Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Essie Spring 2011 Collection

Essie's spring collection is pretty nice this year. Take look:


Essie Coat Azure. This is closer to bottle color in real life; my camera makes it look more vibrant than it really is. It's a soft, dusty looking sky blue with some subtle silvery shimmer. It's in the same vein as Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H finish-wise, with the light blue dustiness and subtle shimmer, but the colors are quite different.


Essie French Affair. You've seen this one on me a few times now! A pink that I actually like. This one is different because it has a bit of lavender in it, it's not too warm like a lot of pinks, but it's also not so cool that it just looks purple. Pretty close to my idea of a perfect pastel pink creme.


Essie Kisses And Bisses. This one is hard to capture because it's so sheer, but I can describe it. It's a sheer ivory tinted base with a duochrome pearl shimmer. The shimmer flashes between red and pink at one angle to gold, orange and even a tiny bit of green at an extreme angle. It is sheer, I'm wearing four coats here, but it's amazing for layering:

Left to right (pinkie to index):
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie French Affair
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Sand Tropez
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Nice is Nice
Essie Kisses and Bisses, two coats, over Essie Coat Azure

It looks awesome over all the colors in this collection. It turns the cremes into red-pearl duochromes! I think it looks especially incredible over Sand Tropez. This is my new favorite layering polish. Love this color.


Essie Nice is Nice. This one was a little hard to capture, it's not as blue as it looks here. It's closer to the sunlight picture. It's a pastel lavender creme. Very soft and flattering.


Essie Sand Tropez. This shade is a beige sandy nude creme. It has a little bit of grey, a little bit of taupe, very much a 'mushroom' type of shade. It's lighter than a lot of the taupey putty mushroom shades in my collection and I'm very fond of it. Especially layered with Kisses and Bisses!

Essie Topless and Barefoot. This one is similar in feel to Sand Tropez, but it's a pink, fleshy nude instead of beige. It's putty colored. Like someone said about Borghese Almondine, this totally reminds me of Silly Putty! Now I have the urge to play with Silly Putty. Especially since it looks so nice on my nails!

The formula on these was nice and even. I didn't have any issues with the formula itself, but the opacity isn't what I was expecting. They're not sheer, but lately when you see colors like this, they're one-coaters. These needed two at the very least, but I did three just because. They do look best with three. Drying time is quick and these wear pretty well, too.

Overall, strong spring collection. Are the colors totally unique? No, we've all seen these before. Despite not being completely unique, the colors are all perfect. They're just really great pastels. They all look good on and they're all even better layered with Kisses and Bisses. I would wear every single one of these (and I have worn them all but Topless and Barefoot!), they go perfectly with my skintone, none of the dreaded lobster hands. They all have a soft, creamy look instead of a chalky white-out look. I don't mind the chalky look at all, but the creamier finish of these is easier to pull off for most people.

I like 'em. Do you?

(These were sent to me for review.)

Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2011 Iconic/Ironic Collection Swatches and Review

First off, here's the accompanying press release which explains the inspiration behind the collection:

"RESCUE BEAUTYʼS Spring/11 POLISHES SUIT FASHION SCHIZOPHRENTICS

The variety of moods and personas shown on this Spring//Summerʼs runways was a tribute to the fashion schizophrentic in all of us.

“Iʼve been told there are women who adopt a signature style that they stick to, season after season,” says Rescue Beauty founder Ji Baek, “frankly, Iʼve never met one.”

“Most women I know are like me—one day weʼre wearing “Mad Men”-inspired ladylike sheaths, the next weʼre channeling Patti Smith in black leather and spiky studs.

Itʼs one of the many joys of being a woman. We can be a little psychotic when we reach into our closets, especially this spring.”

Unlike previous seasons where one clear trend carried through collection after collection, this Spring, designers are all over the map. There was Betty Page starring in South Pacific at Dior, new wave meets neoclassical at Chanel, sexy Suzie Wongs at Louis Vuitton pared-down minimalism at Celine and Chloe, and a box of crayons at Prada and Jil Sander. Models appeared as 1920ʼs garden party ladies at Galliano, gauchos at Hermes and street-wise punks at the venerable houses of Balmain and Bottega Venetta.

“I love that our wardrobes can reflect our multi-faceted personalities. This season truly celebrates women—every woman—so Iʼve named my Spring polish collection Iconic/Ironic, hues to juxtaposition against every version of yourself.”

“The ʻironyʼ comes from mixing polishes in an unexpected way. Offset all those brights with a neutral cocoa or a grounding black hue. Make your punk looks more tongue-in-chic with lavender nails. Itʼs about adding that surprising detail that keeps you on your
(well-pedicured) toes.”

Decorous is a perfectly ladylike light cocoa, an unexpected neutral to offset bright tropical hues or to add a chic finish to an all-black ensemble.

Recherché is a purplish dark brown prune, an exotic accent that grounds oversize prints better than an expected summer pink or coral. Stunning with the homage to classic YSL designs shown by Stephen Pilati or the Proenza Schouler boysʼ loose-fitting ladylike tweeds and sheer tank dresses.

Insouciant is the toned-down gray lilac of a pressed corsage. Punked out rather than pastel, it is a counterpoint to Springʼs ladylike florals and Bardot-worthy uber-feminine dresses. Or wear it with Lanvinʼs muddied neutrals.

Finally, thereʼs Iconoclast. “Letʼs face it, black polish has been done to death. I had to reinvent it into something entirely new,” says Baek. This one is a richly pigmented ebony with layers of fine glitter, giving it depth and a metallic, mica-like finish.

Rescue polishes are available at www.rescuebeauty.com or Rescue Beauty Lounge on Gansevoort Street in New Yorkʼs Meatpacking District. The polishes sell for $18 a bottle.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Nail polishes are created with resin and high molecular polymers to improve flexibility, durability and high shine. They contain no harmful or drying Touluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and no animal testing."


Now let's take a look at the colors!


Decorous. This is a soft light brown with a hint of iridescent shimmer. It reminds me of suede. It has a really nice milky element to it that makes the base color look super smooth, and then when the light hits it just right you get little glimmers of silver, purple, teal and a little bit of green. The flash photo shows the base color well and it also picks up some of the different colors in the shimmer.


Iconoclast. I think this might be my favorite of the collection. It's amazing. Iconoclast is a deep black base that's brightened by fine multicolored shimmer. Please enlarge the images- look at all the different shimmer colors! The main colors I see are green and purple. It's deep, dark, dramatic but has that subtle hint of color that makes it irresistible to me. How about a little bit of insider trivia? This is pretty similar to what some of the early prototypes of Scrangie by Rescue Beauty Lounge looked like. Black based with iridescent purple and green shimmer. We were going for that iridescent beetle look. Pretty neat, huh? The color transformed quite a bit during development! But now I have the gorgeous Iconoclast shade to remind me of that fun experience.


Insouciant. The first pictures show the purple element of this polish and the flash picks up on the pastel greyed qualities in the base color. This is a new take on the pastel and greyed-purple trends for spring. Instead of being a plain creme finish, it has a flash of blue shimmer. The shimmer is fine and subtle but at the right angles it looks luminous and electric. Look at the color of it in the corners of the bottle. It's a delicate color and the shimmer makes it look so magical.



Recherche. What a surprise for spring! A deep, dark smoky violet! It's not one of those dark purples that look black. This one is a little bit greyed and faded and it looks smoky on the nail. Very dramatic and mysterious. I love the soft vintage look it gives to the nails- makes me think of Film Noir or flapper girls. Elegant but still edgy.


The formula on these is the best polish formula you could ask for. It is absolutely flawless. The texture is smooth and even- not runny, not thick. It goes exactly where you want it with almost no effort. It practically applies itself. The drying time is a little longer, but they're so dense and opaque that you can get away with only one coat. Add a little quick-dry topcoat on top and you'll be good to go.


Love this set for spring. The black and the smoky purple are really the last colors that come to mind when I think of spring and I love that. But, I do usually crave light, faded cloudy type colors at this time of year and Ji satisfied my craving with Insouciant. I don't think that Decorous is the right type of brown for my skin tone, but the other three are definitely winners. Iconoclast and Recherche make me think of black orchids- I bet someone with awesome nail art skills could come up with a great black orchid inspired two-tone gradient.



The pre-order for this limited edition Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polish collection should be happening at the end of January, so make sure you're signed up for email alerts if you want to get in on the pre-order. I don't have an exact date or time, but as long as you're signed up for the newsletter you'll hear about it when it happens!

(These were sent to me for review.)

Pastel Bundlemonster Stamping

I did this design that I really liked:

One of the BundleMonster plates with Konad Princess Special Polish in Pop Green (I think it was Pop Green at least... they don't have labels...) over Hard Candy Sky (the new version.)

I was really happy with how this turned out, but I sorta ruined it while doing my mom's nails so I had to take it all off and do something else. I wanted to keep the design, but this time I thought I'd try it over purple:


This is the same stamp and polish over China Glaze Light As Air. Pretty also, but I think I really prefer the look of the green/blue combination.

Bundle Monster has such great full nail patterns, they're just so small... Maybe Konad should do more new designs!

Some of the new Fall 2010 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears and Complete Salon Manicures

I finally found them... Why must Sally Hansen make her polishes so hard to find? Why can't they just release them everywhere at the same time?! Drives me crazy.

Anyway, these are the ones I picked up:

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Fireberry Red. What a mouthful. Is this the longest brand/product name on the market? I think it might be! And the 'Xtreme' always cracks me up. Remember back in the 90s and early 200os when everything had to be "extreme" and brands would start adding random Xs to words to make them more extreme? And everything had a picture of like a skateboarder or bmx rider or something like that on it? Xtreme Wear fits right in. I know, that has nothing to do with the color. This color is hot, you should get it. There, that wasn't entirely an off topic tangent now.

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear Mystic Lilac. This color looks so bad on me but I had to get it for that gorgeous green shimmer. Pale greyed lilac with pastel green shimmer on top!

Sally Hansen blah blah Purple Gala. So gorgeous. It's a foil made of purple and steel and gold pieces. Kinda like Hard Candy Mr. Wrong from the new Wal-Mart line of polishes. Love this one.

Sally Hansen Purple Fiesta. This was the only one of the glitters I grabbed and it's really not so bad. I think it works, but just barely. The others are all dense frosts with sparse holo bar glitter and some silver and holo round glitter. Chunky frosty nightmares. But this one... this one is a little chunky and frosty too but it's such a pretty color combination!


And then there's the Complete Salon Manicure new shades. Can I just say again how much I hate the new bottle? It's so cheap and hideous looking. The gaudy silver cap with the black plastic ring? Why would you do that, Sally Hansen? The cheap, crooked labels? The weird rounded edge bubble bottle shape? Just... whyyyyyyy? The old Salon Manicure bottles- the square ones with the rubber handles- were so nice! Why did you do this?!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Downtown Rubies. Hm. This picture makes it look good. It's really ugly to me. It's the dullest red glitter ever and the formula was a nightmare and a half. It's so... dusty? Dirty? It's dull and grimy looking and it doesn't sparkle! What it makes me think of is a frankenpolish with the wrong kind of glitter- know what I'm talking about? When you use the wrong type of glitter and it melts and fades and the color bleeds? That's totally what this reminds me of.




Golden Ticket. Nice and sparkly, unlike Downtown Rubies. Still bad formula and application, though. Oh, and someone USED this. This is why I hate not ordering polish online. Some jerkface always uses the bottles of polish at the store and I end up with a crusty gloopy bottle of polish! Stop 'testing' the polish in the stores, people! If it's not labelled TESTER, don't use it, you're ruining it for everyone else! Have some respect!


Sally Hansen Sequin Scandal. Now this one is perfect in every way. It's a black base with gold shimmer like China Glaze Wagon Trail, but it has some little multicolor flakes of sparkle and little red shimmery things mixed in. Really pretty. You'll have to see this one in person to appreciate it.

I had a really hard time with the Salon Manicure brushes this time. My bottles of glitter were so thick and impossible to apply with those freaky paddles. They were really crooked on the edge- not round or flat, kinda zig-zag, made it impossible to get an even application. I don't remember the other Salon Manicure new-style brushes being that funky.

Essie The Summer Collection 2010

I think this collection is actually called "The Summer Collection." Seriously! It's printed on the little display box and everything.

Anyway, this collection was one heck of a surprise. You will see why shortly....


Demure Vixen. What a strange color. Not in a bad way, though! It's a mauvey, putty-ish light purple but it has a really interesting contrasting violet shimmer. They describe it as a duochrome, I don't think I'd quite call it a duochrome, but it does have competing base and shimmer- it's like they don't look like they're part of one polish, you see both the base color and the shimmer separately, fighting for attention. I rather like it.

Miss Matched. A milky pale lavender-toned pink. Not bad but not really that interesting. Doesn't particularly say 'summer' to me either. The soft lavender shade is even paler than all the pastel ones we've been seeing lately, and it has a lot more pink to it.

Knockout Pout. Okay, this is where things get weird. You see the color in the bottle? It is a pale milky pink. Looks like the standard Essie sheer pink. I was not really enthusiastic about swatching it, but I'm glad I did.. because.. when you open the bottle and put it on, it's really BRIGHT NEON PINK!! Yeah, seriously!! Isn't that crazy??? I was so confused. Anyway, this particular neon pink is of the light variety very much like China Glaze Shocking Pink.


Haute As Hello. This was the same way as Knockout Pout. I'm looking at the bottle this whole time thinking, "More pastels for summer? Didn't we just see this same color in Spring?" and then I open the bottle to apply it... And it turns out it's semi-neon orange coral. That was a really nice surprise. I was pretty relieved to see it wasn't another pastel. So... this color... coral. This says coral to me, but it's very orange toned. Call it coral, salmon, orange-pink... This shade has a strange brightness. It's bold and punchy but it doesn't seem like a 'true' neon to me. It does dry matte, interestingly enough, so maybe it does have some neon pigment in it. You know what this reminds me of? My new Make Up For Ever eyeshadow in #5.


Pretty Edgy. Hell. Yes. OMG. I can't believe I'm seeing this. Essie did a true green! Finally! I've been really hoping for this for a long time! This particular shade did not disappoint. It is a medium yellow-toned grass green/leaf green creme. Very obvious green. Noticeable. Fresh looking. The only downside is I don't think it suits my skintone particularly well- makes my hands take on a yellow cast. But, that doesn't really bother me... I like this color too much to care.


Vermillionaire. I always thought vermilion was redder. But this color is pure orange. Sweet, sweet orange. I have a thing for orange polish. Maybe it's my obsession with Halloween or fall or pumpkins... but I love orange. Very happy about this shade. It's very very bright. I don't think this one is a 'true' neon either because it lacks that bright burning glow that makes neons special, but it is bright. Very rich color.

The formula was good. On the thin side but it didn't give me any trouble. The brushes seemed bigger than the winter collection but still small- no Pro-Wide style brushes here! I did three coats of all, I think they needed the three coats. Vermillionaire and Knockout Pout would be fine with two, but I had a little visible nail line on the others. Dry time was very good. Some of these were mostly dry by the time I was done taking the picture.

This collection really was a surprise. I was looking at the polishes in the box thinking... Summer collection... four pale/sheers in a summer collection? Where's the color? At least there's a green. And then I swatched it. There was much confusion and rejoicing. No sheers. One or two pale colors, but also some neon! Haute as Hello is pretty unique. I have orangey corals, but none seem to have that neon glow to them. I'm sure there are matches for the rest of the colors here, maybe not Demure Vixen, that seems pretty unique too... but I can't think of any at the moment. Oh yeah, China Glaze Shocking Pink and Knockout Pout seemed a little similar to me. If I'm remembering my China Glaze neons correctly... Shocking Pink was the light pink creme one, right? I'm probably not even remembering the right one. But I do prefer the formula of the Essie for this particular shade anyway.

So... Essie finally did a green. A real green, not pastel and not sheer. That's pretty cool. When are they going to bring Dominica Green back? *pokes Essie*

(These were sent to me for review.)