China Glaze Summer Neons Collection Swatches

Nothing really says summer to me like bright nail polish. So the China Glaze Summer Neons Collection, which features -- you guessed it -- bright and bold neons -- seemed to be right up my alley. Below, three of the colors from the collection, along with my thoughts.


Ride The Waves is a deep blue. I don't really see much neon in this color, at least in the bottle -- and, to be honest, not really on the nail, either. It's attention-grabbing, to be sure, but it just looks like a dark blue to me. I've seen some swatches of it looking lighter than mine, but my bottle just didn't apply that lightly and the color didn't dry any lighter than it had applied.


I'm With The Lifeguard is a bright, shimmery lime green. It's unbelievably neon in the bottle and just as eye-popping on the nail. Seen here with three coats, as the first two were a bit streaky and uneven.


Sun-Kissed is an aptly named, eye-searing shimmering yellow. It's looking a bit more like a Big Bird hue here, but in person it's super bright and bold. I used two coats, but it could do with a third for full opacity.

Overall, I like the idea of this collection but these three polishes aren't my favorites. I had a lot of application issues and I found that the consistency varied from bottle to bottle -- with one, I might have only needed one coat, while with another, three coats still were thin and fairly sheer. These colors are unique, to be sure, but I don't know that they're must haves.