The China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection for Holiday 2012 includes twelve China Glaze Nail Lacquers ($7 USD / $8 CAD) in a variety of colors and textures. This limited-edition collection features 3 cream, 1 metallic, 1 shimmer, 5 micro-glitter and 2 chunky glitter polishes. With a lot of sparkle, these shades are perfect for the upcoming holiday season and are also available in several different holiday gift sets. These polishes are officially available in November 2012, but I’ve already starting to see them pop up on the web (here and here).

While China Glaze is quite notorious for releasing large, seasonal collections (usually including 12 polishes), I do find them to include a few unique shades along with classic ones.  This collection is very sparkly… nearly all the polishes have a shimmer or glitter to them (which is fun and festive- but not so easy to remove).

(L-R): Cranberry Splash, Blue Bells Ring & Glistening Snow

(L-R): Glitter All The Way, Red Satin & Champagne Kisses

(L-R): Pizzaz, With Love & Angel Wings

(L-R): Pure Joy, Merry Berry & Winter Holly

The shades include…

• Cranberry Splash: Duochromatic red with gold reflects
• Blue Bells Ring: Icy metallic blue
• Glistening Snow: Silver with multicolour micro glitter
• Glitter All The Way: Green, gold and purple glitter
• Red Satin: Pure red cream
• Champagne Kisses: Rose gold with micro glitter
• Pizzaz: Chunky multi color glitter
• With Love: Orange-red cream
• Angel Wings: Yellow gold with micro glitter
• Pure Joy: Red and gold chunky glitter
• Merry Berry: Deep, scarlet red cream
• Winter Holly: Deep green with green & gold micro glitter

All of the cream and metallic shades required only two coats for an opaque finish, but all of the glitters (even micro-glitters) required 3 coats. The glitter polishes would be great for topping off another shade and giving some dimension, but if you want to wear them opaque on their own, they will require more coats.

China Glaze polishes typically last about 3-4 days on me without chipping, but I find the glitter polishes to be a little more resilient, usually lasting 4-5 days (with proper base & top coats).

I think the shades are perfect for the season- there’s a good range of shades, and although there are a lot of glitters, I think that the holidays are all about sparkle and shine- so it’s okay! My favorite shades have to be Champagne Kisses and Glistening Snow, just because I’m a huge glitter polish fan and these two shades were the most unqiue!

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Cranberry Splash

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Blue Bells Ring

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Glistening Snow

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Glitter All The Way

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Red Satin

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Champagne Kisses

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Pizzaz

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in With Love

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Angel Wings

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Pure Joy

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Merry Berry

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Winter Holly

Summary

• Price: $7 USD / $8 CAD for 0.5oz / 14mL
• Availability: China Glaze retailers like Sally Beauty Supply and Nail Polish Canada
• Overall: A very festive collection! A lot of glitters in this set- each requiring 3 coats for an opaque finish, and 2 coats for the other few creams and metallics.  Contains a few unique shades among some classics, as usual from China Glaze. Still one of my favorite brands- so if you see something you like, check it out!
• Rating: A-