I ordered five of the shades from China Glaze's The Hunger Games Capitol Colours collection, which arrived just yesterday. When I first saw the colours of this collection, I was kind of disappointed because I knew I wouldn't wear half of the shades. Not that they weren't pretty; they just weren't very unique (like, another taupe? Really?). But I understand that they created a shade for each of the 12 districts in The Hunger Games, and I do feel like the shades represent the districts fairly well, for the most part. The five I chose are what I think are the prettiest and most interesting of the collection. In general, the colours are definitely more suited to autumn/winter, but if you're like me and you just don't care about trends, you'll rock these year-round. I decided to test out two of the shades together as one nail look:
Smoke & Ashes (one coat) with Luxe & Lush (two coats)
Smoke & Ashes is a dark blue-based black with fine blue and green holographic shimmer. This shade is named for District 12 for mining. It is on the thicker side, but it goes on smoothly and evenly without pulling, streaking, or bubbling. It goes opaque in one medium-thick coat. I found that the gorgeous shimmer that you see in the bottle doesn't translate very well on the nails; to me, it just looked like black nail polish with barely susceptible shimmer. You can really only see the blue-green holographic aspect of the shimmer in natural lighting and, even then, it's really subtle. I couldn't think of a dupe for this, though.Luxe & Lush is a clear top coat with duochrome flakes. This shade is named for District 1 for luxury. This is a really, really pretty top coat, 'cause the flakes will reflect different colours depending on the lighting; it will reflect orange, gold, green, teal, and pink, to a lesser extent. If you decide to wear it on top of another colour, it will also help determine what colours the flakes will reflect. I also find that the flakes look more stunning and defined on top of a darker nail colour (as opposed to a lighter one). One coat of this will give a decent amount of flakes on the nail, but two coats will make it more even across the nail bed. I couldn't think of a dupe for this, but Zoya's Fleck Effects top coats are similar in concept.
I'm actually really loving the look of Luxe & Lush on top of Smoke & Ashes, which look so stunning together but not nearly as exciting when worn separately. I was kind of disappointed that the shimmer didn't show up very well in Smoke & Ashes, 'cause it looks so damn pretty in the bottle. I'm really glad I got Luxe & Lush, though, 'cause I totally refrained from buying Zoya's Fleck Effects, even though I really liked the look of them. What are your thoughts on this look? Are you going to pick up any shades from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection?
Ohh Luxe & Lush looks gorgeous on you. I have Smoke & Ashes but I didn't really like it. I thought it was pretty but like you said the shimmer wasn't very visible. It looked more black than anything.
ReplyDeleteI really like the simple metallic taupey champagne shade (I think it's Hook & Line) but man, it's so hard to work with. I can't seem to paint it in a way that it doesn't scream "amateur" :)
I do love Agro (like a blackened olive gold) but I thought it would be more black than gold..if that makes any sense.
Overall I think the colours on the bottle are not too close to what they appear.
Yeah, totally, I had so much hope for Smoke & Ashes -- I took photos of it alone and the shimmer just did not want to translate through. This whole nail look is really awesome because of Luxe & Lush -- I could easily have used any black nail polish underneath. :P
DeleteIs Hook & Line the one that is SUPER STREAKY so you can see every brush stroke? Lol.
I have Agro... Going to see how it goes on, but from the swatches I've seen online, it comes out rather olive green! It's okay, I figure I can just slap on Luxe & Lush and it'll make any polish look better, lol!
I can only say what I think about these colours 'cause I haven't tested any of the other ones... But I will probably do one with Riveting + Electrify. :) I'm not usually an orange person, but this one looks ridiculously bright and awesome, lol.
*cough* Yeah..Hook & Line. Such a waste. I will keep trying though :)
DeleteRiveting & Electrify were nice but I'm not an orange person. Looking forward to what you'll do with 'em.
Yeah, I ordered online so I looked up all the swatches before deciding which ones to get... Hook & Line is such a pretty colour, so it was disappointing to see that it applied so badly. :( What other colours did you get? :)
DeleteLOL, I'm not an orange person, either. I thought I would expand my horizons with this collection. :P
I got Agro, Smoke & Ashes, Dress Me Up, Stone Cold and Hook & Line. I like most of them though I cut all my nails recently to really, really short. Honestly I don't know why I did it, was just feeling a bit annoyed with long nails I think.
DeleteLOL, I'm the same way with my nails. I cut the super-short like, last week, and anything I put on them just emphasizes the shortness. :P But yeah, I totally get annoyed with long nails after a while. Have you tried Stone Cold yet? I was going to get it, but the matte finish turned me off, lol.
Deletethe two best colours from the collections <3
ReplyDeleteTotally agreed! Although Luxe & Lush looks pretty good on top of Agro as well. :)
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