Run To Home Base Fundraiser Raffle

This post is more of a personal nature, but I think it'll be of particular interest to my fellow polish lovers...

My friend Christine is running in the Run To Home Base 9K race. It's not just a race, it's a fundraiser for the Massachusetts General Hospital in order to provide clinical treatment to veterans with combat stress and traumatic brain injuries and also to provide assistance and support to their families.

So far, she's raised just under half of her $1,000 donation goal, and now I'm asking for a little of your help.

What's in it for you, you ask? Besides the warmth and satisfaction of knowing you've done something to help your fellow man? How about a chance to win a bottle of the discontinued and coveted holographic beauty, China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out?

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out was part of the epic Kaleidoscope collection of hologram polishes that China Glaze released a few years back. All the shades are now discontinued and getting rather hard to find. This particular shade is a soft silvered blue with a strong chunky hologram effect. Pardon the ancient picture, but I haven't had enough natural light to take a new one.

And how about something to keep that Kaleidoscope Him Out company? Something like...

A bottle of Scrangie by Rescue Beauty Lounge, signed by me? You will be the only person on the planet with a signed bottle! Like the China Glaze polish, this shade is also sold out and becoming hard to find.



HOW TO ENTER:

1. For $2, you get one raffle entry. $4 for two entries, $6 for 3 entries, and so on.

2. To donate your $2 (or whichever amount you choose to donate) and enter the raffle, visit http://www.runtohomebase.org/runtohomebase/ChristineBatchelder and click "Make A Donation."

3. After you've made a donation to Run To Home Base, send an email to redsoxrun@gmail.com
that includes "kaleidoscope" in the subject line along with the name you donated under. Christine will keep a tally and assign you a number for each ticket/raffle entry based on the amount donated.

4. All donations must be in by 11:59pm, May 12th 2011 and a winner will be drawn at random on May 13th. The winner will receive one bottle of China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out and one signed bottle of Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie.

This raffle is open to everyone!

For more information on the Home Base program, please visit http://www.runtohomebase.org/

Thanks, everyone :)

Cover Girl IceSlicks Anti-Freeze Layered

Now that the Rescue Beauty Lounge spring collection is posted, I can post this! I'm sure it's some sort of crime to layer an old, cheap, chemical filled drugstore glitter over an $18 polish, but that's how I roll.


This is two coats of Cover Girl IceSlicks in Anti-Freeze over one coat of Rescue Beauty Lounge Iconoclast. Feel free to enlarge those. There's this incredibly gorgeous blue glitter in there that you just have to see. Eat your heart out, Starry Starry Night! This is what a real galaxy of stars looks like.

The Cover Girl polish is a sheer blue-green base with some very fine gold-green microglitter and some larger pure blue glitter. It looks fine alone, but when you layer it over something dark, the blue glitter pops out and looks incredible.

It does have the curse of the old-formula polish, though. It doesn't get along well with new-formula (3-free) polishes or treatments and can take an extremely long time to dry fully. It took two whole days for this to dry completely. I didn't use the right topcoat. I should have used Seche Vite but I didn't have it with me. The manicure was set and hard on the top, but the bottom layer was still wet enough that I could put marks on it if I pressed hard enough. Even in spite of this, I still love my old formula polishes. They just don't make colors like this anymore. I haven't seen a polish like this come out at all in the past few years- can you not get this shade of blue glitter anymore? Does it have something to do with the formula change?

One of these days I'm going to swatch more of my old polishes. There used to be so many great colors available at the drugstore... I think we're starting to see a return to less-conservative shades in the mainstream market now, which is awesome. But still, where are my duochromes?! No one has filled the hole that the discontinuation of Nail Prisms has left in my heart...

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.)

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bottle Pics (And a couple swatches!)

The big Rescue Beauty Lounge 50% off sale is starting in just a little while. My camera battery died in the middle of swatching but I did get some bottle pictures of my collection. Well, most of it at least... I'm missing a few that I couldn't find (Coral, Opaque Nude and a few others)...

Bikini Bottom, Teal, Dead Calm, Under The Stars


Starfish Patrick, Bangin', Sheer Red, Chinoise, Killa Red


Locavore, Look Rich Be Cheap, Frugalista


Square Pants, Yellow Fever, No More War, Diddy Mow, Orbis Non Sufficit, Recycle


Concrete Jungle, Stormy, 360, Catherine H, Anne


Underwear, Medium White, Moxie, Sheer Natural, Ani


Clear Pink, Grunge, Lelia, Plie, Om


Noisette, Bruised, Drifter, Atame


Purple Haze, Mismas, Scrangie, Catherine

Moulin Rouge, Au Chocolate, Black Russian, Film Noir

I'm going to see if I can get a few more pictures. Also be sure to check the "Rescue Beauty Lounge" tag on the right for some swatches. I am aware that some of my pictures don't seem to be working right now, hopefully I can fix that too!

EDIT: Looks like these ones weren't too blurry!

Underwear, one coat, with topcoat. And there's dust in my topcoat, too! Yay! XD

Bikini Bottom, four coats. Super sheer.

Square Pants, four coats, also super sheer.



Index and ring finger: Stormy
Middle and pinkie: Concrete Jungle

Sheer Red (two coats) over Underwear. Sheer Red really is sheer!


Edit again!: Sorry guys, I think I've photographed some colors that are discontinued! I didn't realize. I know that the Tudor wives aren't on sale today, but I wasn't aware that some of these others were unavailable :(

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fall 2010 Collection - Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty!

I'm so excited about these. A couple words on the inspiration behind the collection and then some swatches!

This year's fall collection, according to the press release, is inspired by the wives of Henry VIII and the iridescent thread of the brocade fabrics they wore. I'm not an expert on Henry like a few of my friends are, so I don't feel qualified to comment too much, but I think that's pretty awesome. Gruesome, perhaps, but totally awesome.

I can totally see the brocade influence in these. They're all soft, rich colors with tons of iridescent speckles running through them. Very complex, very gorgeous.

Now, swatches! And please excuse the paper cut on the ring finger of my right hand. I tried to hide it and I know it looks gory! Sorry!

Anne. I think Anne is the most complex of the set, it seems to have the most things going on in there! The base color is a deep olive green with some gold shimmer. Then there's tons of little specks of iridescent/rainbowy shimmer, flashy pink shimmer and purple/fuchsia microglitter. Click the indoor pics to enlarge them and check out the microglitter!! I think the ring finger shows it the best. This is not a dupe of Zoya Edyta or Nubar Verde. Much different finish, more subtle particles, less dull, more colors.

Catherine. There are two Catherines in this set and this one is inspired by Catherine of Aragon. This color has a slight red-based purple base with fine golden shimmer, think OPI Catherine the Grape but not as strongly red toned. Then there's a layer of superfine iridescent shimmer, followed by the fuchsia microglitter from Anne and a little bit of teal/blue microglitter. The microglitter in this one isn't as obvious as in Anne, but it's still a nice touch.


Catherine H, which is of course inspired by Catherine Howard. My picture is making this color look more saturated than it is. It's a deep but very dusty periwinkle type blue. Not really teal like in the first picture, more soft and muted and subdued like the second picture. Indoor picture is much more accurate but doesn't show the shimmer as much. Slight purple tinge. It's supposed to be Wedgwood Blue and that's exactly what it reminds me of. That matte blue surface. It's accented by subtle fine gold shimmer and a bit of that pretty superfine iridescent shimmer. It seems like there's a tiny bit of that purple and aqua microglitter in the bottle but I don't see it strongly on the nail.


Jane. A muted putty-grey with very subtle gold-green-pink shimmer. The shimmer is very fine and is almost a secret shimmer in this polish because it's so light. You can see it strongly in the bottle- a putty with strong light green and gold shimmer- but it's more subtle on the nail. Unless I need to shake it or something! It's the least shimmery of the four polishes. Somewhat reminiscent of the Rescue classic Grunge.

You can see all the different types of shimmer in the bottles pretty well:
And actually... I should have taken a picture of the back of the bottle instead so the shimmer isn't obscured by the label. Let me do that. I'll probably post better bottle pictures later.

I don't know if these are in formula or not because they're press samples only, but I had no issues at all with application. Two coats was great for all but Jane which needed three. They didn't smell like the normal Rescue formula so I'm thinking they might not be, but I don't know for sure.

I really love these. I can't pick a favorite because I love them all. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a gigantic Rescue Beauty Lounge fan. I think these are really gorgeous. Muted fall colors, unique shades, fascinating shimmer. Every single one. Unique. That's kinda Rescue's trademark, funky unique colors, right? Two thumbs up from me. Green, purple, blue and grey, baby!!

I don't know when they'll be available on the website, the press release doesn't seem to give a date. I'd guess there might be a pre-order soon and then a full release like they normally do. You can find the Rescue nail polish fall line online and in their salon in Manhattan when it's out.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Heads up - Rescue Beauty Lounge

Due to popular demand, Ji at Rescue Beauty Lounge has brought back sold-out shades Scrangie and No More War! How cool is that? I believe there are once again a limited number of bottles, but Rescue is accepting pre-orders now. The link to pre-order is here: http://www.rescuebeauty.com/category/nail-polish-scrangie-NMW.html

Hope you can grab them if you missed out the first time!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2010

Rescue Beauty Lounge's spring collection this year is a set of three 'surfer-girl' themed polishes. And the best part? They're not your average bland spring colors! Yay!


360. This is a very soft, hazy greyed-out blue. It seems brighter in my indoor picture than it seems in real life. This is what I would consider to be a slate blue. It looks like a creme but it actually has some extremely subtle fine silver shimmer. You can see the shimmer in the bottle and you can see it a teeny bit when the sun hits the polish, but otherwise it looks like a slate blue creme. Hidden shimmer!

Bangin'. Very bright bold and pigmented! I wasn't crazy about it in the bottle, but on my nails I love it! It's an extremely orangey red- or is that a slightly red orange? Maybe it's neither. Maybe it's coral. This looks like coral to me. And it is VERY BRIGHT. Pow! Awesome.

Diddy Mow. Pardon the dings and dents and tipwear- I've been wearing this since Sunday morning so it looks a little beaten up. Anyway. This is a grey-green. It's not entirely green... it's not entirely grey. This color was boggling my mind! Every time the lighting changed, the color seemed to change. When I put it on Sunday morning I thought it was just murky grey. In the afternoon it looked more mousy green. Very cool. This one also has that hidden shimmer, but it's even more hidden in this than it is in 360. The name is kinda goofy, but it's apparently a surf slang for a "harsh wipe-out". I'll still feel funny saying it. XD

When I put on Diddy Mow, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Grey and green? Is this like Essie Chinchilly?"

But it turns out it's really not. Observe:
Index and ring: Essie Chinchilly
Middle and pinkie: Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow

Not even close. Same general idea, though. Grey with green or green with grey.

I can't comment on the formula of these since these are only color samples and aren't in the Rescue Beauty Lounge formula... However... if the samples are any indication of the actual formula, it'll be up to the usual buttery Rescue standard. All of these were opaque in one coat and perfectly smooth. So.... I'm not worried!

While I like the colors in this collection, the thing I love the most is that Ji has once again marched to the beat of her own drum and created a set of colors that are different! They're not your typical spring colors and that makes me really happy. Ji Baek is the master of making unique-colored cremes and these didn't disappoint me. I am especially happy that there is no pink in this spring collection! It seems like she doesn't give in to the pressure to do what everyone else is doing and is free to create colors based on her own eye and inspiration. That impresses me.

The release date given for this is March/April 2010 but I do not have a specific date. I do know that when you sign up for the mailing list, you'll automatically be notified when the new collections are released (and sometimes get a chance to pre-order).