It favors the green side slightly, but is definitely a teal. It's vibrant and creamy and goes on like satin. Definitely a thumbs up here--I love this color and needed one like it.


Next, Jungle Queen:

Jungle Queen in the shade

Jungle Queen in the sun

This color confuses me. In the bottle, it looks like a muted purple with a brighter purple shimmer--it doesn't look like a gray much at all. On the nail, however, it looks more like a gray than a purple, at least indoors and in the shade. In fact, indoors I couldn't see any purple shimmer to it at all, and as you can see above, it was hard to even see it outdoors in the shade. In the sunlight, it's stunning--exactly the color I wanted it to be, and the color you see in the bottle; I'd be in love with it if it looked like that all the time. I guess this will be one of those polishes I'll wear when I know I'll be out in the sun most of the day; otherwise, I can do without it, since I already have at least two other gra-ples.


And now for Man Hunt:

Man Hunt in the shade

Man Hunt in the sun

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. This is a gorgeous ultramarine/egyptian blue. If you're wondering how similar it is to Revlon's Royal Blue, this one is a bit lighter (I'll do a side-by-side as soon as I can if you're interested). This also went on like a dream and looks smooth as satin once it's on. It's a creme, I guess...but more of a satin creme, if that makes sense. I adore this color and will buy clothes to match it immediately and often.


And now for...Prey Tell.

Prey Tell in the shade

Prey Tell in the sun

Prey Tell is a vampy burgundy jelly. It's goth, it's sexy, and it's hard as heck to apply evenly. You can see a big bald spot on my ring finger--and this is with me trying very hard to apply this carefully and evenly; it's a bit runny and gloopy at the same time. Possibly a third coat would get rid of the issue, but it will also push the polish more toward black. Which would be a shame, because this is so beautiful and matches the name very well--it just has that look of congealed blood, muah hah hah (apologies to anyone who has a weak stomach). I can see many happy goth and Halloween manicures using this polish in my future. :)


And coming in last for a strong finish--Purr-fect Plum:

Purr-fect Plum in the shade

Purr-fect Plum in the sun

Purr-fect Plum is a stunning wine-plum purple cream (even when it has a little fluffy beard like it does here on my pinky--sorry about that). This is such a rich jewel-toned color, and is another one that applies easily and looks smooth and silky when on. I recently bought another polish that was supposed to look like this, and it didn't, so I'm extremely happy that this one lived up to the pictures.

Before I sum up, here are two pictures with the glitters from the first half of the collection:

Prey Tell + I'm Not Lion (thank goodness it covers that bald spot!)

(those glitter tips make me think this would look great on a margarita manicure, with lime green polish, to make the little crust of salt on the rim!)

Adventure Red-y + I Herd That

How gorgeous are those colors together? I'm going to use that manicure at Christmas time, no doubt.

As for my thoughts on the collection as a whole...I've been looking forward to this collection for so long that I went from being madly in love with it to convincing myself it wasn't really special and I didn't want it, to thinking I'd buy only a few, to falling in love with it again. At the end of the day, I'm pleased with it overall. It's a strange collection for summer, I think--it has more of a fall or winter feel, but that's okay by me because I'm a little intimidated by neons and more of my summer wardrobe has colors like this anyway. I love jewel-tones, and that's what predominates in this collection.

I am still mystified by the absence of a green in this collection. I know, I know, it may seem a bit too obvious, but wouldn't an olive green or a forest green have been perfect here? Or even some other sort of green? This is even more puzzling to me because their holiday collection seems to be short on green, as well. Is there a shortage of green pigment in the polish world? Or is green just not a cool color right now?

But, that's a small complaint, really. Out of 12 colors, there's really only one I think will gather dust in my collection (Call of the Wild), and that's not a bad percentage. The rest of the colors were either as good as I was hoping, or better. For the most part, the formula on these was great, and reminded me why I fell in love with China Glaze--strong colors, no-hassle application, rich-looking finishes.

I hope this has been helpful for you; if you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them!

Thanks for reading. :)

M.

(the products in this review were purchased with my own money.)