China Glaze | Radiant Orchid Toned Polishes

When it comes to polish I tend to opt for reds or nudes, purples for me came and went years back as I found at one point my collections of clothing, beauty and polish were all purple hued. With Pantone announcing that Radiant Orchid was the colour of the year I decided to at least give purples another chance.

I went on a mini polish spree and picked up these two China Glaze polishes, I've tried the brands polishes a few times but never felt they quite matched up to the OPI or Nails Inc formula. The polishes pictured above are from the Sunsational 2013 collection which consists of neons, creams and jelly finishes.

First up I swatched That's Shore Bright (left) which is a cream polish, I swatched on a couple of coats and just couldn't get it to shine, gloss or look remotely creamy. For me, it resembled a less chalky matte polish which was so frustrating. It was also extremely streaky and it took three coats to get it to the even consistency you see above. That's Shore Bright is more of a deep lilac than a purple and while the consistency stressed the living daylights out of me I do like the colour - I just wished I didn't have to add a top coat to make it shine.

The second polish was Are You Jelly? (right) this is a jelly formula as if you couldn't guess from the name alone. While I hated That's Shore Bright's formula this was even worse. It was the worst polish I have ever tried in relation to streaking, even after applying a coat and then leaving it to dry when it came to adding another coat for some reason the new coat was stripping off the coat below - what the...? The picture above took SIX coats to get that even consistency which is just crazy. Although I swatched it on the nail rounds I couldn't wear it on my nails because the six coats left it prone to chipping and smudging literally within hours.

Are You Jelly? is a deeper purple, almost royal in its tone and it looks more rubbery than jelly. Had this been made with a better jelly formula it would have been incredible but in all honesty, it wasn't worth all of the hassle trying to get it on.

Out of the two, I prefer the Are You Jelly? shade, I'm not a huge fan of chalky or matte polishes (even though this is supposed to be a cream) and overall I was so disappointed, luckily these were in the sale for only £4.95 each but still, I do feel like it was nearly £10 thrown down the drain. I think I'll have to try the jelly over a light base such as a cream or nude and likewise for the creams, maybe they'll pop a bit more and go on smoother - I hope anyways.

Have you tried these? what was your take on the formula?