This year is off to a really good start, polish-wise. The second new collection of 2011 is a great one- China Glaze Anchors Away. Looks like there's going to be a soft and muted yet not quite pastel color trend this spring...
Ahoy! You all know I'm not big on pink, but this pink is AMAZING. It's more of a deep magenta than a true pink, but it's a jelly and it has iridescent gold shimmer. The combination of the bright, colorful jelly and the glowing gold shimmer is just fantastic. The jelly base tints the gold flecks a little so you get lots of different tones sparking on your nails.
Below Deck. One of those ever-popular purple-grey shades. Is it Greige? I forget what term everyone's using for these now... Grurple? Anyway, I've heard from a few people that this was intended to be a replica of the old Channelesque, and it does look pretty similar! Channelesque seems lighter to me, though. This one reminds me more of Metro Chic.
First Mate. Lovely soft navy blue creme. It looks too bright in this picture- in real life it has a really soft, dusty sort of look. Really pretty. One of the only navy shades I like... Most of the time I feel like Navy can't decide if it's blue or black and it's always so dull... this one is perfect.
Hey, Sailor! This is an attention grabber for sure. Crazy bright loud obnoxious red creme. It looks dangerous! I love it. It has that retro sailor pin-up girl look to it, those kinds of reds are my favorites. This is almost a jelly, too, it has that soft squishy look to it when it's applied.
Knotty. This is an interesting shade- it's a glass fleck nude? It's a light tan/beige nude shade with silver-white flecks of shimmer. Maybe not the best color on me, but I really do like looking at it. I don't own many shades like this.
Life Preserver. A soft burnt orange. Really rich looking, so saturated and creamy. I really like orange polish and this one is not the common bright orange. It reminds me a lot of one of the shades from the Immaterial Girl collection from a few years back, but I can't remember the name! Vintage Crepe? Ah, I can't remember and now I'm rambling.
Lighthouse. Holy smokes, this yellow is awesome! And easy to apply! A bright yellow jelly base with shiny, sparkly pale yellow glass fleck shimmer. It has a lot of depth to it, I love the way the shimmer looks sitting in the lower layers of the polish and then how it sparkles at the top layer.
Pelican Gray. Light, pale grey, neutral, with a little soft shimmer to it. It's a hidden shimmer like the kind in Zoya Marley, you can't really see it but it gives a nice soft cloudy look to the color. Love these kinds of greys. Or maybe I just love all greys, I can't decide.
Sea Spray. So many beautiful colors in this collection... this might be one of my top favorites. It's a very pale blue but it's not pastel. It has a lot of grey in it and a very subtle shimmer. It looks rainy. Reminds me of something like Eyeko Rain Polish- rainy sky blue!
Starboard. Soft grassy green. What's not to love about this? It's my favorite type of green, too- yellow-leaning and not too blue. Very creamy soft finish, has that soft, cloudy marshmallow-ish look like the rest of the colors in this set have.
Sunset Sail. A peachy beige nude with some silvery microglitter. Looks a shade or two darker on the nails than it does in the bottle. It's on the warm side but I still think it looks pretty good on my cool skintone!
White Cap. Gorgeous. Sheer white jelly with gold duochrome shimmer. It's like a cross between a glass fleck and a flake finish- tiny little flat flakes that are very, very shiny. It's so bright and luminous, it looks so clean.
The formula on these was good. A little on the thick side, but with flawless application. Not runny or anything like that. The opacity on these is decent but I found that I needed three coats for complete coverage on most shades. All pictures are three coats, no basecoat or topcoat. They dry really shiny without topcoat. Drying time is average.
I really love these shades. Some of them look like other old China Glaze shades but I don't know if any are exact matches. I don't dislike a single shade in this entire collection- they're all beautiful! After all the dark vamps and shiny glitters of fall and winter, I'm really craving these types of soft, greyed-out muted creme shades. The smattering of glass flecks in the collection is just the icing on the cake for me. I'm quite pleased with these. I see myself wearing Sea Spray a lot this spring...
Two thumbs up for me. Refreshing change of pace from all the glitter-heavy manicures I've been sporting lately. Lots of wearable soft shades, very calming and peaceful.
(These were sent to me for review.)
Naked. This is a soft, milky neutral beige. You could call it nude, fleshy... Naked, really. It's almost my perfect 'Mannequin Hands' shade, but it's just a touch too tan. It can be worn sheer, but I think it looks best opaque like I'm wearing it here (three coats).
Glitter In The Air. What can I even say about this color? I'm totally in love. Yes, I am in love with a sheer polish. It's true. I would have never expected this. Let me describe it. It's a milky, cloudy, gentle baby blue jelly. Very sheer. Sprinkled throughout the blue jelly base are shiny bits of large and small pink and blue glitter. It's not a dense glitter and you won't have full coverage with it, but that's the beauty of it. It reminds me of cotton candy and cupcake sprinkles and magic. It's just so romantic and dreamy looking. I'm wearing three coats and it's really sheer. It looks even better at four thin coats but I didn't get a picture of that. If you prefer a more opaque look (or just hate visible nail line), you can easily layer it over pastel blue or a white creme. 
