Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore

Two RBL's in a row!? Now that I've cracked open my Rescue Beauty Lounge drawer, I thought I'd wear the more "summery" ones now while I've got the chance...that being said, this reminds me more of Christmas than summer.

Locavore is a full-coverage glitter mix of chartreuse, bright aqua, and fuchsia. From what I read on the website way back when, it represents the different kinds of local veggies you'd find at a farmer's market. For whatever reason though, it reminds me of a decorated Christmas tree. This polish will definitely be making an appearance in December sometime.

I also realized I haven't worn a full-coverage glitter on all my nails in a really long time. It sort of makes me feel self-conscious, especially since my middle finger is sporting an outstanding breakage (I had a minor break in my boyfriend's pool a couple weeks ago and his nail scissors mangled my poor nail. Lucky bastard has nails stronger than horse hooves). It also makes me feel like I'm in middle school again with giant red sausage fingers.

I'm not feeling myself lately, I guess.

This was 3 thin coats, plus top coat. Be sure to wait between coats, I cannot stress this enough. Otherwise`you're going to have glitter goop on your hands. And probably your clothes, if you're as clumsy as me. But the upside is this is NOT a thirsty glitter! I did one coat of top coat and it has stayed smooth and glassy. This was day 3 of wear.

It's not on the website, so I'm not sure if it will be back, but I do know that O.P.I. Glow Up Already is a pretty close dupe, and is very plentiful on eBay!

If I can do one more post this month, I'll be so proud of myself.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Morning Light

So July wasn't a great month for me. Highlights include 4 weeks of such intense heat and humidity that my bed sheets have not been properly dry since June, stress eating, staying up till 5 a.m. watching X-Files and  actually yelling at the screen when Mulder, Scully, or Skinner enter dark room and refuse to turn on the lights, depression and anxiety running rampant, and worst of all, a cancer scare with one of my dogs. Luckily she is cancer-free and very healthy, but the waiting period between the biopsy and the good news was the the worst week of my life. Constant. State. Of. Terror. 

But it does put a lot of things into perspective. Between having a bad day, gross eating habits, and sheets perpetually damp from sweat and the disgusting atmosphere, and having to come to terms with the fact that a beloved pet has cancer, I will choose the former any day of the week. 

So I'm going to take a break from all the black and dark colors I've been wearing (the bubbling doesn't show up as much...plus, I'm re-acquainting myself with how awesome black polish is) to showcase a polish from the RBL Bloggers Collection 3.0. I own quite a few RBL's, but for whatever reason, don't blog about them much. They are sort of the pretty jewels of my collection. I take them out and stroke them, and admire them, but don't want to sully them by putting them on my nubs. 

Morning Light is a pale, powdery, periwinkle blue with lots of golden-green shimmer. It's really soft and ethereal and makes me think of nice, calm things. Like maybe life won't be a horrible shit show always. 

This was 2 perfect coats, no top coat (because weather). I'll see if I can put up a couple more posts before September, but I make no promises. Here's to the end of summer.

Essie Play Date

Sorry for the awful pictures and the chip on my index finger. I'm not super into quality control right now.

Summer is here which means my mood is pretty low and not even nail polish can really do anything for me. Which is a shame, because I have some really pretty ones.

Play Date was a polish I wanted very badly when I first got into nail polish, somewhere around 2009-10, but didn't end up purchasing it until early this year. It's a sugary sweet medium purple that photographs a little cooler than it really is. It's distinctly red-toned on my skin and while I love the way it looks in these pictures, I'm not sure I'm in love with it on me in real life.

This was 3 perfect coats, and after about 4 days of wear. Not bad for someone for whom manicures used to last a day, tops.

O.P.I. Chiffon My Mind

Here's another from the O.P.I. spring collection, and I tried so, so hard to get pictures to show the shimmer in it, but of course failed miserably. I'm just not a good photographer. 

Chiffon My Mind is an ethereal pink-tinged white with lots and lots of multi-colored shimmer. It's pretty subdued under artificial light, but really twinkles and pops out in the sunlight. Unfortunately though, the formula is a bit difficult to work with. The consistency is fine, not too thick or thin, but it applies pretty sheer and streaky. A better and more patient painter (with less ridges) than I probably could have gotten away with 3 coats, but I got to 5 before I was happy. Now I don't mind multiple coats of polish as long as the end result looks good, but 5 coats doesn't come without complications...slow drying, bubbles, lumps...ugh. So I turned my stash upside down looking for a good base. Which was harder than I thought, considering it isn't that unique of a polish. 

Luckily I own Orly Cake Pop, which is perfect. It's a pink-tinged white creme from their spring Sugar High collection. It should still be readily available, and hopefully I'll remember to show it on here later because it really deserves its own post.

So. You're looking at 2 coat of Orly Cake Pop and two of Chiffon My Mind. Dry time was great for both polishes. 

O.P.I. Act Your Beige! & Petal Soft

MOAR FLOWERS!

I make the mistake of letting the Soft Shades go by me every year, then around six months later regretting it and scrabbling around trying to get my mitts on them. Not so this year...I bought them ALL. Even the frosty silvery gold that everyone is complaining about (spoiler: I LOVE it). One I even bought a back up of. 

Here's Act Your Beige! and Petal Soft. I've noticed flower glitter is becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. It's freaking adorable. I did one coat, and the flower glitters came out in a huge glob. On my honor. I've been reading reviews about how people have had to fish them out and anyone who says it's easy to get them out is a liar...I can only assume that I've had dumb luck a couple times. I wore it about a week ago over one of my favorite O.P.I.'s ever and got lucky then too, as you can see on my Instagram...3 flowers just came out in one huge glob. I'm curious whether I will get lucky a third time...I'm going to try layering it over Care To Danse? later this month. 

Act Your Beige! isn't a unique color, but gorgeous nonetheless. It looks like a white/beige in the bottle, but seems to read more pinky-white on me, though perhaps it's the pink glitters in Petal Soft bringing the pink tones out. Either way, lovely combo. And I could wax idiotic about the brush. It's the same size all the O.P.I. brushes are, but somehow softer and more pliable, which you need with sheers and jellies to avoid streaks. 

I did four coats of Act Your Beige! and one coat of Petal Soft, which has soft, slightly satiny hex glitters in pink and white, in addition to the cute white flowers. Probably my favorite Soft Shades glitter since Pirouette My Whistle. Nothing could ever top PMW for me, but Petal Soft is giving it a run for its money. 

Zoya Nyx

Doesn't this color remind you of spring rain? Or is it just me?

I wanted something sort of ethereal since it's been drizzly and cool the past week or so. I've worn Nyx a lot over the past year, but never took blog pictures. Here it is in all its glory: a little stormy, a little soft, and a lot of sparkle.

It's a cornflower/periwinkle blue with silvery, sugary sparkle. 3 effortless coats, no clean up, no top coat. I freaking love textures.

China Glaze Pinking Out the Window

Suddenly I want to flower all the things. 

I've been wearing a lot of pink and coral lately, and this one is fast becoming a favorite of mine; it's been on my nails most of May. 

Pinking Out the Window is a bright, cheerful carnation pink with just a drop of coral. It can look more pink or more coral depending on the lighting, and is not photographing as bright as it is in person. For whatever reason, it wants to photograph like a neon. 

Application isn't amazing, but it's not horrible. The first two coats are somewhat streaky, but a third seems to even everything out fairly well. 

I added some flower decals I bought at Daiso Japan. They're not the best quality, but they're so darn cute I just couldn't resist them. They came on a sheet with these cute little orange starfish that I'll try once I am in a blue mood.

The next manicure I show will be flowery as well. Bring them on!!!!

Essie Hubby For Dessert

I would say sorry for the hiatus, but I'm pretty sure only one or two people even know of this blog's existence. To those one or two, sorry. Life just got in the way. February was a rough month-sister left for Seattle and I only got to have a couple days of empty nest, sorry-for-myselfness before I had to take my grandfather to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, and was in the hospital for well over a month. We now have a caregiver for both my grandparents for the day and I can get some much-needed rest from taking care of them. I got a new (enormous) bed, and my friend and her husband installed a 40-inch TV onto my wall, and I spent like a week in bed just watching movies. Oh.Yes.

March was another bad month though. One of the caregivers came in with "allergies" and gave my bedridden grandmother an upper respiratory virus which turned into pneumonia in a day. She was in the hospital for a week and a half. To say that I was enraged is an understatement. And terrified. But she pulled through fine, though she was on oxygen for a few weeks afterward. After she came home, I finally bought myself an Ikea Alex for my nail polish (I'm starting to notice a pattern here...family member goes into the hospital, I make a furniture grief purchase...) and spent an aggravating evening putting it together, and a glorious day organizing my babies in it. 

So we'll see how I do at getting back into blogging. I've obviously forgotten how to take pictures, because these look awful. I really need to stop thinking that taking pictures a few days after wear will look okay. 

Hubby For Dessert is a lovely lilac jelly. It's cleaner and brighter than O.P.I.'s Care to Danse?, which looks almost grey by comparison. I layered 3 coats of it over one coat of Go Ginza, because it is quite sheer. Go Ginza gave it a bit of a pink cast, alone it's pure lilac. This was after 4 days of wear, not bad right!? I've been using O.P.I. Nail Envy and it's been making a big difference in terms of my nail strength. 

Boom Boom Pow accents for reasons.

O.P.I. Taupe-less Beach

Not much to say about this color, except it's perfect. I'm just so in love with mellow, quiet colors right now. 

3 coats. 

Zoya Portia

Not a particularly exciting shade, but like I've said before, it suits me just fine. 

Portia is a cool-leaning, soft, creamy pink. Like most light pinks, it can look different in different lights, and runs the gamut from sweet and pale to classic pink and polished. I know I'm not describing it well, but rest assured this shade will look good on every skin tone. It's so flattering. And the fact that it's not white-based makes me so happy. 

Application was a breeze too. If you're light-handed and you like your pinks a little sheer, two thin coats will get you what you want, but I wanted a more opaque look, so I did three. I didn't have a problem with streaks because of the creme-jelly formula.