The China Glaze Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away Inspired Collection for Winter 2012 includes twelve China Glaze Nail Lacquers ($7 USD / $8 CAD) in a variety of bold and unique colors and textures, inspired by the upcoming 3D film “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” in theatres December 21, 2012.

This limited-edition collection features 6 cream, 2 shimmer, 1 micro-glitter and 3 chunky glitter polishes. This unique collaboration is exciting for many, like myself, who adore Cirque du Soleil and love the detail and artistic expression of the makeup in each show. This nail lacquer collection really reflects the unique colors and textures seen in the makeup, costumes and theatre design. This collection is available now online and specialty beauty retailers.

China Glaze Nail Lacquers (L-R): Bend Over Backwards, Water You Waiting For & Escaping Reality

China Glaze Nail Lacquers (L-R): Creative Fantasy, It’s A Trapeze & Def Defying

China Glaze Nail Lacquers (L-R): Igniting Love, Get Carried Away & Running In Circles

China Glaze Nail Lacquers (L-R): Surreal Appeal, Whirled Away & Hanging In The Balance

The shades include…

• Bend Over Backwards: Shimmery, true red. This shade is really beautiful, but not too unique.
• Water You Waiting For: Shimmery blue with green, silver and purple micro glitter. Love the way this shade looks, however it does take 3 coats for an opaque glitter finish.
• Escaping Reality: Neon pink cream; one of my favorites of the collection! Not too “winter” themed… but an awesome shade to have anyways!
• Creative Fantasy: A unique, neon grape with a creamy matte finish. A little more difficult to apply and appeared a bit uneven- I’m not a huge fan of the finish anyways.
• It’s A Trapeze: White cream base with chunky multi-color glitter. Probably one of the grossest textures to apply- seriously, it looks and feels like cottage cheese. After the polish settles on the nail, its not too bad looking.
• Def Defying: A shocking, creamy lime green. Love this shade! Again, not so “winter-y” but I love it anyways… very “Cirque du Soleil” to me.
• Igniting Love: Bright, creamy red. Another great red polish in the vast world of red polishes… so it’s not too unique, but you won’t be disappointed if you pick it up either.
• Get Carried Away: Black cream base with different sized chunky black and red glitter. Possibly one of the worst nail polishes I’ve ever tried in my life. The texture is awful, it’s sheer, and the glitter doesn’t even look nice on the nail. I don’t recommend this one at all!
• Running In Circles: Bright, shimmery green. Totally festive for the Christmas holidays, and again, a great shade (but not too unique).
• Surreal Appeal: Bright, creamy coral. Another beautiful polish! Pigmented, great texture… love it!
• Whirled Away: Clear base with black and white multi-size (and shape) glitter. A very interesting top coat… doesn’t look too nice on it’s own, but I love the way it pops on top of a bright color underneath.
• Hanging In The Balance: Bright, creamy blue. Excellent pigmentation and texture again! Very happy with the bright creams in this collection overall.

A very interesting collection with an incredibly varied color theme and textures. Some unique shades and textures and some classic hues. I found the bright cream polishes to be the best in terms of pigmentation, texture and overall quality- even though they would be more suited for a Spring or Summer collection, I can understand their presence in this one because of the nature of the show.

The shimmers and glitters were mainly decent with a couple disappointments. If China Glaze was going for ‘super unique’ on some of the glitters like It’s A Trapeze and Get Carried Away.. they sure got it, however I’m not too impressed with them. Unique yes… nice? Not really. I feel like the glitter is getting bigger and chunkier and harder to apply… but at least Whirled Away looked nice on top of a bright neon cream shade (which there are a lot of to choose from in this collection)!

My favourites would include Def Defying, Escaping Reality and Hanging In The Balance. Most of the shades in the collection only required two coats except for Water You Waiting For. I would stay far away from Get Carried Away.. because well, they kind of got too carried away with it. It may look cool in the bottle, but it’s just not fun to work with, nor does it look nice on the nail.

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Bend Over Backwards

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Water You Waiting For

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Escaping Reality

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Creative Fantasy

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in It’s A Trapeze

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Def Defying

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Igniting Love

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Get Carried Away

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Running In Circles

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Surreal Appeal

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Whirled Away (on top of Escaping Reality on ring finger)

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Hanging In The Balance

Summary

• Price: $7 USD / $8 CAD for 14mL / 0.5oz
• Availability: Sally Beauty Supply
• Overall: Quite a hit-or-miss collection; the bright creams are beautiful (although more summer and spring appropriate, but I understand they represent the Cirque du Soleil theme) and the glitters are mainly decent. Some are pretty awful in texture and application, while some are okay- the only “unqiue” shade I’d really recommend would be Whirled Away, simply because it looks pretty neat on top of a bright cream color.
• Rating: B+