Brief aside, I’m really disappointed with how these photos turned out. I’ve had such a hard time with proper moisturizing lately. My Lemony Flutter/Solar Oil combo just isn’t hacking it and you can really tell in these photos – sad little dry nubbins. The old girls just aren’t what they used to be. *sobs* Rest assured though, I’m on the hunt for a new moisture regimen and I’ll keep you posted on what I find.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily is turquoise with very subtle fuchsia shimmer. The shimmer isn’t really visible in most lights, it’s just a gleam that gives the turquoise some depth. Good application, this mani was 3 coats. As expected with shades like this, beware, it’s a slight skin stainer. Aqua Lily was by far the most popular from this set of re-releases. I believe that after RBL launched BIB4, Aqua Lily sold out almost immediately and it’s still sold out now. Hopefully, more stock will be available soon. I’ll try to find out the status and let you know.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle – oh beloved, Recycle. This color is easily in my Top 20. It’s the perfect vibrant medium green – not too dark, not too light. Great application – perfect at 2 coats, but in this photo I did 3.  Years ago, this color was truly unique. There really was nothing else quite like it. Now, with the wider availability of greens, I’m sure there are close dupes out there. But this color still holds a really special place in my heart. Although I’ve written about this color before (you can see the original post here), I took the prospect of writing this post as an opportunity to pull this one out from my tried drawer and update the photo. So… so… gorgeous.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Insouciant is a light grapple with very subtle, nearly invisible blue shimmer. Like Aqua Lily, the shimmer mostly adds depth. Application was perfect. I wore this color after wearing two PITAs in a row and it reminded me of how wonderful it is when a polish glides on smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised by this color, it’s a purple that was actually flattering to my skin-tone, a real rarity. And I think it qualifies as “work apropos with an edge.” Chic and sophisticated come to mind.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piu Mosso. Mmm… how to describe… It’s so mysterious. Inky eggplant? Is it blue or is it purple? Most bloggers say it’s blue but Piu Mosso really leaned purple to my eye, it’s a tough call. And the shimmer? Subtle copper and green microshimmer?  It has a slight duochrome quality to it, in some angles it’s visibly copper and in others green. Definitely a good base for a shifting top coat. The truth is that the photos online just don’t do this shade any justice. This is what Clarins 230 would look like after going to college, getting in with the bad crowd, dying her hair black and reading a lot of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. It totally speaks to the angsty teenager inside me. I *l*o*v*e* it.

*Cat calls* Looook at that shimmah. On the nail, it isn’t exactly invisible, but it’s not as prominent as it is in the bottle. The shimmer reminds me of black ball point pen ink after it has exploded all over everything. I did notice, after a few days of wear, the color seemed to darken. The shimmer seemed to fade and virtually disappeared from the surface of my nail.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Opaque Nude – the name is pretty self-descriptive. I previously reviewed this here. Here’s an excerpt: “My swatch is darker due to lighting and my skin tone which brings out the ‘nudeness’ of this color. In my opinion, Opaque Nude is border-line business appropriate, perfectly okay for a less conservative office. I say this only because it might be too obvious. I feel like business appropriate colors have to be subtle, pretty but not necessarily noticeable and for most people this color will be very noticeable.” It’s so funny to read my older reviews. My opinion about what qualifies as business appropriate has changed a lot. I’ll have to pull this one out and see if I still feel like it’s too “noticeable” after a few months of wearing some markedly non-office appropriate colors to work.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Starfish Patrick. This is another shade that I previously reviewed: “Described as “wispy peach coral”, it’s definitely the most accessible of the [Sponge Bob Collection shades]. Bikini Bottom is my personal favorite, but my NOTD right now is Starfish Patrick, primarily because it’s subtle enough for work.” You can see the whole post here. I apologize for recycling photos – especially these since they’re so tiny in comparison to my new photo style. I do plan to eventually rephotograph colors as I re-wear them.

Did you pick up any of the BIBs? Any colors you wish RBL would re-release?

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Disclaimer: All shades were sent for review by Rescue Beauty Lounge, expect Recycle which I purchased myself. I can’t remember how I got Opaque Nude – it’s possible it was also sent to me for review.

Back in September I reviewed Essie Yogaga and noted that there weren’t very many swatches of the Yogaga collection online. Sure, it’s not the most exciting Essie collection to date, but the lack of coverage still seemed odd. My theory is that a lot of bloggers passed on this collection because it didn’t seem Earth-shattering. Well, on the surface that is true – nothing here is likely blow your mind. Even so, this collection is like a sleeper cell - the seemingly run-of-the-mill colors are all surprisingly flattering and a few are definitely worth owning. (Yes, yes, I know a collection of all crèmes appeals to me, more so than to everyone else). In any case, here are the swatches albeit a bit late.

Essie Boxer Shorts is a light muted periwinkle creme. This photo isn’t accurate – in real life the shade is much less vibrant. These blue/purple shades are just impossible to photograph accurately. The application was good, this is 3 coats. I liked this color more than I expected to – it complimented my skintone nicely.

Essie Spinning Again is a dark brick red crème – also very flattering. The application was smooth like butter. This is 3 coats. I wore Spinning Again during the work week. I think most reds will fly at all but the most conservative offices but Spinning Again, being a red terracota-like shade, is particularly work safe.

Essie Pilates Hottie is a mushroomy lilac. If you’ve read through my archives, then you probably know that lilac is one of my white whales – I *love* lilacs but they all look HORRENDOUS on me. Pilates Hottie, which leans pink, did not look terrible… dare I say, it even looked good. The application however, left something to be desired. The formula was chalky which caused the polish to apply unevenly. I smoothed everything out with a thick slathering of Seche Vite. I’ve found that a self-leveling quick drying top coat like Seche will fix most polishes with problematic application.

Essie Marathin is medium dusky, grayed-out rose-pink. I believe this is what is often referred to as a “grandma” color - still though, it’s professional and flattering. While I get, and appreciate, the gym motif of this collection, but my inner-feminist is not a fan of the name. It would have been much cooler to name this classic shade Marathon instead of Marathin. The formula was a bit thick and it took 3 coats to even everything out.

Essie Gym Dandy is a grey-toned putty with a touch of brown and army green. From this set of colors, I was most excited about Gym Dandy, love it. This color is ”professional, but edgy” personified. It’s slightly darker on the nail than in the bottle. Applied well, would have been good at 2 coats but this is 3 coats.

And finally – this one you’ve already seen but to keep the collection together, I’m reposting the photo.

Essie Yogaga is definitely my favorite from this set. You can read my original post here. Last time I posted Yogaga, people wondered how it stacked up against OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh and Chanel Frenzy. I still don’t have DYEAVG (Sorry! I’m working backwards so I’m still picking up La Collecion De Espana!) but Frenzy is slightly darker and much more pink toned – not dupish at all.

I’m behind the game since Essie’s Winter collection is already out – my friend recently wore Essie Beyond Cozy and it was ridiculously gorgeous. I hope to have swatches up soon.

So what’s the verdict? Love it, hate it? Is an all crème finish collection the kiss of death?

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Disclaimer: This collection was sent for review by Essie’s PR representative.

I’m late to the party on this one… I should just stop saying this as it seems I am perpetually late to the party. The truth is, I swatched these a long time ago but I’ve been so backed up I haven’t had a chance to post them yet. I’m having some much-needed down time this week and it’s giving me an opportunity to catch up on posting.

I missed the little metallic-duochrome revolution sparked by Chanel Peridot. The unanimous consensus from speaking to other bloggers and collectors was that Peridot was a game changer. A few people, having no inkling of the phenomenon that would soon follow, rushed to buy back-ups of the then unique color. Now, nearly every major brand has a Peridot-like shade. There are SO many dupes, in fact, that they’ve been affectionately dubbed “peri-dupes.” In the long-long ago, I often voiced my frustration that nail polish companies failed to remarket or recreate highly sought-after discontinued shades. Although greens are common now, four years ago, getting a dark green often meant shelling out the big bucks for an older shade like NARS Zulu or OPI Jasper Jade. The frenzy caused by those colors went seemingly unnoticed (or ignored) as companies released an endless cycle of the same shimmery reds every season. The prevalence of peri-dupes seems to suggest that there may have been a shift in market strategy. The question then becomes whether the peri-duping phenomenon will be isolated only to Peridot or whether color copycating will be a new industry standard. I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I like to see inexpensive dupes of more expensive colors. I sink money on Chanel all the time, especially lately, but I rather spend less when possible. I begrudgingly passed on Peridot because I had already purchased OPI Just Spotted the Lizard. (Granted, I had to be talked down off the ledge by Scrangie because I really wanted Peridot, just for the sake of having it, even after seeing her comparison.) On the other hand, I’m troubled by the fact that since nearly every brand released a peri-dupe based shade or collection recently that also necessarily means that they did not release something new and exciting instead.

Of course, I have to wonder whether Peridot would have been so widely copied if it had been released by a less prestigious brand. Would there be so many peri-dupes if the original was Wet n Wild Peridot instead of Chanel Peridot? I think the color is unique enough that the nail polish community would have gone ga-ga over it regardless of the brand, but my guess is that there would have been no industry attention to the shade without the Chanel name attached to it.

In any case, Peridot has definitely left its mark and here are four shades from the New Bohemian Luster Chrome Collection, China Glaze’s interpretation of the metallic-duochrome trend. I only have 4 to show you. I skipped Want My Bawdy, sorry, shimmery, metallic-y medium blues don’t usually appeal to me and the name offends my Victorian sensibilities, haha. I also skipped Rare and Radiant, the China Glaze peri-dupe, for the same reason I skipped the original. You can see swatches of the whole collection on Scrangie’s blog - her post is also worth checking out because it discusses other known dupes for the colors in this collection. According to Scrangie’s post, a few shades correspond with colors by Deborah Lippmann - I can’t give much insight on that because my collection is still catching up with recent releases.

China Glaze Unpredictable, oh, love this metallic-y goodness. Unpredictable shifts from yellow-green to green to green-blue. The finish, like the other colors in this collection, is very mirrored. If you look closely you can see my camera’s reflection on my nail.  As hard as I tried with my limited photography skills, I just could not capture the blue shift which is only visible at certain angles. This is 4 coats.

China Glaze Swanky Silk is a rose-toned gold duochrome. The gold is very light, as is the pink tone, which gives it an antique-like foil effect – that quality, I thought, made it office safe.

 This one is more subtle than the others and not as reflective. Because the reflections are less obvious, it only slightly darkens the color on the nail, making it appear tarnished. The application was good but Swanky Silk is a bit sheer, so this mani is 4 coats.

Here’s a side shot to show the delicate pink tone.

I decided to mattify this using Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Matte Top Coat after a couple of days of wear. This look is my favorite – I think the other shades would look great mattified as well. The mattification did away with most of the duochrome and left only a very light rosy gold overall color.

China Glaze Deviantly Daring, love, love, love. In the bottle Deviantly Daring is a green to blue duo-chrome. The shift doesn’t translate as well on the nail but, still, the result is a gorgeous greenish-blue with a foil-like metallic finish. This was very tough to photograph, like the others, my camera’s reflection made the color appear much darker.

Here’s Deviantly Daring at a different angle with less reflection to show the greenish-blue. I noticed with this whole collection that the brushstrokes become less obvious as the polish dries – which is good.

Sometimes, at some angles, the color shifts from a deep blue to the more electric blue, captured above. I wore this as a full mani, this is 3 coats and one coat of Seche Vite. I scooped this one up on sale at Sally’s - it was 50% off. Woot, woot!

China Glaze No Plain Jane seems different from the other shades in this collection. In the bottle it looks like a gold to purple duochrome. During application, it looked like there was metallic purple shimmery pigment suspended in a gray toned base. On the nail it just looked like a standard shimmery purple that would sometimes shift to a more gray-toned purple. The formula was very sheer, but it was good at 3 coats.

Finally, this collection features silver caps. I suppose this was done because this is a “chrome” collection. I own several old silver capped China Glaze polishes. Despite their age, the caps are still mostly pristine – which is unique for silver caps. My older silver capped OPI bottles are getting discolored. My previous experience with China Glaze silver caps made me pretty surprised to find that the silver caps in this collection are much lower quality. I had some acetone on my fingertips and the silver actually rubbed off on my finger! C’mon China Glaze, bring back those awesome older silver caps!

What do you think about the peri-dupe phenomenon? Do you appreciate more affordable dupes of expensive colors? Or would you prefer that companies expend effort creating new colors as opposed to copying already existing shades?

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Disclosure: No Plain Jane, Swanky Silk, and Unpredictable were sent for review by China Glaze’s PR. I purchased Deviantly Daring myself. Rescue Beauty Lounge Matte Top Coat was sent for review by Rescue Beauty Lounge.

I meant to post these during all the Cultober festivities, but the last two weeks at work have been hellish. The upside is that I was so distracted by work that I managed to go nearly two full weeks without buying anything (woo hoo for small victories); the down side is that I neglected the blog big time. I also nervously picked at my nails the whole time such that they are now injured, little nubbins. The nubbins were also accompanied by peeling, oh the horrible peeling. My nails are in such bad shape, they have never been like this before. I can’t figure out whether the peeling is a result of my nervous picking (both from using my nails to pick and from the damage to the nail bed caused by peeling off nail polish) or whether it’s the new base coat I’ve been using, Nail Tek Foundation III. To combat these issues, I picked up some Biotin today. The next couple of weeks will be stressful too, but they shouldn’t be as bad as the last two. I’m making a conscious effort to stop picking. Hopefully, we’ll see some improvement too.

In any case, the polishes in this post were my biggest Cult lemmings. And, oh boy, they are every bit as amazing as I hoped they would be. All four polishes were worn as manis. I was very impressed with the quality, good consistency, perfect application and wear. The bottle style is standard and sturdy. I liked the brush style too. These retail for $10.00 on the Cult Nails website. All in all, I’m pretty impressed with this brand.

Cult Nails Awakening… LOVE IT. I first saw this color on twitter, instant lemming. Subsequently, I went into a panic when Maria tweeted that this color was being discontinued and that supplies were running low. I’m so glad I was able to get my hands on this before it was gone. (Hopefully, Maria will bring it back some day). Awakening is a very deep, dark muted teal that leans toward blue as opposed to green.  I would say this is a crelly, definitely more creme than jelly. This is 3 coats, excellent application. I wore this one to work. Not exactly work appropriate but I thought it was subtle enough that it wouldn’t offend anyone. The wear was outstanding: 5 days, no chips.

Cult Nails Vicious, another beauty, is a dark, red-leaning plum creme. The color is very well pigmented, great formula and application. Perfectly opaque at two coats. I used Vicious as the base for an evolving mani that I will post soon.

Cult Nails I Got Distracted is fine holographic glitter and small green hexagonal glitter suspended in a blackened green base. This was another twitter-initiated lemming and it’s pretty amazing. Totally not work appropriate but I wore it to work anyway because I’m a sneaky-sneak. My husband said it was okay because even though it’s blingtastic-like-whoa, the darkness of the base makes it as subtle as something this blingy can be. This mani was 3 coats, but it was good at 2. IGD is a top coat eater for sure, I used 3 coats of Gelous and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Cult Nails Living Water is blue and green micro glitter suspended in a dark blue jelly base. I love colors like this, dark and sparkly without being ‘in your face.’ It dries a bit matte so I used a coat of Gelous under Wicked Fast. People are constantly raving about Wicked Fast – the jury is still out for me but my initial impressions were good. It was ultra glossy and it dried very quickly to the touch.

Here’s a side shot to exhibit the gorgeous glitter. Finally, like the others, the application and wear was awesome.

I’m really looking forward to picking up some polishes by Cult. Do you have any Cult favorites that I need to own?

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Disclaimer: These were sent for review by Cult Nails.

 One thing that I’ve found striking now that I’m blogging again is the abundance of new (or new to me) brands that have sprung up in my absence. Julep is one of the “new to me” brands that popped up on my radar when I returned. This collection is my first experience with this company. Unfortunately, these polishes, while gorgeous, are too “out-there” for work, so I haven’t had a chance to wear these yet. Consequently, these photos are all swatches. I do have some work appropriate Juleps that I plan to rock soon so I’ll post my thoughts on wear, drying time, etc. in the future. With regard to this collection, it is touted as pedi-specific, but as every polish addict knows – brights are for finger nails, silly nail polish companies.

Julep Lauren is a neon hot pink. This was an unexpected neon – in the bottle, it just looked like a regular hot pink creme but on the nail it really popped. It dried matte, as most neons do, so I used SV as a top coat. I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did, but it was pretty flattering to my olive complexion. I don’t know why, but I always feel like these colors are really sexy once I’m wearing them. This swatch is 4 coats, it was good at 3 coats but I had slight VPL. Formula was fine, no major application issues.

Julep Claire is a medium sky blue creme. My swatch is not color accurate, I apologize for my constant inability to capture blues properly. In real life, the shade is a lighter hue of blue. My first thought when I saw Claire was that it would be dupe-y to Zoya Yummy, OPI Just Groovy and Misa Right Here Now, No More Later. It’s not, Claire is greener in comparison. Claire, unlike Lauren, gave me some application problems. The formula was very thick, and the thickness problem was compounded by a wonky, bushy brush. This polish would have benefitted from a good old-fashioned thinning. This swatch is 4 coats. It would have been good at 3, but the pigments in this color are very unforgiving of nail imperfections (which I have a ton of right now) so I added an extra coat to cover the bumps and groves on the surface of my nails.

Julep Lily is a bright neon fuchsia. The photo is fairly accurate but the shade is a touch lighter in real life. It dries matte, so I used SV as a top coat and 3 coats of color. Like Claire, Lily was very thick. I decided not to thin it because I think Lily and Lauren would be a good combination for a marble mani – I’ve never done one before but I imagine using a thicker polish would work better. We shall see… if not, Lily will be getting a thinning as well.

Julep Morgan is a violet toned frosty purple with blue and fuchsia microshimmer. The photo is a bit inaccurate. This polish is less blurple in real life and way more violet. It reminds me a lot of the OPIs of yesteryear. This swatch is 3 coats + SV. I didn’t have application issues at all with this one, which leads me to believe the thickness in the other polishes resulted from the neon pigments.

Julep is big 4-free and retails for $14.00. They are available on the Julep site and at Sephora. The bottle design is aesthetically pleasing, slender and square-shaped with a paint splash cut-out on the side of the bottle. However, the design is impractical and unstable. I kept feeling like the bottle was going to tip over at any minute. Additionally, the bottles are pretty small in comparison to other “higher end” brands, which means you aren’t getting the same bang for your buck. Julep has a monthly beauty box service called Julep Maven. I’m not a maven and I don’t know much about it, but I’m assuming that being a Maven makes these polishes more affordable. I would say it’s definitely worth looking into if you are hoarding-inclined. While I was doing background research for this post – I saw that there was a ton of drama with the program last year as well as mixed reviews on Julep polishes in terms of wear and drying time, application, etc. I haven’t really formed any final conclusions about Julep yet – I am excited about their new Trina Turk collection (which I should be able to wear, swatch, and post soon) so I think I’ll keep an open mind for the time being.

What are your feelings about Julep? Love it, hate it? Are you a Maven? Is it something I should do (since I happen to be hoarding-inclined, haha)? What are you thoughts?

*Sorry about the lack of pep in this post – I have a HUGE headache, my eyeballs hurt and my vision is all blurry. I’m only posting under these conditions because I wouldn’t have another chance to post until Sunday or Monday and I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging… you know, trying to be a reliable blogger and all. With that said though, I don’t have it in me to reply to comments tonight – I have to get in bed. I promise I will reply to all the comments left on the last post soon. *hugs* If you want me to get in touch with me quickly in the interim, you can catch me on twitter.

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Disclosure: This collection was sent for review by Julep’s PR.

This is another strange collection like the Essie Yogaga collection. There’s been some coverage online, but most sites (like mine) only have a few colors from the collection. And it seems that at least some of the colors belonging to this collection are possibly re-promotes from another collection, Bohemian Brights. As far as I can tell from the Sephora website, there are six shades in this collection – four are shown here – the other two are What Aura You Gonna Where and It’s Totally Karma. Some sites are treating other shades as belonging to this collection too, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll try to get some clarification on this.

These photos are all swatches and not NOTDs – I try my best to wear the colors I review but none of these are even mildly work apropos, not even a little. And since I can really only wear one ridic color per week during the weekend, I haven’t had a chance to wear these yet. There were some potential dupes in my stash for two of these colors – I will post comparisons soon but for now I’ve included links to other fab blogs for your viewing pleasure.

Sephora by OPI Paisley Attention to Me! is a bright, vibrant tangerine creamy crelly. It’s way brighter on the nail than in the bottle, shockingly so. This swatch is 3 coats. It applied well but the consistency was a bit strange, almost water-like. I didn’t quite get the name so I googled “paisley,” apparently it’s originally a Persian fabric pattern, made popular along with some Indian fabric patterns during the 1800s by the East Indian Trading Company. *shrugs* Learn something new every day? If I can get my hands of Cirque Neko (sadly sold out), Cirque Debris, or some other awesome black glitter, I might attempt a Halloween jelly sandwich with this one. As far as dupes, it’s tough to tell from bottle shade alone because of PATM’s crelly texture. Bottle-wise China Glaze Style Wars looks very similar but maybe a smidgen deeper. The other similar color in my stash is an older pre-2009 OPI that… HAS NO LABEL – OOOOH HOHOHOTHE HORROR!!!!!

I took it to the nail board, sadly we weren’t able to come to a consensus. I believe it’s OPI Atomic Orange. It’s definitely not Tangerine Scene or Osaka to me Orange – I have those and they both still have labels. : ( In any case, I’ll post comparison swatches soon (which will be totally not helpful to anyone since I have no idea what color this is, haha).

Sephora by OPI I’m So Sari is really complex. The base color is turquoise, the shimmer is very dense glass fleck, and the whole thing is topped off with small hexagonal holographic glitter. The glass fleck shimmer gives it a textured and somewhat foiled finish. It’s not a jelly, but the consistency is sheer-ish during application. Even so, application was issue-free. This polish was fine at 3 coats, but I was going for glitter-bomb-ultra-bling so the swatch is 4 coats. This polish eats top coat – this is two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche. Overall, this one is pretty unique, the concept seems similar to Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream. Clearly, not dupes in anyway but maybe a suitable lemming place-holder.

Sephora by OPI Henna-Thing is Possible is a deep fuchsia with purple flash microshimmer that gives it a somewhat frosty finish that Sephora calls “metallic.” The application was excellent. This shade looks so familiar to me but I couldn’t find anything exactly like it in my stash. Even so, I feel like I’ve seen it before. In terms of base shade, the closest polishes in my stash were Zoya Tama, Zoya Anaka, and the coveted China Glaze It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere. Obviously IFOS has that bluish glow and glass fleckies that make it so special – but the base shade is pretty close.

Annnnd my favorite one from this collection, Sephora by OPI Seriously, It’s a Naan-Issue, a deep, gorgeous, dark purple. This is as dark as purple can get and still be purple. This was great at 2 coats, but I did 3 per usu. I’m pretty impressed with this color – I had no dupes for it. It was a shade between Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas and China Glaze VIII. When I say I’m mostly indifferent to purple, I mean purple shimmers… purple creme, however, gets me every time. Love it.

I do apologize for not having the whole collection to show you. I’ll probably skip buying What Are You Gonna Wear, but the lime-y-ness of It’s Totally Karma is calling my name. What do you think? Pick it up or leave it be?

Sooo… any idea what my mystery old OPI might be?

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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by Sephora’s PR.