China Glaze - Awakening - Wear Test

Hello!

Sorry for the lack of posts, back to school is always a busy time and this week so far has been no exception! So I thought seen as I picked up this beautiful and very "work-ish" colour, that I would wear test it.

(Trying to catch the two-tone gold shimmer!)

 

I don't know if any of you are the same, but although I love painting my nails, I do like colours to last through hard wear and tear. I don't have time for gloves for washing, finding scissors etc to open things. So this wear test is hardcore haha!

So I have worn China Glaze - Awakening for 5 days. I think that's an acceptable amount of time for any mani, as a lot can happen in 5 days! It also means it should last you through the average working week - Monday to Friday.

I applied it on Saturday. It is a beautiful silk pinky-orange-brown colour, with highlights of gold. Covers with one coat to a lighter pinky colour, but looked much richer and vibrant at 2 coats. The brush was nice, as I find all China Glaze are - they should be for the price, dry time was average - around 3-4 minutes per coat to be completely dry. I didn't even apply a top coat to these, so I was very pleased with their shiny finish and their lasting power. I should've tested both with and without to see if it prolonged the colour further.

I didn't take photos for each day, which I wish I had now - but I have before and after photos. The colour was difficult to capture because it's so shiny, but the wear you can see clearly.

Day 1: Applied early morning (Saturday). Polish applied really well, average dry time - whole mani done in around 10 minutes including clean up.

2 coats, no topcoat.

Look how shiny it is!

You can see the gold-ish streaks in the bottle here.

Day 2: So far, very little wear. No visible wear to right hand, however there is minor tip wear to dominant (left) hand. Washed dishes, cleaned windows and opened a few packages that arrived through the post (naughty / lazy me for not getting scissors!)

Day 3: More visible tip wear on left hand, small amount on thumb and index finger of right hand. No visible chips, discolouration or fading - still has a shine to nails. (Two people commented on liking them this day - chuffed!) Today I spent hours hefting books and folders, marking, lifting and carrying as well as cleaning the bathrooms when I got home and washing up again.

Day 4 - Nails (to me) noticeably less shiny - more of a satin to matte finish to them. No more or less tip wear than the previous day.

Day 5 - First chip - surprisingly to none dominant hand. Only a small chip and not at the tip of nail. Tip wear most noticeable at close glance, but still acceptable appearing from arms length.

Overall, I am very impressed with this polish! It has gone in my definite prolonged mani pile (aka 'Work' pile) although I do have some ideas to embellish this mani further at some point!

Hope everyone is doing well so far in 2013 - happy hump day!

End wear to hand, 5 days no topcoat.

(Small chip to index finger)

Visible wear to thumb

End wear to hand after 5 day wear, no topcoat.

 

How nails appear from arms length.