China Glaze Moonlight the Night from the House of Colour Collection reminds me a little of stained glass windows when the sunshine peeks through and makes certain sections light up. This is the fairy version!

Although fiery in personality, I decided to layer China Glaze Moonlight the Night over a serene cornflower blue, OPI Infinite Shine To Be Continued…, which is very similar to Essie Bikini So Teeny (reviewed yesterday).

This lively combination is like bringing the festival of lights with you wherever you go! The dazzling glitter breathes life into the calm base and complements it, rather than compete for the spotlight.

Also, later on, I mattified this manicure for a cool sea-glass effect. I’ve included two swatches of that further in this post. (To mattify it, I used one coat of Pretty Serious Matte All the Things Top Coat.)

China Glaze Moonlight the Night Pictures

China Glaze Moonlight the Night Swatches

All swatches have:

• OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener – Maintenance version (Used as a base coat)
• 2 coats of OPI Infinite Shine To Be Continued…
• 1 thick coat of China Glaze Moonlight the Night
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Artificial Light Photos

Natural Light Photos

China Glaze Moonlight the Night Swatches (MATTE)

To mattify this manicure, I used one coat of Pretty Serious Matte All the Things Top Coat.

Claim: TRUSTED

• Translucent blue and purple colour-reflective glitter (Yes)

Key Notes

• Name: China Glaze Moonlight the Night
• Collection: China Glaze House of Colour Spring 2016 Collection
• Colours Available in the Collection: Moonlight the Night, Don’t Be Shallow, Come Rain or Shine, In the Near Fuchsia, Pink or Swim, About Layin’ Out, Let’s Chalk About It, Girls Just Wanna Have Sun, Glitter Me This, Sorry I’m Latte, Chrome Is Where the Heart Is & Shut the Front Door
• Amount: 14 mL (0.5 fl. oz.)
• Retail Price: $5.95 CAD
• Disclosure: I purchased China Glaze Moonlight the Night. OPI Infinite Shine To Be Continued… and Pretty Serious Matte All the Things Top Coat (used in the matte swatch) are press samples provided by PR.
• Where to Buy: Sally Beauty Supply stores, Sally Beauty Supply website & will be available soon at Nail Polish Canada

China Glaze Moonlight the Night Review

Colour

Moonlight the Night by China Glaze is chock-full of purple and blue glitter. What makes it special is that the glitter pieces are translucent, so they appear like glass and allow you to see the base colour.

When the light hits the glitter, it makes them reflect the light, but also show off a myriad of beautiful colours including (but not limited to) pink, orange, yellow, purple, blue, and green!

What’s especially great is that since there’s a translucency, it means that you can easily layer this glitter nail polish over a different coloured base. While I chose to keep my base (OPI Infinite Shine To Be Continued…) aligned with the colour theme, you could totally go a different route and opt for a contrasting colour to make the glitter pop even more! (Polishes like this allow you to play around to create your own signature look.)

Finish

Yes, this baby is loaded with hexagonal glitter in varying sizes. Together, they create a uniform appearance and add lots of visual interest to a manicure. (Case in point: I found myself staring at my nails quite a lot throughout the day when I wore this!)

Although there’s a lot of glitter, I found that the pieces lay smoothly against the surface of my nails, and when I applied a top coat, my nails felt even smoother. No harsh grittiness.

The only issue I did notice was that if you’re not diligent about pushing the glitter away from the free edge of your nails, and you let it dry that way, you could feel some sharpness there. That’s because the corners of the hexagonal glitter could poke out beyond your nail tips.

When it comes time to removing the beautiful Moonlight the Night by China Glaze, be prepared for it to put up a good fight! Haha! But, with chunky glitter polishes like this, if you can’t do the time, then don’t do the crime!

As much as I fell in love with this manicure, I didn’t enjoy spending 15 minutes or so scrubbing my nails with remover to get it off…and I only used one thick coat!

I never use 100% pure acetone nail-polish remover (it’s a personal choice), but if you use it, you can get the glitter off much easier and faster. The only reason I don’t use that is because 1) I don’t wear chunky glitter nail polishes that often, and 2) I’m afraid of using a chemical that’s so strong!

If you’re like me and use regular acetone-based remover (that isn’t 100% acetone), there are some popular tricks you can use to help make the polish-removal process a bit easier. One is to soak cotton balls in the remover, put one on top of each nail, and then wrap foil around each finger. Leave it like that for 5 minutes or longer.

But, if all else fails, and you have to scrub, well, that comes with the glitter-polish territory, unless you used a peel-off base coat. (Hmm…I have a peel-off base coat, but I totally forgot to use it. Oops! Next time!)

Application & Formula

Given how much glitter is in Moonlight the Night by China Glaze, I was surprised by how smoothly it applied. That’s because there was enough of the nail polish to coat each glitter, I suppose.

I can see that, over time, this polish will eventually get thick, and I’ll need to restore it to the original consistency with a nail-polish thinner.

Typical of a glitter polish of this magnitude, it dried very fast. That’s one of the perks!

Ingredients

If you’re making conscious shopping choices, you’ll be happy to know that all China Glaze colours don’t contain DBP, Toluene, or added Formaldehyde.

Mattified

Although most of my photos show you this polish with a glossy top coat, I ended up wearing it mattified with Pretty Serious Matte All the Things Top Coat. (You can see two swatches of it in the photo section.)

I prefer this glitter mattified because I feel like when the base colour is muted (or mattified), the glitter still shines brightly and even more vividly. There was an interesting sea-glass-my-little-pony effect that I was totally digging! (If you wear this glitter polish, I highly recommend you try it mattified!)

Pros Beautiful blue & purple translucent glitter that reflects the light & other colours Suitable for layering Dries quickly No DBP, Toluene, or added Formaldehyde

Cons Glitter is challenging to remove

Final Verdict: 9.5/10

Oh, I wanted to give China Glaze Moonlight the Night a perfect ten, but the difficulty during its removal forced me to knock off half a point.

These days, I don’t reach for chunky glitters much because my taste has moved toward cremes and shimmers. However, this glitter really spoke to me, and I love how you can use it for layering!

The translucency, combined with the way it reflects the light, makes your nails look like forest fairies kissed your nails. And who doesn’t want fairy kisses? 😉

Do you wear more glittery nail polishes or cremes? What would you layer under China Glaze Moonlight the Night? Do you use 100% pure acetone nail-polish remover, or are you a bawk bawk chicken like me? 😉