China Glaze Everglaze Polish in I Wanna Be Your Lava, French Press & Royal Satin

Gel-that-isn't-a-gel is a continuing nail trend, blending longer lasting formulas with super-glossy finishes for those who like the gel look but don't like the wear and tear that comes from bonding plastic onto your nails.  China Glaze's new Everglaze polishes are one of these faux-gels - they promise a week of solid wear, and a glossy finish.  I rarely have time to change my polish in the week nowadays, so something that'll last Sunday evening to Sunday evening sounds perfect for my regime.

First off, these three shades are gorgeously multi-tonal.  I Wanna Be Your Lava (pun-tastic) is a bright coral with a flash of fuchsia; French Press is a deep brownish grey with a flash of bronze; Royal Satin (my favourite!) is a rich, metallic berry which glows in the light.  Top marks for prettiness.  The range does come in some more subtle colours with cream finishes, too, but I'm really glad I received three of the more striking ones to try out.

And now, the wear time - does it really last a week?  Well, yes.  I get six days of solid wear with no chipping and barely noticeable tipwear, and on day seven I get a few tiny chips.  Impressive stuff.  Bear in mind that unlike a proper gel, this stuff isn't hardwearing if you're a bit clumsy with your hands - bang your nails into a surface, and it will chip.  Still, six days of wear with no chips suits my working week just fine - this polish is up there with Kiko's Power Pro for long wear.

At £9.95, they're not cheap, but they do perform exactly as promised.  Well worth a look if you like your nails to stay flawless during the working week with no maintenance.  You can find them at a couple of online retailers, including Nail Polish Direct, who are selling them below the RRP at £6.95.

Disclosure:  PR samples

This post originated at www.londonbeautyreview.com. If you're reading it elsewhere, it's been stolen, violating my copyright.

NOTD: China Glaze Jungle Queen

China Glaze Jungle Queen is a lovely smoky purple polish with a bit of a secret:  it's got a subtle purple shimmer which is almost impossible to capture with my camera.  Temptalia manages better:  her photos show the beautiful micro-shimmer which only emerges in sunlight.  It's a very unique colour - I don't have anything quite like this in my polish collection.

Regardless of the shimmer, this colour is gorgeous - and so very shiny that it becomes almost mirror like with a bit of topcoat.  Two coats gave perfect opacity, and wear was excellent - a good four days before the tipwear became noticeable.

Find it at BeautyBay, where it costs £6.95.

This post originated at www.londonbeautyreview.com. If you're reading it elsewhere, it's been stolen, violating our copyright.

NOTD: China Glaze Full Spectrum

I've posted about China Glaze's beautiful Prismatic Chroma Glitters before, when I bought the green-gold-silver Ray-diant shade and fell absolutely in love with the twinkles.  This shade, Full Spectrum, is just as pretty - a baby pink base with plenty of multi coloured sparkle, and a bit of a fuchsia flash when the light hits it right.  As before, application is surprisingly smooth for a glitter polish, with the effect above taking a mere two coats.  Simply lovely.

NOTD: China Glaze Ray-diant

I might have mentioned my love for glitter a few hundred times over the past couple of years.  In particular, I love a sparkly nail - and so when I read about these China Glaze Prismatic polishes via Scrangie (who, incidentally, can make me want any polish), I knew I had to check them out.  

The premise of the range is based on dense glitter with a holographic or duochrome effect.  Ray-diant is a silvery pale green shade which looks anywhere from silvered taupe to golden to pale green depending on the light.  The glitter is largely this subtle colour shifting stuff, with some bigger chunks of multi coloured glitter thrown in.  The overall effect is stunningly sparkly.

You might expect that this kind of polish would be a bugger to apply.  Not so - it's fully opaque after a mere two coats, and the texture is thin enough to apply easily and smoothly, with no need to poke the biggest glitter particles into place with the brush.  Of all the glitter polishes I've tried, this is the nicest to apply.

Wear is decent, at around four days without chips, and surprisingly, it's not an absolute nightmare to remove - not quite as easy as your basic cream shade, but there's no need to soak or scrub to remove the last bits of glitter from the nail.  Unsurprisingly, I've fallen head over heels for this gorgeous glitter - and there might possibly be two more winging their way to my greedy hands in the post.

China Glaze's Prismatic collection is apparently officially on sale in April, but I managed to find plenty of them on eBay despite it being mid-March.  I paid £7.99 for my bottle of Ray-diant - which is a perfectly reasonable price for glitter heaven for me.

NOTD: China Glaze Raspberry Festival

This is the first time I've used a China Glaze polish; the formula is quite thin and easily spreadable, but maybe a bit too thin for my liking - I missed my nail a coupla times and painted my cuticles too (oops).

But at least that gave me something to do while waiting for my dentist appointment, hey?

Anyway, this is Raspberry Festival, a very pretty red with tiny tiny raspberry coloured sparkles. It sort of screams FESTIVE at me, but that's probably because the Christmas onslaught has started and I'm a famous scrooge.

UPDATE: This lasted a grand total of one day before it chipped badly enough that I took it off. I'll try it again later this week, maybe it requires a more hardcore topcoat than my current one.