The Blogging Year Recap

2016 is over. Wow. When I flip back through pages of blog posts, it feels like so little time has gone by. In fact, 2009 feels a lot like yesterday. (Well things were full of change and hope back then).

I'm still enjoying blogging, and that's key. I hope you are enjoying the polishes with me.

There are many changes in blogging and I don't think social media blogging has eradicated bloggers like me, yet. Yet. The challenges for me is time and accessibility. Instagram is very phone-centric, so I hope the new Sony A6000 will be up for that challenge.

I'm off the SinfulColors mailing list, much to my relief, and I don't have anyone offering me polish. Yay! So while I am not super timely with new things, my reviews will be my own. It's hard to be objective when you have free stuff arriving in the mail, despite disclosures and disclaimers.

This year I plan on trotting out a heck of a lot more indies and more stamping. I have to say I love both and with a better camera it's only my skillset that won't do right by it.

Finally, here are a few of my faves from 2016, enjoy!



FUN Lacquer Anna

OPI Into the Night and RBL Pardonne Moi stamped with white pearl (if I recall!) and topped with Orly Precious Metal

Maybelline Sand Storm stamped with Sally Hansen Frost Freeze

Guppy 77 over Sally Hansen Gray by Gray

Borghese Capriccio Blue stamped with Revlon Captivate

Sally Hansen Model Behavior

Illamasqua Muse

OPI Ro-Man-ce On The Moon accented with Milani Silver Dazzle

China Glaze All Wrapped Up

Petites Banish

Essence Back to Paradise

Diamond Cosmetics Tranquility franken

Nicole by OPI Sing You Like a Bee topped with Hidden Treasure all over Color Club Coastal Creme

American Apparel Tshirt

Dior Equis

Layering: Revlon Snow Bunny franken, SinfulColors Pinky Glitter, and Cover Girl City Lights

Morgan Taylor Making Waves

Dear Readers, thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Happy 2017!! (fingers crossed!!)

Rescue Beauty Pardonne Moi and OPI Into The Night

One niche polish, Rescue Beauty, shuttered its doors last fall.

She had a lot of sales at the end and I will admit it finally hit a price point that was affordable for me, I did try to hit the sales pretty hard, since I've always liked her polish, but it was normally a bit out of reach. 

I purchased Pardonne Moi, part of a small collection that pays homage to her time living in Paris. There are some beauties and I was pretty excited to get Pardonne Moi. 

This is three coats, no top coat. It's a pretty medium blue frosty shimmer. Very radiant, quite pretty.

When it arrived I immediately pulled OPI Into the Night out of the drawer to compare:

Left to right:

Rescue Beauty Pardonne Moi

OPI Into The Night

Rescue Beauty Pardonne Moi

OPI Into The Night

Bottom photo is a first coat. You can see these are extremely similar. In person the difference is more pronounced: RBL is blue, OPI is indigo.

Personal taste? I love OPI Into the Night a little bit better, but for all intents and purposes, you really have it boiling down to taste. I won't say that either has a better formula, they were truly on par: worked well, dried nicely, good finish and smoothed out well, too. Wore well, too.

Here's a bottle shot:

Really very close. If you missed out on Pardonne Moi you didn't missed out on that much of a unique polish. Unless you are a total fan of this brand, then that's another story.

I next decided to do all my hands in this alternating set up, to test out wear. I thought since stamping is getting a little more fun for me, I'd stamp:

Wear was excellent. I think I stamped after a day of wear, then I put on a topper after another two days.

You really can't see that much of a difference, can you? I know I can't. Well, I guess I can because I know which is which, but in real world they are basically dupes. 

Stamped with a Dollar Store Milani, Instant Pearl, then topped with a topper I found at TJ Maxx called Precious Metal, by Orly.

Seriously pleased over finding this Orly topper. I adore it. It's packed with glass fleck that in some lights takes on some holographic qualities because of the different shades of glass fleck. For the most part, though, it looks silvery. I managed to rustle up a backup bottle and life is good. ;D

I think you can easily rustle up the OPI online, the RBL should show up on eBay if it's not on there now, but the Orly, well, good luck. I think (THINK, but don't know) it's a repackaged Orly Colorblast, but I just don't know. I only recently saw a few Colorblasts and no local retailers carry this line. It might show up again relabeled, it's unique and really turned my head. 

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Peridot Green and Two Plums

So, to continue a theme that kind of has been running through my head, I'm working on seeing if my polishes stamp or not. I had gotten two bottles of OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, somehow, and thought it might work in a second career. We shall see.

First a couple of plums.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze

Three coats and a beautiful formula. I wish I had a back up of this one and toyed with doing so as RBL began to run sales prior to shuttering their doors. It's demure, but not too unsaturated so as to end up looking like a gray. It's a bit blue here, but not as red violet as I've seen other photos. As a comparison, here's Nicole by OPI Orchid you not as a comparison:

Perhaps too blue, still, but still, it's got a purple thing that doesn't suggest violets, just plums.

You might see this one on blog sales, live journal nail polish sales, eBay, etc. RBL is toast.



Here's Sparitual Solitude. I thought I'd blogged this one before, but haven't given it it's own showing:

Definitely needed three coats, but if you have this one I think you could decant some and make a beautiful plum jelly. I wore this several times and the formula is quite beautiful, too.

I sold a backup bottle on eBay, but right now it's going for about $12.00 on Sparitual's site (gosh, I remember when they were $10!), but you might find it for less.


Here are some stamping experiments.

Rescue Beauty Purple Haze stamped with Bundle Monster Secret Garden plate 714.
I would say that it's a very subtle effect. Almost invisible, but I think it might work as a topper. I don't dislike it, though, as a stamping polish.

Sparitual Solitude stamped with Bundle Monster Secret Garden plate 712.
This is more of what I expected. I think the index finger barely shows, but I kind of like the way it disappears.


OPI Just Spotted the Lizard is available online, it was from the Spiderman collection by OPI, though as you can see from my previous post, there are a ton of dupes.

Thank you for reading my little nail polish journal!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Swatches Part 2 of 2

I'm back with the rest of the Rescue Beauty Swatches!

First up is Locavore:

Gorgeous green glitter with multiple shades of green, purple and blue.

Three coats cover and truly a unique glitter in my collection. 

Recommend!

On the other end of the green spectrum, there's Turn it Around:

Deep pea soup green loaded with pink coral glass fleck glitter particles. 

It's a three coater, but quite a lovely polish because the warm pink pairs beautifully with the green base. 

This might be an acquired taste because of the green, but if you like the green it's a nice addition.

Finally, Piu' Mosso:

This is a tough one. I love it a lot. Mainly because it's navy with a wonderful copper shimmer that peeks through in some light.

It's also a bit hard to see it on the nail in comparison to how exuberant it is in the bottle (glitter/shimmers seem to stick to the edge of the bottle and drive me crazy because it's often hard to recreate that look).

Still, it's a favorite of mine. Love it!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Swatches Part 1 of 2

Last year I bought a bunch of Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes on their big $9 sale.

For some reason this year they didn't have the big one. I really love the colors I have, was hoping to get more.

This year, on December 8 through the 12th, there is a 30% off gift card available to purchase. This means that a $20 bottle of polish is a $14 bottle when you buy it with your gift card. I kind of wish they'd have that $9 sale again! That was epic. 

The gift card does help, though.

No affiliation, no one is sending me polish to review,  these are my own purchases. 

I am debating about the gift card. If you are thinking about it, I thought a few swatches would be helpful.

I'll post the rest pretty soon.

First up a pretty unique polish, Black Russian:

Densely packed red glitter and shimmer in a black base. It never devolves to total blackness, but the red is a really nice, deep one, so it doesn't look like a holiday type of polish. 

Three coats.  No top coat.

I have an LED light that causes the speckle effect, it's not texture on the surface of the nail.

The hardest to photograph, but quite a gorgeous polish, Lotus Elise:

Three solid coats of luxe glass fleck glitters in a rich strawberry red jelly base. What I could not capture was the pink, purple, red, and amber shades of glitter. 

I might be able to muscle through a layering to recreate this polish, but it is a gorgeous polish. Striking.

Finally, my favorite, Pause:

Two coats. No top coat.

Super saturated purple with a luscious pink shimmer. 

Really my favorite purple. Hard to fault. I adore this one a lot. 

More quite soon.

Ever since the beginning of November, my cuticles have been a riotous hot mess, despite extensive moisturizing. Argh!

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!

The Comp I've Been Wanting To Do For A While Now

Hey folks, you guys are really awesome.

It's nearing my two year anniversary, so I will pepper this entry with a bit of nostalgia.

Why? I don't know, I'm sentimental, romantic, foolish, and a bit of a kid at heart. (I guess that could read: old fashioned, never satisfied, foolish and childish, if you want to be more serious)

When I first started even thinking about nail polish I found the Isa Dora at Rite Aid (gone now, where did that brand go? Or did I buy it in Seattle? It's a blur), then I scuttled into a NW Beauty Supply and found OPI Sahara Sapphire (dang, I need to swatch that! Definitely Oldest Untried, how dorky?) which was so great to me, because Nail Polish (capitalized) could be a thing that could be super fun!

Then I went online and found some blogs: Polish Addict and Scrangie

Wow!

When Rescue Beauty Lounge came out with blogger polishes, everyone went crazee over them, including me. I had to have Scrangie because I love that color and it was soooo unique.

Even with knock offs, it is the components in RBL Scrangie and how they look on the nail that seem to work like their own kind of magic.

The nearest copies that I've ever seen are Sally Hansen Grape Going and Golden Rose 149.

Here is the comparison:

From left to right: SG Grape Going, RBl Scrangie, GR 149.

I can't remember number of coats, but Grape Going and 149 needed more than Scrangie.

I've done a comparison before, but I really wanted to wear RBL Scrangie. This is Three coats. There is no drag on the Scrangie, that is the light reflecting, no baldspot.

What is different? What is similar?

The Golden Rose seems closer on the base, but too light. Also it is closer on the shimmer particles, but too many.  The Scrangie shimmer is more broken up, feels more like a mineral than a uniform particle.

Grape Going has a base that is more blue and the shimmer is also more blue.



Another photo of the first coat:

Same order, SH, RBL, GR.

The first coat: wow on RBL Scrangie! The coverage!!! Wow!
As to the shimmer has some rainbow properties, so I am guessing it is a different animal than the uniform shimmers of Grape Going or 149.




A reverse order photo:

Really the GR 149 becomes a shimmer bath, and the base is gone. I don't mind that in a polish, but I think it sweeps it off the table as a possible "it can do, dupe".

This is two coats, and still Grape Going just doesn't have the punch to get coverage. In the past I nonchalantly said "it'll do" but it is a different shimmer, more blue, and I believe I used 4 coats by the time I was done with it.


Last photo:

Sun bath of all three polishes.

This truly shows how the shimmer is different in RBL Scrangie as compared to the other two. In a pinch,  the differences between Grape Going and Scrangie are not chasmic, but they are enough to sweep "dupe" off the table.

There you have it!

A comparison I've been wanting to do for a while! A polish from a blogger who is quite the Blog-ess in the Nail Polish firmament (I just wanted a chance to use that word! :D)

Thanks for reading my little nail polish journal!