Part 2 of my review on China Glaze’s ‘Anchors Away Collection’ consists of four shades I refer to as the ‘brights’, for obvious reasons! As with part 1 reviewed here, I cannot help but be completely impressed with the formula on all these polishes; easy flowing, self-leveling and quick drying…what’s not to love?! All swatches are with Sèche Natural base coat, and 3 coats of lacquer, no top coat.
‘Lighthouse’ is a vivid, sunny golden-yellow sheer shimmery shade (say that fast 5 times!), loaded with tiny silver & gold glass flecks. While it did not reach full opacity even by the 3rd coat, it still gave more than decent coverage and all the shimmer made up for any sheerness. This looks more of a warm toned gold in the bottle, but I found that the minute silver flecks in its base means it can lean towards the cool side as well, depending on the light.
At first glance, I thought that ‘Lighthouse & Cowardly Lyin’ might be almost identical, but you can clearly see how much more of a pale lemon yellow Cowardly Lyin’ is beside the brighter gold of Lighthouse. Cowardly Lyin’ is also significantly thinner in application, with much sparser and slightly larger two-toned golden glitter throughout, lending it an almost spotted look next to Lighthouse.
‘Life Preserver’ is a wonderfully rich-looking melon-coral creme. This shade completely reminds me of the faded red of a lifeguard’s buoy, making the name very fitting indeed! While anything orange based can be hard to pull off, the weathered look of this shade make it wearable by all skin tones and will be an amazing summer pedi look.
‘Hey Sailor’ had me stumped; at times it seemed like a blue-based red, at others more orangey. I decided that it must be a bit of both, which in my opinion makes this one of the more versatile reds I’ve seen, easily wearable by both cool & warm toned types. While a bright shade, it still seems to bear a slightly dusty look to it which means it will never seem either overpowering or too garish. As with all red lacquers, clean up can be a touch messy, but this wasn’t that difficult to remove.
‘Ahoy!’ is the pièce de résistance of the 4 shades here! This is unique in my collection of shades, being a raspberry creme polish with an inner fire. The almost orangey looking inner glass flecks, seems to be suspended in the colour, giving this that ‘lit-from-within’ look that adds a whole new level of depth. In the top photo taken in natural light, you can see how cool toned it looks, when compared to the full sun of the bottom photo. I absolutely love how ‘happy’ this shade is and I could not stop staring at its swirling depths!
Final thoughts: The four shades here are all classic summery hues and will work beautifully as either manicure or pedicure shades. I love how this collection mixes not only bright shades with neutrals, and even some darker ones thrown in, but how varied the finishes are, making for an eclectically interesting range. Once again, I am thrilled with the amazing formula on all I’ve tried so far, and the creme shades in particular leave an incredibly glossy finish.
*Disclaimer: product samples were provided by the company/PR for my unbiased consideration
