Rescue Beauty Lounge Lucciole

Hi guys!
Hope everyone is well and is having a great holiday season so far. Things are still super busy and I'm beyond pooped with everything that I have to do right now, but I'm hanging in there.
Went on a nice vacation to Barbados with my sister and then spent time with my family for Thanksgiving, so that was a great reprieve from the hot mess that is my everyday life at this point. 

But enough bitching about that kind of stuff, on to the polish!
For today, I have Rescue Beauty Lounge Lucciole, from the Fan Collection 2.0. I picked it up during the most recent 50% off sale, but it wasn't included, so I paid $20 for it. 
All pictures are under the ott-lite, no flash.

Lucciole is kind of hard to describe. I guess I'd call it a hazy, very greyed-out purple shimmer base, with small and subtle golden flakes on top. The base is probably the most interesting part, because when you look at the nail, the edges actually look grey and the purple shimmer has an effect of kind of floating on top. 

Lucciole. I mean...well, let's do good things first. Lucciole is very unique...I haven't seen anything like it, and the dusky inspiration is very apparent. The floating shimmer with the darkened edges is beautiful and adds a dreamy, romantic vibe to the polish. 
On the other hand, the golden shimmer is wasted because you can't see it unless you get rightttttt up in there, and then the polish overall just looks dull and lacks impact. I mean, the grey is grey, the purple is grey, and the shimmer is barely there, so you end up with a polish that has no punch to it. While I was applying it, I was actually confused about if I put enough coats or not, because it just never really materialized into the knockout that I was expecting and hoping for.
So it's hard for me to love Lucciole. It's not ugly by any stretch of the imagination, but if a wandering gnome strolled by, took this away and left $20 in its place, I wouldn't be mad. 
I might even be happy. 

I changed my mind. I love it; it completely grew on me LMAO. 
I think I just needed to see it in the right light and for a long enough time (at this point, it's been 8 days and actually still looks reasonably good) but I've come to appreciate its subtle beauty. So weird how that happens sometimes. 

Formula was fine. 3 coats for opacity, and they applied smoothly and dried fast. Another good thing is that the wear for Lucciole seems pretty solid. I've been wearing it for three days and with my job, it's a miracle that it looks the way it does. 

And that's all from me today. Not starting on a great note, I know, but I recently made some other purchases that I think I will really like, so I should have some prettier things coming down the pike.

To make things happier, here is a picture of Crane Beach in Barbados. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone is having a great day. It's Thursday already! :D

Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB:2012

Hi guys!

Today's polish is a little bit of a throwback. This is Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB:2012, from Rescue Beauty Lounge's first fan-generated collection, which I believe was released late spring/early summer of last year. 

All pictures are under an Ott-Lite, no flash. 

IKB:2012 is a deep but vivid cobalt blue jelly-creme. It came out pretty bright on camera, but in real life, it's darker. 

This one is a bit more accurate, even though I think it may still be a bit too bright. 

So I have mixed feelings on this one. The color is beautiful and I love the slightly squishy texture in the finish, but I'm a bit disappointed too. I think I was expecting a true International Klein Blue on my nails, and unfortunately, IKB:2012 just lacks a little bit of the punch necessary for it to be on par with its inspiration. 

Add in the fact that it was $20 + $7 shipping, the formula is pretty annoying to work with (stringy, gloopy, non-self leveling etc.) and the wear is not so good (chips after one day) and I find myself quite the sad panda over this one. 

IKB:2012 is no longer available on RBL's website, but if it was, I'm not sure that I would recommend it, just because it is so expensive and isn't reallyyy what it's supposed to be. Pointless Cafe posted a really helpful comparison between other shades, so I would probably say to look into one of those to satisfy your blue creme lemmings. 

I do have an insanely gorgeous eyeshadow (Glamour Doll Eyes Mingles)  that I want to try to mix with clear polish to see if that will give me what I'm looking for, so I will try that and report back. 

And that's about it from me today.

Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading! 

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie vs. Sally Hansen Grape Going!

        After the post about Sally Hansen Grape Going!, I received a couple of emails asking about how it compared to Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie. I know there have been other comparisons of these two, but I  was curious to see them side by side myself, so I put together a little comparison of my own.

L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

Natural light, no flash.

L-R: RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie, SH Grape Going!

Natural light, no flash.

And some closer shots:

L-R: SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: SH Grape Going!, RBL Scrangie

Natural light, no flash.

   Okay, so these two are not dupes and really are not even that close, so anyone owning both is perfectly justified. Like I said earlier though, I actually like the Sally Hansen better. I think it looks better on me and has a much better duochrome than Scrangie. And of course, Grape Going!'s price is much more palatable. 

    But with that said, I'm still going to keep Scrangie. It's pretty and unique (if overhyped), and I am fond of the iridescent shimmer that Scrangie has. It also has the better formula...both needed three coats before I was satisfied, but Scrangie wasn't as runny as Grape Going! and dried faster, so I can see wearing it again. 

Also, I've installed a widget at the bottom of the page that is like...a search engine for beauty professionals, and was created by betterfly.com.  I generally like to keep this space ad-free, but since it may actually be pretty useful for somebody, I'm letting this one in. 

And with that, I am all done for today! Thanks for reading and have a happy weekend!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Bring It Back Spam

       Tomorrow is Rescue Beauty Lounge's second Bring it Back vote, which is an opportunity for all polish fanatics to get together and bring back three discontinued RBLs from the dead. I have a few of the contenders in my stash, and decided to make a little post featuring all of them. Hopefully, this will help some folks who are still on the fence about which ones to pick.


First up, we have Scrangie.

Scrangie is hard as hell to photograph, so the picture doesn't do it justice at all. I hate Scrangie for that.  Anyway, It's much prettier in person...the shimmer is stronger than how it looks here.

A closer look at Scrangie's shimmer. 

Next is Recycle.

I love Recycle. It's the perfect forest green creme. 

Although I admit that I'm surprised to see it in the running. I thought it was a core color. Are there no RBL core colors? Honestly, I think that Ji should bring it back regardless of how the vote goes. I feel like Recycle is such an RBL staple, you know? 

Third is Catherine:

Closer look at Catherine's shimmer.

Bottle pic.

    Catherine is pretty, and in the right light, you can get lots of pop from all the colors of shimmer. However, I found it to be rather flat in a multitude of other lighting conditions, which keeps me from loving it completely. 

And then we have Anne:

Closer look at Anne's shimmer. You may have to enlarge this to see, but there's pink stuff in there.

    Anne is gorgeouss....I love the contrast of the pink and gold shimmer against the murkiness of the base, and I like that it always has some depth, no matter what the light is. I went back and forth on buying this, but I will always be grateful that I sucked it up and bought Anne when I did. 

Next we come to Frugalista:

 I'm a sucker for glitterbombs, and Frugalista is a really nice one. The color scheme is elegant and fashionable,    and in sunlight, my nails explode into sparkles.

Lastly, we have Locavore. It's last because it's the best. ^_^

Locavore is the love of my nail polish life. Like, if I could marry a polish, Locavore would be a serious contender. It's so pretty and blingtastic, and the colors in it are amazingg. This gorgeous guy was brutally beaten and ROBBED in the last vote, but hopefully, history shan't repeat itself.  

Ooh, last minute addition. Starfish Patrick is also coming to the party!

This beauty is one of my favorite RBL's. Love it!

And that is it! Personally, I'm hoping to see Anne, Locavore, and Recycle as the winners, although I would also accept 360, Moxie, or Frugalista in Anne or Recycle's place. Locavore  is non-negotiable. 

Do youuu know who you're gonna vote for? O_O

Rescue Beauty Lounge Under the Stars (Take Two)

          Okay, so today, I'm reposting Rescue Beauty Lounge Under the Stars. I've written something on this color before, but I kind of hate the pictures on that one, so I decided to take another crack at it. These ones are not the best either, but they look better, I think. Oh yeah, and there will probably be more of these types of posts coming...I noticed that lots of my older pictures suck more than what is normal for me. So sorry if that displeases you. I'll space them out with newer stuff.  

Under the Stars is a deep and slightly dusty navy blue creme base with blue shimmer and small teal glitter scattered throughout.

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

     Under the Stars looks much better in the bottle than on the nail. In the bottle, the shimmer and glitter are so intense that it's like holding the Milky Way in the palm of your hand. You can still see a bit of that on the nail, particularly if you wear this polish in bright sunlight, but it isn't nearly as prominent, which is a bummer.That aside, Under the Stars is a good color. The base is not the usual type of navy that you see in most night sky interpretations...it's a bit smoky and leans a smidge teal, which makes it look (in my opinion) more realistic and sets it apart from other shimmery dark blues. I think these pictures make it look a bit more typical, but if you look at the third picture, that one shows the base color best. It's really pretty, and bonus: it doesn't look black in lower light. 

    I also enjoyed Under the Stars' formula. It was excellently pigmented, and looked perfect in two thin coats. You would be able to get away with one thick one, if you were careful. Also, Under the Stars applied beautifully, with no streaking or dragging. 

    Although Under the Stars is definitely a high quality polish, I probably would not pay $18 for it. I got it at half price, which was quite fair. I'd probably even pay up to $12 for it, just because it is unusual, and the formula is so wonderful. But for me, $18 is a bit too much for this polish. 

And with that, I am all done for today. Thanks for reading, and have a great day! ^_^

Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle Comparison

     So, we're having some really shitty weather here in DC. It's cold (which I like) and super cloudy (which I don't like) and it's not even snowing or anything (which I hate). What the point of cold and clouds if there's no snow? Smh!
    But anyway, without any sun or a lightbox, pictures can't happen. So I'm just gonna post a comparison that I did a little while ago between Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle and some other greens in my collection. No one requested it or anything, I was just curious. ^_^;

First, we have the cast of characters: Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle, Illamasqua Rampage, Nubar Forest, and Orly Enchanted Forest.  

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Natural light, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

Sunlight, no flash.

L-R: Recycle, Rampage, Forest, and Enchanted Forest. 

     Clearly, there are no dupes here...everyone is different! n_n

     Overall, my favorite here would definitely be Rampage, followed closely by Recycle, then comes Enchanted Forest, and Forest brings up the rear. Also, it's kind of funny how colors look next to one another...back before my addiction spiraled out of control, I thought Forest was a dark green, and it's really not! And Enchanted Forest is so grey! I never noticed how grey it is.

    In terms formula and application, Recycle was the clear winner. It needed the fewest coats (two), was the most controllable and dried the fastest. Forest and Enchanted Forest tie for second place as they essentially have the same formula and needed three coats to look perfect. And Rampage comes in last, needing four coats to be opaque and streak-free. 

  But even with the application issues, I love Rampage the best out of all these polishes. You get the most bang for your buck with the generously portioned Enchanted Forest, the most cheerful color with Forest, and Recycle boats the highest quality and the most wearable color. But something about Rampage, man...it just speaks to me, and I can't say no. 

Which one do you like best? ^_^