Jessica Awakening Collection Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

What's this? A second spring collection from Jessica? And it's a complete 180 from the flashy, sparkly colors in the previous one. The Awakening collection is all about soft, muted earth tones.


Jessica Flutter. Soft, light taupe creme. It's a mixture of light neutral brown and grey without purple tones. The color of dried clay mud.


Jessica Monarch. A light grey creme. No blue tones. As much as I like blue-toned greys, I have to say that I do actually prefer these more neutral ones. They're easier for me to wear and don't make my hands look as red as some of the blue ones do. But.... why is this drab grey called Monarch? Monarch and Wing It should switch names!


Jessica Sky High. Light blue. Very muted looking, like there's a little grey in here to keep it from looking too bright. I really like this, especially the name.

Jessica Soar. Beige/khaki creme. Maybe a little touch of green to it, but it's subtle.


Jessica Sunrise. Light pink putty creme. Like the others, this one has a muddy/dirty/muted look that keeps it soft and subtle, not white-based bright or chalky. A little bit of a boring color, but I kinda like how it looks on my hands. Feels elegant somehow.



Jessica Wing It. A coral orange frost. It's more colorful and bright than the other colors in the collection, but it is still soft and muted. This is not a bright summer orange. It's very toned-down, not too saturated, and looks even softer and more subtle from the addition of silver frost shimmer.

The formula on these was so-so. It felt a little globby and strange going on and didn't apply in smooth, thin layers. Instead, it applied as thick (yet slightly runny, like early 3-free formulas), uneven layers that stayed wet for a long time and self-leveled after a minute or so. I needed to wait at least 5 minutes between coats because of how long they took to set. Applying a new coat too soon made lumps and bulges in the polish. The brushes in these were also slightly off; they looked frayed and felt unusually loose. Jessica normally has really nice, tight, precise brushes, so that was a surprise. It was difficult to get a smooth application due to the weird texture of the formula and the odd brushes. The opacity of all of these was good so I only needed to do two coats on all. Drying time was long.

Not a terribly exciting or even unique collection, but I did like how creamy and soft they looked on my nails. I wasn't a fan of the formula or application, though. I like Sky High, Monarch and Sunrise the best out of the set. Some of the colors remind me of the Zoya Feel collection.

The Jessica Awakening collection is available now on jessicacosmetics.com.

(This was sent for review.)

Finger Paints Fall Fashionista Collection Fall 2011

Finger Paints' Fall Fashionista collection is all creme. No shimmer at all! I'm really surprised to not see a single shimmer or glitter, but also relieved that there aren't any frosts.


Catwalk Queen. NICE! A murky, dirty dijon mustard color! This is much more yellow than China Glaze Trendsetter (and it's a creme), Street Wear Dijon or China Glaze Classic Camel. It has a tan/cafe tone to balance the yellow and a very dirty/cloudy element that keeps it from looking stark or chalky.



Cordur-Orange. Hands down, my favorite polish in the collection. This may even become my top favorite orange, and that's saying something. This is the most perfect autumn orange. It's warm and cozy, not bright but not too muddy and has this most autumnal 'spiced pumpkin' look to it that's hard to describe. It's muted, yes, but also bold. Saturated. Very, very orange. But not neon, not pure pumpkin, not candy corn... I can only describe it as fall in a bottle. Love this SO much.


Haute Taupe. Light taupe creme, muddy finish, hint of purple but mostly grey and brown. I like it, but I'm still completely taupe'd out.



Military Green. Ooh, interesting. A light and very greyed-out green. Blue toned green, not yellow. Sorta reminds me of Essie Da Bush, but darker and bluer. It bubbled a little on me, but that's probably my fault for doing such a thick coat on the first coat.



Purple Pinstripe. Sort of a... berry purple? A medium red-toned purple with a dusty finish. Nice color, but not unique.



Raspberry Taffeta. (Spelled Raspberry Tafetta on the label, not sure which is the actual name) And this one's a true berry, strong red-purple look to it. DO NOT WANT.



Stunning Stilettos. Very light cloudy grey creme with a pale blue undertone. Again, pretty but not unique.



To-Teally Chic. This looks way more bright blue in my picture, but it's really a medium teal. More green tone. Think Barielle A Bouquet For Ava.



Vintage Velvet. A really dusty/smoky/faded light teal. Makes me think of Misa Dirty Sexy Money, but this is darker and bluer. Same dusty finish on a teal creme.


The formula on these was beautiful. They were very thick, but completely smooth and even. One coat opacity on all the shades except Stunning Stilettos. One coat! I love that. I did two anyway because I was curious. Long dry time, but all shades dry to a super glossy finish even without topcoat.

Overall... I feel indifferent toward the collection as a whole, but I am in LOVE with Cordur-Orange and quite fond of Catwalk Queen. Most of these are colors we've seen before, but the advantage these have is a one-coat opaque formula. That, and they're inexpensive. I do wish this collection wasn't so somber looking, but I see the theme they were going for. Maybe they'll do something more cheerful for winter.

I think these fall collections are starting to look depressing to me... Anyone else? Such faded, drab colors... And I do like drab colors but there's so many of them this year with no sparkle to balance them! Really have my fingers crossed that all the holiday collections will be sparkly and happy this year.

(These were sent to me for review.)

OPI Touring America Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

OPI's fall collection is a different take on their usual theme. Instead of focusing on one specific location (Russia, Spain, Chicago, et cetera), they're going on a coast-to-coast road trip across the States (well, I guess America is a specific place, now that I think about it). This is also a really different collection color-wise than their usual fall collections. I have mixed feelings about it, to tell you the truth... But let me post the swatches before I start rambling.


Are We There Yet? This is a really dusty light salmony-coral orange with a hint of shiny pink/gold duochrome shimmer. It reminds me of of a much lighter, less saturated Essie Brazilliant, but with less shimmer. The shimmer is extremely subtle and only comes out in bright light.


A-Taupe The Space Needle. This looks much more green toned on my skin than it does in the bottle. In the bottle it's a warm light brown, taupe really, and doesn't really look green. On my skintone (cool/pink undertones) it seems olive-based and the color does dry at least a whole shade darker than it appears in the bottle. I like this one, it's very camouflagey!


Color To Diner For. This is a murky-looking medium warm cranberry with some really cool shimmer in it. The shimmer seems almost holographic- it shifts colors a lot and it is very shiny. However, the shimmer is very fine and subtle and only really comes out in bright sunlight.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts. This is another one that seems to dry a whole shade darker than it looks in the bottle. In fact, almost every shade in the collection is like that. The color of this is a light smoky grey. In the bottle it seems to have a yellow tone to it, but on my nail it seems more neutral. Very cement looking.


Get In The Expresso Lane. 'Expresso'... I know it's supposed to be a pun (express lane, espresso brown polish), but that word bothers me! I know... irrelevant. The color is a nice one- a dark vampy neutral espresso brown with a distinct muddy/dusty/smoky look to it. Lighter than Zoya Codie.


Honk If You Love OPI. Another nice vampy fall shade- this one is a red purple creme. Too warm to be eggplant, too cool to be wine... I'm going to go with grape. Dark grape. It looks a little darker here than it does in real life; it looks distinctly purple and not black on my nails.


I Brake For Manicures. I'd certainly hope so... Because it's really tragic when you don't brake for manicures. In fact, I'd say don't mix vehicles and manicures at all! Anyway... This is not as similar to Honk If You Love OPI as it seems in my picture. It's a very dirty smoky purple. Very greyed out, dusty and faded looking. Reminds me a bit of Rescue Beauty Lounge Recherche.



I Eat Mainely Lobster. I have great memories of eating lobster in Maine, so perhaps I'm a little biased, but... This is the best of the shimmer shades. I'm really not particularly crazy about any of them, but this one is at least pretty. It's a bright coral (makes me think of My Chihuahua Bites) with duochrome pink/gold shimmer. Like the other shimmers shades, the shimmer in this one is super subtle and only comes out in sunlight. When it does, it's pretty, but otherwise it's nearly unnoticeable.



My Address Is "Hollywood". Ack. What is this? Dusty rose? Mauve-salmon? I can't even... It's just... Dare I say it? Ugly. Sorry guys. Please don't take that personally if this is a color you like. It's just not my thing. It's that sort of dated dusty rose matronly granny color that I thought we had abandoned for good in the 80s. In its defense, it does have a really pretty duochrome shimmer in it, but it's so subtle you don't really notice it. Next...



Road House Blues. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel... This color is so hard to photograph but it's so pretty. It's a dark dusty indigo creme. It appears pure blue in my pictures, but it's actually in between blue and purple. Perhaps what one might call "blurple"? It reminds me a whole lot of OPI Sapphire In The Snow and from pictures I've seen, perhaps even the super-rare OPI Madewell To Order.


Suzi Takes The Wheel. The name of this one cracks me up. The color is interesting as well. It's a very, very grey light green... Or is it actually a green light grey? It's blue toned and closer to Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow than it is to Essie Da Bush.



Uh Oh, Roll Down The Window. Haaahahahaha! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my juvenile sense of humor can't get past this one. Seriously. Excellent name. Good color, too. Murky, smoky olive green. Darker and more blue toned than Zoya Dree.


The formula on these was good but not perfect. Some shades were pretty streaky (the shimmers), some were a little thinner than I'd like. Otherwise, they were fairly easy to apply but not as thick and opaque as I expected. I used three coats of each shade; each one needed it. A couple had defective brushes with uneven bristles, but not as severe as they were back when India was released. Drying time was excellent, lightning fast. Another formula-related note: Lots of unmixed pigment in the camouflage creme shades. I had some streaks of pigment during application because I didn't shake them well enough.


Weird collection, right? I really don't like the shimmers- I think the pink and coral shades are boring and don't feel like fall to me. If they had more of that delicious duochrome shimmer, I might feel differently. But, they don't. Snore.

I do like the camouflage colors and the vampy purples. Smoky, murky, dirty, nasty muddy shades are some of my favorites and these are all excellent ones. They're edgy without being bright and obnoxious. Grunge colors. And vampy purple is always one of my go-to manicure shades. The only problem with them is that they're not unique. We've been seeing these colors all over lately and I'm sure there's probably a dupe for each one somewhere out there.

I like the names, I like the color selection on the creme finish shades and I like the theme... I'm disappointed by the choice of colors for the shimmer portion of the collection and I'm also a little bummed that there's nothing glittery or un-dupable here. Great names, though. Nothing too cheesy and I got a chuckle out of a few of them.

So, that's why I have mixed feelings on this collection. I like (most of) the colors and the names, but I think I expected something... different? But if you asked me, I couldn't tell you what I would have done differently! Maybe not chosen mauve-salmon-coral-cranberry shimmers, but that's a given. Oh well. Camouflage colors are cool.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Essie Resort Collection Summer 2011

So far I've seen two summer sets from Essie. First, this smaller, cuter, seemingly safari-themed mini collection and then the big colorful six piece full summer collection. Here's the smaller one, called (as far as I'm aware) Resort.


Da Bush. Of course, my favorite of the collection. I think this color is brilliant. It's a soft, creamy, faded-looking khaki green. It's part grey, part beige and part yellow-toned drab green all mixed together. It's very light compared to most of the drab greens I have, and it's more green than grey. It does give me a case of the lobster hands, but I don't care, I like this color too much! The only thing I don't like about it is the name. I know, bush, safari, I get that, but why "Da" bush? It only makes me thing... Da Bears.


Fair Game. This shade is a blue-toned dark grey with silver shimmer. It's in between a shimmer and a frost in terms of finish. Interesting note: it dries to a satin matte finish without topcoat. I am wearing topcoat here because of that. Not a new or unique color, but still not bad. Grey is nice.

Lion Around. Ha ha! Get it? Lion? Seriously though, I hope they don't start doing the OPI cheesy pun thing with their names too often. This one works, but they better be careful or they could end up with a name like, oh, I don't know... Baby, it's "Coal" Outside? This shade is a soft nude pink, warm toned, with very fine white-silver shimmer. It's pearly and a bit frosty, but the shimmer is very very subtle so most of the time it looks like a creme. Only when the light hits it just right does all the shimmer show up. I half like this because it's murky and muted looking, but the other half of me is going, "YOU'RE WEARING PINK!!"


Your Hut Or Mine? This one is a pink coral, sorta similar to that Pantone Honeysuckle shade that everyone's doing this year. This one is deeper, warmer and a bit more salmon-ish instead of bright and clean like the others. The best part of this is the shimmer, thought. It's that special type of shimmer that lights up and looks so bright and pretty. It seems to have a pink and blue-violet tone to it in most lights, and it looks so light and bright it just perks up the whole color. I want them to do other colors with this type of shimmer!

Formula on these was great. Zero application issues. Dry time was great also. I did three coats of each color. There weren't any problems with the brushes, but I must point out that Essie does have very tiny brushes. After all the gigantic "one stroke" style brushes I'm being bombarded with lately, these tiny Essie brushes are a welcome change. While it does take me a little longer to cover each nail, I have better control. People with small nails will find this style of brush less messy to use.

Overall, cute little collection, but nothing new or groundbreaking. Green, grey, pink. Soft, demure shades. Da Bush is my pick from the set, I really love that funky murky green. Great formula. I think this set would make a nice gift for someone who's going on vacation this summer- a safari or a cruise come to mind.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Rescue Beauty Lounge Spring 2011 Iconic/Ironic Collection Swatches and Review

First off, here's the accompanying press release which explains the inspiration behind the collection:

"RESCUE BEAUTYʼS Spring/11 POLISHES SUIT FASHION SCHIZOPHRENTICS

The variety of moods and personas shown on this Spring//Summerʼs runways was a tribute to the fashion schizophrentic in all of us.

“Iʼve been told there are women who adopt a signature style that they stick to, season after season,” says Rescue Beauty founder Ji Baek, “frankly, Iʼve never met one.”

“Most women I know are like me—one day weʼre wearing “Mad Men”-inspired ladylike sheaths, the next weʼre channeling Patti Smith in black leather and spiky studs.

Itʼs one of the many joys of being a woman. We can be a little psychotic when we reach into our closets, especially this spring.”

Unlike previous seasons where one clear trend carried through collection after collection, this Spring, designers are all over the map. There was Betty Page starring in South Pacific at Dior, new wave meets neoclassical at Chanel, sexy Suzie Wongs at Louis Vuitton pared-down minimalism at Celine and Chloe, and a box of crayons at Prada and Jil Sander. Models appeared as 1920ʼs garden party ladies at Galliano, gauchos at Hermes and street-wise punks at the venerable houses of Balmain and Bottega Venetta.

“I love that our wardrobes can reflect our multi-faceted personalities. This season truly celebrates women—every woman—so Iʼve named my Spring polish collection Iconic/Ironic, hues to juxtaposition against every version of yourself.”

“The ʻironyʼ comes from mixing polishes in an unexpected way. Offset all those brights with a neutral cocoa or a grounding black hue. Make your punk looks more tongue-in-chic with lavender nails. Itʼs about adding that surprising detail that keeps you on your
(well-pedicured) toes.”

Decorous is a perfectly ladylike light cocoa, an unexpected neutral to offset bright tropical hues or to add a chic finish to an all-black ensemble.

Recherché is a purplish dark brown prune, an exotic accent that grounds oversize prints better than an expected summer pink or coral. Stunning with the homage to classic YSL designs shown by Stephen Pilati or the Proenza Schouler boysʼ loose-fitting ladylike tweeds and sheer tank dresses.

Insouciant is the toned-down gray lilac of a pressed corsage. Punked out rather than pastel, it is a counterpoint to Springʼs ladylike florals and Bardot-worthy uber-feminine dresses. Or wear it with Lanvinʼs muddied neutrals.

Finally, thereʼs Iconoclast. “Letʼs face it, black polish has been done to death. I had to reinvent it into something entirely new,” says Baek. This one is a richly pigmented ebony with layers of fine glitter, giving it depth and a metallic, mica-like finish.

Rescue polishes are available at www.rescuebeauty.com or Rescue Beauty Lounge on Gansevoort Street in New Yorkʼs Meatpacking District. The polishes sell for $18 a bottle.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Nail polishes are created with resin and high molecular polymers to improve flexibility, durability and high shine. They contain no harmful or drying Touluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and no animal testing."


Now let's take a look at the colors!


Decorous. This is a soft light brown with a hint of iridescent shimmer. It reminds me of suede. It has a really nice milky element to it that makes the base color look super smooth, and then when the light hits it just right you get little glimmers of silver, purple, teal and a little bit of green. The flash photo shows the base color well and it also picks up some of the different colors in the shimmer.


Iconoclast. I think this might be my favorite of the collection. It's amazing. Iconoclast is a deep black base that's brightened by fine multicolored shimmer. Please enlarge the images- look at all the different shimmer colors! The main colors I see are green and purple. It's deep, dark, dramatic but has that subtle hint of color that makes it irresistible to me. How about a little bit of insider trivia? This is pretty similar to what some of the early prototypes of Scrangie by Rescue Beauty Lounge looked like. Black based with iridescent purple and green shimmer. We were going for that iridescent beetle look. Pretty neat, huh? The color transformed quite a bit during development! But now I have the gorgeous Iconoclast shade to remind me of that fun experience.


Insouciant. The first pictures show the purple element of this polish and the flash picks up on the pastel greyed qualities in the base color. This is a new take on the pastel and greyed-purple trends for spring. Instead of being a plain creme finish, it has a flash of blue shimmer. The shimmer is fine and subtle but at the right angles it looks luminous and electric. Look at the color of it in the corners of the bottle. It's a delicate color and the shimmer makes it look so magical.



Recherche. What a surprise for spring! A deep, dark smoky violet! It's not one of those dark purples that look black. This one is a little bit greyed and faded and it looks smoky on the nail. Very dramatic and mysterious. I love the soft vintage look it gives to the nails- makes me think of Film Noir or flapper girls. Elegant but still edgy.


The formula on these is the best polish formula you could ask for. It is absolutely flawless. The texture is smooth and even- not runny, not thick. It goes exactly where you want it with almost no effort. It practically applies itself. The drying time is a little longer, but they're so dense and opaque that you can get away with only one coat. Add a little quick-dry topcoat on top and you'll be good to go.


Love this set for spring. The black and the smoky purple are really the last colors that come to mind when I think of spring and I love that. But, I do usually crave light, faded cloudy type colors at this time of year and Ji satisfied my craving with Insouciant. I don't think that Decorous is the right type of brown for my skin tone, but the other three are definitely winners. Iconoclast and Recherche make me think of black orchids- I bet someone with awesome nail art skills could come up with a great black orchid inspired two-tone gradient.



The pre-order for this limited edition Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polish collection should be happening at the end of January, so make sure you're signed up for email alerts if you want to get in on the pre-order. I don't have an exact date or time, but as long as you're signed up for the newsletter you'll hear about it when it happens!

(These were sent to me for review.)