Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle

I've always been vocal about green and I not getting along, but if there's one green that wins me over 100% of the time, it is emerald. And since I heard that RBL will be closing its doors at the end of the month, I thought I'd pull out Recycle and see how it looks. I'm happy to say that I cannot get enough of this color. It's a rich, blackened (but never mistaken for black) emerald green that hits all the right notes: it compliments my skin tone, it's deep and brooding, and the depth of color is fantastic. 

RBL really knows how to do dark, moody colors, so it's a shame that Ji has decided to shut down. They were very pricey polishes, but very high quality, and the attention to detail, along with the creative thought that went into the colors and descriptions made them extra special. They are among my favorite polishes in my hoard. And since my switch to Nail Envy, they are the about the longest-wearing on me, barring textures.

Everything except the most recent Fan Collection is 50% off right now, and I may or may not have ordered quite a few farewell bottles. 

I added butter LONDON's Bit Faker for a little sparkle, hopefully it doesn't come off as holiday. I'm really excited for winter and holiday-mode to kick in, but I'm trying to restrain myself until at least Thanksgiving.

butter LONDON Poole & Bit Faker

I haven't worn a blue in a while so I thought I'd pull out a polish I bought back during bL's first Last Orders sale of the year. 

Poole (after the resort/tourist town in Dorset, England) is a little difficult for me to describe. It's not a straight up aqua; it's more diffused and subdued than that. But it's definitely not sky blue. Maybe if aqua and sky had a baby and then let it roll in dust? I don't know. Whatever it is, it's lovely. 

I bought Bit Faker as well. It's an utterly gorgeous full-coverage bronze glitter. Poole and Bit Faker belonged together so I slapped it on as an accent (unfortunately only on the right hand...I forgot about the left side so my manicure looks a little lopsided). I can see it working for both summer and winter, and fully plan to wear it alone as a Thanksgiving mani. It's a top coat gobbler, but even without my NYC it catches the light beautifully. I top coated it anyway, which was an exercise in futility. 

3 coats of each, plus top coat. 

butter LONDON Dodgy Barnett

I am not the easiest person to watch sad/indie/uncomfortable movies with. I get VERY emotionally invested, I contradict the characters as if they can hear me, and if the movie doesn't go the way I want it to, I get angry. So when a movie is recommended to me, I have to tread very carefully. I have my tried and true favorites that I can watch over and over again (I basically wrote my thesis to Spirited Away) and they're safe because I know what emotions I'm going to feel and what's going to happen and there's nothing that can take me by surprise. Combine this with an ardent desire to watch new stuff, but being too afraid to watch the new stuff alone or when I'm in a certain mood because as I get older my movie/t.v. feels become more unhinged (i.e. I will cry. HARD.)...

Luckily, my best friend is resigned to this fact and recommends stuff to me and when I get around to it, I send her texts at three in the morning while sobbing uncontrollably about why this character had to die, etc. Also (and I have no idea how I got this lucky) my boyfriend, in addition to having excellent taste in movies/t.v./books, is not only tolerant of my odd movie-watching habits, but he doesn't make fun of me for being a tearful weepyface. And when I say tearful weepyface, I don't mean elegantly letting a couple teardrops out over something and blowing my nose discreetly in the bathroom. I mean burst-out-crying, snot-dripping, hiccuping, emotionally-distressed-for-up-to-twenty-four-hours kind of weepyface.

Long story short, he got me to watch Safety Not Guaranteed last night and I had the obligatory meltdown at the end. All he could get out of me for a good five or ten minutes afterward were sniffles, muffled sobs, and every so often, "MY FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS, OMG!". Then I told him it was the most beautiful movie ever. Then recanted it and put it in the top 20 because I was thinking more clearly and not crying as much. 

I have no idea how long it will take him to get me to watch The Comedy. Probably a couple years. 

So after my squeals of emotion had subsided and I had settled into occasional tears and snuffles, I needed to paint my nails. Bad. I'd picked off most of Cirque Coronation (see below post) during the movie and needed to do something that involved no emotion. So on went some Futurama (NOT the sad ones, I've just deleted them altogether), and out came Dodgy Barnett. 

Now Dodgy Barnett is a holo I can get behind. As eye-searing as Urban Outfitters Silver Holo is, I just find the softer, more scattered holos more aesthetically pleasing. They're more dreamy. And best of all, they don't look like dull car paint in lower lights. 

Dodgy Barnett is a soft, silvery-grey with scattered, holographic shimmer. It's ladylike, grown-up holo. And the finish is so...I don't even know the word. It dries smooth and velvety, almost like a matte, but it's shiny. I just keep stroking my finger tips because the texture is so soft and smooth. The only downside is it's a bit sheer. I could have gotten away with three coats, but I did four because I was still an emotionally raw insomniac. I erred on the safe side and decided to forgo top coat. 

What movies turn you into a tissue-buried, emotional wreck?

butter LONDON Lillibet's Jubilee

Lillibet's Jubilee is one of the most gorgeous polishes I own. I mean, are you kidding!? Look at it!!! It's so delicate and reflective!!! And lavender!!! And because I love any and all things British (I really, REALLY do-when I finally get there I may not come back to America at all), of course I had to have it.

This polish is a couple years old, so I'm pretty sure we all know it was made for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. When it came out I wanted it soooooo badly. I'm not sure what kept me from buying it-probably lack of funds-but I pined and cursed the fact that it wasn't going to be a core color. When it ran out I pined and guessed I'd settle for a somewhat similar Cirque dupe (Book of Shadows?). Not that Book of Shadows isn't pretty, but it just didn't have that certain something that Lillibet's Jubilee had. 

Not sure why I didn't consider eBay at that point. Oh wait. Horrendous prices and fakery.

Anyway, long story short, I finally got my mitts on it a few weeks ago and I haven't put it away with the rest of my bL's because it's just too pretty. It's a beautiful silvery-lilac-lavender foil. It covered perfectly in two coats. Top coat doesn't really affect the shininess of polishes like these, but I put it on anyway for protection from chips. 

I can't stop looking at it. Sometimes it can look pinky-lilac, sometimes blue-lavender. Whatever light though, it's so, so lovely. 

So my sunburn is clearing up a bit. I'm slathering my face with aloe vera gel and vitamin e oil every few hours and that seems to be alleviating some of the redness. Most of my family has Armenian, olive-toned skin. I am the only one really who is super pale and freckled (clearly the Scots won out in me). Generally when I burn, I stay lobster red for a few days, and then get about a hundred new freckles, on my nose especially.

butter LONDON No More Waity, Katie

My boyfriend and I watched Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe last night and he spent about 10 minutes ranting about how stupid the media was waiting all day for news about Kate Middleton's baby back in July, so I thought this would be an appropriate polish to go with it. I got it in the Last Orders sale for the hell of it. I didn't think it would be something I'd wear much but it was too unusual to pass up. 

No More Waity, Katie is a medium grey-lavender jelly filled with small lilac hex glitter. On paper it sounds really pretty, but this one is just odd. Don't get me wrong, I like it...but I've never worn a weirder polish in my life. And I know I say this about lots of polishes, but despite its oddness, I find it very feminine. Feminine and different. 

This was quite a sheer polish. I considered layering it over Color Club Wild Orchid, but I decided against it-its first time out, I wanted to see what it could do solo. This was three coats, and I like the smoky, glittery effect it has. I can actually see myself pulling this one out a lot come springtime. Or now, I guess; technically, we didn't even have a winter.

butter LONDON Saucy Jack

It's been a while since I've worn a good, old-fashioned red creme. So long, in fact, that I've forgotten how to photograph them. These pictures are pretty awful, and the third one is the only really color-accurate one (in sunlight, anyway. Like all deep reds, it's a bit of a chameleon). Still, I feel like a fox. 

I hadn't planned on buying anything from butter LONDON's Last Orders sale, but for $7.50 a pop? Not too bad. I picked up five and Saucy Jack was one of them. Not a unique color in the slightest, but damn if I don't feel like a million bucks in this polish. There's just something about dark red, right?

Formula was excellent. It has a similar creme-jelly formula to Jaffa, but without the blood, sweat, and tears. Three coats and I was good to go. Under sunlight it brightens up, but the rest of the time it stays dark and demure. 

Now that I've got this on, I almost don't want to go back to my texture binge. 

Almost. 

butter LONDON Bumster

First of all, I apologize for the staining on my fingers from Screening Room. While it does not stain the nail at all, it reallyyyyyyyyyyyy likes to stick to skin. I mean, I almost want to commend that damn nail polish. I did everything short of clipping the skin off to get rid of it. But since I’m not willing to go that far it’ll just have to offset the yellow in Bumster.

I know Bumster has a reputation for looking like baby poop, but when I asked my grandmother (who dealt with five rounds of diaper duty, plus a couple of honorable mentions for grand children) if it was a similar color, she laughed and said, “Oh heck no!”…so I’m going to describe it as a sophisticated autumnal goldenrod.

It’s one of those ugly-pretty colors that became big around 2009, when every hipster wanted an over sized cardigan in the color. It’s not especially flattering on me (at least I don’t think it is) but every time I see it in the bottle I get excited. Will I ever learn? Probably not. Do I care? Nope.

A bit streaky on the first coat, but subsequent coats evened it out. It has a pretty thin consistency, so it wasn’t especially forgiving to my various nail imperfections.

This was the usual 3 coats with Grand Central Station.

butter LONDON All Hail the Queen

It’s been a tough couple of days. My grandpa was in the hospital for the last two days and although nothing was seriously wrong, his age combined with my precarious mental state and the fact that I have no coping skills to deal with situations like that flung me into a sort of mini-freak out. I couldn’t do anything except hide in my room with the lights out, and cry. I felt horribly alone, yet I didn’t want anyone near me. He’s home now so I’m relieved, but my stomach keeps clenching. I thought polish would take my mind off things. It didn’t.

All Hail the Queen (or All Hail McQueen) is one of my favorite bL’s. It’s a lot of things: office appropriate, chic, toned down, and stylish. You could wear it for literally any occasion. It’s a gorgeous brownish-taupe that turns butterscotch in the sunlight. It has a bright pink shimmer cast that my camera was unable to capture (I think it’s more prominent in the bottle than it is on the nail), as well as a subtle holographic shimmer. The holo is definitely not linear, but rather speckled and flashes noticeably in the sun, and is much more toned down but visible in artificial light.

Formula was much better than Jaffa. It was smooth, thin, and went exactly where I put it. It was also surprisingly glossy on its own, I probably didn’t even need to apply top coat.

3 coats of All Hail the Queen, with Grand Central Station on top.

butter LONDON Jaffa

Naturally, when I decide I have my nails at a length I like, one of them breaks (I’m looking at you, middle finger). I trimmed my nails down as much as I could bear, but the days of nubs are over for me. Might as well change my polish at the same time, right?

I’m a Halloween purist (and incidentally, a Halloween nut). For me, orange is not a summer color-it’s reserved for my Halloween manicures. Jaffa is a bit different though. It’s a juicy orange with just a hint of pink in it that places it far away enough from true orange for me to want to wear it now. The pictures are a bit deceptive-it’s slightly more coral-looking in real life.

The formula was downright annoying. Just the worst. Generally "crellies" go on streaky and level themselves out after a minute, but this was not the case with Jaffa. Each coat was as streaky as the last. After four coats I gave up and applied top coat, hoping that would even it out. Luckily it did.

It’s truly gorgeous, I love the color, though maybe not enough to struggle though the formula.