China Glaze Avant Garden Spring 2013

Today I have 6 of the new colors from China Glaze's Spring 2013 collection: Avant Garden!  Two from the Blooming Brights set, and four from Pastel Petals.  The following four are from the Pastel set, although I'm not sure if I'd exactly consider them pastels.  They're a bit darker and brighter on the nail than in the bottle.

Tart-y For The Party, 2 coats: "light lavender creme" with blue undertones.  It's very shiny and the formula was excellent in both consistency and pigmentation.  I really like this color!  I originally thought of Nicole by OPI Love Story (Selena Gomez) when I first saw this, but Love Story is darker. 

Fade Into Hue, 3 coats: periwinkle creme-jelly.  The formula was great for this color as well.  It's a little sheerer in comparison to the other colors I reviewed here, because of it's slight jelly like finish.  Still at 3 coats, this was great.  Especially with the squishy shiny finish.  I'd say this is a pretty straightforward periwinkle.

Dandy Lyin' Around, 3 coats with top coat: soft, milky white with shimmer.  This was an unexpected favorite!  It looks very clean, like snow actually.  It has clear/white shimmer, the kind that sparkles pink and green when you look really close.  I also think there might be glass flecks in this, because the shimmer has some depth to it.  The pictures do not do it justice.

When it comes to application, it wasn't stellar, but it wasn't horrible either.  Careful application is required though.  It's best applied in thin coats with ample dry time.  It's really tempting to do medium/thick coats because of the consistency of the formula, but don't fall into that trap!  Your brush will gouge into the polish and you'll have to start over.  I speak from experience. T_T  Otherwise, it's great!  It reminds me of Orly Au Champagne (satin), but with more sparkle and depth.

Life is Rosy, 2 coats: dirty mauve pink creme.  I don't mean to say it looks dirty in a bad way, but it has some grey in it that mutes the color a bit.  I had no problems with the formula on this one: great pigmentation and flow.

Passion for Petals, 2 coats: bright pink creme with a hint of salmon.  China Glaze describes it as a salmon-pink, but I think it's much too pink and bright to be salmon.  It does have a little salmon or coral in it though.  I'm not sure how to describe this pink...but I'd say my picture is pretty accurate. ^^  This color is very pigmented; it's pretty much a one-coater.  Two makes it a bit more opaque.

Snap My Dragon, 2 coats: bright pink-red with pink shimmer.  The shimmer is very fine and kind of blends into the base, but you can see it better in the bottle.  This color is intense!  It's most definitely a one-coater.  I did two for pictures, but I could get away with one coat even on my long nails.

Verdict: The colors I've reviewed all had stellar formulas.  Dandy Lyin' Around is the only one that had an average formula, but I'd still say it's nice given the color and finish.  My favorites were Dandy Lyin' Around and Tart-y For The Party.  But I honestly liked them all except maybe Life Is Rosy -it's just not my type of color- but maybe it'll grow on me.

There are some other colors I'm interested in from this collection, so I may pick those up when they come out.  Especially since these were so good in terms of formula and pigmentation.

Availability: China Glaze Avant Garden will be available March 2013. Individual shades retail for $7; 6-piece collections retail for $42.


Which shades from Avant Garden are you interested in?


Liz

Products in this post were provided to me for my honest review.

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