China Glaze Khrome For Fall/Winter 2009

When I first heard that China Glaze was doing more chromes, my first thought was, "Oooh, Konad!" and then, "Didn't the do chromes already this year?"

And then I tried them... These chromes are much different than the Romantique chromes. Still good for Konad, but the Khrome collection chromes are nearly mirror-like.


2030. An excellent soft gold chrome. Very smooth and reflective. China Glaze calls this a warm gold, but you know, I think it seems pretty neutral to me. Which is a good thing!


Hi-Tek. Low life... hi-tek... the vectors in control, long live the new flesh... Ahhh, I just love it when a polish name gives me an earworm! Better yet when it's one of my favorite songs! Anyway.... Hi-Tek is a bronzy, coppery warm toned chrome. Maybe even what I'd consider rose-gold. Very smooth and reflective, all of these chromes are super reflective! You can see how nicely decorated my bottle is... Hehehehe :) Of all the bottles that I would expect to break in transit, I'd never expect a China Glaze! They're so sturdy! I was shocked! But it's okay, I think my bottle of Hi-Tek kinda looks like a trophy:




Metallic Muse. Blue-green "seafoam" chrome. The picture really says it all. Shiny, reflective seafoam chrome. Beautiful color for a chrome, too.



Millennium. Superb pure silver chrome. This is my new favorite silver chrome. It really doesn't look like much in the bottle, but when you apply it and it starts to dry, the mirror-like shine starts to appear and you just go "whoa."

Robotika. Soft warm-toned plum-brown chrome. This one kinda reminds me of an old penny- not so old that it's turned completely brown but one that is definitely not its former shiny copper self. I really like the name of this one. Except... it makes me think "Robotnik"... bonus!


Sci-Fi. A silver chrome base with a blue-lavender tint. I wore this one for a while and noticed that it seems to change tones in different lights. Indoors at night, under my kitchen light it looked like a pink-taupe and outside it looked grey. It's a chameleon!

Just for reference, here's one of the Romantique chromes:

Devotion. The Romantiques are reflective, but not as reflective as the Khromes. The Romantiques also showed the brushstrokes in the polish, which the Khromes don't do.


There are a couple of things you need to know about chrome polish formula. One, it dries super, super fast so it's a good choice if you're in a hurry. Two, it shows every single flaw on your nail. Before using a chrome polish, you'll want to either buff out your nail ridges or apply one or two coats of a ridge-filling basecoat, or my recommendation- BOTH. I have ridges- pretty bad ones on some nails- and there is no hiding them in a chrome polish.

These particular chromes, or Khromes rather, have excellent formula. It's smooth and even and extremely opaque. You really could get away with only one coat with most of these- I did two. The drying time is excellent. You can put two coats of one of these on right before you walk out the door and be fine. As far as topcoat goes- I don't think it even needs it. Actually, I think they look better without topcoat. These are some of the most reflective chromes I've ever worn-much more reflective than the old Sally Hansens or Avons or Revlons. This is probably the closest you can get to Minx without using foils. It's not a true mirror-look like Minx, but it's the closest I've seen in polish.

My favorite thing about chromes is that they are *perfect* for Konad. I used two of these for Konads recently, and they turned out AWESOME. Observe:

2030 over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Not the best picture, it was taken inside at night. This is my favorite Konad I've done so far. It looks amazing in real life, you have to try it for yourself! The glitter from Emerald Sparkle flashes through between the lines of the design... ugh... so awesome. I think the plate was M73.


Millennium on Orly Matte Vinyl. Chrome on matte is another cool look. It's really bold! The only thing is that the two polishes don't get along well- stuff doesn't seem to want to stick to the matte- and the lines come off in whole pieces after a while. I don't remember what plate number this is- it's one of the "Special" plates- this one is the cowboy plate with the badge and the rodeo thingy.


Overall, I dig these. Good application, amazing for Konad. The colors themselves aren't that special, it's the finish that makes them. I love the futuristic names! Maybe, in the future, robots would wear this polish... And I bet Future Sailors would too.

These are available online and at Sally, but I haven't seen them at Ulta yet.