Good morning everyone!

Today I have the much anticipated China Glaze Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away Collection to share with you!

With all the bright colours, this seems an odd collection to release at this time of year, but I'm all for it! I love bright polishes, no matter the time! Plus, it's a fun change of pace to see these types of shades amidst all the reds and greens of the holiday season.


Swatches and full review after the jump!

Bend Over Backwards is a coppery red-toned orange shimmer. The shimmer is on the subtle side, so this basically has more of an overall glowy look to it. The formula was one of the better ones out of the bunch and my swatch shows two coats.


Creative Fantasy is a deep, yet still bright neon purple. The formula was sheer and patchy and although two coats seemed ok at first, my camera easily picked up on the fact that this would definitely require at least one more coat. It also dries to a flat finish, so top coat is necessary if you want a shiny finish.


Def Defying is a bright chartreuse green creme. LOVE this colour! The formula was a little uneven on the first coat, but the second one evened it out well.


Escaping Reality is a bright, almost neon candy pink creme. I actually like this one a lot more than I thought I would! I guess because it's basically a neon, and we all know that I love neon polishes. The formula was basically the same as with Def Defying. My swatch shows two coats.


Get Carried Away is a sheer black base with silver and red hex glitter, black bar glitter and small silver and black glitters. I think this one was the biggest disappointment of this collection for me. It looks totally cool in the bottle, but I didn't like it at all once I had it on my nails. I've shown it here layered over Igniting Love (below). On my index and middle nails there's two coats and my ring and pinky show one coat. The formula was thick and not super easy to work with. Maybe I might like it better if I layered it over black instead of red? I'll have to test that out.


Hanging in the Balance is a gorgeous bright blue creme. I didn't think much of this one from the press release photos, but once I saw the bottle in person, I knew I would just love it. Definitely an unexpected favourite. The formula was good and my swatch is two coats.


Igniting Love is a bright red creme. This is similar to With Love from the Holiday Joy Collection, but just a bit brighter. The formula was good and my swatch shows two coats.


It's a Trap-eze! is a very pale, milky blue base packed with multi-coloured glitters. This is one of those jelly-sandwich-in-and-of-itself type of polishes that we would typically see from an indie brand as opposed to a commercial brand. The formula was a little thick and I suggest waiting in between coats so that you don't experience dragging. My swatch shows two coats, but I think I would personally layer this over another polish.


Running in Circles is the gem of the collection in my opinion. It's a stunning green glass fleck polish. My guess is that you'll be seeing this again in my "Top 10 Polishes of 2012" posts. To boot, the formula was the best of entire collection. My swatch is three thin coats.


Surreal Appeal is a really pretty coral-pink creme. This is another unexpected favourite! This is like a non-neon version of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy! Gorgeous colour. The formula was good and my swatch is two coats.


Water You Waiting For? is a deep blue jelly base with a mix of blue and green glitters throughout. This is a very peacock-ish colour and so it's an obvious favourite of mine. It's so packed with glitter that it's opaque on its own after just two coats and the formula was pretty easy to work with. I should note however that I had a REDONKULOUS case of glitter herpes after removing this one.


Whirled Away is a clear base with black bar and hex glitter as well as large white hex glitter. I think everyone was super excited about this one because it's not the type of thing we typically see from big commercial brands; it's very indie-esque. However, the formula leaves something to be desired. The white hexes are pretty elusive so I had to do a lot of fishing/placing with those and the others tended to clump together. But if you're willing to put in the work, this can look pretty cool. I've shown it here layered over Hanging in the Balance.


Overall, I do like a lot of the polishes here and I definitely appreciate the creative vision behind this collection. However, several of the formulas were not what I've come to expect from China Glaze, so I was let down a bit in that respect. Nevertheless, I would still recommend most of these shades because I know that personally, if I like a polish enough, I'm willing to work with a sub-par formula.

My top picks from the collection are Def Defying, Hanging in the Balance, Running in Circles, Surreal Appeal and Water You Waiting For?.

The official release date for the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away Collection was December 1st, so it should be available for purchase now.