I know you already saw me post about this yesterday, but I didn't want to hog the collection post with a million pictures of my creation. I'm just so excited, though. This color is my baby! So here's a few closer shots of Scrangie 2.0 that hopefully show all the cool little sparkles and color changes that it has.
Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie 2.0
You'll have to click to enlarge the pictures to see it, but there's rainbow microglitter in here. Can you tell? I think that might be my favorite part. The color has a black base intermixed with gold/olive/green/teal multichrome shimmer (think a darker/blackened version of Chanel Peridot). There's a blue shift right at the far end of the color, but it takes an extreme angle to get it to pop out. Then, to rough it up so it doesn't look like a straight metallic frost, there's chunkier olive shimmer and tons of that rainbow microglitter I just mentioned. It's not bumpy glitter, it's more like shimmer pearls. It dries perfectly smooth with a slight reflective chrome finish.
I'm really happy with how this turned out. A little golden, a lot green, a little dirty and swampy, a little shiny and reflective, nice and dark and with enough color shift and rainbow sparkle to convey my love of duochromes and holos. I'm so proud of it. It even has that light in the middle/dark on the edges look that I enjoy so much. I hope you like it as much as I do :)
"We’re here to finally celebrate The Bloggers’ Collection 2.0. This hypnotically long voyage started back in January 2012. Truthfully, I love collaborating with expert lacquer aficionados because I am guaranteed that they will take me on a journey that raises the bar even higher (even though there's the chance that I'll surf and crash hard while riding those high waves of technical difficulties).
Every color has its own destiny, and although it may stray from the original creator’s vision, the bumpy ride is always worth it. Scrangie, Kellie, Pammy, Sam, Rie and I are proud and excited—can you hear our thumping heartbeats? My sincerest gratitude goes out to all of them for sharing their creative globe-trotting, nail polish-making paths—I had a blast and hope you all did too."
Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie 2.0
Naturally, I tagged Queen Scrangie first, who can forget what we’ve made together already? And, of course, she wanted that elusive nail polish-goliath. A black oil slick with a multifaceted ring visible in low light. I, too, have had this effect on my wish list for as long as I can remember. We tried unconventional raw materials that failed miserably after months of mixing. After six intense months, the end result is a polish that contains isolated oil rings, it is the color of an oil base that floats on water with rainbow sparkles, it shifts from shade to shade depending on the light that is cast on it.
Rescue Beauty Lounge Kellie Gonzo
Kellie luves her sparkles and glittahs. She wanted a pink-coral happiness that captures her bright, sunny, and bubbly personality; a color that shoots out with her warm-hearted twinkles. At first, I made her the most intense bright coral that we both fell hard for, but then, its legal neon pigments started separating, making the polish a big, hot mess. This color took the longest to color match, it pushes on the edge of bright pink coral without adding any neon pigments— and I can feel Kellie’s smile beaming from the bottle—it’s so her.
Rescue Beauty Lounge Liberty
From the opposite time zone on the other side of the globe, Pammy and I worked together on Facetime to race against the clock. She has a true-blue infatuation with Pizzicato and she demanded Pizzicato's mint-green sister. Of course, I had to add a pinch of blue shimmer here and there to make it—sister worthy. Our most hilarious and surprising moment came when it was time to name her polish— she actually choked! Yup, our Pammy, one of my favorite authors. She thought naming the polish would be easy and fun—she now knows my pain. But this name is spot on—I see an image of the majestic Lady Liberty gleaming with reflective glass-flecks, shimmering on a warm, sunny day while I stand on the deck of the Staten Island Ferry, my hair blowing wildly against the wind, mesmerized by her presence and the symbol for what she represents.
I’ve never worked with anyone who had actually mixed (frankened) nail polish before. When Sam and I were DM-ing each other, this made me nervous; I was humbled and excited. It was refreshing to know that she had her own technical challenge. She wanted to incorporate her deep affection for black base nail polish with gold and red glitters. The black pigment’s weight issue with the floating glitter ratio was indeed a challenge for me as well. Sam sent me a photo of a breathtaking sunset that bleeds into the golden sunlight. Red clouds coattail into the blackest of the night. I mixed six versions of the color and shipped it to her home in France, ridiculously wishing that I, too, could shrink and sneak into her shipping box and be whisked away to France.
Rescue Beauty Lounge An Accidental Interloper
Who is the nail blogger behind this color? ’Tis I, an interloper who is not a nail blogger--shameless I know. When we were in the beginning stages of mixing Liberty, Pammy mentioned that we needed some kind of silver in our RBL family. For me, making a unique silver color was an obstacle I had yet to solve for many years. I have numerous bottles in my RBL cemetery drawers sitting there like rejected sleeping beauties. Yet, it was impossible to stop my hands and my foolish heart from trying again. I mixed, searched my polish graveyard, reawakened, remixed and re-married pigments to achieve this silver goddess with an edge faceted by multi-shimmer hues. It's a silver palette I can embrace as a part of the RBL family. Please forgive me??
The formula of these is thicker than the average shimmer-finish polish and it goes on feeling slightly dry. This is fairly consistent with the texture of Rescue's other shimmer colors, so if you've used them before, you'll know what to expect. I had the best results when I applied thicker coats, allowing each to self-level and dry for a good five minutes before applying the next. The dark colors in this collection are completely opaque in two coats, but I preferred the look of three coats on the lighter colors, and that's how I'm wearing them here. I'm also wearing a thicker than usual coat of topcoat to amplify the level of sparkle and shimmer in the colors. The glossier the topcoat, the more the sparkle shows through. Dry time is on the long side of average, same as Rescue's other colors.
I'm so honored to be a part of this amazing collection of colors designed by some truly fantastic people. With blogs as awesome as theirs, there's no way their colors could be anything short of spectacular. Each shade in this set has tons of character and lots of little details to discover when you take a closer look. Everyone made such pretty polishes, I can't even pick a favorite!
I'd also like to thank Ji for giving me the opportunity to design another polish with her, and also for her patience and artistic vision. If you know me, you'll how I'm indecisive, constantly dreaming, and always trying to work on a million different things at once, but Ji handled my Gemini nature like a pro. Haha! Thank you. I'm so grateful.
The 48-hour pre-order period for this collection starts June 28th at noon EST. Be sure to sign up for Rescue Beauty Lounge's mailing list if you need a reminder!
Tried out a couple of those sweet Sephora duochromes last night and this morning:
Sephora Light Storm Liquid Shadow in Tuscany (lid and lower lashline)
Ehhh... I don't know about the shadows yet. I'm not used to the formula. It's thick and sticky, kind of like a waterproof eyeliner. It has decent pigmentation, but if you apply it too thickly, it crinkles and flakes off. Most of the duochrome effect disappears when the shadow dries, though it looks very duochromey when first applied.
Sephora Astral Lip Glaze in Mauvewood.
Now this I like. Maybe even love. This isn't an accurate representation of the base color (cause I had to take it at night with flash), but it really shows off the green pearl. The duochrome effect is definitely noticeable and the formula is thicker and longer lasting than the last Sephora + Pantone gloss set I bought.
Sephora Astral Lip Glaze in Chrysanthemum (natural light, flash).
I don't notice as much two-tone/duochrome flash in this on the lips as I do with Mauvewood, but I can make out lots of different colors of shimmer within the gloss. Silver, blue, green, pink. Shiny and iridescent but perfectly small and smooth. This is a really good color on my skintone, too.
So far I'm really, really liking the glosses but I need more practice with the shadows. They feel weird on my eyelids and they flake off look chunky after they dry. I wish they were pressed powder or loose pigment instead so I could use my own mixing medium with them!
They just arrived a few minutes ago so I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I'm so excited about them that I had to post about it. 'Cause... look!
Light Storm shadow in Smoky Grape
It's like Scrangie in eyeshadow form!
Astral Lip Glaze in Mauvewood
What? A mauve/purple lipgloss with green duochrome shimmer?! I'm in love.
So freakin' cool. I hope they don't fall flat when I apply them, because that would be a massive letdown.
Are you all taking advantage of this sunny weather by wearing as many holos as you possibly can? I know I am. Nothing quite like that gorgeous, magical, flickering rainbow of color blasting you in the eyeballs every time you look at your nails that a good holographic polish can provide. Here's a recent one from one of my favorite indie brands, Cirque Colors. It's called Cypress and it's from the Objet d'Art collection (sent for review).
Cirque Colors Cypress. A light metallic copper with fine-textured, scattered holographic effect. The copper shade looks a bit darker in the bottle than it appears on the nail, and the holographic rainbow is not quite as intense as it appears on the side of the bottle. That said, it's still an incredibly lovely color. The hologram look is delicate but very visible (the particles are smaller than in most scattered holos, but still well-defined), giving a fairy-dust overlay effect to the copper metal base. Looks much more pronounced in direct light.
The formula was good. Cirque's holographic shades have a much different texture than other holographic polishes. They feel and flow and apply like a normal shimmer polish, not like a dense, sometimes streaky foily/dense metallic. I found this particular shade to be on the sheer side and I needed three coats for complete opacity. Dry time is not as fast as a 'normal' holo, but but it isn't slow. Same as any other Cirque polish. I used no basecoat or topcoat and this manicure lasted well past a week with little noticeable damage/chipping/tipwear, which is also very unusual for a holo.
Sure, the holographic effect could be stronger, but I still like the copper base color of this a whole lot. I don't have many copper polishes, which is odd because I really like copper because it reminds me of fall. The holo effect is just icing on the cake. Oh yeah, it's scented, too. I love that.
I just got my very first Dance Legend polishes and I'm pretty excited. They sent me a few different varieties to check out, but, of course, the holographic ones caught my eye first. And when I saw that this one was named Robots vs Humans? Done. Instantly on my nails. Had to. I have a thing for robots. Good color, too. Brown linear holo, don't see too many of those.
Dance Legend Robots vs Humans. Medium, slightly red/orange-tinged chestnut brown linear holo. The first two photos are with regular ambient indoor light, the last three are with flash. You can see the holo in any type of lighting, it's pretty strong, which is what I prefer.
The formula was on the thick side and has a strong smell to it, but otherwise good. I didn't have any trouble with application, but if I didn't wait for each coat to dry before applying the next, I got bubbling. Luckily holos dry crazy fast, so that doesn't really slow down my application time. I didn't get streaking or bald spots, either. The brush is square-edged and a bit too soft for my taste, but it didn't give me any problems, I'm just being picky.
Heads up! Starting tomorrow through the 17th, you can get 30% off your order at butterlondon.com with code FFSUMMER. Good deal, those things are pricey!
My favorites from them are The Black Knight (especially layered with Tart with a Heart), Disco Biscuit (I'd call it a must-have if you like bright jellies), the Melt Away cuticle remover, and the Kitten Heels Powder Finish Foot Creme.
Brown eyes and green just go together. This one is Milani Shadow Eyez in Green Safari. The name "Shadow Eyez" still makes me cringe, but the product itself is really good. And yes, you can get a precise line with it despite how thick the pencil is.
Textured Polish
I've been wearing the heck out of the OPI Liquid Sand polishes (I have Honey Ryder on right now), but the Softouch Effect polishes from Layla are also really nice. This color is 01(sent for review) and it's a silver sparkle with a velvety, semi-matte finish. It's not lumpy like the Liquid Sand finish, and it's not a smooth surface like other matte polishes.
Neon-colored Anything
I've accumulated an embarrassing amount of neon things. Neon tights (Target's are awesome and dirt cheap), neon tank tops, neon jackets, a neon dress, neon eyeshadow and nail polish, and, most importantly, neon hair. I've been using Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink for the better part of a year, but I switched to Special Effects Atomic Pink this week. It's essentially the same color as Hot Hot Pink, but extra strong.
This is not even an accurate picture of it. My camera makes it glow like it does with neon polish pictures and it washes out the color, and when I uploaded the picture it lost another layer of vibrancy. This picture is after three washes and it's still a little too dark for my tastes, but the color is intense and vivid. There's actually a stripe of Napalm (bright orange) in there, but I can't tell where it starts and ends because of the Atomic Pink. I'm hoping it'll lighten more as I wash it, but so far it's resisting fading way more than my usual.
