September 8, 2008

Fall Blitzkrieg: New Glittery Goodness from Adorée

Posted in Adoree, Black & Charcoal, Blue, Glitter, Green, Jelly, Purples & Lilacs, Red at 10:44 pm by pretear

The title of this post is somewhat misleading. Adorée doesn’t release collections per se – they tend to respond to consumer and market feedback and release new colors accordingly. These new polishes coincide with Fall but they aren’t necessarily Fall releases. In any case, there are seven new nameless colors. Five of which are glitters, so I’ve grouped them together in this post. The other two are deep luscious browns which I’ll post about in the very near future.  *crosses fingers in hopes that they’ll actually look good on me*

So without further ado, here are the Adorées:

Adoree 242 is a tyrian purple with multi-toned glitter. This swatch is 2 coats plus 1 coat of Seche Vite. Unfortunately, this polish dries bumpy because of the glitter. However, a coat or two of Seche satisfactorily takes care of the bumpiness.

Adore 245 is a tamer version of Orly Goth. 245 is solid black with small silver glitter, no bumpiness issues with this one. The black isn’t jelly but it does apply very thin so I needed 3 coats for opacity.

Adoree 244 is a jelly-ish light blue with multi-toned light iridescent glitter. The finish, which is like a mixture of frost and shimmer, reminded me a lot of Adoree Peony’s finish. This swatch is 3 coats, no bumpiness but there is visible VPL.

Adoree 243 is tough to describe. It’s a very dense pink, silver, and possibly gold glitter suspended in clear polish. This swatch is 3 coats. It did look good with 2 coats though. I just really loved it so I got a little carried away during swatching.

Adoree 246 is a jelly red with multi-sized orange toned glitter (similar to the glitter in Adoree Riding Hood.) Let me assure you that it’s a lot prettier in person than it is in my image. The formula is a little on the thick side but still workable. It also looks good over black which can be seen at the bottom of this post. This swatch is 2 coats.


Adoree Capri Sea is actually not new but I wanted to group it in with all the other glitters. My nails are very badly stained yellow so it’s throwing off the base color of this polish. (I’m too chicken-sh*t to try using bleach and nothing else I’ve tried has worked. Booo.) Capri Sea is duo-chromish (green to blue scale) glitter suspended in green tinted polish. It practically glows on your nail. I couldn’t photograph it properly but the duo-chrome quality of the glitter is really apparent over black, see below. Capri Sea, like 246, is a little on the thick side. This swatch is 2 coats. (Please excuse the typo in image above, the polish is named ‘Capri Sea’ not ‘Seas’.)

I apologize about the sloppiness of the these swatches. I was in a bit of a hurry but wanted to show you guys what these two colors look like over black. I used two coats of Milani Black Magic and 1 coat each of Capri Seas and 246 respectively. Capri Sea blew me away, really amazing.

Adoree is available from Esther’s Nail Center in the U.S. and Pro Nail Store in Europe, specifically Sweden.

September 4, 2008

Je Ne Sais Quoi – Givenchy Dandy Moiré

Posted in Blue, Givenchy, Shimmer tagged at 10:46 am by pretear

I am appalled by the size of the bottle of the limited edition (of course) Givenchy Dandy Moiré. Every other company on earth sells this amount of polish as a ‘mini’. The size itself actually isn’t the issue, I love minis. The problem is the size to price ratio.

Seriously? A 15 dollar ‘mini’?

It doesn’t even apply well. The fomula is too thick and it chips fairly easily. At 15 dollars per .18 fl. oz., it needs to apply perfectly. It needs to apply like Jesus himself is doing my nails. Not only that but it needs stay on my nails, unchipped, for the rest of my life.

Why did I buy this? Am I really such a blind consumerist that I can’t resist buying something I know isn’t worth the amount of money I’m spending?  Ugh, I don’t really have an answer to that question, there’s just something about this color that drew me to it. It’s not as impressive in real life as it looks on Sephora’s website. (Of course. Oh man, how I abhore Sephora.) However, I admit that the blue and green shimmer is mesmerizing even though it’s not as blingy as advertised. What was really… just… bizarre… about this color was other people’s reactions to it. I wear nail polish every single day of my life. No one cares. I hardly ever get compliments, comments, anything. But, Givenchy Dandy Moiré was a topic of conversation with almost everyone I encountered for 3 days that I wore it.

I broke my professional color vow and wore it last Friday during my office’s casual day. The female attorneys loved it. So much so that yesterday, one of the victim advocates asked me where she could buy it or something like it locally. I told her that she should skip the unreasonably priced haughty Givenchy and check out OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue which is basic and readily available in our nail polish deficient little town.

Then Friday night at dinner, my friend’s boyfriend and his friend noticed Dandy Moire. They thought it was black and stated that it “didn’t suit my skin tone”. Even though I knew that they were teasing me in response to me mocking college football, I launched into a tirade about the merits of navy shimmery nail polish on dark skin. I’m sure they regretted mentioning it at all after I imparted more information about nail polish than they ever wished to know.

Saturday night, a very drunk boy awkwardly hit on me at a bar by complimenting my ‘black’ nails. Even my male roommate who only discusses nail polish in the context of taunting me, commented on Dandy Moire. He also thought it looked black. The strange thing is that I wear black and ‘almost black’ polishes all the time. No one ever notices or says anything. So what was it about this particular color that made people feel the need to comment on my nails? I’m completely baffled. I guess there is just something intangible about this color that makes it more strikingly noticeable. I still think the 15 dollar price tag is absolutely ridiculous, but I guess I like Dandy Moiré.

August 13, 2008

Enormous Lemming Fulfilled: Essie Starry Starry Nights

Posted in Blue, Essie, Glitter, Jelly tagged at 11:18 pm by pretear

So I thought we could take a break from the awesome but overwhelming 2008 fall collections and just do a simple NOTD post – something I haven’t done since the fall insanity began last month.

Essie Starry Starry Nights is one of those highly sought after polishes that has become an expensive hard-to-find. Essie did re-release it, along with Viva La Vespa, but since the retail was bumped up to $10 and the shipping was so extravagant, I’m not sure that many people took Essie up on the offer. I, for example, debated it for a while then ultimately decided against making the purchase. I’m glad because one of the amazing girls over at MUA found it for me at dusty for a great price.

Now here’s the part of the story that makes me want to kick myself: I lemminged this color for the longest time but when I finally got it, I put in my ‘untried’ box and completely forgot it even existed! D’oh. To be fair though, that only happened because I haven’t be able to wear any non-professional looking colors this whole summer. Now that I can finally wear ‘out of the ordinary’ colors again, I went hunting in my ‘untried’ box and rediscovered Starry Starry Night. “Wow” is all I can say. Dark blue jelly with small silver glitter makes for an amazing polish. I can definitely see what all the hype was about.

The jelly-ness gives the glitter at different coats varying degrees of visibility, which really makes this polish look the way the sky does in places where there are no lights to drown out the shining light of the stars. One of the girls on MUA said that my nails looked like they came straight out of the Van Gogh paining. Love the reference, and so very true.

As great as the color is, Starry Starry Nights is not without its pitfalls. A lot of people complain that Starry Starry Night is hot streaky difficult to apply mess. I didn’t have too much trouble with mine. For this manicure I used 1 coat Essie ‘First Base’ Base Coat, 3 coats of Starry Starry Night, and 1 coat of Seche Vite. The first two coats of color were semi-streaky but everything evened out perfectly with the 3rd coat. I’m not sure if the non-streakiness was due to the base coat or whether my bottle was a magical non-streaky version of Starry Starry Night.

If you love this color but don’t have access to it or don’t want to shell out the mad cash, I’ve read that Jessica Twilight is a good dupe. I can’t vouch for it myself because I, sadly, don’t own any Jessicas… yet. However, I’ve only heard good things about the brand. There are actually several known dupes of Starry Starry Night but the others are just as difficult to find as Starry Starry Night once was, so I’ll spare you the pain of lemming a hard-to-find polish with several equally hard-to-find dupes by just omitting that information from this post. <3

August 11, 2008

Fall Blitzkrieg: China Glaze Rodeo Diva Swatches Part 1

Posted in Blue, Brown, China Glaze, Green, Purples & Lilacs, Shimmer tagged at 8:09 pm by pretear

The China Glaze Rodeo Diva collection is split up into two parts. Now, here I thought that that I was giving you guys one full box set only to find, after looking at the China Glaze website, that mine were packaged differently. So basically my swatches will be split up into two posts, the polish selection being arbitrary and willy nilly.

Everyone (Scrangie, Sminkan, Hill here and here, Misa Masa, Makeup My Lack, RocketQueen, and ALU – as you can see, I’m super late to this party) has been raving about this collection and the reason for that is obvious to me. These colors are great and for the most part, very unique. For me, they applied really well although Scrangie mentions that some colors gave her a bit of trouble. If you bothered to click all those links I just gave you, you’ll see that no one has similar looking swatches of this collection. That’s because the whole collection is incredibly chameleon-like. They look different, at different angles and in different forms of light. They aren’t duochrome, but the shimmer in them tends to give the colors different tones depending on the aforementioned variables. I don’t think anyone who buys this collection will be displeased but if you are a major stickler for color accuracy in swatches I really recommend looking at everyone’s swatches and searching nailgal.com before buying.

Now on to my swatches:

Gussied Up Green is probably my hands down favorite from this collection. I think it’s really great that China Glaze listened to the masses and finally released a good green. In the bottle, Gussied Up Green has an amazing multi-chromatic effect – it goes from green to blue to purple, but sadly, it doesn’t do that on the nail. Applied, it reminds me of the shimmery dark green used to paint carnival rides and roller coasters. The darkness of the green varies to some extent as well, being very dark in some lights and lighter in others.

China Glaze Side-Saddle is a little tough to describe. It’s a reddish, purplish, brown, with gold shimmer. In the shade it almost looks like a reddish brown creme.

China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic is definitely one of the fan favorites from this collection. It’s sort of a dark turquoise-y blue with light greenish blue shimmer. In the bottle is has a blue to purple duochrome that is not present when applied on the nail. Siobhan from MUA discovered that Rodeo Fanatic is a fairly close dupe to the coveted Mac Whirlwind – which is great for me since I missed out on Whirlwind when it first came out.

China Glaze Midnight Ride is another of my personal favorites from this collection. I’ve been on this dark purple shimmer kick lately so Midnight Ride is right up my alley. It’s different from Color Club Groove Thang which has a darker purple shimmer too it, but that difference in shimmer might not be too noticeable to the non-nail board eye.

I almost died when I saw China Glaze Wagon Trial, really. I don’t know what else to say other than, holy sh*t, I freaking love this color. It looks olive on the nail and in the bottle, but as Scrangie astutely pointed out, it’s probably actually black with gold shimmer. It’s very dark olive in some lights and bright shimmery light olive in others, you can sort of see the transition of color on my nails above.

China Glaze Lasso My Heart is another fan favorite but it’s not for me – not that I dislike it per se, I just don’t usually wear shimmers that are red, pink, or pinkish purple. Maybe some day these colors will grow on me… but that’s a huge maybe. Lasso My Heart is pinkish purple, perhaps violet, with gold shimmer. Don’t judge it based on my taste though, I’m definitely alone, everyone else loves it.

Special thanks to China Glaze.

July 29, 2008

Misa Poisoned Passion Collection Swatches and the Horrible Tale of How I Broke a Nail

Posted in Black & Charcoal, Blue, Green, Misa, Purples & Lilacs, Shimmer, Vampies tagged at 8:33 pm by pretear

So everyone and their mom has already seen this collection and sadly, I don’t feel like my swatches are going to add anything to the interpretation of these colors. First, Scrangie and Misa Masa, already did an excellent job of photographing and discussing these, but the real issue is, it’s like every thing on earth was working against me to get these swatches done. (I’m about to launch into a tirade here so if you’re not interested scroll down for the polish porn. XD)

I got this collection almost 2 weeks ago but with the move and starting a new job, I just haven’t had a minute to post them yet. Finally, this past Sunday, I sit down and get to business. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, swatches are progressing on schedule. The article was nearly complete, ready to be posted that same Sunday. And it really would have been posted since everything was going according to plan, until, for no apparent reason at all because there wasn’t one dark cloud in the sky, we get a deluge. And, of course, this happened right as I was about to take the very last swatch photo for this collection. I was planning on doing a holo mani that day because my new job as the assistant for my school’s trial practice program doesn’t restrict my nail bling. So I say to myself, “Well ok, I’ll just put on a strengthening basecoat and wait to finish these swatches tomorrow.”

Monday, not one ray of sunlight all day long. At that point, I thought… crap, if I don’t get my nails painted soon, I foresee a break in my future. I could have just done a Misa Dying Love mani and taken the image the next day but I really don’t like wearing very dark or extravangant colors when my nails are so long, so I decided against it. Instead I opted to wait and added another coat of clear polish. Monday afternoon, as I was driving to the post office to drop off some swaps, to my unspeakable horror, I look down at the steering wheel only to see that my right hand index nail broke. ‘Broke’ is not really the right word, it’s like the nail breakage gnomes took a mini sledge hammer to my nail. It split-peeled in half, horizontally. Yes, imagine that break for a second. Oh, the horror.

There was no saving this one, I had to cut them all off. I’m not bitter about the break this time, it gave me an excuse to rock Misa Dying Love, which I actually got compliments on – believe it or not that is a rare occurrence for me. People really seem to love dark colors on short nails.

Ok enough nail breakage ranting, let’s get down to today’s order of business:

First let me say, that I love the concept behind this collection – Poisoned Passion, um, awesome. Not to mention that I love the names of the actual polishes – A Sin Worth Committing – wow, I would have bought that one for the name alone. Misa gets 5 points for naming creativity.

I thought all the polishes applied well, I do wish the formulas were a little thinner. However, they weren’t so thick as to cause serious application issues. I just prefer to apply very thin coats and it was nearly impossible to do that with these. I needed 3 (as thin as I could get) coats for all of these colors except for Dying Love which was perfect in 2.

Without further delay, here they are:

As a lot of you know I’m not really into shimmer, but man, this color is pretty. Misa Masa says that this shade looks really similar to OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue. I don’t own that one, shocking, I know, but now I’m glad I never took the plunge because I can’t imagine that it will look or apply any better than A Sin Worth Committing. Plus, the name cannot be beat.

Not sure if this one is called Fatal Attraction or Fatal Affair. It’s a very deep purple with blue microshimmer. This image does not do the color justice. It’s very, dark, like sexy macabre dark.

Misa Forbidden Lust is rumored to be fairly similar to Zoya Yasmeen (Here are Scrangie’s and Misa Masa‘s comparisons). This color really isn’t me, but I can appreciate a color that I know other polish addicts will go go nuts over and I suspect that to be the case with Forbidden Lust.

Misa Love Bite didn’t get as great a reception as the other colors from this collection, but I really like it. That might have a little something to do with the fact that it is a vampy jellyish creme, to which I am partial. Unlike Misa Masa, I didn’t have any trouble with the application. Vampies tend to be streaky, but I didn’t have issues with this one. I also like the name to color relationship: Love Bite – Dark Dried Blood Color – Vampires – Vampy! Get it? Get it? Ha.

Misa Toxic Seduction is, hands down, my favorite from this collection. Shimmery green with a dark gray base, it’s calling my name. L.o.v.e.i.t.

And finally – Misa Dying Love, my mourning color.

Misa Dying Love, my current NOTD, is closer to black than to charcoal, the shimmer is grayish in tone. You really can only see the shimmer in the sunlight, so indoors this shade is like a muted black creme. Surprisingly, I got compliments on this one today. That’s surprising only because I never get compliments and very few people (who aren’t into nail polish as a hobby) can appreciate a good almost black shimmery polish. I really like this one. I think I might make it, and colors similar to it, my official broken nail mourning color. For this mani, I used Misa BACKbone Natural Nail Base Coat and BREAKneck Fast Drying Non-Yellowing Top Coat for the first time. I’ll let you guys know how these worked out for me.

Special Thanks to Misa.

July 24, 2008

Rescue Beauty Lounge Spongebob Pre-Fall Collection Swatches

Posted in Blue, Coral, Creme, Jelly, Rescue Beauty Lounge, Yellow tagged at 11:48 pm by pretear

Ji Baek did it again. I am not a fan of creme sheers and I am completely and totally taken with this collection. Of course, I expected nothing less than perfection from Rescue Beauty Lounge – Ji and company consistently design colors that are in a league all of their own. Ji conjured up the Spongebob Squarepants Collection after hearing that Marc Jacobs drew inspiration for his collections from the popular children’s TV show. I love that these delicate sophisticated colors were designed based on a TV show, the silliness of which is rivaled only by Ren & Stimpy.

If delicate isn’t your thing, Ji says these colors look positively amazing layered over Rescue Beauty Lounge Underwear, the brightest white on the market. The brightness of Underwear gives these sheer colors a back-lit effect. As soon as I get my hands on Underwear, I’ll hook you guys up with swatches. Until then, enjoy these polishes in their unadulterated form.

These swatches are 4 coats each, taken in artificial light. I prefer sunlight images but I got home too late from work and I just had to show these to the world tonight. Despite having been taken in artificial light, these swatches are true and accurate depictions of these colors. It goes without saying at this point that the application of these polishes was perfect, not a streak insight.

If my addiction to nail polish could be expressed in one color, Rescue Beauty Lounge Bikini Bottom would be that color. At first glance this blue looks dupish to Color Club Blue Light and China Glaze For Audrey, both of which I also love. Sorry guys, no such luck. Bikini Bottom is a very light watery blue, almost jelly like in its delicate finish. For Audrey is a greener blue creme, not jelly at all. Blue Light is a brighter light blue, also creme, no jelly. The only downside to this color is that I don’t think it can be pulled off at 2 coats – that and, this color should have been named Squidward. : P

Most people think that yellow is a difficult color to wear, Rescue Beauty Lounge Square Pants will prove those people wrong. I think there is a commonly accepted notion that yellow tends to run the risk of looking a bit garish, but Square Pants is soft and delicate. It’s visibly yellow, not pastel, but it’s not shocking on the nail. This color was put on earth for people who want to try yellow but fear it might be ‘too much’. Perfect.

Spongebob may be the star of the TV show, but for most people, Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick is the star of this collection. Described as “wispy peach coral”, it’s definitely the most accessible of the 3 colors. Bikini Bottom is my personal favorite, but my NOTD right now is Starfish Patrick, primarily because it’s subtle enough for work.

I did take some swatches of Square Pants and Starfish Patrick at 2 coats for those of you who are not sheer polish adverse.

As you can see, these colors are wearable and streak-free even at 2 coats.

Special thanks to Ji Baek and Rescue Beauty Lounge.

July 2, 2008

America, %*@& Yeah!

Posted in Blue, Color Club, Creme, Glitter, Nail Art, OPI, Red, Rescue Beauty Lounge, White tagged at 7:23 pm by pretear

This is my attempt at a patriotic mani for the 4th of July. I used the following: OPI The Thrill of Brazil (and believe me, the irony is not lost on me), Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm, Art Club by Color Club White and Silver Glitter, both of which are available individually or in the Art Club Bridal Kit.

I was torn over whether to use Silver Glitter or the tiny little silver crystals that come in the Bridal Kit. I ultimately decided to just wing it with the glitter. I’m a major newb at nail art so I have to say – for a first attempt, I’m really pleased with the results.

First let me say, I am so sorry about the sub-par application and lighting, again. I’ll be back to my usual application and lighting soon, I promise I’ll get it together. Second, OPI The Thrill of Brazil is one of my favorite reds, EVER. It applies like butter. Opaque in one coat, perfect in two – this red shines like there is no tomorrow. Simply, gorgeous. For the blue, I used Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm. It was great for this mani because it, too, is opaque in one coat. I was able to use just one brush stroke for the blue behind the stars. Click here for a swatch of Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm.

Finally, Art Club by Color Club – amazing. I’ve had the Bridal Kit and the Carnaval Kit for a while now but I’ve been stuck in professional-mani purgatory since the beginning of the summer so I haven’t been able to try them out until today. And WOW, I love these nail art polishes. The super long ultra fine brush is incredibly easy to use. The kits in general are pretty great. They come with 4 or so nail art polishes in assorted colors or glitters, decals, beads, stones, and other cute little accents.

To celebrate my nail freedom in exactly one month, I’m planning on breaking out all my accumulated nail art products. Seriously, I’ve been stock piling nail art supplies for a few months now in anticipation of a ridiculously elaborate nail art week on The Polish Addict, so if you’re secretly into the kitsch, like me, stay tuned.

May 4, 2008

OPI Mod About Brights Swatches

Posted in Blue, Creme, Green, OPI, Yellow tagged , , , , at 11:37 am by pretear

I want to be able to show you guys the whole OPI Mod About Brights collection but I decided against getting the entire collection. I think all the colors are worth owning. I just happen to have a lot of pinks and oranges so buying That’s Hot Pink, Brights Power, and Mod-ern Girl would be redundant for me. One of the girls on the nail board discovered that That’s Hot Pink is a dupe to Don’t Know… Beets Me, which I own. Scrangie has swatches of the colors that I’m not posting so check them out on her blog.

All these swatches are 3 coats of color. I tried to get bottle color in 2 coats, it’s really impossible. These colors aren’t jellies, but they are very translucent. Which is strange because they look really pigmented in the bottle. All these colors are extremely glossy even without top coat. The application was great on all of them, my only complaint is that there is something seriously wrong with the quality control of OPI’s brushes. Several people complained about the brushes from the Indian collection having loose, cracked, and uneven bristles. My bottle of The “It” Color had a slanted brush – What’s going on OPI?

The “It” Color is really unique, not exactly mustard but dirtier than true yellow. This color is special. It seems so high fashion to me, I feel it isn’t meant for day to day wear.

I didn’t love Green-wich Village when I first tried it, but it grew on me after wearing it for a few days. It might be dupish to Carolyn New York Greenwich Avenue, I’ll do a comparison soon.

Dating A Royal is my favorite from this collection. Seriously beautiful – if you love blues you *need* this color.

April 29, 2008

Blue Comparison Swatches (OPI – Dating a Royal Mod Brights Collection)

Posted in Blue, China Glaze, Comparison Swatches, Creme, L.A. Girl Flare, Lippmann Collection, OPI, Rescue Beauty Lounge tagged , , , , , at 2:05 pm by pretear

It’s no surprise that OPI is late to the party yet again. Blues were the thing last season, but for those of us who don’t care about strictly following seasonal trends, OPI Dating a Royal from the new Mod Brights Collection is pretty amazing.

Originally, I was going to compare all of these colors but once I got the bottles together it was pretty clear that the only real contenders for comparison were Lippmann Collection – Rehab and Rescue Beauty Lounge – Dead Calm. China Glaze – Shower Together (twin of China Glaze – Aqua Baby), L.A. Girl Flare – Twinkling, and OPI Just Groovy don’t look anything like Dating a Royal, or each other for that matter. There was some concern arising on the nail board that all these colors might be too similar to justify owning all of them, but as you can see from the bottle picture, that’s not the case.

2 Coats Rescue Beauty Lounge – Dead Clam, 3 Coats OPI – Dating a Royal, and a whopping 4 coats for Lippmann Collection – Rehab

I apologize for the quality of this image. For some reason I just could not get these colors to photograph well. This was the clearest image of the bunch, but even with the lack of focus, this image is an accurate depiction of what these colors look like in person. The online teaser images of Dating a Royal made it seem like it would be more dupish to the aqua blues. As it turns out, it’s a much darker blue, but not as dark as the blues that were popular last season. Its comparative lightness makes it more relevant to the trends of this spring and summer but since it’s not technically a light blue it will be wearable in the fall. I’ll give everyone the skinny on the application and wear when I do the full swatches.

If there are any colors you guys want compared drop me an email or comment with your request. : )

In other news, I am now a member of Alltop.com. Yeay! Alltop condenses the best blogs on the net by category so you can read about your favorite topics all in one place. Their beauty section is pretty comprehensive, you guys should check them out if you haven’t already.

April 28, 2008

Rescue Beauty Lounge Pic Spam… I Mean Swatches

Posted in Blue, Creme, Gray, Green, Purples & Lilacs, Rescue Beauty Lounge tagged , at 8:28 am by pretear

I hate to say this because I think the idea of an 18 dollar nail polish is absolutely ridiculous, but I’m a fan of Rescue Beauty Lounge. Their application and wear is amazing but more importantly, at least to me, they have really unique colors. I’m not a shimmer girl. In a world where most unique colors have shimmer, finding unique cremes is an almost impossible task… then I found Rescue Beauty Lounge and to this day my wallet and bank account quietly sob in unison.

First, the *MOST* prized of the Rescue Beauty Bunch:

Rescue Beauty Lounge – Recycle

Ooooh, I obsessed over whether to buy this one or not for weeks. I was still recovering from the psychological trauma of having neglected to buy Zulu, so I said to hell with being frugal and took the plunge. I felt really guilty about it for a while because it was so expensive ($18 + Ridiculous Shipping Charges = Guilt). I got over it, I just loved the color so much. It’s the perfect true green. Recycle was the gateway that facilitated my future RBL purchases.

My second Rescue Beauty Lounge splurge was for Dead Calm:

I wanted a true blue creme so badly. My first brush with blue cremes was Lippmann Rehab. It’s a great polish, the only problem is that it has a jelly finish and requires 4 coats to achieve a pretty navy color. It also took forever to dry, sometimes it didn’t dry at all. I would end up with horrendous sheet marks (back then I had yet to discover the gloriousness that is Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat). Dead Calm is opaque in one coat, amazing wear and application. It’s also really unique, not quite like anything else on the market. So at least for me, Dead Calm was definitely worth the money. As a side note, ‘Dead Calm’ is an awesome name for a polish.

I got Purple Haze, Stormy, and Concrete Jungle all in one haul – the day I lost my mind.

Purple Haze is a beautiful color but I didn’t love it on myself. Again, it is undoubtedly a unique color. As you can see from my purple comparison swatches there is nothing else quite like it in my collection.

I mauled over getting Stormy and Concrete Jungle for a long time.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy is probably not worth the money unless you really really *really* want it. I developed my obsession for this polish back when no other company had a gray polish on the market. That’s not the case anymore, every brand has their own version of a chic gray. If you want to go gray without denting your funds try OPI Moon Over Mumbai, Essie Body Language, Carolyn New York Handball Courts or Hangin’ on the Stoop, China Glaze Recycle or frankening your own gray instead. If, in the end, you are so inclined to spend the money, rest assured it’s an excellent polish.

Finally, Rescue Beauty Lounge Concrete Jungle:

This is my current NOTD. It’s a great color. I had a little trouble with the application when I used Barielle Nail Camouflage. For some reason, it made the polish really thick and difficult to apply. I switched to a non-ridge filling base coat and the application problems disappeared. Like with Stormy, Concrete Jungle, color-wise, is probably not worth the cold hard cash.

My nail polish philosophy is that expensive brands are only worth it if either a.) the color is really unique and there is nothing else anywhere that is like it, or b.) you just can’t help yourself and splurging will make you happy. You won’t see me buying a pink or a red from Chanel or RBL. Do you guys feel the same way? What’s your philosophy on expensive polish?

*Disclaimer* The Polish Addict is in not liable for any lemmings this post may have created.

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