Wednesday, November 01, 2017

CND Playland Collection Swatches

A few months ago the lovely people at CND sent me their Creative Play Playland Collection to try out! I don't know how other artists feel about swatching, but I always find it to be rather time consuming to swatch and photograph 8 polishes, so it took me a while to put time aside to sit and test out these polishes. With that being said, you guys may recognize some of the polishes I'll be showing you in this post because I started using them in designs way before I had the opportunity to test them out fully.




This collection includes 8 polishes: two glitters, one shimmer, one (I suspect) sheer, and four cremes. All of the swatches were done with two coats of colour + topcoat unless otherwise stated in the description of the polish. 



Amuse-mint is a mint creme polish. This polish had full coverage in two coats and it was probably my favourite polish in the collection. The colour is so fresh and summery (though it's a little late in the year for that now) and it's definitely been a useful colour to have at my disposal design-wise.





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Aquaslide is a medium blue creme polish. In my notes on this polish I've written down that I thought the first coat was quite thin - even more so than most first coats - and that it was still a little bit thin after two coats but was significantly less streaky. I think you can kind of see what I meant in the photo above; you can still vaguely see through to my nail on the middle and ring finger after two coats. With that being said I do like the colour of this polish; it's another one that's useful for details in designs even if it may not be one I would use as a base colour.



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Bling Toss is the first for the two glitter polishes in this collection. It's a silver/holo glitter polish that features multiple sizes of hexagonal glitter pieces in a clear polish. I tried this polish out in two ways, first sponged onto the nail for an opaque look and then again over top of Aquaslide as a glitter topper. The polish sponged onto the nail the way most glitter polishes do which was fine, though I do find that polishes with such large pieces of glitter tend to look a little bit chunky when sponged onto the nail. Using this technique I found that the polish almost rivaled diamond nails, though you can't tell as much in photos because I'm honestly terrible at getting holo polishes to photograph true-to-life. If you're planning on taking the sponging route with this polish I would highly recommend using a peel-off basecoat (I always use liquid latex as a peel off base) so that you aren't pulling your hair out trying to soak the glitter off with acetone.
The second method I tried was to use Bling Toss as a glitter topper. To be perfectly honest, glitter toppers aren't really my thing so it wasn't my favourite look, but if you're into adding a bit of sparkle over your regular polish then this could definitely be a look that works for you!



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Candycade is (what I am deeming) a sheer pink polish. According to CND's website, Candycade is considered a creme, but to be perfectly honest with you there's no way that I would consider it that. While yes it has no glitter or shimmer to it, it also lacks the opacity that I would personally associate with a creme polish. In-bottle it does appear to be a creme, but as soon as you put it onto the nail you can tell it just doesn't have the formula of a regular creme. Even after three thick coats I still felt that the polish was kind of too thin but I didn't want to layer up anymore so that's the point I stopped at. In saying all of this, as long as you approach this polish with the mindset that it is indeed supposed to be sheer, then it's perfectly fine and the colour is quite nice. I actually made use of the translucent quality of this polish in a rose quartz design a few months ago and it worked out perfectly - you could add the details of the design in white acrylic paint between the layers of polish and still see them in the finished design. So on that note, as long as you know to expect a sheer polish then this colour should work fine for you.



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Carou-Celery is a bright green creme polish. This was another interesting one, I found it also to be quite sheer and I had to use three coats for it to be opaque. I kind of knew it was going to be like that though because I had remembered it being kind of thin when I was trying to use it in a design this summer. I think as a solid base colour this polish will compliment some skin tones better than others; in my case I didn't think it was really my best colour but I can see it working well for others. One thing that I should mention though is that even though I don't keep polishes on for very long while I swatch them (I only wear them long enough to dry and then take photos before taking them off), in that short amount of time I felt like this polish stained my nails a bit - and yes, I was wearing a base coat. Not sure if it was just a bit of residual staining that was accentuated by the yellowness of my nails, but just something that I thought should be mentioned.



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Cherry-Glo-Round is a bright pink shimmer polish. I used three coats for this swatch, but only because I had gotten a nick in one of the nails while it was drying - two coats would have been fine for opaqueness. I thought this polish was really pretty and it kind of made me feel like a Barbie (in a good way). I ended up wearing this polish when I went on a 3 day camping trip and I felt like it held up pretty well and was pretty chip-resistant. I did find after taking it off though that this polish also stained my nails a bit, so just be careful of that for long-term wear.



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Hold on Bright! is an orange creme polish. I really liked the formula of this polish and thought that the colour came through really nicely. This is another colour from this collection that I use all the time now for designs; it's definitely been a welcome addition to my collection of orange polishes! As a base colour I think it'd be a good, bright shade for summer but could also be worn in fall, especially if you wanted to do some kind of pumpkin design with it for Halloween!



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Look No Hands is the second glitter polish in this collection. This one features multiple sizes of pink/holo glitter in clear polish, and I once again swatched it both on its own and overtop of another polish (Candycade). As with Bling Toss, this polish sponged on pretty well and it looked very glitzy and sparkly on the nail. My feelings about glitter toppers are still the same, though putting this pink glitter over a pink base polish did look pretty cute and kind of made me feel like a princess. 😂 If you're looking for something cute and sparkly then this polish may just be your answer!



And that's a wrap on CND's Playland Collection! This line of polishes is really fun and bright so if that's something you're looking for in your polish then this may be something you want to try out. Another fun thing about this collection was how it was packaged when I received it: instead of the typical chic black bag CND's product usually arrive it, this collection was housed in a red-and-white striped bag. Some extra treats were also included, like cotton candy samples matching the polish colours and even a clown nose!


Thank you again to CND and the team at ASC for sending this collection my way!

xo,
Becca.

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