I am breaking my China Glaze Sunsational review up into two posts. I swatched these polishes almost two weeks ago, but I kept putting off writing this review. Not because it was hard to write, but because I dreaded editing the swatches. Neons are ridiculously hard to photograph and I knew I would have to edit photos in order to make them appear more color accurate. I hardly ever do this, so I don’t have a lot of practice! But I didn’t want to show you unedited photos - they would not be true representations of the colors you were buying. Well, then I tried to edit them. Turns out I really don’t know what I’m doing, so I decided just to Let It Be. So consider this far warning!
Many people have expressed concerns over the quality of the formula in this China Glaze collection, and I would like to address that first. There are two types of polishes in the Sunsational Collection: jellies and crèmes. Both are neons. Neon pigment is notoriously hard to work with. With the jellies, one should know ahead of time that they require additional coats and therefor additional time in order to make them look good. If you already don’t love jelly polishes, you most likely will not like the jelly polishes in this collection. If you do like jelly polishes (as I do) there are several jellies in this collection that are AWESOME. But there were a few that were more trouble than they were worth.
Shell-o is a neon peachy-coral. I prefer to do thin coats, but it came out way too streaky, so I had to start doing thicker coats by the third and fourth coat. Shell-o is much more vibrant in real life. It’s definitely one of the ones I really wanted to be able to edit. Check out my Instagram for a more accurate representation of the color.
Heat Index is a neon hot pink. It did apply streaky, but after four coats it was DEFINITELY worth the effort! I really loved this one.
You Drive Me Coconuts is a blue based neon pink. Out of all the pinks, it had the most pigment and was the most opaque after four coats. This one was really crazy, in-your-face neon. I took a rather poor quality shot in my kitchen that shows the color accurately, you can see it on my Instagram as well.
Are You Jelly? is a medium purple neon. It was also 4 coats. After You Drive Me Coconuts, it was the second most opaque shade.
Isle See You Later is the shade that I was most excited about. Unfortunately it was super-sheer. As in after four coats, you could still see the staining I had on my nails from a previous manicure. I will say that it was very, very even. Not streaky at all. Just too sheer, even for me who love VNL!
Keepin’ It Teal is a neon emerald green jelly. It is definitely my favorite. It had the same same smooth application as Are You Jelly and Isle See You Later. Here is another Instagram shot that shows the color better.
I did do wear tests on both the jellies and the crèmes. Learn from my mistakes - IF YOU DON’T WAIT LONG ENOUGH INBETWEEN COATS, AND THEN USE A QUICK DRY TOPCOAT (LIKE SECHE VITE), AFTER 24 HOURS YOUR POLISH WILL PEAL OFF IN SHEETS… This did happen to me. Do I think it was a reflection of the polish? No, I think I was an idiot and didn’t wait more than 60 seconds in between coats.
My picks from this half of the collection are Heat Index, You Drive Me Coconuts and Keepin’ It Teal. Which ones do you have your eye on?
Check out the second half of the collection here!
Check out the second half of the collection here!
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