Friday, March 9, 2012

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Rescue Beauty Lounge's highly-anticipated fan-created collection is finally here, and it's a good one. The fans that created these colors have some seriously good taste. This might be my favorite Rescue Beauty Lounge collection to date and I'm sure I won't be the only one who feels that way. Here's the official press release that talks about the inspiration behind the colors:

We’ve Made Their Dream Colors Come True, Finally! Introducing, The Fan Collection.

It has been a long haul in making The Fan Collection. Our fans submitted the first ideas almost 13 months ago. The nail-biting voting event ended February 15th, 2011. The path to creating our four winners’ dream colors was engrossing; it was a year full of nail polish connoisseurship, coupled with our mutual love for these colors. During this robotic back-and-forth dance of color submissions, rejections, numerous tweaking, corrections and one technical disaster, these creations are worthy of every droplet of my sweat and tears.

The hilarity of our loquacious email exchanges have been a novel-worthy read and their iron wills for not settling for less than their vision and not caving into my seductive, alternate baits turned me into their humble servant. Any wonder why they’re our fans? I must thank Danielle, Kay-Di Kat, and Nora for their generous time and keen participation, and I especially thank Neeta, for teaching me all about copper.


Halcyon: Danielle's dream color is a soft, sage green with a pink glimmer of brilliant reflective shine, just like when the morning dew tenderly kisses a succulent plant. The beauty of succulents keeps her calm and serene.


Aqua Lilly: A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Kuda Huraa Island of the Maldives. The turquoise water is a crystal-clear sea green and what really had me spellbound was that it reflected a shimmery-pink hue from the shedding scales of the colorful, vivid, and exotic tropical fish. This color is Kay-Di Kat’s homage to her beloved mom, Lily, an Aquarius who swims like an enchanting mermaid. I imagine Lily swimming in this paradise with its mesmerizing water in the Island of the Maldives.


Cuprum (Cu): The metamorphic moment when the presence of ammonia meets copper (II) transforms into a radiant blue. Cuprum is Latin for copper, and the dual nature of this element is what Neeta wanted to capture in a bottle.


IKB: 2012: A bright, vibrant, electric blue with blurple (blue-purple) in a jelly finish, hence, the creation of the most densely pigmented jelly-like finish I’ve ever made. Nora’s endless search for that Yves Klein signature blue (International Klein Blue) is finally over.

Available: End of April 2012.

Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are exclusively available at www.rescuebeauty.com, the polish sells for $20.00 per 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 Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and we do not test on animals.


Aqua Lily - Cuprum - Halcyon - IKB:2012



Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily (by Kaydi-Kat). Aqua Lily is a light turquoise creme base with a very fine-textured, subtle pink and purple shimmer throughout. The shimmer comes out beautifully in sunlight, but is only barely visible in low light. I know that this was inspired by an aquatic theme, but to me this is reminiscent of amazing, retro, 1950s-style pink and turquoise fashion and home decor.


Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum (by Neeta). This is a medium blue shimmer with very tiny pink and copper microglitter particles. I love the inspiration behind this one. While I do think this color is very pretty, it seems like the shimmer base of the blue drowns out the copper. The copper is visible if you look closely, but it's not obvious at first glance and it doesn't stand out as much as it does in the bottle.


Rescue Beauty Lounge Halcyon (by Danielle). This is a faded-looking medium sage green with color-shifting pink/copper/gold/green shimmer. Straight on, the shimmer looks mostly pink, but when you angle your nails, you can see that it shifts to many different colors. The shimmer is subtle but always visible.



Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB:2012 (by Nora). This is the bluest blue ever. Subtle jelly finish, but not sheer. This is so blue that I can't even believe how blue it is. So blue it's almost purple. It looks a little lighter here than it appears in real life, but it's so vibrant and vivid that may camera had a hard time focusing on it. I also can't help but think that this may be the best TARDIS blue I've seen so far. Amazing, amazing color.

The formula on these was varied, but generally good. Aqua Lily and Halcyon were the usual buttery-smooth Rescue formula. IKB:2012 had an odd rubbery texture that wouldn't self-level, but I've been assured that the formula is still being tweaked and will be different when it's finally released. Cuprum actually gave me the most trouble with application as it was thicker than average and didn't flow smoothly. I needed to wait a few minutes in between each coat on IKB:2012 and Cuprum in order to get a smooth, flat coat. Drying time is longer than average, but allowing each coat to set for a couple minutes helps speed things up. I did two coats of each plus topcoat and all shades were opaque in two.

The fans did a really fantastic job imagining and designing their colors. Each is beautiful and unique in its own way. Aqua Lily is both tropical and retro looking to me, Cuprum has one of the most fascinating color combinations ever (Blue and copper together? Perfection.), Halcyon is so misty and hazy looking but has that little electric shock of duochrome shimmer to balance it, and IKB:2012 is the most insane and wonderful blue ever. I do wish that the formula on Cuprum and IKB:2012 were smoother and thinner, and I think Cuprum could use some more copper to help it stand out against the blue shimmer, but those are my only criticisms.

The Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection will be available at the end of April.

(This was sent for review.)

55 comments:

  1. I like Aqua Lily. Nice swatches & thanks for your review.

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  2. Ok, I think this is my favorite collection by RBL to date! LOVE!

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  3. Nice base colors...reaaaaaally wish the contrasting shimmers stood out more in all of those!

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  4. Are you kidding me with that Blue - geez it awesome and I fell in love with Halcyon! Great work on your nails - as always! I have such a list of polishes to get but these are jumping to the top.

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  5. I really like this collection - they did a wonderful job on these colours. In particular, I'm really loving Aqua Lily and Halcyon. Those are the stand-outs to me! :D All the fans did an amazing job!

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  6. quem dera se os emslates do Brasil fossem tão lindos qto os importados!

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  7. Gorgeous colors! My favorites are Aqua Lily and Halcyon.

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  8. Stunning, I love the first 2 especially. Tehre goes my lemming list....just grew!

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  9. IKB:2012 is fabulous!!! I'm tempted by it even more because it's that prefect TARDIS blue. I also wish

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  10. Argh... I wish Cuprum had more copper as well.

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  11. Wow, This collection is awesome. Do you think Cuprum is unique enough for $20 a bottle? I definaly love them all, I can't help to feel that $80 for 4 polishes seems a tad out of my budget.

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    1. If it had more copper in it, I'd say yes... But the copper is really not that noticeable on the nail, so if you had to choose one to skip, I'd say that would be the one.

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  12. These are actually tempting to me! Loving Aqua Lilly and Halycon the most.

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  13. Those are sooo pretty! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Aqua Lilly & IKB:2012!!!

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  14. IKB:2012 was my fave from the beginning! I had hoped it would be a little more saturated blue. I'm still getting it, though! I have been waiting for this collection a long time. Really excited!

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  15. Aqua Lily is basically amazing and needed immediately. I like Halcyon, too, but wish it were a softer green like the left side of the inspiration photo.

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  16. Oh my goodness, I am SOO excited for this to come out. IKB:2012 is an absolute must for me, as well as Halcyon! So beautiful.
    I'm a little disappointed with Cuprum; I think I was expecting more of a finish like the Catherines' had. But Ji was always mentioning the technical difficulties they had getting the copper into the formula so I'm not really surprised it turned out differently.

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  17. Oh wow, IKB:2012 is breath taking! Kinda wish the shimmers were a little more obvious.. But over all, this collection is really beautiful! Awesome swatches as always, thank you!

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  18. OH MY WORD. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Aqua Lily. What a gorgeous and unique shade.

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  19. Aqua Lily is a must have. How beautiful.

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  20. What a collection! They're all fantastic!

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  21. That last blue is gorgeous!

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  22. Ahhh!!Loved the Doctor Who reference :) All the colors or gorgeous but I think I might just have to get IKB:2012 in honor of our Time And Relative Dimension in Space box ;)

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  23. Aqua Lily WILL be my summer pedicure color!!! Truthfully, I am disappointed by Cuprum (Cu); as much as I know Ji Baek loves subtle shimmer, I feel this would have been an excellent opportunity to rock some mad copper flash. The frosty finish isn't turning me on, either. IKB:2010 is my must-have color from this collection! Let's hear it for ultramarine blue jellies!!!! I like Halcyon, too, but I wonder how it compares to Zoya Gemma.

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  24. Oh Scrangie! I only just said I think I can survive without buying any more polishes.... Now my husband is going to laugh at me again! I will be ordering all of these and checking the mail religously every day :o)

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  25. Loving these colors! I too thought that green looks like zoya gemma. The Cuprum couldve been SO much more awesome, but i really cant see the copper and it looks frosty. Ew. Sorry.

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  26. I love these colors! However the aqua seems to be the only unique one. The green looks like zoya gemma, the copper blue needs more copper...i cant see the copper its supposed to have and the frosty finish kills it :(

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  27. These are amazingly beautiful - except for Cuprum! However agree with you and other commenters, Cupurum needs more copper in it and drop the frost - yuck...Also the sage green one could have used more viability to the shimmer, despite you said it's ever present at any angle - I still would like to have seen more of the shimmer floating in it. I cannot believe there is yet another blue cream that has not been done before! However I will take your word on that one! It looks like a beauty. Just like it's price tag!!

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  28. Seeing the bottles, I felt sure that my favorite swatch would be either aqua lily or halcyon, and while they are very nice, oh my, ikb:2012 completely blew me away. Perhaps it is b/c it looks kind of TARDIS-y that it just makes me love it. I don't know, but I want to look at it all day.

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  29. That last blue is AMAZING, need it in my life!
    xxx

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  30. Scrangie, can you do a comparison of Halcyon and Zoya Gemma? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

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    1. Gemma is buried in a Helmer somewhere, but I'll make a note to sit down and look for it so I can compare!

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  31. I totally don't need another turquoise nail polish but omfg aqua lilly is amazeballs.

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  32. This may actually be the first RBL collection I'm willing to break out my wallet for. Don't get me wrong, some of their older shades are just gorgeous, but the price tag has always put me off. These are so unique and stunning!

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  33. Wow these are all amazing! I think I will get Halcyon and IKB 2012. Too bad she had to raise her prices, can't afford to get all 4 of them now :(

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  34. This is the second time I've seen a Doctor Who reference on Scrangie. I love it!
    I definitely want Alcyon and Aqua Lily. Maybe IKB:2012 but it looks a lot like Revlon Royal (my favorite polish ever) so I want to wait to see comparison pictures before I spend the $20.

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  35. I’ve been waiting for ages for this collection to come out! IKB:2012 & Aqua Lilly are truly magical creations. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Halcyon because I thought it would be the color in the inspiration pictures (I mean, wasn’t that the point?) but it is sooooo dark! How is the sage green ANYTHING close to the inspiration picture? I really think they missed the mark on that one big time! I can only imagine how beautiful that whitish faded mint green with that shimmer would’ve turned out. Ahh well, a girl can dream. And Cuprum suffered the same fate it seems; to call that copper and blue is a joke. A copper flash, larger glitter pieces or that fire-from-within copper shimmer that Piu Mosso had would have been a hit. Regardless of the outcome, this was a cool project so props to Ji for that!

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  36. I’ve been waiting for ages for this collection to come out! IKB:2012 & Aqua Lilly are truly magical creations. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Halcyon because I thought it would be the color in the inspiration pictures (I mean, wasn’t that the point?) but it is sooooo dark! How is the sage green ANYTHING close to the inspiration picture? I really think they missed the mark on that one big time! I can only imagine how beautiful that whitish faded mint green with that shimmer would’ve turned out. Ahh well, a girl can dream. And Cuprum suffered the same fate it seems; to call that copper and blue is a joke. A copper flash, larger glitter pieces or that fire-from-within copper shimmer that Piu Mosso had would have been a hit. Regardless of the outcome, this was a cool project so props to Ji for that!

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    1. Yeah, I agree that it doesn't look much like the inspiration picture, but it is pretty, and I'm happy for the fans who got their dream polishes made, so I'm cool with it if they're cool with it! I'm always wanting more sparkle and more duochrome, but maybe that's not what they wanted from their color, but who knows. Not too often you get to see a polish company let their customers design their dream colors, you know? Very cool.

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  37. Nora's on a messageboard I'm at and her requests for IKB votes is what actually introduced me to Rescue Beauty Lounge polish. I've been impatiently waiting for this collection because I fell in *love* with IKB (the color). I'm happy that it does not disappoint!

    I'm really bummed about Cuprum. I can't see any of the copper in any of your swatches. :( This is reminding me of how underwhelmed I was with Piu Mosso; the shimmer was far more subtle than I thought it would be and it's so subdued that it hardly looks different than just navy. :/

    I love Aqua Lily and Halcyon, though I wish Halcyon's base was a bit more greyed out and lighter, like the leaves that are just leaning to pink in the photo.

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    1. Yeah, I really wish Cuprum had more copper in it. I can see it in real life, but it's definitely not glaringly obvious like I hoped it would be based on the bottle color. But, if that's how Neeta wanted it, then I can't complain because she got her dream polish :)

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  38. I'm with Kate79-- IKB:2012 looks like Revlon "Royal" and I too would love to see a comparison of the two. Pretty, please? =)

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    1. If I can find my Royal (and my Gemma), I can compare :)

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  39. Scrangie!! I am a looooooong time follower but have posted only a few comments before. I just wanted to say Thank You for showcasing this collection so beautifully! I love that you got a retro vibe from Aqua Lily because my mom was indeed born in 1950 :) Actually, her birthday is in December, so this color is symbolic of her turquoise birthstone. Although she isn't an Aquarius, she most definitely loves swimming and water and passed that love down to me ;) As gorgeous as your swatches are, I hope others see for themselves that Aqua Lily has something special. I remember telling Ji that I hope my fan color has the "WOW" factor... Like Scrangie's! I am still in shock that this is all happening! Thanks again :)

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    1. Kaydi! Thank you so much for commenting! Your color definitely does have that WOW factor- at least for me- I actually said WOW! out loud when I opened the package :) Congratulations, and thanks so much for making this amazing color for all of us to enjoy!

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  40. I say WOW to the Aqua Lily too. Turquoise polish is my fav and this one is a stand out for me. I don't own any RBL polishes, but I think I will have to get the Aqua Lily. Halcyon is my second fav, but I think I may have something very close with my Estee Lauder Metallic Sage. Great swatches as usual...always making me want, want, want!!!

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  41. I had high hopes for cuprum, but it's a bit of a let down only because the copper isn't as visible as I'd like it to be. I love the idea though!

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  42. $20 for a bottle??!!! wow, the price makes Butter London look cheap!

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  43. This is a fantastic collection!!
    Though, I do think they missed w Cuprum.....I agree the frostiness sort of drowns out the copper-- and it seems like such a beautiful idea. I think Michelle Mismas tried to do something similar with her Barielle collex a few years back-- and that color sort of fell short in my opinion too.

    I would LOVE to see a similar shade of blue-- in that rich, creamy, color drenched, super pigmented formula that RBL is known for with the same shimmer.

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  44. Do you of any Turquoise polish with copper glitter or shimmer? I wanted to get aqua lily but not sure I want to spend the $20 a bottle...especially when I really wanted copper shimmer.

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  45. Yeah on some - not so much on one of them. This was the time last year that they re-released fan favorites that had been discontinued and Scrangie (as in the RBL color) was re-released. I got 3 bottles of it!!! Maybe the last time it's ever re-released.

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  46. Actually, I have IKB:2012, I bought it when they were released three weeks ago. Unfortunately the self leveling problem still exists :'(

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