Gray Comparison Swatches

April 20, 2008

Gray Comparison Swatches

I haven’t worn China Glaze – Recycle yet, but the wear can’t possibly be as awesome as the wear time I had with Rescue Beauty Lounge – Stormy. Today was the 6th day wearing it with no chips, hardly any tip wear. It was almost kind of creepy in a weird voodoo undead nail polish kind of way. I just couldn’t take it anymore, I had to change my color. Although, I was tempted to leave it on just to see how long it would take to chip. I know most people would be really thrilled with 6+ days of perfect wear. Normally, I would be too but I’m trying to plow through my untrieds, a daunting task.

This image was taken without top coat. China Glaze – Recycle is glossy. I think the secret to the wear on Rescue Beauty Lounge – Stormy is the non-glossy formula. The application of China Glaze looks like a traditional polish while Rescue Beauty Lounge looks as if you are coating your nail with powder or pigment. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for the voodoo wear exhibited by Stormy. I should add, I have a lot of nail ridges, RBL has a tendency to show nail imperfections when applied without a ridge-filler. However, it’s not too bad with a base coat, two coats, and a top coat.

As far as the color, the picture is very accurate – Stormy and Recycle aren’t exactly the same but really it’s close enough…. well it’s close enough for the 16 dollar price tag difference. The normal, non-nail polish-obsessed eye probably wouldn’t notice the difference in the color anyway. I’m not going to tell anyone not to buy it because I, too, lost all sanity and took the RBL plunge. Fifty-four dollars later, I’m in no position to tell others what to do with their money. However, I think that unless you REALLY have this uncontrollable urge to spend 18 dollars on one bottle of nail polish – skip Rescue Beauty Lounge’s grays, and just get Recycle.

The other option is to franken your own gray. I frankened my own grays before I got these 3 colors. I did it because I saw Concrete Jungle and Stormy before the height of my addiction, back when I thought it was absolutely ridiculous to spend 18 dollars on a bottle of nail polish (that was before Rescue Beauty Lounge set up their Amazon store so in addition to the exorbitant price tag, they gouged you on shipping too.) The great irony was that I loved my frankens, so much so that I thought I would love these manufactured ones more, but I don’t. I actually like my versions a little better.

This franken is about 3/4s OPI – Black Onyx and 1/4 OPI – Apline Snow. (I named it Steel Angel after my other fanatical hobby, anime.) Really easy to make, this method has the additional benefit of allowing you to tweak the color to compliment your skin tone. Gray is a difficult color to wear, it’s definitely not one size fits all. Compare my Franken to the image of Stormy next to it – it’s pretty similar and a hell of a lot cheaper.

Also I should mention, Carolyn New York sells two grays (Handball Courts and Hanin’ on the Stoop) that a lot of girls on MUA believe are dupish to the two RBLs. I don’t have them but it’s definitely worth looking into if you absolutely don’t want to Franken or shell out the mad cash.

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