China Glaze Haunting Collection Halloween 2011 Swatches and Review

Only a few more weeks until Halloween! Do you have your Halloween mani picked out yet? I haven't decided on what to wear. Do I wear a Halloween-themed mani, or do I wear something that goes with my costume? Oh yeah... I should probably decide on a costume, too...

Anyway, here's China Glaze's Halloween collection for this year. No amazing orange glitter this time, but there's still some great colors in this set! The collection is called Haunting and it consists of:


It's Alive! What a great glitter. It's bright and shiny, it has a jelly base which gives it depth and it dries fairly smooth and shiny for something with so much glitter. All the qualities of a perfect glitter polish. It's Alive! is a murky, swampy, grey-green jelly base with tiny lime green glitter and larger round lime green glitter. The glitter is nice and shiny and sparkly, it does not look even a little bit dull. Perfection.


Crimson. This looks black here, but it's actually a dark burgundy-purple. On the first coat it looks like a red toned purple glaze, but by adding the second coat it becomes a blackened wine purple. Extremely dark with a hint of redness in the right lighting. I don't think Crimson is really the right name for it, as it's not really crimson at all... More like aubergine.



Haunting. A black base with silver glitter. A simple combination, yet somehow Haunting manages to be a little bit different. The glitter is really tiny and delicate and is spaced so perfectly that it looks like a pitch-black sky with millions of twinkling stars. This one is very smooth and shiny just like It's Alive!.



Near Dark. Oops... had a little accident with a bottle of Crimson... But that bottle looks pretty cool, doesn't it? All halloweeny, like dripping blood! Anyway, Near Dark is just like it sounds. Near dark. Well, okay, maybe it is actually dark, not just near it, but you know what I mean. It's a very, very dark mossy green creme. It looks black in most lights, but not the way NARS Zulu looks black. This is softer and dustier and not a jelly. Closest thing I can compare it to is Zoya Envy. I included a flash picture to show you the base color- nice and green!


This collection is available as individual bottles, or as a four-piece set that includes bottles of Black Mesh crackle topcoat and Ghoulish Glow Glow In The Dark topcoat. Lots of layering possibilities! How about...


It's Alive! (one coat) over Near Dark. These are practically made for each other. One thin coat of It's Alive is all I need over Near Dark. Near Dark enhances the green base in It's Alive. Plus, it's easier to remove all that glitter when there's a non-glitter polish underneath.



Ghoulish Glow Glow In The Dark Polish over It's Alive! Ghoulish Glow adds a milky pale green cast to anything you layer it over, so keep that in mind when you're thinking about color combinations. It's sheer at one coat, so it doesn't change the color too much. Sadly, Ghoulish Glow doesn't seem to glow much on the nail.


Black Mesh Crackle Topcoat over Ghoulish Glow over It's Alive! If my nail polish looks thick here, that's because it is! I just kept layering polish on top of polish and the whole thing is still wet in this picture. Black Mesh looks good over glitter!



Tried to capture the subtle glow of Ghoulish Glow between the cracks in Black Mesh, but it wasn't really strong enough to show up. You can see a hint of it, especially on the cuticle end of my middle and ring fingers, but even in real life it's very subtle.

The formula on these was good. Standard China Glaze formula, no surprises. I used three coats of each polish for these pictures, but only Near Dark really needed the third coat. Drying time is good, no problems with application, all around strong formula. The brush in my Crimson was a little rough on the edges, but that's really the only flaw I experienced.

Now, Ghoulish Glow. I have mixed feelings about it. The year they first released it, I bought six bottles. I thought it was going to be the BEST GLOW IN THE DARK TOPCOAT EVER!! and got a little too excited about it. In the bottle, it is the brightest, glowiest, craziest, longest-lasting glow of any glow in the dark polish I've seen. However, on the nail, it barely glows at all. I have heard that it glows really well when layered over white nail polish, but I've personally not tried that. Maybe I should. Personally, I have the best results with Fantasy Makers glow in the dark topcoat (Night Glow), but, of course, your mileage may vary.

Overall, not the most obviously Halloween-looking polishes, but a good set nonetheless! No orange... Thinking outside the box this year, eh? I love the shiny glitters, the vampy cremes are sexy (but not the most imaginative colors) and the crackle and glow in the dark topcoats compliment the theme of the collection. If you are a glitter lover, you might want to get your hands on It's Alive! before it sells out. It's really a glitter worth having.

(Most of these were sent to me for review.)