China Glaze: When Stars Collide & Strap On Your Moonboots

Swatches & Review


Last week, I purchased seven of the twelve colors from China Glaze's Spring Hologlam collection. When I first heard about this collection, I was super excited because it was supposed to have a holographic finish & China Glaze had some of the best in the past (OMG collection & Kaleidoscope collection). The first two I tried are When Stars Collide and Strap On Your Moonboots, which were the two I wanted the most from the collection.

When Stars Collide: Deep purple. It leans kind of like a maroon shade, but I wouldn't call it maroon since it is not too much on the red-ish-purple side.
Strap On Your Moonboots: Dark denim blue.

These two pictures were of the nail polish taken indoors. For two of my fingers, I used Nfu-Oh's aqua base, and for my other two, I used no bases at all.
What I found with using the aqua base was that the nail polish applied unevenly and there was folding. When used without the base, it definitely shows the imperfection of the nails, but applying it without the base was definitely easier. However, when used with the aqua base, the color of Strap On Your Moonboots was a darker blue than applied without the base. All of these were applied with two coats. When indoor, the holographic finish is very subtle. It looks more like a metallic nail polish finish than holographic because they are very silver-y.

These were taken outdoor. The holographic effect is better outdoor than indoor.

These were taken outdoor with my smart phone, which is why my fingers look a bit more washed out than the one above. Like the other one, the holographic finish is better outside than inside.

When Stars Collide and Strap On Your Moonboots are the two that are supposed to have the best holographic finish. If this is really true, then this collection is definitely disappointing. The colors are there and have great potential to be very nice holographic finish nail polishes, but when this is compared to their older collections, Color Club's Halo Hues & Urban Outfitter's holographic nail polishes, these are underwhelming. The colors of these two are gorgeous and they applied easily without a base. Although it shows imperfection of the nails, I definitely would apply these without a base because the way these applied after the aqua base was completely dried was not nice. It looks more imperfect then my nail itself. If I were to choose Color Club's Halo Hues or this, I would definitely choose the Halo Hues. These retail for $14 each, but can be found on online e-tailers for cheaper, such as nailetc.com, 8ty8beauty.com, etc.. (I am not affiliated with these websites).

What do you think about the Hologlam collection from China Glaze? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! :)