China Glaze Island Escape Skittle Swatches

Hello and good evening.  Hoping Blogger is going to be nicer to me this time >:(

Anyway, I have some quick skittle swatches of one of my newest aquisitions from my favorite and most-owned brand - China Glaze's Island Escape collection.  This is China Glaze's collection for Summer 2011, but it's out already.  I initially was only interested in three or four of these shades, but in then end it was cheaper for me to buy the boxed set than the polishes I wanted seperately.  So I ended up with all of them :s

This collection consists of a rainbow of summery shades - four shimmers and two cremes.  Left to right: 108 Degrees, Papaya Punch, Electric Pineapple, Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana and Senorita Bonita.  The shimmers are, for the most part, that same glass fleck-type that the China Glaze Summer Days collection from a few years back consisted of - y'know, Strawberry Fields, Grape Crush, Watermelon Rind, etc.?  Yeah, that one. 

Thumb to pinky: Electric Pineapple, 108 Degrees, Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana, Senorita Bonita.  I chose to leave out Papaya Punch because it's my least favorite.  I initially wanted the four glass-fleck shimmers from this collection.  China Glaze does this finish well - also see the Martini Pedicure collection and the Tequila Toes collection, which is one of my favorite collections and I would kill for...  Actually a couple of the polishes in this collection kind of reminded me of a couple of those, which is what made me finally decide to buy them.  I wasn't at all wowed by swatches, but the polishes totally won me over once I saw them in person.

108 Degrees.  This is a bright glass-fleck fuschia pink shade.  Extremely pretty and reminded me of the old China Glaze It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere, but more pigmented.  Application was pretty good on this one, as with all the shimmers.

Cha Cha Cha.  This is rumoured to be a dupe to the infamous Moonpool, and I wish I had it to compare to tell you for sure :p  But in the meantime, this is good enough for me.  It's pretty, but I need to compare it to Icing Sour Apple, Sally Hansen Spark (I think that's the one) and a couple other supposed Moonpool dupes I own.  Also, I don't really know if it's all that unique - seems there's a billion light greens with gold shimmer out there (Zoya Midori comes to mind).

Blue Iguana.  This was my favorite out of the bunch, and not just because I'm a sucker for blue.  It was just so glowy - the glass-fleck finish really sparkles on this one.  Also, it kind of reminds me of a brighter Drinking My Blues Away :)

Senorita Bonita.  My least favorite of the shimmers.  It was much more sheer than the others- this is three coats, and could've used a fourth, whereas the others are all two.  It's okay - as well as the glass fleck, there's some interesting blue and red sparkle going on in there as well, but the sheerness turned me off :-/

Electric Pineapple.  I liked this a lot more than I thought I would.  The formula was not as horrible as I anticipated a yellow creme would be - a tad steaky, but nice and pigmented and not too thick.  As far as the colour goes, it's a bit of an odd duck...

It's kind of a cross between OPI Who The Shrek Are You? and Fiercely Fiona, leaning much more toward FF but with a touch more Shrek green in it.  It's like they had a baby.  A little greenish, jaundiced alien baby. 

Aaaanyway.... last one.

This is Papaya Punch.  I'm guessing that you can tell by now that I wasn't horribly enamoured by it.  I dunno, it's a nice tangerine creme, but I just don't really think it's horribly unique.  Also, I like orange polish most of the time, but I've always hated the colour orange.  I have this unfair prejudice towards orange - I don't like things that are orange (except kitties!), and orange-flavoured.  Oranges, as in the actual fruit, are good and well, as well as OJ - just not orange skittles, orange candies, orange froot loops, orange popsicles, etc...  And no orange clothes, either.  I know, I'm the weirdest freak in the world and you probably feel sorry for my parents  :p  But yeah, I've tried to keep this prejudice from extending to my polish tastes, and I've succeeded I think (I can name at least ten orange polishes that I love), but for me to love it an orange polish has to be more than just... an orange polish  :p  And this is just an orange creme.  I could take it or leave it. 

Overall, this collection was a lot nicer than I thought it would be, but it wasn't the most awesome or unique thing I've ever seen.  I'm glad I picked it up though - it's worth it for the glass-fleck finish of the shimmers and the Moonpool-similarity-factor of Cha Cha Cha alone, and I do think Electric Pineapple will look great on my toes come sandal season :)

Alright, that's all for today.  Thanks for looking, and I'll be back in the next day or two with more swatches!