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! 

Don't Mind Me.....Just Gonna Mosey on in Back Here

Oh hai there.
It's mee Chaosbutterfly, back from my exciting and completely unannounced tumble off the face of the Earth. While I'm sorry that I didn't give a proper explanation (or any explanation at all really) before my swan dive, I definitely needed the time away from blogging and nail polish to sort out my life. Life has changed so much in the past year...I got my first post-college job, moved to DC, was forced to leave my polish babies behind in NYC, found a place to live, started financially supporting myself, discovered that one of my roommates was handcrafted by Satan to destroy my spirit and that my apartment was cursed, lost 60 pounds (and counting), discovered how difficult it is to make friends as an adult, got really into makeup again, quit relaxing my hair, and am currently in the midst of my third house-hunt and move in the past year.

It has been absolutely exhausting in every way possible and I haven't had any time or energy or money to devote to nail polish. Actually, I still don't. And with a portion of my job being packing, shipping and logistics, my nails are going to be too shitty to photograph most days anyway. But I miss the therapy of painting them, I miss having beautiful nails that I could be proud of, and I miss the nail blogging community, so I figured I'd take another swing at this.

So I guess I'm back. Definitely sporadically at first, because I am moving and that's never a good time for nails. But hopefully, I can be back to a more regular posting schedule before too long.
I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my beautiful phalanges friends and getting myself up to speed on what has happened in the nail world over the past year!

And just so this isn't a word post, here are some nail polish swatches that I found in the vault today.
These are of Studio M Fast Play, which is a nice little opalescent glittery topcoat.

I don't remember much about this polish; I took these a million years ago, but I do know that I liked it.

Thanks for reading (if anyone still is lol), and have a great weekend!

Born Pretty Ylin Mood Polish #7

Hey guys!

Long time, no see huh? This job search thing has been sucking up all my time and depressing the shit out of me, so I haven't been doing my nails or anything. I just hope the end of the tunnel is in sight soon. x_x

But anyway, I recently received something from the amazing Nicole at Born Pretty that really helped cheer me up. This is Ylin Mood Polish #7, or as listed on the website, New Magic Purple/Sky Blue Color Changing Mood Nail Polish Nail Art #7

When it's warm, the polish is sky blue and when it's cold, the polish is a nice lavender. I have a very warm body and short nails, so here's how it looks on me most of the time. 

Natural light, no flash.

And here's what it looks like after a dip in ice. 

And here are some shots of it in between:

     Okay, so visually, I love this polish. Both the blue and purple are beautiful on their own, and when they are transitioning, create this awesome gradient effect. And the color-changing thing happens so quickly and effortlessly. I did a demonstration for my sisters with some ice, and they were all really amazed at it. So based on how it looks and works, I would 100% recommend it to anyone. I think it would be really cool to konad over it too, so stay tuned for that.

    However, application was a little bit tricky. The formula was pretty thin and watery, so I needed four coats to get full coverage and I had to go really carefully and slowly to get it to not have bald patches. It also didn't wear too well, maybe because the formula was so thin. But layering it and making sure to use a top notch topcoat would probably solve those problems. 

But that's all from me today!

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome Thursday!

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Swatches

Hey guys!
So during the move home, my polish collection got all jumbled up and I've been trying to sort it out and figure out what I still own and don't. During the inventory, I realized that even though I've owned my Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics polishes for over a year, I haven't tried them out yet. So I decided to do that.
All pictures are under an Ottlite with no flash, and all have basecoat and topcoat.

First up is Echo.

Echo is a deep, rich teal creme. 

  There's not too much to say about Echo lol. It's kind of a dark teal that leans very green and is pretty and flattering. I think the best thing about Echo really is the formula. This is two coats, and they went on smooth and creamy as butter. The dry time is also amazingly fast even without topcoat, which is nice. 

Next is Radiate.

Radiate is a super bright, reddish-orange jelly. 

Radiate is a little more exciting than Echo. I've been looking for a good, super-bright red for a while, and I think Radiate is as close as I'm going to get, even though it always looks very orangey on me. I also love the squishy-looking jelly finish of it, although application can be rather annoying, due to the fact that it needs kind  of alot of coats. In the pictures, I believe I'm wearing four. Good news is it slides on nicely and also dries fast. Going forward, I will probably put Radiate over a white to make it even brighter and to make application easier.

And last is Rx.

Rx is a bright and saturated azure blue jelly. 

Rx is pretty much a bright blue version of Radiate, except for I didn't find it to be that bright on the nail. That was kind of disappointing for me actually, because I expected it to be retina-searing, and it wasn't. All the same, it's a pretty and flattering color and perfect for the summer. Rx's formula was pretty similar to Radiate's, except for it didn't go on quite as smoothly, especially in the corners. But the opacity is the same...I'm wearing three coats in the pictures, and as you can see, I have a little more VNL than in the Radiate pictures. 

Hopefully, this week, I will be able to show you guys some cool stuff from Born Pretty and to finally finally post that giveaway I have been blabbing about for like ever.

So keep an eye out for that stuff, thanks for reading, and have an awesome Tuesday!!

Graduation Nails! (Zoya Phoebe + Jordana Funky Gold Town)

Hey guys!
Firstly, sorry about disappearing again. The past two weeks have been taking care of last minute things, prepping for graduation, and going to senior stuff, and it was way busier than I could have imagined. Don't worry though...school is over for real for real and I'm not employed (working on it though), so I will probably be a much better blogger for the forseeable future lol.


But anyway, Saturday and Sunday were my graduation dates (yes, I had two graduations lol), and of course, I had to wear something festive on my nails to celebrate. Since my school colors were buff and blue and time was short, this is what I ended up with:

I started with two coats of Zoya Phoebe, and then applied one layer of Jordana Funky Gold Town on top.

Then I applied a layer of BYS's Matte Topcoat to finish it off.  Super easy and quick. :D 

Sunlight, no flash.

Natural light, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

      Even though it wasn't what I originally wanted, I really liked how this came out. The glitter looked pretty against Phoebe's shade of blue, and I appreciated how easy Funky Gold Town was to put on. With chunky glitter, there tends to be placement issues, but in this case, I swiped on the polish and the glitter went exactly where it was supposed to, which was nice. However, I need to go to one of these meetings where they decide the names for polishes. Funky Gold Town? Clearly, everyone there was drunk.  

And unrelated, but I think I'm gonna go back to square nails. The pointed ones were fun, but I've been scratching the hell out of everyone (never myself though oddly enough), and soon, nobody will want to be my friend anymore. Plus, I think they look prettier on my hands. So back to squares I go. 

But that's all from me today! 

Thanks for reading, and have a happy hump day!! 

Wet n Wild Back Alley Deals

    Hey guys! So first off, I'm really excited because The Phalanges Files has broken 600 followers!! That's so crazy to me, and I'd like to thank all of you for hanging out with me and reading my senseless rambles. I was going to have a giveaway anyway, but maybe I'll make it a little bigger to celebrate lol. 

Finals are fully upon me, so today's post is a little blast from the past from the backlog.  This is Back Alley Deals, from Wet n Wild's Ice Ice Baby Collection. 

Back Alley Deals is made up of lots of small amethyst glitter, with larger bits of fuchsia hex glitter thrown in. 

Sorry for the bubbles, btw. 

Sunlight, no flash.

Ottlite, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

Sunlight, no flash.

       Although I don't think I like the name very much, Back Alley Deals is beautiful! The purple glitter is so luxe-looking and blingtastic, and the little bits of fuchsia add some nice interest. I also liked how delicate and feminine my nails looked with Back Alley Deals on, since sometimes, glitter can make your nails look clunky and weird. My only critique of this polish would be that I wish the fuchsia glitter offered more contrast against the base and I wish the polish came in the standard .5 oz. size, but overalll, I'm really happy with Back Alley Deals. 

     Back Alley Deal's formula was okay. The coverage wasn't awesome (I needed four coats for the opacity in the pictures) but the polish went on smoothly and dried quickly. It also needed lots of topcoat to be smooth and shiny. In the future, I'll probably layer it to conserve polish and time. 

But that's all from me today!! 

I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend, and thanks for stopping by!