[SWATCH] China Glaze: Smoke and Ashes

I can never resist a good glitter, especially the ones that promise crazy, beautiful and colour-shifting goodness like Smoke and Ashes. This is from the Hunger Games collection from a few years back, but I never paid much attention to this collection until I saw this baby in the bottle. I've been trying to give more love to other nail polish brands lately because my collection is so heavily dominated by OPI. I figured that diversity is never a bad thing.

Cost - I bought mine for about $5

ALL PHOTOS HAVE:

• Orly - Bonder
• China Glaze - 2 coats of Smoke and Ashes
• 3CE Nail Lacquer - Top Coat

Application

This polish was an absolute breeze to apply, and if you were super careful and applied a thicker coat, you could probably get away with one coat. I went with two coats cause I'm anal retentive and patchiness gives me anxiety. The China Glaze brush is thin and flexible, allowing for very precise application. Literally have no complaints about the way this applied. Thumbs up all the way!

Colour + Finish

Smoke and Ashes is incredible amalgamation of green to blue shifting glitter flecks suspended in a complementary dark base ... in the bottle. On the nail, it kind of falls flat on its face. The almost-black base colour swallows the glitter and only gives it a tiny window of opportunity to shine. I'd literally have to stick my hands in direct sunlight and wiggle my fingers back and forth to properly admire the colour at its zenith. You can still see hints of the glitter in indirect sunlight, but it's just so much more disappointing than I expected. Although, it is prettier in person than it photographs.

Longevity + Removal

As with most nail polishes on me, the lasting power isn't particularly remarkable. Nail polish tends to last about a week before I feel the need to change it (if I hadn't already) and this one did not deviate from the norm. There was very minor tip wear on day two, which gradually progressed but not to an anxiety-inducing extent.

Removal was not as painful as I expected it to be despite the glitter factor. HOWEVER, you should note that your fingers will most probably be plastered with the same glitter that was on your nail post-removal, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you wanna be a unicorn.

Rating: 4/10

Thank you for reading !