China Glaze - Creative Fantasy

The latest new collection from China Glaze is the Worlds Away Cirque du Soleil collection. I was surprised to see it in stock at my local tiny shop, as they're usually a bit behind on new collections. Anyway, I bought two, this one and the bright pink, Escaping Reality.

This is Creative Fantasy, three coats with topcoat.

Creative Fantasy is a grape purple jelly. Application is a little tricky, but I think it's worth it! The first coat is pretty hideous - streaky and patchy and ugly. It's also quite a watery formula, so there is higher likelihood of flooding the cuticles. The second coat looks good though, and I think the third coat makes it perfect. This dries to a satiny matte sheen, so these photos are with topcoat. I used Seche Vite, which did give me quite a bit of tip shrinkage, so next time I think I'd use a different topcoat.

I love how this looks! It reminds me of the little pots of grape jelly you get in hotels in the States. I love how juicy it looks, and how the colour deepens with multiple coats.

I also really like how the colour shows a bit paler at the edges. I think this might work for a syrup gradient type mani, which I've seen on other blogs and been tempted by...