First Rescue Beauty Lounge polish!

I’ve always drooled over RBL polishes and finally decided to order four. They came wonderfully packaged and I think they are awesome! I’m not swatching them, because they deserve more attention than that (If they’re gonna cost two digits, they better get it!)

The first one I tried was…

Iconoclast!

It’s a black, but it’s “my” little black dress. It’s not just any black. It’s black WITH shimmer. And it looks to have some navy, or blue pigments in it or maybe that’s just the shimmer and my wishful thinking.

Holla.

It keeps giving off a bluish glare anywhere I am. It’s not just because this picture is at my nail spot, which is right next to a window. That’s why I think it’s midnight blue 🙂

See the blue shimmer I’m talking about?

Formula was GREAT. You’re looking at ONE COATED nails. I usually have Polish OCD that makes me put on two coats, but I want to savor every bit of my RBL polishes so I let it go at one coat 🙂 I also did not apply top coat, they were pretty quick drying-to-the-touch but required a whole day of curing

I ended up destroying this when I was going through more boxes. 😦 I can’t wait to open up the other 3 bottles I ordered, though!

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

Nubar Spring Garden

A Spring collection in June?! I know 😛 I told you I was behind!

Without much ado, here is the collection! All of them, except Honeysuckle have a hidden silvery shimmer that’s lovely. It has your usual pinks, whites, greens, purples but with a much more murkier depth. I do like this collection 🙂 It’s an 8 piece collection accompanied with a glitter topcoat called Dewdrop.
I love Nubar’s formula even though I don’t use their polishes enough. I like the brush handle, the brush itself, and their formula 🙂 All were opaque by two coats, and Dewdrop was applied with one coat to all.

Dewdrop is a sheer polish, and impossible to become opaque because of its glittery nature. It’s packed full of gritty pastel colored round glitter and would need a topcoat to smooth things out. I did not apply a topcoat in this collection because 1) I don’t when I’m doing swatches and 2) I was on a swatching roll.
I found that Dewdrop looked best with more bolder colored polishes. With the dusty colors in this collection, a bit of them just looked gritty and dirty– not in a good way.

I will begin with the creme by itself, and then a picture of it with Dewdrop. I have all of them except for some reason, this one:

Baby Sprout
It’s not your usual mint green that you see in Spring collections. This is a murky, light pea color.
I forgot to take a picture/apply Dewdrop so no Dewdrop picture for this one. Use your imagination 🙂

Purple Aster
It’s a dusty mauve lavender, and you can see its shimmer here. This one was okay, I usually love purples and everything else in its spectrum but I didn’t go nuts over this.

Earthen is a murky pale grey. To think of it, I wonder how this compares to Skulls and Glossbones by OPI. Hah! I like this one more, I think, it’s an interesting neutral.

Not a fan of Dewdrop over Earthen.

Pink Lily
I brought this one home with me. I love it, it’s a perfect pastel pink with a shimmer.

I’m sorry about the lighting change, lol. This is more accurate to the bottle color, however. And now you see how flattering Dewdrop can be.

Yellow Primrose
A pale pastel yellow, could be mistaken for white.

Reminds me of Easter. I also like this combination a lot. =)

Blue Hydrangea
Baby blue pastel. Reminds me a bit of Essie’s Borrowed & Blue– in fact, I wonder if anyone could do a comparison? I don’t have this one home with me. 😦

You see a lot of the yellow glitter here.

This is a perfect white! It’s off-white, but not yellow to the point where it’s ivory. A lot of white polish tends to be streaky or runny but not this one. It makes my eyes hurt looking at it and trying to figure out what makes it “not white”. Haha =P

White Peony also is a good base to show all the colors of the glitter in Dewdrop =)

Honeysuckle
MY FAVORITE! I don’t like a lot of pinks, but this is a GREAT color. It’s so beautiful! It’s also a true creme, unlike the other 7 polishes. I have worn this twice, and that is unusual for me. 🙂

with Dewdrop. I have to say I like this by itself, but it also looks good with this topcoat.

Rimmel Lava Red

This is a great find, I think. It’s a very strong brown based red with an insane burgundy gold shimmer. I couldn’t resist taking a few pics of it when I was stamping over it =)

It’s a warm tone, but I think cool toned people could pull this off, due to the burgundy color.

A great close up I captured 😀

Rimmel Lava Red

This is a great find, I think. It’s a very strong brown based red with an insane burgundy gold shimmer. I couldn’t resist taking a few pics of it when I was stamping over it =)

It’s a warm tone, but I think cool toned people could pull this off, due to the burgundy color.

A great close up I captured 😀

Tokaido Express

I’m going through my old photos and stuff, and have just one photo for you for this post. 🙂

It’s a deep vampy maroon, with a reddish/bronze shimmer throughout that is not very noticeable in person. It looks extremely great with my olive skin tone, and especially in close ups like this. 🙂 So purty!

Looking through my blog, it’s funny- I’ve come a long way in terms of polish application, taking pictures. This is not perfect, but what I can do now, is a lot better than that.

Tokaido Express

I’m going through my old photos and stuff, and have just one photo for you for this post. 🙂

It’s a deep vampy maroon, with a reddish/bronze shimmer throughout that is not very noticeable in person. It looks extremely great with my olive skin tone, and especially in close ups like this. 🙂 So purty!

Looking through my blog, it’s funny- I’ve come a long way in terms of polish application, taking pictures. This is not perfect, but what I can do now, is a lot better than that.

Misa Paradise Shore

I was shopping on Head2ToeBeauty the other day, and noticed Misa had their Summer 2011 collection out, called Paradise Shore. I ordered all the polishes and thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard of it before from other notable bloggers. It’s a really good collection, or so I think. 🙂

Notes:
— All shimmers, actually more like flakies suspended in a shimmery base. No cremes here. I like it, very summery! 🙂
— Most were pretty sheer, will want to layer over something else
— All were about 3 coaters
— Formula was generally no issue, but like with glitters gave me issues on removing, and one polish was kind of goopy and pooled over my nails.
— Names are creative and cute (except Krystal Waters, why spell it with a K? uggh)

Onto the swatches!

Mega Margarita
A bright lime green jelly base, sheer with lots of golden/lime green glass flecks. This one is what pooled on me, and I think you can see it in the pic 😦

Summer Love
This one was so hard to photograph! It’s a bright reddish pink, like fuchsia or something. Strawberry? I’m not even sure myself. The camera/Photoshop saving process washed it out quite a bit, but it’s a lot more darker pink than what is being shown. Sheer jelly base, with small glitter suspended within rather than strong flakies. It’s not my favorite at all, hmm.

Mermaid Dreams
I love this one!! Beautiful. A dark aqua shimmer, almost a frost finish but not really. More pearly. A bit brush-strokey, but the formula was fantastic.

Under My Sunbrella
Isn’t the name cute? A lemon yellow with intense yellow flaky action. Actually looks good on me.

Krystal Water
Turquoise shimmer. Another lovely one =) Jampacked with a light shimmer!
…But doesn’t this look familiar? Yes. It’s a cousin to Mermaid Dreams earlier. Here is a swatch of them side by side:

They are definitely close, one is more blue while the other leans to aqua.

Endless Keys
Last but not least, the interesting orange jelly base with bright reflective orange flakies mixed with shimmer. This was the most opaque besides the two blues.

This also reminded me incredibly so of another certain collection, comparisons upcoming very soon… 🙂

Misa Paradise Shore

I was shopping on Head2ToeBeauty the other day, and noticed Misa had their Summer 2011 collection out, called Paradise Shore. I ordered all the polishes and thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard of it before from other notable bloggers. It’s a really good collection, or so I think. 🙂

Notes:
— All shimmers, actually more like flakies suspended in a shimmery base. No cremes here. I like it, very summery! 🙂
— Most were pretty sheer, will want to layer over something else
— All were about 3 coaters
— Formula was generally no issue, but like with glitters gave me issues on removing, and one polish was kind of goopy and pooled over my nails.
— Names are creative and cute (except Krystal Waters, why spell it with a K? uggh)

Onto the swatches!

Mega Margarita
A bright lime green jelly base, sheer with lots of golden/lime green glass flecks. This one is what pooled on me, and I think you can see it in the pic 😦

Summer Love
This one was so hard to photograph! It’s a bright reddish pink, like fuchsia or something. Strawberry? I’m not even sure myself. The camera/Photoshop saving process washed it out quite a bit, but it’s a lot more darker pink than what is being shown. Sheer jelly base, with small glitter suspended within rather than strong flakies. It’s not my favorite at all, hmm.

Mermaid Dreams
I love this one!! Beautiful. A dark aqua shimmer, almost a frost finish but not really. More pearly. A bit brush-strokey, but the formula was fantastic.

Under My Sunbrella
Isn’t the name cute? A lemon yellow with intense yellow flaky action. Actually looks good on me.

Krystal Water
Turquoise shimmer. Another lovely one =) Jampacked with a light shimmer!
…But doesn’t this look familiar? Yes. It’s a cousin to Mermaid Dreams earlier. Here is a swatch of them side by side:

They are definitely close, one is more blue while the other leans to aqua.

Endless Keys
Last but not least, the interesting orange jelly base with bright reflective orange flakies mixed with shimmer. This was the most opaque besides the two blues.

This also reminded me incredibly so of another certain collection, comparisons upcoming very soon… 🙂

China Glaze Island Escape

Hi guys, my China Glaze Island Escape set came in! I’m not that crazy about this set, I was convinced after seeing some really awesome swatches but on me… They’re just meh.

Overall notes:
Formula is fantastic; unique colors that do remind me of an island
The cremes are great, although I’m not a raging fan. Two coats for all the cremes.
The shimmers are sheer (see Senorita Bonita, Cha Cha Cha, 108 Degrees and Blue Iguana) and they were three or more coats.

The Shimmers:

108 Degrees

Cha Cha Cha, a lime green shimmer. This reminds me a ton of Zoya Apple, and I like Zoya Apple a lot better.

Blue Iguana

Senorita Bonita, a light purple-almost fuchsia (this picture pulls too slightly purple)

The Cremes

Papaya Punch. This is really the color of a slightly underripe papaya. This is such a strange color, and I’m not sure how comfortable I am having it on my nails. Pedi color maybe. Or to stamp over.

Electric Pineapple. This color reminds me of something from Illamasqua, maybe Radium. Again, another weird color on me and it’s pushing my comfort zone

Thoughts anyone?