China Glaze – Up & Away Spring 2010: Swatches and Review

Wow… just wow. When I received my samples from China Glaze’s upcoming Spring 2010 collection Up & Away I was speechless for a moment. The entire collection.. every nail polish out of the twelve nail polishes from this collection is beautiful. Actually most of them are even breathtaking.

Up & Away contains twelve creme nail polishes from pastel to bright. The texture of almost all of them was fantastic. I only had some creme application issues with a few of them.

Some of these nail polishes seem to be very camera shy, though. Especially Four Leaft Clover and Flyin’ High looked way off on the pictures but what’s color correction for, right?
I would say that the color of them all after color correction is now 95-99% color accurate in daylight.

Flyin’ High

The color of Flyin’ High is a gorgeous medium blue that strongly leans on the teal side. I would call it For Audrey’s darker brother. Loves it.
I used two coats. The second coat was thick though so I guess 2 ½ would be more accurate.

Four Leaf Clover

I am blinded by this bright teal that is more on the green side. It is almost neon and even a bit brighter IRL. If you love green and bright nail polishes.. I dare say you need this one.
This is 2 ½ coats too.

Grape Pop

Purple!
This would actually be enough reason for me to purchase this dark purple nail polish. It is not too cool toned.. not too warm.. it is a perfect purple on the blue side but with warm undertones.
The application of this one was a dream and I only needed two coats.

Happy Go Lucky

This color cheers me up in the bad weather we are having here. It is the perfect sunny yellow. The texture was a bit gloopy and I needed three coats.

Heli-Yum

This one cheers me up, too! Heli-Yum somehow reminds me the most of balloons.
I love this medium warm toned pink. The texture was perfect on this one too and I only needed two coats.

High Hopes

Another fun color! The color of High Hopes reminds me of MAC’s (unfortunately discontinued) cream color base Virgin Isle with a bit more pink in it. I used three coats and it was a bit gloopy too. Not much but I needed the third coat to make the color even.

Lemon Fizz

I was a bit scared that this color could look weird on me when I first saw the promo pictures but I was wrong. It works great with my skintone (MAC NC15). This is three coats.

Light As Air

Love. L.O.V.E. Light As Air was one of the nail polishes I was looking forward to the most. And it came up to all my expectations. Light As Air is a very pale lavender that is close to Agent Lavender in its lightness but warmer and a tad more gray. Though pastel scream spring it does look like a nice fall color too because of its gray undertone.
The texture of Light As Air is a dream too. I only needed two coats.

Peachy Keen

Peachy Keen is a really gorgeous color but it just doesn’t work with my skintone. It kinda looks fleshy ..a peachy fleshy.. on my nails which is sad because I was looking forward to this color. Maybe I could make it work with some white Konad motifs over it but I am afraid that I can’t wear this one alone. However it should look nice on darker skintones especially with pink undertones.
I used three coats.

Re-Fresh Mint

Re-Fresh Mint probably will be the most popular nail polish from this collection. It is a very pale mint green that has more yellow to it than Essie’s Mint Candy Apple which makes it different enough to purchase it IMO. The color mint green for nail polishes is huge right now and I think I need a backup for it. I am in love.. yes.
I used three coats.

Something Sweet

If you are looking for a very pale baby pink.. this is the color for you. It is so cute but also not too girly. Like a grown up baby pink if that makes sense. It is not a very warm pink.. more a cooler toned pastel pink.
This is three coats.

Sugar High

Sugar High is such a great name for this nail polish because it does look like candy. Another one of my favorites.
The texture of this one was great too and I only needed two coats.

Overall I am very happy with this collection. It is the perfect spring collection with a lot of bright colors that will be perfect for the summer too.

My favorites are Light As Air, Re-Fresh Mint, Grape Pop, Sugar High, Lemon Fizz, Four Leaf Clover and Heli-Yum… and Happy Go Lucky and Flyin’ High and High Hopes and Something Sweet. So actually all of them. I only have to exclude Peachy Keen because it doesn’t work with my skintone.

What is on your lemming list now?
I definitely need backups of Re-Fresh Mint and Light As Air and probably Grape Pop too.

Newly added: Up & Away swatches on MAC foundation shades

Flyin’ High

Four Leaf Clover

Grape Pop

Happy Go Lucky

Heli-Yum

High Hopes

Lemon Fizz

Light As Air

Peachy Keen

Re-Fresh Mint

Something Sweet

Sugar High

Disclosure
The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR Company for consideration. Please visit my About tab for more information.

Tags: China Glaze, creme, pastel
Posted in Reviews |