China Glaze Whirled Away with Gradient

Today I have swatches of China Glaze Whirled Away over a gradient, somewhat inspired by the review swatches done on Spektor's Nails. I thought the black and white gradient was an awesome idea for under a black and white glitter topper, but I really didn't want to attempt a black to white gradient when I'm still pretty new at it. So instead I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet (lightest), Essie Mohito Madness (mid-range), and Misa The Grass is Greener on My Side (darkest).

I was extremely pleased with the way the gradient turned out for the most part. This was my second time ever trying gradients using the sponge method. The first time I didn't think to stamp my nails more than once to solidify the colours, so this time I went over my nails about three times with the gradient to build the nail polish up to be a bit more opaque. Much, much nicer this way, hah!

For the colours themselves, I found that since Mint Sorbet and Mohito Madness were a bit more far apart in shade I had to blend those a bit more to get a smoother gradient in comparison to Mohito Madness and The Grass is Greener, just as a tip!

Now onto the review of Whirled Away. If you notice a bit of unevenness on my nails in the photos, that's entirely my fault. I'm always too impatient with glitters and put them on before my base polishes get a chance to dry completely, so they always sink a bit. The glitters do sit flat, so that's not something you really have to worry about.

Before even opening the bottle, I noticed that the formula was very, very thin. It moved like water in the bottle, and I don't think I'm the only one with this problem. Having read some not-so-great reviews before buying this polish, I decided to go with the sponge method suggested here for application. Basically, someone suggested to paint the glitter onto a sponge and sponge them onto the nail, much like you would when doing a gradient, except you paint directly onto the sponge. This method actually worked out pretty well for me, but i do suggest pressing the sponge onto the nail from bottom to top or vice versa, as stamping side to side may push some glitters onto one side more than the other. 

As others have noted, the white hex glitters were a bit sparse in the bottle, but not too sparse as to cause me too much grief, especially when using the sponge method. Just make sure that you don't paint too much black glitter on before you get a white one or you'll end up with way too much glitter on your nail, or even end up covering the white with a lot of black. Just do some fishing, it won't take too long. Either way, I still think the nails look cool with just the black glitter (see pointer finger), so I look at it as getting two polishes in one! Always the optimist.