As I mentioned yesterday, I received samples of the new ChG collection, Up and Away. I took these yesteday, and I tried to take sun pics, but it was so overcast here, that my outside pics looked the same or worse then my inside pics. So, last night, while my husband was out gaming and my children had gone to bed, I re-swatched the entire collection indoors in my kitchen.
I want to give you fair warning that these will probably be the worst swatches you will see of this collection. I'm a total newbie at this with my new nubbins. It was hard to know how much polish to apply since I couldn't just take it off the free edge (I have no free edge to speak of). Also, this is the first time I've actually swatched a full collection, so there's definitely a learning curve. If I didn't love the collection so much, I would have just waited, but I really wanted to show these colors off. They are that beautiful. I promise that before this collection comes out, I will revisit it with, hopefully, longer and less ridge-y nails. The colors, however, are pretty accurate. Though, I did have two that didn't come out as the right color no matter how many pics I took.
I'll do them in the order of the bottle pics I took and posted earlier.
L-R: Something Sweet, Sugar High, Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Re-Fresh Mint, and Light As Air
Something Sweet – ChG describes this one as “cotton candy” and I think that’s a pretty good description. It’s a very sweet, pale pink that actually looked good on my pale skin and short nails. The closest thing in my collection was CC Vintage Couture. The colors are similar, but VC looks like it has more white in it. Because of this, it also looks chalky when compared to Something Sweet. It’s a beautiful Easter Egg color, and while it is a pale pink, because it was so opaque (I had to use 3 coats, but that’s more user error than anything), it doesn’t look like your everyday pale pink.
Sugar High – This one was listed as “petal pink”. Honestly, I got the description for this one and Something Sweet reversed and I thought this one was “cotton candy”. I can understand that more than “petal pink”. In reality, it’s a bright Barbie pink. It’s very close to OPI ElePhantastic Pink from last year’s India collection. The only difference is that EPP is more of a warm, creamy, Barbie pink, where Sugar High is just a creamy, Barbie pink. It does not lean warm. If you have EPP, and want to avoid like polishes in your collection, Sugar High is definitely dupe-y enough to not warrant purchasing it. However, if you love mid-tone pinks, I would pick it up no matter what. As much as I love EPP (and it’s probably my favorite pink), I think this one has surpassed it. The formula is far superior. I find EPP to be very watery, and this one is thicker and smoother. This is two coats.
Peachy Keen – This one is listed as “nectar”. When I immediate saw the color on, it looked like an orange creamsicle on me, so it took me awhile to get the nectar thing. But the more I stared at it, the more it looked like apricot nectar, especially indoors. Unfortunately, it’s too warm for my pink skin and it just doesn’t work. It’s a pretty color and would look great on someone with a tan. This was 2 coats.
Lemon Fizz – “Banana”. I found it odd that ChG named the color Lemon Fizz, yet described it as “banana”. I can see why they did it, because it’s more of a banana yellow, than a true lemon yellow, but IMO, it looks just like lemon sorbet. It’s a very light and cheerful color. I’m not a huge yellow fan, to be honest. I’ve owned a FP yellow in the past and I still have BB Couture Kokomo, but that’s more of a buttercream color than a true yellow. This one is definitely yellow, but I think it’s a very wearable yellow. It doesn’t scream “hey, I’ve got yellow fingernails!”, though. I actually liked it on me, and normally I think yellow and I don’t get along. It also reminds me of the color of my twins’ former nursery (that’s now my daughter’s room), so the whole time I was applying it, I was smiling. This is 2 coats.
Re-Fresh Mint – This one is listed as “spearmint”, and I think that’s another good description. R-FM, along all the paler colors, really looks like buttermints. I loved this color in the press release, and in the bottle, but I was really skeptical about it on. I’ve tried several mint greens in the past… OPI Hey! Get in Lime and Essie Mint Chintz, both of which looked like utter crap on me. They made the skin around my fingers look red and dirty. This one, however, did not. I’m not sure why, though. Normally, a lighter green has to have a bit of blue in it to play nice with my pink skin. R-FM has no blue in it, and it looks like it’s a yellow base. I don’t get it, but I sure like it. It’s magic! If you are dying to wear a mint green but avoid them because they don’t work with your skin, consider getting this one. It’s truly perfect. It also killed my lemming for Essie Mint Candy Apple, and I’m glad for that since I prefer ChG’s formula. This is 2 coats.
Light As Air – This is another one that I don’t get the description. ChG states this is “periwinkle”, but IMO, it isn’t blue enough to be periwinkle. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing color. Just not periwinkle. Seriously. Where has this been my entire life. For years, I’ve tried to find the perfect opaque lavender crème. It looks great with my pale skin without making me look like a corpse. This was three coats, but again, as with Something Sweet, that may be user error.
L-R: Heli-Yum, High Hopes, Happy Go Lucky, Four Leaf Clover, Flyin' High, Grape Pop
Heli-Yum – “Raspberry”. Again, ChG is pretty dead on with their descriptions on most of these. This one looks like the crème version of OPI California Raspberry. It looks a bit lighter and brighter than CR, but they are definitely cousins. It’s a very juicy color. It looks like the raspberry sauce you get with the Great Wall of Chocolate at P.F. Chang’s. Mmmm. I love it with my skintone. Application on this one was amazing. It was one of the two that was a one-coater.
High Hopes – This one list called “guava”. It does look like a brighter version of the guava cubes in a tropical fruit salad. Guava also gives me a general "tropical" feeling and I think this color has it. However, if I were doing the describing, I would have called it coral. Bright coral, to be exact. This is exactly what I wanted CC Sexsea to be. While Sexsea turned out to be a bright, orangey red on me, this one is truly a coral. As I’m typing this, I have CC Sexsea, OPI Cajun Shrimp, and High Hopes side-by-side, and I have to say that this one is my favorite. It’s definitely on the warmer side, but not nearly as orange as the other two, which makes it work with my pale, pink-based skin. This is a perfect summer color and would look amazing as a pedi. This is 2 coats.
Happy Go Lucky – It’s labeled as “sunshine yellow” and they weren’t even kidding. Like with Peachy Keen, I wasn’t really a fan of this one. It’s a pretty color, and on someone with a tan, who could rock out a bright yellow, it would look gorgeous. It just looked really weird on me. Though, I may get a wild hair and wear it in the summer anyway. It’s a very bright, though not neon yellow. I’ll say though, that I know yellow formulas get a bad rap, but this one applied just fine. Any streaking that was there was gone with the second coat.
Flyin’ High – “Teal”. Well, hello luvah. *gasp* I’ve been lemming teals pretty hardcore lately. I’ll buy them in just about any incarnation. And while I’ve yet to shell out the big bucks for RBL Teal or Illamasqua Muse, if it’s a teal, and cheap… I’ll get it. In the pic, this one looks like a sky blue, kinda similar to ChG Sky-High Top. It’s not. It’s definitely a teal rather than a blue. It’s a mid-tone, dusty teal. It’s much more similar to Misa Dirty Sexy Money, with DSM being slightly greener and dustier. I loved this one so much; I think I could wear it for days and not get sick of it. It looked nice with my skin as well. It’s also killed my lemming for Muse. Gotta love these lemming killers. This was 2 coats.
Grape Pop – ChG describes this one as “bright plum”. I don’t really get plum from it, though. When I think of plum, I think of a purple with a lot of red. This one is a true purple. It’s like the color of grape candy. If there was such a thing, I’d call it an opaque jelly. It has that candy look of a jelly, but it’s not transparent at all. Awhile back, I bought Misa Sorry Just Can’t Help It to be a stand in for RBL Mismas. I love the color of Mismas, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger on an $18 purple crème. Now, I don’t own Mismas, but this one looks to be very similar, if a bit darker. It’s definitely squashed my lemming. This was the other one-coater.
Again, I want to apologize for the state of the pics, and for the state of my nails (though I think they are actually starting to look good), but I really wanted you all to see just how amazing these colors are. Seriously, there's not one I can't stand. If I had to pick a least favorite, it would probably be Peachy Keen, but that's just because it looked gross on me. It's still a beautiful polish. If I had to pick a favorite, well... just shoot me now. I love just about all of them. I guess the numero uno would be Flyin' High, but Light As Air, Grape Pop, Four Leaf Clover, and Re-Fresh Mint are all up there, too. The formula on all these was great. I had a few issues, but I think that's just because I'm not used to polishing on my natural nails and short nails, to boot.
Just in case, you missed my post earlier, I emailed Irene to ask when this would be available and she said mid-January. I'm pretty sure it's going to be available at Sally's and all the regular etailers.
Special Thanks to China Glaze
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