Orly Galaxy Girl

Hi guys!  A thousand apologies for taking so long to get this post to you!  Our modem died and left us without internet over the entire weekend into Monday.  It was awful - like someone cut off my right arm.  We finally got functionality back yesterday afternoon, but then of course it was the dreaded grocery day.  We all know how much I love grocery day.  Ugh!  Don't ever leave me again, interwebz!!  *Hyperventilates*  Anyway, on to the polish!  

Today I have for you another gem from my Orly Cosmic FX collection and its dupes, Galaxy Girl (I love that name!).  I had never planned on buying this one, as I wasn't that impressed with it from the swatches I'd seen, but when hubby saw it in the store he said it looked "badass," and therefore I had to buy it.  Well, you don't have to twist my arm!  ;-)

It's an odd bird in the flock, that's for sure.  It's a murky reddish plum base with super duochrome microglitter that flashes between aqua blue and fuschia.  After my last two one-coat wonders, I had completely forgotten that pretty much every polish from the Cosmic FX requires three coats.  Oops!  But trust me, this one applies super easily, and dries surprisingly quick, even as a three-coater.   And the best part?  It's JUST as duochromey on the nail as in the bottle!  Woo-hoo!!  Definitely click to enlarge these photos to check it out up close!

OooOoooh...Ahhhhh....

I have to be honest.  I thought this polish was going to be a total bust!  With that murky red-purple base, I thought it was going to look like a sparkly bruise.  Yuck!  But I stand corrected.  I loooove this!  It's just as badass as the hubby thought it would be!  I should listen to him more often.  :-)

The funny thing about duochromes is that you'd think they'd show off best in full sunlight, because they're so sparkly, but they actually love indirect lighting best.  So here are a few shots in natural, more dim lighting.  It really shows off the fuschia flash, but you can still see that sparkly blue!

(click to enlarge)

These photos don't even do it justice.  You've just got to see this one for yourself!  Thankfully it's still available on www.transdesign.com and www.amazon.com, even if at the full $10 price.  If you're into duochromes, definitely pick this one up while you still can.  If you don't own any duochromes, this is a great one to start off with.  Galaxy Girl definitely gets my seal of approval!  :-)    

Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm

Confession:  I'm a little weird when it comes to wearing my high-end or hard-to-find polishes.  What I mean is that after I wait months to get them or shell out way too much money for them, I often wait for "the right time" or "a good day" to wear them.  Damone Roberts 1968 was my BIGGEST lemming, and it still took me a good month to wear it!  GOSH Holographic has been sitting in my drawer since February, because I want just one good week of nothing but brilliant sunshine before I pull out that baby.  I don't mean to be so darn weird about it, but I guess I just figure that they're special, and I don't want to wear them if they're not going to get the chance to be fully appreciated (e.g. wearing a holo polish when it's raining for a week straight).  It's stupid, I know.

I FINALLY got over myself and tried out my first Rescue Beauty Lounge polish - Dead Calm.  (Note:  This is not actually my first RBL polish.  That honor goes to the lovely Catherine H, which I'm saving up...for the right time.  Sigh.  But this is the first one I've actually worn.)  I was super excited, because I'd read so much about how fabulous RBL polishes are and admired swatches for so long.  The creator, Ji Baek, is also AWESOME and has an amazing relationship with RBL fans (now known as ReBeLs).  What more could you ask for?

Dead Calm is a deep navy creme.  The name is pretty appropriate - it's just a really calm and serene blue.  It's absolutely gorgeous in the bottle.  I've heard rave reviews of the legendary RBL formula, and I can finally say for myself that they're not kidding.  This stuff applies like buttah!  And in one coat!  One coaters are almost mythical, because you just don't really come across many, but here I managed to find two in a row!  :-)

(click to enlarge)

I'm gonna throw you guys a curve ball here.  I really don't love this.  I feel like someone needs to take my temperature, because Dead Calm has my name written all over it in the bottle, but it was just lacking the magic on the nail for me, mostly for three reasons:

1) The above color is beautiful, but this is only the color you'll see in good bright lighting or sunlight.  Here's how it looks in pretty much every other light:

Most of you are probably scratching your heads wondering what the heck the problem is.  It's not bad, but it's just a bit too dark for me.  It's actually a good few shades darker than the bottle color, which makes me sad, because I just ADORE that bottle color.  I have nothing like it in my stash!  Maybe I should've saved this one for a sunny day?

2)  It's one-coat nature is almost its downfall.  It's SO pigmented.  I know I sound crazy, because it's hard to imagine a complaint about high pigmentation, but DAMN.  Clean-up was almost impossible and took me about 30 minutes, because every time I got near it with acetone, it just bled more of that super-pigmented blue.  Apply this one VERY carefully and you can avoid this, but not knowing this ahead of time made it really frustrating for me.  Removal was just as much of a pain.  I had to remove all of it once and then go back a second time to get all of the blue remnants off my skin.  Dare I say, I might just prefer to remove a glitter than to remove this one again!

3)  It's $18.  I can put up with Reasons 1 and 2 with a cheap or even mid-range polish, but $18??  No thanks.  Luckily I got Dead Calm in a swap with a lovely lady in my area, so I didn't shell out all that money for it, but I'm certainly still cautious to put my recommendation on it.  I want to love this polish so much, but I just don't.

That all being said, Dead Calm has stellar reviews from pretty much everyone else on the planet, so if you're looking for a good deep blue with amazing application and you have $18 to spare, it may be worth checking out for yourself at www.rescuebeauty.com.   

Happy shopping, and I promise to start busting out some of those other polishes for you!  :-)

Butter London Marrow

In my last post I mentioned how I layered Butter London No More Waity Katie over Marrow.  In fact, the only reason I bought Marrow was to use as "underwear" for No More Waity Katie.  Usually when I do layering combinations, I like to throw in a photo or two of the base polish just for fun.  It's like a two-for-one!   Well, I was just so smitten with Butter London Marrow, that I just had to do a full post on it. So, as promised, here goes!

Marrow was released with Butter London's Fall 2010 Collection (The same AMAZING collection that included Victoriana, Bumster, and All Hail McQueen/the Queen) and was custom mixed for the Vena Cava designers for Fashion Week.  Butter London says it was named after "the dark purple, rusty center of a bone."  First, I didn't really realize that bone marrow was actually purple.  For some reason I always thought it was maybe a deep red, like blod.  Second...ew?  Not sure why anyone would want to name a polish after bone marrow.  I guess there's supposed to be a connection between bone marrow and vena cava, the major vein to the heart?  Kind of strange, if you ask me, but I suppose I'll try not to question the thought process that gave us such a lovely polish.

Marrow's color is just described of its namesake, a red-leaning purple that falls somewhere between mid to deep toned with very fine silver shimmer.  Unfortunately, the shimmer isn't as apparent on the nail as it is in the bottle.  Reminds of the shimmer in Essie Sew Psyched.  From time to time in the right light at the right angle, you can see the secret shimmer, but you can pretty much think of Marrow as a creme.  Application was amazingly smooth, and what you see here is only one coat!  ONE...COAT!  I die!  Since Marrow is a purple, it was of course impossible to accurately photograph.  I color-corrected these photos a bit to get it as close as I could to the correct color.

(click to enlarge)

The photo below was taken without my Ott-Lite, in just the natural lighting of my dining room, and is very color-accurate:

Don't be fooled - even though this is definitely a "rusty" purple, it's still somehow vibrant.  It's not a blackened purple or a greyed purple.  Here's a photo of Marrow compared to Revlon Perplex (dupe of Chanel Paradoxal):

(L) Butter London Marrow, (R) Revlon Perplex

See how much more vibrant it is?  It's so much more purple, and almost makes Perplex look brown!  I definitely don't have a dupe for Marrow in my stash.  It's completely unique for me!  I was so surprised with how much I loved it!  We all remember my love affair with Illamasqua Baptiste, and while Marrow didn't knock it from being my #1 Purple, it's definitely my #2!

I'd say if you love purples, Marrow is a MUST have!  I'm so happy that every Ulta will now be carrying the Butter London line!  So much more accessible!  To be honest, I'm not sure if Marrow is part of Butter London's core line.  It appears to be, as it is available at http://www.ulta.com/ and http://www.butterlondon.com/, but I'm not 100% sure. Either way, I highly recommend picking this one up!  Even at the mid-level $14 price, Marrow is unique in color and with an unbelievably smooth one-coat application, it's totally worth it!  

Royal Wedding Celebration with Butter London No More Waity Katie!

Every girl dreams of becoming a princess - pretty dresses, jewels, a sparkly tiara, and of course Prince Charming (or Prince William)!  For Kate Middleton, that dream came true today, and from tiara to toe she looked absolutely beautiful.  The wedding was amazing, and even as an American I got all warm and fuzzy inside watching it.  What a truly happy day for her and her Prince!  I'm very happy to have been sucked into watching it at 5:30 this morning.  :-)

Shortly after William and Kate announced their engagement, our friends over at Butter London went to work to create a polish to commemorate the occasion - (And you KNOW I had to have it!!) soft lavender glitter suspended in a sheer dusty purple base named No More Waity Katie.  Wondering where the name came from?  Probably not if you live in the UK.  But for us folks across the pond, Kate was given the nickname "Waity Katie" by the British tabloids after waiting so long for a proposal from Prince William.  With that stunning ring on her finger, No More Waity Katie was born!

Worn alone, No More Waity Katie is pretty sheer, so it'll take you three coats to build up opacity.  I decided I wasn't loving the sheer look, and I wanted to punch up the base color a bit, so I opted for a layered look instead.  What you see here is one coat of No More Waity Katie over one coat of Butter London Marrow.  I've heard horror stories in the polish community of how thick No More Waity Katie is and how much of a pain it can be to apply.  Just doing one layer, I didn't have any application problems whatsoever, but it does fall on the thick side.  You may want to thin this out a bit if you're going to wear it alone.

I really love this look.  It's different from any other glitter I've ever worn in that it's not sparkly.  But somehow it's still pretty!  It's really more of a delicate look.  I think this layering combo has a symbiotic relationship.  Marrow adds such depth to the base color, while No More Waity Katie adds visual interest to Marrow.  Perhaps you could say these two polishes are a perfect MARRIAGE!  (Sorry, I had to go there.  LOL)  I actually did this over a two-day old Marrow manicure, and it was perfect for a mid-week manicure "spice up."  It's not my favorite glitter ever, and I certainly think they could have come up with something better for a Kate Middleton tribute polish, but for some reason I really love it.  Maybe it's the polish collector in me, or maybe it's the princess.  Either way this polish is a keeper for me!

Typically I'd throw in a picture or two of Marrow by itself, but I loved it so much I want to do a full post on it for you guys, so stay tuned for that.  :-)

The good news is that No More Waity Katie is available at www.butterlondon.com right now (with a May ship date), so definitely get it now while you can!  The bad news is that it's not available for UK customers.  I really don't get that.  Makes no sense at all to me.  Do they think that since you UK ladies get the actual princess that you shouldn't get the polish??  So stupid.  I guess options for you ladies would be to check swap lists and eBay.

I hope you've all had a wonderful Friday (and HOLIDAY for you folks in the UK!) - and just remember, ladies:  One day your prince WILL come!  Or maybe he already did!  :-D

OPI Damone Roberts 1968

Buyer's remorse - buying something you thought you really wanted only to find out you don't really love it so much.  I'm sure we've all experienced it.  But have you been lucky enough to experience what I like to call reverse buyer's remorse (perhaps there's a better term for this, but that's what I'm calling it lol)?  It's that super special feeling where you regret NOT buying something when you had the chance to.  It kinda tears at your insides and festers there until your existence pretty much hinges on finding a way to get your hands on it.  Yeah, happens to me all the time.  But my first true experience of reverse buyer's remorse was brought on by OPI Damone Roberts 1968.

I missed the original release of Damone back in 2009 (I just hadn't discovered polish blogs yet!), so when Michelle at All Lacquered Up posted this piece last spring declaring that Damone Roberts 1968 was back, and that you should snag a bottle now while you still could - what did I do?  I passed.  I PASSED ON DAMONE ROBERTS 1968!  At the time I thought I'd never wear a mint green, and it was too much trouble (and money) to order from the Damone Roberts salon to get it.  Six months later my festering ball of regret was born.  Sigh.

I was about thisclose to caving in to the $25-$30 listings on eBay, when I had the blessing of receiving an RAOK (Random Act of Kindness) mini bottle of Damone from a lovely lady named Marlene, decanted from her own bottle.  As soon as it arrived and I saw it in real life, I knew I'd need a full bottle. I tried one last time for a swap on MUA from a girl in my area.  Thankfully, she agreed, and we met up for an in-person swap and dusty hunting day.  We had a blast, my longtime lemming was fulfilled, and now she and I are great friends in real life!  YAY!!

So, on to the polish!  First, the name.  You may be wondering who the heck Damone Roberts is.  He's this guy - a makeup artist known for his transformative work on eyebrows.  I saw him for the first time on that show 10 Years Younger on TLC.  You probably recognize him now, right?  I haven't found an exact reasoning on the "1968" part, but I assume that to be Damone's birth year?  Maybe?  Anywho, Damone collaborated with OPI to create a polish that reflected the same mint green color of his New York salon walls.  You can see from his website that all of his products bear that same mint color.  It's a dusty mint - not your typical vibrant mint green.  It has more yellow and brown undertones.  As a pastel, I almost expected it to be streaky, but application was smooth and opaque in two coats!  I wore this as my Easter manicure.  :-)

(click to enlarge)

Note:  I SWEAR this does not give my lobster hands in real life.  Cameras just tend to do that with these types of colors.

Isn't he dreamy??  I just love how muted of a mint it is!  It's slightly more vibrant in real life, but color-wise I think the photos are pretty close.  I know there are a ton of other options for mint greens out there, but this is a unique color for me, as I have nothing like it in my stash!  Comparisons of Damone to other mints show it as slightly more yellow in comparison to some other options, so I do think this is unique even in the world of mint greens.

Unfortunately, Damone Roberts 1968 was super ultra ridiculously limited edition, so unless you want to pay out the wahzoo on eBay (current listing is going for $34.99), you may want to try to nab this in a swap or blog sale (though prices will be higher than retail here too).  From what I can tell from photos Illamasqua Milf may be similar enough to satisfy your lemming.  You could also try OPI Hey! Get in Lime!  It's also discontinued (Damn it, OPI!), but you may be able to find it for a lower price than Damone.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!  :-D

Essie Sew Psyched (and China Glaze White Cap)

Happy Earth Day!!  Hope you're all doing your part to help the environment!  I...recycled my Coke can after lunch today!  And drank my Gatorade out of a reusable water bottle!  That's something, right?!  :-)

I couldn't turn down wearing green for Green Week, so I went with one of my favorites - Essie Sew Psyched from this past fall's collection (called Fall 2010 - very creative, Essie!).  It's a greyed green with suuuper subtle shimmer.  You can almost make it out in my photos, but unfortunately it's more evident in the bottle than on the nail.  For all intensive purposes, you can file this one as a creme.  For being so light colored, it's actually really pigmented.  I used two coats, but you might could get away with just one.  Application was easy and smooth! 

(click to enlarge)

Almost grey in these photos, no?  I promise you this is green!  It does tend to look grey in some lights, which is cool with me - I love grey!  Here's a photo in slightly more dim lighting.  You can see a bit more of the green tones here.

I just love this color!  It's smooth, rich, and totally work appropriate!  It's said to be a dupe of Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow, but I don't have that one to compare.  It's now part of the core line at Ulta and new retailers like Wal-mart, so at $8 or less and easier accesibility, it more than kills my lemming for Diddy Mow (blasphemy for RBL lovers, I know!).

Just for funsies, I did a comparison of Sew Psyched and China Glaze Recycle (an appropriately named green-leaning grey).  Sew Psyched will look grey in some lighting and Recycle will look green in some lighting, but you can see the difference here below.  Sew Psyched is definitely green.

(L) Essie Sew Psyched, (R) China Glaze Recycle

The next day, I decided to see how it would look with a layer of White Cap over it.  In my head I envisioned this subtle golden shimmer glistening over that gorgeous muted green base.  

So, this isn't exactly the delicate vision I had in mind, but I still really liked this look!  I'm just loving White Cap!  It's probably my new favorite "effect" polish.  It looks great over just about everything!  The milky base lightened the green of Sew Psyched just a hair, but the overall look was definitely still green. Here's a shot in dimmer light for a bit more color-accuracy.

Nice, right?  It doesn't wow me, but I did get a few compliments and "What color is that?"s  for this combination.  I think it's just the right amount of bling mixed with a muted green for a perfectly splendid Earth Day manicure.  :-)

Have a great weekend and a happy Easter!

Essie Turquoise & Caicos

You may not know it from the weather here in the DC metro area, but it's actually spring.  Like, Easter this weekend spring.  (I know, right?!  Where does the year go???)  I was feeling a bit festive over the weekend, and I'd been dying to bust out an old favorite of mine for months, so here she is - the beautiful Essie Turquoise & Caicos!

Turquoise & Caicos is a gorgeous green-leaning turquoise polish.  It's definitely a creme finish, but it has that same squishy, jellyish consistency that Essie Marshmallow has.  Unfortunately, that means a somewhat thin and streaky application that takes three coats to even out.  Not my favorite application by far, but the color is well worth it!

(click to enlarge)

Yes, that's a mini bottle my hand is fumbling to hold.  I got Turquoise & Caicos as part of Essie's Resort Collection mini 4-pack when they were released last summer.  I've used this polish at least four times by now, but I just can't seem to get around to getting a full-size bottle.  With Essie's whopping 5 ml mini bottle, I almost don't have to!  Seriously, that's a third of a regular size bottle!  It makes OPI's 3.75 ml minis look shrimpy!  I might scrape this one dry before getting a full-size just for the fun of it.  :-)

Isn't the color fab??  It just screams "9-day Caribbean cruise," doesn't it?  Sigh.  I sure could use a 9-day Caribbean cruise!  I think this is also a gorgeous pedi color for the summer!  As is its collection counterpart Lapis of Luxury, a stunning cornflower blue.  I actually bought the minis for Lapis of Luxury, but Turquoise & Caicos was my surprise favorite!  Here are the two side by side.  You can see how green Turquoise & Caicos pulls next to Lapis of Luxury.

(L) Turqoise & Caicos, (R) Lapis of Luxury

The best part?  Essie made both of these colors permanent, and since branching out to drugstores, you can now pick them up at your local Walmart, Target, or CVS!  Yay!!  Same great colors and formula with better accessibility.  :-)  The only drawback is that for some strange reason, Essie renamed or changed the spelling of some of their polishes in the new retail line.  For example, Demure Vixen is now "Demure Vix" and poor Lapis of Luxury is now "Lapiz of Luxury."  Like, REALLY, Essie?!  Did we really need a Z in that??  So weird.

On another note, some of you may be wondering how Turquoise & Caicos compares to the classic China Glaze For Audrey.  Well, here ya go!

(L) Essie Turqoise & Caicos, (R) China Glaze For Audrey

The difference is more subtle with these two, but you can see the green in Turquoise & Caicos here again.  Another difference is in formula.  Being a standard creme finish, For Audrey will only cost you two coats, but it doesn't have that soft, squishiness to it.  Honestly, I prefer Turquoise & Caicos, but these two are definitely different enough to own both.  

If you don't already own Turquoise & Caicos, go!  Run!  Now!  You won't regret it, I promise!