Welcome to the July, and third, edition of Nailstalgia! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the original version of Nailstalgia!

This time, I've got the famous China Glaze- Flip Flop Fantasy to show you!


Flip Flop Fantasy is from the Summer 2010 Poolside collection, so is only almost five years old. But, I think it's definitely one of the most well-known China Glazes! 

Now, before we go any further, it must be noted that China Glaze has recently reformulated Flip Flop Fantasy, so now there are two versions floating around out there. To make matters worse, the newer version is not the same color as the original, which is like the cardinal sin of polish reformulations! (The original is a coral-pink neon, and the newer one is more of a coral-orange-peach.)

Today, I'll be showing you the original version. Here's what the label looks like on the original:


To see a quick bottle shot comparison of the two versions, head on over to this post by ChitChatNails.

According to Chalkboard Nails, in information gleaned at this year's Cosmoprof North America, China Glaze is going to address the Flip Flop Fantasy re-formulation, as it seems there was some backlash from the change. (I hate when colors are changed but retain the same name. eg: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Pacific Blue!) I guess we'll see what happens!

Anyway, let's get to the swatchin'!


The original formulation of Flip Flop Fantasy is a neon coral-pink creme that really glows!  In a lot of light it looks pink-leaning, and other times, it's definitely more coral-leaning.

Artificial light, four coats:





Window-filtered daylight:



I have to say this does make my hands look way tanner than they are, as neons are wont to do. I had another shade on my non-swatched hand, and the difference in apparent skintone was a little crazy- when you bring your hands together....the skin is the same. Mind-boggling!

It's basically the same effect that makes these neon pigments hard to capture with a digital sensor. Because they are so light-reflective, your eye (or the sensor) has to render or meter the background a darker value in order to make sense of the overall scene. That's essentially why neons make you look tan! _/tangent

Outside, shade:



I only wore this for two days, but got a lot of compliments! It's definitely eye-catching!

Formula: The consistency is on the medium-thick side (although my bottle is a few years old), and the first coat is really horribly streaky; and, if you use enough polish to barely coat the nail, you'll get bubbling, so you really have to make do with the streaks.  It does dry down quickly to a semi-matte finish- there are definitely neon pigments here. It's also fairly prone to cuticle drag if you overwork it.

This was mostly opaque at three coats, but was still considerably streaky, since it's pretty non-self-leveling. So, I used four. All in all, I had a lot of trouble with Flip Flop Fantasy, and it wasn't my first rodeo with this color!

I have heard of people using coats of Gelous in between layers, using a sandwich method, as a way to get this polish to play nicer, but I still don't think you'd get away with less than four coats.