China Glaze Running in Circles

Cheers to my first emerald color!

I purchased this nail polish for $5 on Amazon. Do you notice me expanding to other nail polish brands? ^^ I’m realizing I really like shiny, glittery nail polish. Running in Circles is a micro-glitter nail polish similar to Julep Cindy, except this one is a true-green. The base glitter is silver, not gold, so the glitter gives the polish a cool base, not warm, and doesn’t add extra color like Julep Cindy does (which is not bad, by the way). I am loving this nail polish because it seems so rich in color and literally glows!

This nail polish puts on super well. Here’s are photos of my nail with two coats of Running in Circles, finished with Essie Good to Go top coat, under shade, and under indoor light, respectively.

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Black

I wanted to get something like Essie’s Shine of Time nail polish. Unfortunately, that nail polish is not available for a reasonable price any longer… so I opted out for China Glaze Luxe and Lush. It’s different – the pieces are in “rougher” cut than Shine of Time according to what I could tell from other people’s swatch. It’s still cool, and it was definitely a steal for $5 (from Amazon! 🙂 ) And I am so glad I got this nail polish.

Here’s a closeup of the nail polish over Sephora Pantone Anthracite, a nice, solid black nail polish.

I took this photo under shade.

Over a black polish, this “special effects” nail polish reminds me of Korean black furnitures inlaid with oyster shells, like this one.

For details, I put on one coat of OPI Natural Base Coat, two coats of Anthracite, two coats of Luxe and Lush, finished with two coats of Essie Good to Go Top Coat. Luxe and Lush coat ended up being bit bumpy, so I put on an extra coat of top coat to make my nails smooth, and to ensure that pieces won’t fall from it.

Here’s how the nail appears under indoor light, under direct sunlight, and under shades.

The cool effects are most obvious on top of dark coat, but I’ll have a different post on how Luxe and Lush looks over lighter color polish later today. 🙂

China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Secret Periwinkle

Here’s a photo of how Luxe and Lush looks over a lighter color. The blue is China Glaze Secret Periwinkle that my friend Christine has. (Very pretty color, BTW!)

This one was taken outdoor, under shade. Second one, indoor, under office lights. 🙂

The ‘glitters’ appear in rose-gold tone, and someone commented that it looked like I had holes and cracks in my nail. I guess I can see that, too… So maybe I won’t try this combo from now on. Hahaha..

I also tried putting Luxe and Lush over a black nail polish, which does look different.

China Glaze I am Not a Lion swatch

Here is a review/swatch of I am not a lion from China Glaze!

I bought this from Amazon.com for $5 with free shipping. (I am amazed at the deals I can find on Internet!!)

These photos were taken under cloudy sunlight.

Now onto the review.

The color is wonderful!! It’s very pretty, very glittery. My favorite gold nail polish is still Julep Sienna, but this one is still very pretty. The gold is not too white or too yellow, but matches the Gold shade that comes to my mind when I think of gold color. Because the glitters are big in size, the surface felt rough. I was concerned that some of the glitter might fall off, but it held on well! I also appreciate that there is a lot of it – .5 ounce!

Onto durability….

The first China Glaze nail polish that I got started chipping like crazy on the third day. I remove this nail polish on the third day so I can’t give a comparison report of how easily this chips off. Actually, my friend put it on, too, but it started chipping on the next day for her…. And some of my friends commented that they love this color, and have tried it, but noted that it chips easily. So I am inclined to believe that China Glaze has chipping issues.

China Glaze I’m not a Lion and Sephora Henna-thing is Possible with Real 18-k Gold Top Coat

Sephora Henna-Thing is Possible is one of my favorite nail polish. It’s not shimmery or glittery, but still very shiny! The color is close to wine color, but the highlight is pink, so it has a mysterious tone to it.

I used It’s real 18 gold top coat over it. And I used China Glaze I am Not a Lion on the ring finger for accent. I will have an entry for just Henna-thing is Possible and I am Not a Lion later!

I bought the top coat at $15, and I still think it was one of the best purchase I have made! I wish I can take a more close-up photo, but iPhone is not good at close-up…

Here are the nails over sunlight.

And here is a photo under shade.