China Glaze Metro Collection for Fall 2011 Swatches, Photos & Review – Part I

China Glaze Metro is the new 12 piece nail collection for fall 2011. It’s inspired by city loving celebrities and spans quite a range of colors and finishes.
Metro is divided into two mini collections called Uptown and Downtown (Uptown includes CG In The City, Urban-Night, Traffic Jam, City Siren and Street Chic and Brownstone and Downtown includes Skyscraper, Concrete Catwalk, Westside Warrior, Trendsetter, Loft-y Ambitions and Midtown Magic). I decided to post my swatches in a different order though.
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Traffic Jam: Stop traffic with a breathtaking, raspberry pink crème.
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City Siren: The perfect deep, red crème to match any outfit.
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Street Chic: This gorgeous beige crème is the perfect go to shade letting your clothes do the talking.
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Concrete Catwalk: Steel grey crème is amazing for a chic mani.
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Westside Warrior: For the trendsetting woman this camo green crème is to die for.
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Trendsetter: Mustard yellow shimmer translates beautifully from hot dogs to nails.

Trendsetter, Westside Warrior, Street Chic

Concrete Catwalk, Traffic Jam, City Siren

Trendsetter
Trendsetter is a medium mustard yellow/green color with very heavy yellow glass flecks. This is the first color I was interested in and I have to say I am waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy in love with it! I think it’s just a gorgeous, unusual, strange color and suits my skintone nicely. This is going to be one that people either love or hate. But I like the non-norm, so for me, this is the best color in the whole 12-piece collection. The formula was excellent, really smooth and it flowed perfectly. This was two coats.

Westside Warrior
Westside Warrior is a medium/deep camouflage green creme. Totally gorgeous, this is another must-have for me. I can never get sick of greens like this and the formula was most excellent as well. This was two coats.

Street Chic
Street Chic is a medium warm beige taupe creme. I do have a lot of taupe cremes, but really not that many that are on the warmer side like this one. I really liked it on me more than I expected to from the bottle. Again, great formula and I only needed two coats.

Concrete Catwalk
Concrete Catwalk is a dark steel grey/blue creme. This one definitely has a lot of blue in it, which makes it more unique compared to a lot of other grey cremes I own. I wound up LOVING this one, it’s just such a cool color. This was easy as pie to apply, and just two coats.

Traffic Jam
Traffic Jam is a bright raspberry creme. This one is super shiny and not really what I think of when I think about fall. I don’t really think the color is unique or all that interesting, but it’s a good staple if you don’t have something like it already. The formula was good, but a little thinner here so I needed three coats.

City Siren
City Siren is a bright blood-red creme. It’s a gorgeous red no doubt, but again not very interesting to me. Super shiny! Great formula, I only needed two coats.
Overall:
Of the six here, I really love three of them, like one and think the other two are nice, but not unique. The absolute must-haves are Trendsetter, Westside Warrior and Concrete Catwalk. If you don’t have a warm-ish taupe, definitely Street Chic is a great option.
Availability: I think some e-tailers have them already and out in stores soon
Pricing: $3-6
What do you think about this half? Any you will be picking up?
-Kelly






















I’m loving on Westside Warrior and Trendsetter intrigues me. I think I won’t be able to tell until I wear it if I love or hate Trendsetter – guess that means I’ll have to get it!
Omg those r all sooooo gorgeous!
Thank you for sharing these swatches. I think I have to have them all so far, except Traffic Jam….that one seems to be very similar to a lot of other shades available on the market.
I can’t wait to try these.
Trendsetter & Concrete Catwalk are amazing! I don’t know how Trendsetter will look on me, I guess there is only one way to find out;) I totally want to try ALL of these though. Thanks for the great swatches!
I thought every single color looked great in this swatch fest until you reached traffic jam and city siren I feel like those two shades have been done soooooooooo many times you know?
I love Concrete Catwalk and will probably pick it up when I get a chance. The others are kind of meh. I like the idea of Trendsetter, but I think it wouldn’t look good on my skintone!
Seeing the mustard yellow swatched ws interesting – from the promo pics I wasn’t interested, but you just turned me around.
A little disappointed that Westside Warrior isn’t more olive though. However, I will of course pick it up.
Streetchic, traffic jam & Westside warrior are my faves <3
I have been DIEING for a mustard yellow polish!!! I can’t wait to pick up trendsetter!
*dying… Lol. Guess I got a little too excited!
I definitely want Concrete Catwalk, it looks great! True fall color!
Ages ago, when I first saw promos of the Metro collection I literally gasped when I saw the description for Trendsetter and immediately ran to my local importer to make sure they were going to import the entire collection (they usually do, but kinda missed the Holiday collection last year
( which made me jumpy).
And so I preordered the entire thing. XD Haven’t done that in ages, I usually wait for swatches. Now, seeing your swatch of Trendsetter means that end of August can’t come fast enough!!! It’s totally what I pictured and looks absolutely perfectly awesome! And nothing in your swatches makes me regret ordering the entire collection.
I’m so excited for the Metro collection – going to be getting many of them! Can’t wait!
Great swatches, Kelly!
Awesome swatches! I am wearing Zoya Dita right now and it looks identical to Traffic Jam.
Trendsetter is the star turn. I need it in my life.
I’m loving Westside Warrior and Concrete Catwalk. Will definitely get those two.
Can I make a prelim comparison suggestion? Concrete Catwalk and Deborah Lippman’s Stormy Weather. They look quite a bit similar. That is, if you have Stormy Weather yet.
Concrete Catwalk will be mine!! I will never have enough blue based greys!!!!
i want them all ! some look a bit dupish to OPI fall but i can get more bang for my buck with CG..nice post looking forward to pt 2.
I saw the preview for this collection and thought it looked amazeballs. I was almost scared to read this post for fear of confirming how many of them I will buy. Right now, I completely agree with Jenni: Trendsetter FTW. The rest still look great. I can’t wait to see Part II!
Love em but they’re somewhat similar to other colors already. I’ll still pick a couple up
These are super gorgeous! My favorites are Trendsetter and Concrete Catwalk. I really like Traffic Jam as well, but I’d love to see a comparison with Heli-Yum before I make my decision.
love it!!!
WOW! Love, love love!
I want them all! I love China glaze.
Ooooh yes, Trendsetter and Westside Warrior need to be mine. Gorgeous!
I love browneny taupey color nail polishes, like I need another brown, but Street Chic Made the List. Trendsetter is just so pretty and I don’t have anything like it and I love collecting green polishes sooooooo those are the three I’m getting.
Want Trendsetter for my daughter!!
Trendsetter, Westside Warrior, Street Chic, and Concrete Catwalk are absolutely lust inducing!
I have a question though- how does Concrete Catwalk stack up against Recycle?
Thanks for the swatches!
Hi ReaderRita,
Concrete Catwalk is much darker and has more blue in it than Recycle.
Westside Warrior is the only one I’ll probably get, if I don’t discover some dupes in my stash before that. I feel a lot of this sort of green is coming out lately and in Fall, but since I’m totally in love with it, I don’t mind that.
I appreciate the uniqeness of Trendsetter but sadly this type of colours look horrible on me.
I thought City Siren was part of the other collection. Of the ones you show I like City Siren and Concrete Catwalk. I’ve worn City Siren and it was a beautiful shade on my cool toned skin.
Hi MarciaF,
I mixed them up my own way, didn’t do them by “Uptown” and “Downtown”
Your swatch of Catwalk Concrete took me from thinking ‘meh’ to ‘now, I have to have!’ I probably won’t get the reds, as like you said, they are not unique. I have befriended by Sally’s Store Manager. She will call me as soon as she gets these in. Ohhh, I can’t wait now!!!
Love this collection. Greens are beautiful.
Wow, Trendsetter is way more interesting than I expected! I like Westside Warrior and Street Chic as well. I’d like to see Concrete Catwalk compared to Sally Hansen’s Grey by Grey though I don’t believe you’d have it. Also, I’m wondering how close Traffic Jam is to Heli-Yum, it looks identical as far as I can tell.
yay, the greens are so me ! I can’t wait to buy them
I also love the grey, and the red is gorgeous but I have so many red cremes, China Glaze makes great reds though, we’ll see if I can resist this one
Thanks for your gorgeous swatches! I so wanted to see swatches of his collection.
yes, i love most of them! trendsetter is my ultimate favourite though!
Love Street Chic and Concrete Catwalk.
I find “trendsetter” and “westside warrior” to be quite interesting – I might have to pick those up as well! “street chic” looks like chocolate milk. I’m not sure about “concrete catwalk” – we’ll see what I feel like more once fall really sets in =)
Do you know the release dare for the Metro Collection? No one seems to know or have any idea what I am talking about.
Rayanna, I bought Trendsetter at nailsupplies.us and have already received and worn it — think they have the rest of the collection as well! Note that Trendsetter, for me at least, doesn’t look quite like VV’s pic (alas!). It’s a little muddier and a little greener on me…
Why do I want ALL of these? They look gorge and you do a flawless job with your swatches. At least China Glaze are affordable…
Hi, do you happen do have Misa’s Office Polishtics? I’m wondering how much it differs from Concrete Catwalk…they seem similar, but I’m not sure.