Another winter collection! I swear we’re almost done, but like I said, I’m still going to put these up and review them. Otherwise they would just sit in my collection and not get the love they deserve.

It’s still chilly enough duh, I can do what I want.

So let’s get onto this China Glaze collection. It’s called the ‘Glam Finale’ and it’s a typical 12 bottle collection. It’s full of bling and sparkle and perfect for breaking up those winter grays. 🙂 so let’s get into it.

Our first shade is ‘Toast it Up’. I was strangely so drawn to this seeing swatches of it, and I’m so glad I still loved it on my own nails. This is a light champagne-gold shimmer shade. This is perfect for a more elegant holiday occasion – or any sort of more fancy event.

With one layer, this gives you more of a perfected nails look, which I do love. After 2 coats it’s pretty well opaque – depending on how white your nail tips are, you might be able to see some nail line after 2. There were some brush strokes, but after 3 coats I found they smoothed out really well, and leveled out so nicely. I weirdly really loved this shade, and it’s unique for me!

Up next is ‘As Good as It Glitz’, and this is the rose gold version of ‘Toast It Up’. It’s definitely much more cool toned. This one also had a more opaque formula, it was a one coater for me, and fantastic. And for being a shimmer, more metallic shade, there were not brush strokes! I loved this shade, and the fantastic formula was a pleasure to work with.

This next shade was the one I was most intrigued by. This is called ‘Don’t Be a Snowflake!’. This is a squishy milky base with tons of white and silver glitter pieces in a couple different sizes. This one is definitely unique, and definitely has a unique formula.

I can understand now what others have been saying about using this. The base is definitely sheer, so it takes a couple of coats to build up. If you put on too thick of a coat trying to build it up, it can flood your cuticles. This is one of those shades that is easier to build up on longer nails, because you’re able to place more polish and really lay it down.

So for this, I used 3 thicker coats. So obviously it’s going to be a little more work to build it up to this look. But when you do, you feel like a snow princess? You get what I’m saying? It’s just a really cool look, and I love the layering of the pieces and the way they sit with the base. But it does definitely take some work.  So it’s you deciding if you want to deal with it.

It gives a lovely squishy look to the nails.

I also used it as one coat over a white base. This really pushes the snowy look (something that is definitely irrelevant now for most people). But 1 coat over a white definitely gives the magical look, and you get solid glitter coverage.

Now I’m going to go over the 2 mattes in the collection. China Glaze has been putting one matte into each collection, and I do like the change up in finish that you get with their collections.

‘Santa’s Side Chick’ (hmph to the name though) is a matte red with tons of shimmers. Luckily this is not one of their ridiculously fast drying matte shades. You have enough time to take care when you’re painting it on, and painting straight. This has a beautiful formula and was opaque and smooth in 1 coat. Super stunning. It also self levels really well, especially when you take the time to paint it smoothly on the nails.

If you do two coats, like the photo here, it deepens the color and shimmer.

I really loved this shade, and I’m not usually a fan of reds (I’m trying to change that).

I also showed it here with a glossy top coat. With that the shimmer really pops, and it looks a little more warm on the nail. Beautiful in each finish.

The other matte shade is your deep emerald green, called ‘The Perfect Holly-Day’. (Am I the only one that thinks that sounds like something Michael Scott would call Holly? Any Office fans here?)

This is another fabulous formula – enough time to work with and paint a smooth layer on. This one was again opaque in 1 thicker coat. I painted 2 here to smooth out some bumps I had from uneven application, so this one doesn’t level as well as the one before. But if you paint with less strokes, that’ll help with that.

Again with the top coat, the shimmer really pops and is stunning. I almost love it more glossy because of that sparkle. Just look at that beautiful shimmer. But I love having the two finish options.

Next is ‘Sparkle On’. This was honestly my least favorite of the collection. It’s a red base with tons of red glitter pieces in different sizes. As you can see, the thing I don’t love about this is that it can get chunky.

This can be opaque in 1 thicker coat, which will help you avoid the most of the chunkiness. In the photo here I used 2 coats, and as you can see with clean up and everything, it can get a little hard to keep it smooth. Some people might love this finish, but it just wasn’t my favorite. It could be fun for a blingy holiday, but it’s okay for me.

I mean she’s pretty, but just a little gloopy and harder to work with.

Luckily we have another beautiful polish to pick it back up. This is ‘Slay Bells Ring’. This is more of a smoky, green-toned gray base with tons of shimmer in it. This did have a thinner, more watery formula. It can run down the brush, and flood the cuticles, so be sure to wipe the brush off. I was able to get it in 2 thinner coats, although there can be some uneven patches from certain angles that might need 3.

She almost seems to glow off the nail, so I’ll take a little more work for the finish.

This one is one of my absolute FAVORITES of the collection. This is ‘New Year, New Boo’, a gorgeous deep blue jewel tone. UNF. This was a ONE COATER. So stunning and so easy to control. It was so easy to control and just lay down on the nail.

One thing I will say – she is a complete mess upon removal. You definitely have to be careful and don’t twist it all around. I ended up with blue all over my fingers and needed multiple things to really clean it off. But it was so worth it, because just look at her. I didn’t experience staining either, so the few moments of clean up is the only small negative. Something to be expected with such a deep, pigmented color.

‘Queen of Sequins’ is a deep eggplant purple base with pops of red and purple shimmer. It’s so deep that I love how the shimmer pops out and gives it some depth and helps it from being SO deep. This one had a sheer, uneven first coat, but it builds up nicely and is opaque on 2 coats. The thicker the coats you use, the deeper the color will be. Perfect vamp with a little sparkle.

The last 3 are the 3 glitters of the collection. Holiday collection, so of course there’s going to be some bling.

First up is ‘Big Hair & Bubbly’. This is a dense gold glitter topper. Here I showed it built up with 3 coats. There are still some patches, so if you want to completely cover the nail, you’ll need another coat, or to sponge on that last layer and that’ll help a lot more.

So you can build it up for a super blingy nail look. It does get a little chunky, but if you’re looking for sparkle, it’s here.

However, as with most glitters, I prefer it as a topper. This is 1 coat over ‘Toast It Up’, and as you can see, you get fantastic glitter coverage with just one coat, while still allowing the base coat to show through. This reminds me of when fancy people have champagne with the floating edible gold in it, it’s stunning, super chic and adds so much sparkle. Perfect for a celebration.

The next glitter is ‘Teal the Fever’. This has the same density and feel as ‘Big Hair & Bubbly’ except in a metallic teal shade. Here it is built up in 3 coats – again, pretty well opaque for a super blingy look, but can be sponged on for even more opacity.

Again, I love it more as a topper. Here it is with 1 coat over ‘The Perfect Holly-Day’ and the teal color just plays so well with the green and the shimmer. It totally transforms it into a whole new polish, and that’s why I love toppers so much. They’re a great way to change up your polish with one easy coat.

The last glitter is ‘Disco Ball Drop’. I didn’t show it built up on its own, because it’s a lot less dense than the previous two, (it’s shown here as 1 coat over ‘New Year, New Boo’) and I knew I wouldn’t be able to build it up in a reasonable amount of coats.

As you can see, the glitter coverage can change – you can get a lot with more strokes, like on most of my nails, or a more sparse look with one stroke, like on my middle finger.

But this is still a really fun glitter topper – if you don’t have a silver, bigger glitter topper, this is one to add to the collection! Perfect for a sparkly look.

So there’s the China Glaze winter 2017 collection! This is one of the more sparkly and festive winter collections that came out last year, and I love the different shimmers and toppers. I felt like it had been a while since we had gotten some true glitter toppers, and they did well with these, making sure the base wasn’t too thick and gloopy at all.

Overall, I really liked all of these polishes and formulas – ‘Sparkle On’ was the one that was a little more chunky, and that was my least favorite. I feel there are a couple polishes that people could love/hate based on their preferences.

I always love when China Glaze puts in matte formulas as well – why doesn’t OPI ever do mattes?

Are you going to/have you picked up any polishes from this collection??

And we’re almost done with holiday collections, y’all! I got one more, and it’s Orly so it’s only a 6 bottle collection! I want to get all of the new Wet N Wild product reviews up as well in these next two weeks! And then we’re onto spring collections! Is the weather getting warmer near you?

Stay tuned for more reviews!

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