China Glaze’s Halloween polishes this year were mostly very dark, so I only picked up one from the collection.  It’s Alive is a darkish green jelly base full of light green glitters in different sizes.  It’s very sparkly!

I’ve been looking forward to doing some Halloween nails, since Halloween polishes are so great – they’re really over the top and fun, often glittery or a little bit ugly.  It’s Alive is both!  The formula and balance of pigmentation in this polish are outstanding.  I only had to use two quick and easy coats for these pictures, which really surprised me – it’s fully opaque, but the base color isn’t so dark that it covers up any of the glittery goodness.  It even dried fairly smooth, so this is a total success of a glitter polish.

The base is an olive-toned dark green, and the glitters are a sort of celery/lime green, light enough to contrast with the base and really catch the light.

 

 

I compared to China Glaze’s funky green from last year’s Halloween collection, just to convince myself that I had really needed It’s Alive.  In the picture below, It’s Alive is on my index and middle fingers and Zombie Zest is on my ring and pinky.  They’re actually really different – Zombie Zest is more yellow and has bright green chunky shimmer, while It’s Alive gives off a more haunted-forest-type feeling.  I actually convinced myself while wearing It’s Alive that it was creepy looking and slightly sinister, but I think that’s probably just the power of suggestion, and love for Halloween polish.  I didn’t remember Zombie Zest being this sheer, even at three coats.  Maybe it would work out better with a ridge filler or a nude polish layer underneath, or slightly thicker coats.

 

I bought my It’s Alive at Ulta, and the Sally Beauty stores I’ve visited didn’t seem to have it available as a single polish-they had a display with a dark pumpkin orange frosty polish called Cross Iron and several others, but it didn’t have a spot for It’s Alive.  So Ulta stores seem to be a better bet.