Rescue Beauty Lounge: Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty

Today I wanted to show you the four colors Rescue Beauty Lounge put out for Fall 2010 called The Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty collection. It's inspired by the wives of Henry VIII and the opulent brocade fabrics of the time. I don't know much about the dynasty, except what I've seen in fictional movies haha. Very bloody and very dramatic.

“I fell in love with the Tudor dynasty in the novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel,” says Baek. “The more I learned of the queens’ wardrobes—the layers of embroidery, embellishments of pearls and fur and rich jewel toned fabrics—the more I saw a parallel with what’s going on in fashion this fall. Givenchy’s intricate brocades, Lanvin’s feather-festooned metallics, and the strong, powerful neutrals at Celine all served as starting points for Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Autumn/Winter color collection. Each color has micro particles of pink, blue, green, gold, and silver to add iridescence similar the tiny colored threaded that give brocade fabrics their depth of color.” - Ji Baek

First up is Catherine, named for Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife. She was married to his brother who passed away, then married Henry. He divorced her to marry Anne Boleyn. This color is a royal plummy purple with a fine pewter sheen and hints of blue and fuchsia shimmer. Amazing color, great formula. This is two coats.

Anne is of course named for Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife. This is a bewitching green, which is fitting because they say that Anne enchanted Henry into marrying her. I love, love, LOVE this polish. The deep olive green base has some gold shimmer and pink-gold metallic iridescence. This is a complex color that changes at different angles. This is two coats.

Jane Seymour was the third wife of Henry VIII and because she had a son for him she was his favorite, but she sadly died from childbirth. Jane the nail polish is the most subdued in the collection. It's a pale beige gray nude with subtle pink, green and gold shimmer flecks. The formula on this was a little more difficult to apply than the others, this is three coats.

Catherine H is named for Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife who was the youngest and more of a trophy wife. This is a dusty Wedgwood blue with amazing iridescent gold and pink shimmer throughout. Freaking beautiful color! There are also some lighter blue flecks that pop out between the simmer threads. Perfect formula, two coats.

If you love these as much as I do but don't have them yet, you can get them all right now on www.rescuebeauty.com for $18 each. These are the polishes that made me fall head over heels with RBL as a brand, they really are in a class of their own. Have a fab day everyone!

Products provided for review.

Glitter Gal Australia New Polish Lines

Hi friends :) Today I have some polishes from Glitter Gal Australia's new lines, Transitions, Shade Shifters, and Opal Effects. Very exciting, seeing new stuff from GG, home of the world's best holographic polishes. Here we go!

"Shade Shifters are metallic shades shifting / changing finish with intense primary color effect which reflects a different color spectrum when viewed at a different angle. G Gal’s "Shade Shifters" are similar to those you see on wings of exotic beetles - they shift from one shade to another when viewed from different angles."

First is a Shade Shifter, called Hidden Violet. It's a “Soft” finish - more smooth polished look with finer particles. This has a soft purple base with a reflective purple and blue metallic tones. This is two coats over a black cream.

Next is a Shade Shifter with “Brilliant” finish - very bright glitter effect showing slightly larger particles, called Last Light. This sparkler has a deep copper tone with a beetle wing green shimmer from different angles. This is two coats over black.

"For a Soft Look simply apply over clean dry nails to reveal an elegant colored pearl effect. If applied directly onto unpainted nails the Transition Effect Nail Polish gives you a very soft color tint over your nails that just dances with a hint of colour when seen from different angles. You can't take your eyes off it!"

Here is one of the new Transitions, meant to be applied either alone on the nail for a soft pearl look or over a vivid dark base color. This is Transitions Soft Blue, two coats again layered over black. The milky base applies as a shimmer sapphire pearlescent coating.

"Glitter Gal’s Opal Collection was inspired and named after Australian outback mining towns, as the Opal polish captures the look of Australia’s beautiful opals - your nails will be transformed."

The Opal shade I have is called Lightning Ridge, a clear jelly base with green and coppery flakes. I personally found this to be a delight, different from a lot of the other flakies I have. The flake shards are nice and flat, but are separate like glitter pieces, unlike something like Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Very nice if not a bit more sparse than I expected. This is three coats over black.

Glitter Gal polishes can be purchased from Glitter Gal directly, or from Llarowe and NinjaPolish, the US stockists for Glitter Gal, or from Harlow & Co, the Canadian stockist for Glitter Gal. On the Glitter Gal website, the 9mL bottles are AUD $11.95 and the 15mL bottles are AUD $17.95.

Products provided for review.

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Locavore

Howdy, howdy, howdy :) How is your week going friends? So far mine is peachy. Here's a picture of a bunny.

Image Source

You're welcome. Now on to the color of the day, Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore. This polish is freaking bling bling, fo' sho! I love the combination of colors that go into the glitter mix on this, gold, silver, green, blue, and purple. This is four coats for opacity. J'adore!

Did you know Locavore refers to a person interested in eating only locally produced food? Ah, the more you know ;) You can buy this on www.rescuebeauty.com for $18. Later luvahs!

Products provided for review.

OPI Exclusive & Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Hi folks! Happy Memorial Day :) Today I wanted to show you another gorgeous polish I got from my fab friend Scandalous. OPI Extravagance (oops!) Exclusive is one of the last Designer Series polishes that I wanted that I had yet to acquire and now it's mine! This one is a fab magenta purple with awesome linear holo that jumps out like 3D. I freaking love this. Two coats.

Here is Exclusive with two coats of Max Factory Fantasy Fire, the Clarins 230 dupe! Also a present from my girl :D I freaked out when I saw this in my package from her, how generous can you be my Southern Suga? I love how it looks over this OPI, so fab and color-shifty and holo!

And just because, here are some more shots of Fantasy Fire over Nicole by OPI Di-Vine is Divine, a deep berry purple smooth metallic. Gaaaaaahhhhh, amaze-a-balls!

Hope you all had a great day and will have an even better week!

Pixi Neons

Pixi has just launched new nail colors at Target! These are the perfect brights for summer and now you can get them at your neighborhood Target :)

First is Coral Cabana, a gorgeous neon mod pinky coral that I love! This is three coats with topcoat. Yummy and delicious! I can see myself wearing this all summer long.

Summer Pink is the perfect name for this neon blue-toned pink. I have a ton of bright pinks, but this is a special one. It's not so neon that it dries totally matte, but neon enough to be brilliantly loud. This is three coats with topcoat.

Very Violet is a gorgeous purple neon lacquer that I liked at first but I loved after I applied it. Almost magenta, it's really in your face and demure at the same time! This is three coats with topcoat.

Pixi products are available online at pixibeauty.com and target.com as well as in Target stores for $8.00 each. One thing I've got to mention is the cap on these bottles, it's a matte ceramic that is easy to grip and doesn't leave fingerprints, yay! The bottle shape in general is one I'm a fan of, easy to store and take on the go. Have you tried any Pixi lacquers yet?

Products provided for review.

Rescue Beauty Lounge GOMM Collection

EDIT: This post has been edited for legal reasons. Please see: http://blog.rescuebeauty.com/an-important-announcement-regarding-gomm/ for more information.

Today I have the new collection from Rescue Beauty Lounge to show you, titled GOMM. This group of seven lacquers area all derived from Ji Baek's inspiration taken a famed American artist. Please read Ji's press release on this collection on her blog. Her description of the color will appear before the photos of the color swatch, then after I will weigh in with my review.

Bella Donna: It would be insulting not to include white in an homage to "her". My challenge was to make a porcelain white or to convey bleached bones in all of its glorious opaqueness without making a streaking mess. This was difficult to achieve and Bella Donna took the longest time to perfect, but I was finally able to produce a self-leveling second coat. I envision luscious blooms of Bella Donna in every hand gesture and blossoming Bella Donna petals beautifully resting on your toes.

Bella Donna is a fantastically simple polish, with an air of elegance and innocence. The white is squishy and fresh and beautiful. This polish had a great formula for such a pale color, it is meant, like all of Ji's lacquers, to be complete in two coats but I found that look to be just a tad too sheer for my taste. This is three coats.

Faraway Nearby: Picture yourself standing in a strikingly sweeping and voluminous desert. A shimmery heat wave flirts with your vision, producing huddles of dancing mirages. Your eyes are tricked by a desert hallucination. The heat wave levitates and soars up into the spacious, serene, cloudless desert sky.

Faraway Nearby is the perfect shade of bright sky blue, with a hint of blue shimmer. The shade is definitely one that was "missing" from Rescue Beauty's polish line, which houses many blues but none of this particular breed. I found the formula to be perfect, this is two coats.

Santa Fe Road: I was offered a trip to Santa Fe when I was working on this collection, but turned it down. I wanted to capture the soul of Santa Fe solely through "her" images. This color would be an aerial view of my imaginary Santa Fe—the baked earth tones of ocher with the shimmery, glisteningly ubiquitous dotted greens.

Santa Fe Road is exactly the color I imagine in my mind when I hear it, warm autumn squash orange with the perfect amount of warm green shimmer. And I know RBL fans (ReBeLs) have been wanting an orange from Ji for a long time :) Another perfect formula, this is two coats.

Abiquiu: Clusters of brushed desert plants sway mesmerically with the wind. After a thunderous rain that cleanses off dust and sunburns, Abiquiu captures the moment when that first sunbeam appears and flashes them with a warm kiss.

Abiquiu is a spring green with a slight silver shimmer. I can't imagine a more perfect interpretation of desert plants than this color. I live in the high desert, northern Nevada, and I am surrounded by scrubby bushes and drought tolerant trees. This totally makes me think of plants I'd see out my window on the side of a mountain! This is the name of a town in New Mexico, which I'm sure is home to lots of desert flora.

Ghost Ranch: This is the magical place that captivated "her" heart—her home. “...the shadows are long and the sun hits brightly on unexpected spots,” she wrote to Stieglitz–taken from Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of "her" by Laurie Lisle. In the twilight, the adobe casts its nebulous glow, and the mistress is on her rooftop wrapped in a Navajo blanket, walking stick in hand as she watches the first appearance of the muted, twinkling stars.

I am in love with this polish. Ghost Ranch is a metallic bronzey brown that makes me feel like I'm out on the range. This is so fabulous, I can't even explain it. Butter-like formula. This is two coats.

Jack in the Pulpit: Her Jack in the Pulpit series totaled six pieces. The way "she" used greens, blues, and especially that bastardized teal, put me in a hypnotic state. When I actually saw the paintings in person, the oil paint brush strokes that mixed the three colors came alive in certain lights.

Jack in the Pulpit is a ridiculously gorgeous deep blue-green with turquoise blue shimmer. I've never seen anything quite like it, I mean, WOW. Thin formula but creamy and opaque, two coats.

Oriental Poppy: Finding yourself amongst a sea of poppy fields, you toss your bike aside to lie down for a rest to swallow and inhale the beauty. Lusciously vibrant petals bob their heads up and down with the flirting wind. As a sign of approval, the glorious, piercing golden sunlight casts a spell and what you see is the electrifying vibrancy of a mysterious red with spots of color aglow with the sun.

Oriental Poppy is a screamingly bright poppy red with pink and gold shimmer. I wish this photo captured the brilliance of the shimmer, but it's one you'll need to see in person to fully appreciate. The formula on this is amazing, I was able to get it super close to my cuticle without it flooding my cuticles. This is opaque in two coats.


Pre-orders for this collection will begin the first week in June, and will be available online in July.  Rescue Beauty Lounge lacquers can be purchased on www.rescuebeauty.com for $20.

Products provided for review.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Blogger Collection

Hey there! How are you darling? I'm doing well :) Still looking for a job, not happy about this dry spell, but I'm trying to be positive. Today I have two special polishes to show you, two of the three blogger created colors for Rescue Beauty Lounge, from 2009. I've shown you Scrangie before, so here are the other two.

Mismas was created by Michelle Mismas from All Lacquered Up, whom I personally bow down to. Her and Scrangie ARE blogging to me! Her color is a deep true purple crème, incredibly pigmented and lush. I think some imitators came out after this, but this will always be the original in my eyes. Ga-ga-gorgeous! This is two coats, even though it's opaque in one. It's SO shiny!

And here is Obis Non Sufficit created by Steph from The Polish Addict, who sadly is no longer blogging. This is a freaking amazing moody grayed-out combat green crème. I cannot think of a rival for this one, it's truly in a league of it's own. This is also a one coater, but I pictured it here with two.

You can get these on www.RescueBeauty.com for $18 each. Do you own these? If not, what the eff are you waiting for?! Hahaha, seriously these are must have's for any polish lover/blogger/addict worth her paint ;)

Products provided for review.

Nicole by OPI Kardashian Kolors CVS Exclusives

Nicole by OPI put out seven more Kardashian Kolors for their line exclusive to CVS this Spring. I seem to always put off swatching NOPIs because I despise the bottle design, even though I end up really liking most of their colors. It's just an aesthetic thing, nothing to do with the brand or polish. I still have to show you the original Kardashian collection that came out last year, haha.

First is Paparazzi Don't Preach, a smooth milky pinky peach. This was a bit sheer, but otherwise it was lovely in terms of application. This is three coats. I adore the Madonna song it pays homage to :)

Next is Strike a Pose, a bright poppy red with coral undertones. This is really pretty in person, not necessarily unique but very lovely. I adore brights like this for warm weather. This is two coats.

Here is One Big Happy Fame-ily, a dorky name haha but a very sweet polish. It's a lavender glass fleck that might look dupe-able in the bottle but turned out very distinctive. This one is a bit sheer, so this is three coats.

Here is Our Fuchsia's Lookin' Bright is a purpley fuchsia crème. This one is also not super unique, but again it's a great bright pigmented color, perfect for summer. This is two coats.

Smile for the Glam-era is a gorgeous blackened eggplant with red and multicolored shimmer flecks, some small and some a bit bigger. This had a fab formula, two coats.

Ladies in the Limelight is a limon yellow with a hint of green undertones, reminds me of Fiercely Fiona from the Shrek Forever After collection of 2010. This one was a tad streaky, but workable. This is three coats.

Last is Back To Reality...TV, a purpley periwinkle with delicate reddish pink shimmer. I thought I would love this one, but it just strikes me as middle of the road. This is three coats.

These are available now for $7.99 each at CVS locations nationwide and online at www.cvs.com. What do you think of these new additions to the Kardashian/Nicole by OPI collaboration?

Products provided for review.

Scandalous vs. Starfish Patrick

Hi folks :) I really enjoy comparison posts, it really helps you as readers and that makes me happy. I wish I would make time for more of them, so I will definitely work on that in the future. This particular comparison was requested by someone when I posted the Rescue Beauty Lounge Spongebob Squarepants collection the other day.

The contenders are Cult Nails Scandalous, swatched here, and Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick, swatched here. Scandalous is on the left, Starfish on the right.

Index and ring fingers features Scandalous, middle and pinkie have Starfish Patrick on. As you can see, Scandalous is darker and more straight jelly while Starfish Patrick is paler and more of a hybrid jelly crème formula. Scandalous is swatched with three coats and SP is swatched with four coats.

Both are excellent polishes, I honestly couldn't choose between them! Scandalous sells for $10 on http://shop.cultnails.com/ and you will be able to get Starfish Patrick soon (around November) with Rescue Beauty Lounge's "Bring It Back" promotion later this year for $20 at http://www.rescuebeauty.com/.

Products provided for review.

China Glaze - Electric Lilac

Hi everyone! I just got back from a mini-break to see some family and I missed you all :D Here is a short little blurb and a swatch from me, so you know I'm not dead.

This is Electric Lilac from China Glaze. This was part of the 50 Specialty Glitters they came out with in 2009. For some reason, all of those specialty polishes smelled like specialty toxic waste, but many of them were really gorgeous. This one has a soft muted lilac base color with small and medium glitter pieces, some opalescent, some holographic. This is three coats.

I have so many new colors to show you! I can't wait :) Have a great week!