Rescue Beauty Lounge The Bloggers' Collection 2.0 Swatches and Review

 The Bloggers' Collection 2.0

 (collection provided for review)

"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.

 Rescue Beauty Lounge NailsandNoms

If you’ve read Rie’s blog, you know she’s an orange lover and the  lady wished to have a Turquoise shimmer or glitter mixed into a  bright orange base. However, the vision she had in mind made my     already terrible potty-mouth even filthier. The turquoise glitter/shimmer she requested bled into the base, which turned the  sherbert-like bright orange base into a canned-pumpkin color, which     I do not share kinship with (neither did Rie). Three months into it, I finally got it. Rie loved it and I sent it to the lab. A few weeks later, I was mixing something else and I thought—what the *eek is that?     Well, the blues ran the orange into a muddy imbroglio again, making the pigments unstable. I quickly reworked the game plan, I actually hunted down and brought in the orange sherbet of my childhood,  you know, the kind in a tub with swirls of different colors and added a mélange of periwinkle, pink and orange shimmer to float on the  glaze without loosing the integrity of the bright orange. True story, “Rie” stands for Marie Antoinette, so we say—let them eat sherbet!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fashion Polish

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!

(Sent for review.)