China Glaze Sea Goddess for Spring 2014 – Swatches & Review
When it comes to textured nail polish, China Glaze certainly walks to the beat of its own drum. While other brands seem to be all, “the more glitter the merrier”, China Glaze continues to test us with their unique take on the genre. Following up the polarizing Crinkled Chrome collection, China Glaze Sea Goddess mixes the more expected sparkling textures with creamy creations in a range of whimsical, dream-like shades.
Formula & Application
China Glaze Sea Goddess polishes are at least 3-Free (Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP) but because my samples bottles don’t include a label with ingredients, I can’t comment on whether they include Camphor and Formaldehyde Resin. If you have allergies, check the label before purchasing.
The bottle contains a round brush that is both medium in length and firmness with enough give to allow for ease of control. The cap is slightly tapered and made of slightly textured silver plastic that is comfortable to hold.
The consistency of the polishes differs based on the finish. All four of the metallic sparkles are relatively smooth and glide easily on the nail though due to the high amount of textured particles, it does get a bit chunkier as you apply additional coats. The two creme based shades, on the other hand, are lumpy and challenging to work with.
With the four glitter shades, I only needed two coats while the creme shades required three.
China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla has a creamy white base that looks to have the slightest hint of pink, mixed with tonal bead texture and multi-colored micro-glitter. It reminds me of Funfetti frosting with its odd matte finish. Don’t even get me started on the name. Anything that references Honey Boo Boo makes my skin crawl.
China Glaze Sand Dolla Make You Holla
China Glaze Seahorsin’ Around it a highly metallic turquoise texture blended with fine gold shimmer. To borrow a phrase from China Glaze’s description, it has a “mermaid tail” quality.
China Glaze Seahorsin’ Around
China Glaze Shell We Dance is a bright raspberry texture interspersed with bright pink glitter and slightly larger light pink glitters than can look somewhat silvery in the light. It’s a lighter version of Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle.
China Glaze Shell We Dance
China Glaze Tail Me Something contains a range of pale to medium toned purple glitters that results in a silvery lavender shade. Like Shell We Dance, it has some larger glitter pieces but they aren’t so big that they become clunky or heavy on the nail. Compared to Zoya Stevie, TMS is cooler with a more metallic look.
China Glaze Tail Me Something
China Glaze Teal The Tide Turns is a seafoam creme-based texture peppered with bright green round micro-glitter. The way this one dries down makes me think of fondant, just nowhere near as smooth.
China Glaze Teal The Tide Turns
China Glaze Wish On A Starfish is a soft pink sparkle texture with golden shimmer. If you have OPI Pussy Galore, this one is darker with gold, rather than silvery, shimmer.
China Glaze Wish On A Starfish
Bottom Line: The sparkling textures are all my style of texture. Eye catching and fine enough to not feel overwhelming on the nail. Seahorsin’ Around is my fave of the bunch and Shell We Dance is a pink I can get behind.
I’m not gonna lie, the two cream based shades, well, I just don’t get them. I’m not sure what China Glaze was going for here but it’s not working for me. While I applaud them for thinking outside the box, not all experiments need to be mass marketed. Sometimes you have to go back to the drawing board and this was one of those times.
China Glaze Sea Goddess is available now at select retailers nationwide including Sally Beauty and ULTA stores and online at Head2ToeBeauty.com and SallyBeauty.com. China Glaze nail polish retails for $3.25-6.99/ea for a .5oz bottle.
Thoughts on Sea Goddess? What do you think of these creamy textures? Which shades do you plan to get?
Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for China Glaze. Affiliate links appear in this post. When you purchase through an affiliate link, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
I just purchased Teal the Tide Turns but am hearing some bad reviews. I don’t want to use it if I am just going to return. Do you think it’s a pass? Looks like it dries kind of chunky. Thanks!
As I stated in the post, I’m not a fan of the two creme based shades. I did find them difficult to work with and wasn’t a fan of the overall look.
Thanks. I googled some other reviews and decided to return without trying. Just looks weird. I have Wish on a Starfish now and love it.
Just a side note, my Ulta did have these in stock but for an outrageous $9.99 each.
What? That’s crazy expensive.
Really like some of the colors in this collection!
I only ended up buying the Wish on a Starfish – the gold in that one was the most attractive feature and I really do love it.
I love the way Sand Dolla Make You Holla and Teal the Tide Turns come across but I think they would’ve been STEALS if they were just in a creme formula, with glitter like that. It’d be gorgeous.
LOVE these. I could live without the pinks, but the lavender, blue and pale green? I’m all in.
The only one I like is Sand Dollar MakeYou Hollar. The others are meh to me.
Sand Dolla Make You Holla (…) is just too bizarre for me NOT to love.
Your swatches made me immediately order Shell we dance, Seahorsin’ around and Tail me something from Amazon. Thanks a lot!!! Lol!
Seahorsin’ Around and Tail Me Something are the only two I like. I don’t do pink anything and the cream based ones are weird. My daughter and I are wearing Seahorsin’ Around right now and love it. I could stare at it all day. Hope they make more like those in the future. I did not like texture polishes until OPI liquid sands came out and then the Zoya Pixie Dusts. These are the closest to those that CG has come up with.
Yeah, I bought Teal the Tide Turns and I just can’t make up my mind. I love the color, I think I like the idea, but it just looks blah on the nail.
I gave them a pass at Ulta’s today. I have a couple of older texture polish I’m happy wiith, but don’t think I want more. And I’ve been hearing about how clunky and gunky these are, so …
I actually really like this collection. The original Zoya Pixie Dusts are my favorite textures but I like all of these CG besides the dark pink and the green. (LOLOLOL! I love your description of the white textured and Honey Boo Boo. ;))
these are such pretty colors! i think i should go out and buy more nail polish great review!
I will pass this ones. The pink with the gold shimmer looks similar to a barry m i have I think the name is Princess. Both colours I thought were more unique are the cream base. So this time is a no to me
Wish on a Starfish is my favorite, but I love so many in this collection! I love the flecks of color! I’d seen an ad for this in my NAILS Magazine and freaked because I am all about anything mermaid! A couple days later, we went to Sally’s for a Girl’s Night and THEY HAD THE ENTIRE COLLECTION! I bought every single bottle blind! So far, I’ve worn Wish on A Starfish and Sand Dolla Make You Holla on alternating nails for Valentine’s Day and Tail Me Something on my toes. I can’t wait to experiment more this spring/summer! (I was at Sally’s again this past weekend for the double coupon Saturday to look at OPI’s Brazil collection and they still had a few of the Sea Goddess colors…oh, how I wish I could have their display box with the mermaid…!
must have sand dolla make u holla. i never saw anything like it!
I am honestly not a huge fan of textured polishes but these shades are all so great I might need to get them anyway! Seriously gorgeous!!!!
Ok so I don’t know why but I love Sand Dolla Make you Holla, especially for the name! But I haven’t heard anything to do with Honey Boo Boo on that one…yet. My mind went straight to the hooker scene from “Full Metal Jacket” – Five dolla make you holla!
Wish on a Starfish is the best by far, great swatches!
I broke down and tried Seahorsin’ Around during the BOGO sale at Sally’s. It is stunning! My litmus test for a polish’s “specialness” is my husband’s reaction. Haha! And he was really wowed by this! (So far, that reaction has only been brought on by Dance Legend holos, and Color Club’s The Uptown.) Anyway, it’s so damn sparkly, and the prettiest springy shade of aqua. I think I may also grab Tail Me Something, as it appears to share the same metallic glow that I love in Seahorsin’ (just silvery instead).
I just purchased Wish on a Starfish yesterday and I’m still on the fence about it. It’s so, so pretty in direct light, but it looks weird on me in any other kind of lighting! Something about the pink/gold turns into an odd coral/orange on me… think I’ll only wear it when I’m going to be spending the day outside. Incidentally, it was my bf’s favorite of the ones I swatched! Go figure.
I bought a set off of EBay and the bottom labels just have the polish name and number like the ones in your picture. Are these bottles ones that are press samples? I’ve never purchased polish without the ingredient label and am trying to ascertain that these bottles are real and not counterfeit.
They are either press samples or distributor samples that go to salons/stores. Regardless, they aren’t labeled for retail and the person selling them, probably shouldn’t be. It’s hard for me to know if they are real or not.