Shades of Phoenix Creepy Christmas Collection - Swatches & Review

*Products in this post provided for review. Read my disclosure policy here.

Hello lovely ladies, 

Today I have another Aussie Indie Christmas Collection to show you! This one is from my talented friend Teneil, aka the brains behind the amazing Shades of Phoenix brand. Teneil has come up with something very different to the usual Christmas inspired polishes that you see emerge this time of year. This collection, dubbed the Creepy Christmas Collection, is inspired by Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas! This theme has inspired some truly unique polishes and I feel very lucky that I'm one of the first people to have the pleasure of trying them.

First up is one of my favourites from this collection, You're head of the team, Zero. This is a beautiful glitter topper filled with iridescent shards, flakes, hex, squares, and bars. I absolutely love iridescent glitter and this is one of the best iridescent glitter toppers that I've tried. Application was perfect, one easy coat is all you need with no pushing/dabbing required. I used one coat over black but the beauty of this polish is that you can use it over any colour!

outdoors in sunlight

Next is How Horrible Our Christmas Will Be, a black jelly that is chock full of glitter. It has holo silver, red, and aqua hex with the occasional red circle glitter. Because this is so glitter heavy, it does dry a little gritty so you'll need a good top coat to smooth it out. I used two coats but you could get almost the same look if you layered it over black.

direct sunlight

This next one is based on the main character of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington and is named as such. Skellington is a glitter topper is full of tiny gold and iridescent hex, huge holo gold circles, and black and white skull glitter.

This is my first experience with skull shaped glitter and they are just as tricky as the large circles can be; no matter how many glitters are put into the polish, they can still be a pain to get out of the bottle. Because I don't have the patience to fish for these glitters, I just did one regular coat (which did result in getting a few of the large glitters out), then I used orange stick to get the glitters out of the bottle then I placed them on the nail individually. I think this method is good when you're dealing with large glitter because you can control exactly where you want them to be placed on your nail.

My swatches show one coat plus some individually placed glitter over Smooch 'Lazuire'.

outdoors in sunlight

...and Absolutely No One's Dead is another one of my favourites from the collection. It's a white crelly full of hex, squares and circles in silver, blue, aqua and iridescent glitter. Application for this one was a pleasure, needing 3 coats to reach opacity. This does have a lot of glitter in it so if you were wanting a simpler look, you could layer one coat over white and get a really nice effect.

I Had a Terrible Vision is another character inspired polish. This one is based on Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's one of the most unique indies I've ever tried and I love it! Teneil has done a great job at capturing the character of Sally.

The base is a lavender crelly and it's full of different glitters.  It has periwinkle, lime, marigold, watermelon, and pastel pink hex; black shards; and short dark purple bars. Although the base appears quite sheer at first, it builds up easily and gives you good coverage from the large amount of glitter. My swatches show 3 easy coats. I used Seche Vite as a topcoat but it would look fantastic mattified!

I am the Shadow on the Moon at Night is a special effect top coat that glows in the dark! It has a very lightly tinted green base with a subtle shimmer that can be worn over any creme but the shimmer effect will be more prominent if worn over a darker colour. I chose to wear it over a pastel green (China Glaze 'Refresh Mint') that matched the colour of the I am the Shadow... in the bottle. This one has a great consistency and gives even, self-leveling coverage. I used two coats to get a strong, even glow.

The glow in the dark effect lasted about 2 minutes after charging it for 20 seconds under a UV light. Apologies for the terrible glow in the dark photos but my camera just wasn't cooperating with me!

over black

in the dark

Next is Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws?, a red (pinkish toned) jelly filled with red, green, blue, lavender and pink glitters in hex and square. I was shocked to discover that I only needed two coats without undies to achieve opacity with this jelly! You could totally do three coats to create more depth but I thought it was perfect with just two.

direct sunlight

outside in shade

And finally, the last and most Christmas-sy polish of the collection, What's This? What's This? This looks like Teneil's version of the 'Christmas tree in a bottle' concept polishes. It's an emerald green jelly with green, pink, orange, gold, and pink hex as well as some green squares. This is a fairly sheer jelly so I would recommend wearing it over undies. I used two coats over dark green (Australis 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow'). You should only need one coat over undies but I'm a huge glitter fiend!

outside in shade

Overall, I'm super impressed with this collection, Teneil has totally outdone herself! I love that none of them are overly Christmas-sy so they can all be worn at any time during the year.

These babies are available now from the Shades of Phoenix store. You can purchase the whole set (8x12ml bottles) for $70, two different quad sets (4x12ml bottles) for $35 or individually for $9.50ea.

Also, if you're a fan of Shades of Phoenix, you should join the Facebook fan group. This is where you can share your photos, reviews, do swaps and group buys as well as have exclusive access to all things Shades Of Phoenix including sales and discount codes.

Caitlin, xo