China Glaze Summer 2009 Kicks Collection

Like past China Glaze collections, Kicks is broken up into two parts. Usually it's a warm and a cool palette, but this time I don't understand the distinction between set 1 and set 2. Colors and nearly-identical pinks and oranges? Meh, who knows.




B-Girlz. Pink shimmer.




Breakin'. Light orange shimmer.




Custom Kicks. Teal with gold shimmer. WARNING: This picture is not accurate. In my picture it looks like an electric blue, but in real life it is a darker, less neon-looking teal with rich gold shimmer. I tried my best, but my camera wouldn't pick it up.




Entourage. Light green shimmer.





Fly. Purple shimmer.




It's Poppin'. Pink shimmer.





Laced-Up. Pink creme.




Oh How Street It Is. Red-orange creme.




Paper Chasing. Sheer green shimmer.




Sky High Top. Blue shimmer.



Sneaker Head. Light reddish creme.



Style Wars. Jelly-ish orange creme.



This is a collection of shades that are bright without being neon. They're not terribly bright, actually... They're more colorful and vibrant than bright. These are fun shades but they're not notice-me-from-a-mile-away shades.

I'm really happy to see some oranges! The thought never crosses my mind until I see an orange polish, but we really don't see a whole lot of orange polish being released. I love orange, and these are really great oranges.

I'm also extremely happy to see two greens and two blues in this collection, but I am a bit disappointed that the greens aren't very unique. Entourage is pretty similar to Tree Hugger (they're not exact matches) and Paper Chasing is almost identical to Piggy Polish Lily's Pad. Lily's Pad seems slightly lighter, Paper Chasing a little deeper.

My favorites are Breakin', Entourage, Style Wars, Custom Kicks and Sky High Top. I would have put Paper Chasing in my top five if it hadn't been so sheer! It's a fantastic color, but China Glaze formula and multiple coats don't mix- it would take days to dry!

The formula on these is all over the place. Some are very sheer, like Paper Chasing (five coats in that picture) and Style Wars, and some are very opaque (Custom Kicks, Sky High Top). Some are thick, some are thin, a little bit unpredictable. The best formula was on the creme oranges and the blues. The worst was the pinks, especially Laced-Up- thick and stringy but runny at the same time. Drying time seemed better on these shades than on previous collections.

Overall, not a bad collection but not terribly unique. You can't go wrong with brights, especially for summer, but I would have liked to see more variation in the shades. The pinks and oranges are only a couple shades off from each other. The greens were nice, but I also would have liked Paper Chasing more if it was less sheer.

One thing's for sure- China Glaze is not afraid of color! When was the last time you saw China Glaze release a collection of boring sheers and nudes? A long time ago. They've been blessing us with amazing colors for years and I hope that doesn't change!

While this collection may not rank up there with the awesomeness of collections like Ink, Rodeo Diva, Bahama Blues, OMG, Kaleidoscope or Ski, it's still colorful, un-intimidating, fun and totally wearable.