Essie Da Bush and Nicole Brilliant Idea

Speaking of how much I love Essie Da Bush...

I've been wearing it a lot lately. Though, after a while, I just can't look at a plain creme mani (as much as I love them) and I have to do something to it. Usually I Konad over them, but this time I wanted something sparkly.


This is Essie Da Bush with a coat of Nicole By OPI Brilliant Idea over the thumbs (not shown) and ring fingers. I would have done all the fingers but I was in a hurry to get out the door, so accent nails it was. The pea green shade of Nicole Brilliant Idea is perfect over the creamy grey-green of Da Bush. Still don't like that name. The glitter is pretty flat for such a chunky/large glitter and it's really shiny.

Just thought I'd share... I really like how these colors look together.

Run To Home Base Fundraiser Raffle

Just wanted to bump this to the front page to congratulate #51 Laura J. for being the lucky winner! I also wanted to thank you all for being so generous. I don't know if you know this, but you helped Christine reach her goal in less than two days. When I posted this she only had about $500 of her $1000 goal, and when I checked later the next day she was over $1000! Not only did she reach her donation goal with your help, but she has exceeded it by nearly $500. I'm so proud of you all, thank you so much. The race is on May 22nd, so be sure to cheer for Christine! :)


This post is more of a personal nature, but I think it'll be of particular interest to my fellow polish lovers...

My friend Christine is running in the Run To Home Base 9K race. It's not just a race, it's a fundraiser for the Massachusetts General Hospital in order to provide clinical treatment to veterans with combat stress and traumatic brain injuries and also to provide assistance and support to their families.

So far, she's raised just under half of her $1,000 donation goal, and now I'm asking for a little of your help.

What's in it for you, you ask? Besides the warmth and satisfaction of knowing you've done something to help your fellow man? How about a chance to win a bottle of the discontinued and coveted holographic beauty, China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out?

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out was part of the epic Kaleidoscope collection of hologram polishes that China Glaze released a few years back. All the shades are now discontinued and getting rather hard to find. This particular shade is a soft silvered blue with a strong chunky hologram effect. Pardon the ancient picture, but I haven't had enough natural light to take a new one.

And how about something to keep that Kaleidoscope Him Out company? Something like...

A bottle of Scrangie by Rescue Beauty Lounge, signed by me? You will be the only person on the planet with a signed bottle! Like the China Glaze polish, this shade is also sold out and becoming hard to find.



HOW TO ENTER:

1. For $2, you get one raffle entry. $4 for two entries, $6 for 3 entries, and so on.

2. To donate your $2 (or whichever amount you choose to donate) and enter the raffle, visit http://www.runtohomebase.org/runtohomebase/ChristineBatchelder and click "Make A Donation."

3. After you've made a donation to Run To Home Base, send an email to redsoxrun@gmail.com
that includes "kaleidoscope" in the subject line along with the name you donated under. Christine will keep a tally and assign you a number for each ticket/raffle entry based on the amount donated.

4. All donations must be in by 11:59pm, May 12th 2011 and a winner will be drawn at random on May 13th. The winner will receive one bottle of China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out and one signed bottle of Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie.

This raffle is open to everyone!

For more information on the Home Base program, please visit http://www.runtohomebase.org/

Thanks, everyone :)

NOTE: ENTRY IS NOW CLOSED. Thanks for donating!

New Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Nail Lacquer for Spring 2011

Doesn't it seem like it's been a while since we've seen new nail colors from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics? I was just beginning to wonder if they were doing any more colors when they contacted me about their new spring collection!

Six shades new for 2011. I don't think the collection has a name, but they're all part of the permanent line now.


AV. This is a very pale blue-toned grey with lots of holographic microglitter. I'm going to warn you now, this color needs topcoat. You should be wearing topcoat anyway, but in case you were thinking of skipping it on this one; DON'T. Without topcoat this is a gritty, lumpy mess. With topcoat it becomes smooth and shiny. The hologram glitter is extremely tiny and extremely subtle, but if you catch it in just the right light you can see little glints of rainbow sparkle.



Beta. Let me explain these pictures. You'll notice that my nails look all lumpy and chunky in the top picture. OCC hasn't quite mastered neon formulation yet- if you remember way back when I reviewed the original Anime, I mentioned that it was sheer enough to need five coats. They've fixed the opacity issue, but now there's so much pigment that it can settle and solidify in the polish and make lumps like it did here. I've contacted OCC about it and they recommend thoroughly shaking this shade before applying. I received a replacement bottle that had zero pigment chunks, so this may not happen to every bottle. I'm not saying the formula is bad, I'm only posting this as a heads up in case you have the same experience I did. Shake vigorously! Aside from that, the color is absolutely gorgeous. Creamy, glowing neon orange. I am a sucker for neon orange... and just orange in general, I suppose. This one is nice and opaque with a hint of that jelly-ish squishy look to it.


Echo. Dark teal. So beautiful. Silky smooth, opaque, pigmented formula. If you missed out on Rescue Beauty Lounge Teal before it was discontinued or if you just wanted to try a similar color, you'd love this. It's lighter than Teal so it looks more obviously teal and not at all black.



Flawed. A warm, brassy gold jelly base with yellow gold shimmer. This one is extremely sheer; I needed four coats. It may work well for layering.


Rx. Hands down, my favorite of the collection. This is the bluest blue! It really stands out. I don't really know what else to say about it other than THIS IS AWESOME.


Tattoo. A faded blue-toned green. It's like a lighter, bluer version of Blackboard. It really does resemble old faded tattoo ink and I love that.

The formula on these is great. Most of the shades were opaque in one coat. AV needed two, Flawed needed four. I did two coats on all except Flawed in these pictures. The formula tends to be thick on most shades due to how much pigment is in them. They apply smoothly, but be careful not to make your coats too thick with these so they don't bubble. Drying time was great as well, most of these were dry by the time I was done taking a picture of them.

I can always count on OCC to do some fun, interesting colors. I'm really digging the faded tattoo green, the peacock feather teal and the mesmerizing bright blue in this collection. AV has hologram glitter... That means they could probably do more holo colors if they wanted to! I'd be curious to see if they could do a full-on OMG or Kaleidoscope style holo.... One can hope, right?

These are only available from occmakeup.com. While you're there you need to take a look at Swamp Thing and Blackboard, my two favorite colors from them. Oh, and don't forget to check out the Lip Tars... they'll blow your mind. SO MUCH PIGMENT.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Benefit Cha Cha Tint (New for 2011)

Benefit has just released a new addition to their line of lip and cheek stains. First there was Benetint, the rosy red, then Posietint, the poppy pink. Now there's a warm toned version just in time for summer: ChaCha Tint.


Cha Cha Tint is packaged in an opaque mirrored bottle with a white cap, unlike Benetint which comes in a clear bottle. The bottle contains 0.4 fluid ounces of product.


The applicator is a nail-polish style brush wand attached to the cap. The fact that my nail polish is the exact color of Cha Cha Tint is a complete coincidence!


The left swatch is Cha Cha Tint applied heavily and blended with fingertips and the right side is Cha Cha Tint straight from the bottle. It looks like a scary neon coral straight off the brush, but once it's blended it's a very wearable warm coral pink with orange tones. Benefit describes it as "mango-colored" and I think I can see that... maybe not as yellowy as mango flesh, but it definitely resembles that beautiful blush on the skin of a ripe mango. I took pictures at different angles to show that there is a very subtle dewy sheen once it's blended, but otherwise it's shimmer free.

The texture is like a thick liquid. It's not runny and watery, but it's not stiff enough to be a gel. It actually reminds me of full-fat canned coconut milk. Creamy!

It has a very light sweet scent that is not noticeable once it's applied. When applied on the lips it has no noticeable flavor besides that slight bitter aftertaste that is common with lip and cheek stains.

The wear time is excellent. On cheeks it lasts until you remove it. It doesn't run if you sweat and it doesn't seem to fade. I haven't tried swimming with it, so I don't know if it's waterproof or not. On lips it lasts through everything except eating. It doesn't transfer onto your coffee mug and it doesn't smear, but it doesn't seem to be able to survive lunch.

There are a few ways to apply these types of liquid stains. You can swipe the brush directly onto your cheek (or lips) and blend with your fingertips, a sponge or a foundation brush, or you can use your fingertips to gently dab it onto your cheek area and blend it that way. I find it easiest to apply on bare moisturized skin or over tinted moisturizer. There was this old trick I learned back in the day where you draw an arrow with Benetint on the apple of your cheek and then add High Beam as the back half of the arrow along your cheekbone and then blend...With Cha Cha Tint I think that trick might work even better if you replaced the High Beam with Moon Beam to add some gold.

Cha Cha Tint is quite bright on my pale, cool-toned skin. I think this warm melon-coral color would look really hot on someone with a deep tan skintone. I always have this image in my mind of a bronze goddess with glowing coral cheeks and lips. This is the perfect shade for tanned, warm-toned skin, especially in the summer. Pale skintones like me can pull it off if we use a lighter hand when applying.

One thing I really like about Cha Cha Tint is that your skin feels really silky and smooth wherever you've applied it. I don't know what it is about the formula, but it makes my skin feel perfect!

Also... don't forget that this is a stain. It will stain whatever it touches. Wash your hands after you'll apply it, or you'll end up like this :)



The name of this has me thinking... You know the old legend about how Benetint was invented, right? Somehow the name "Cha Cha Tint" just makes me think of really odd alternate uses for this product. Heh.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this today instead of Monday is because I've been alerted that HSN is offering a really good deal on this for one day only. Benefit usually does these kits where you get several full sized products and travel sized products for practically the same price as one full-sized item. Today HSN has one of those, the Now to Wow! kit for $33. Cha Cha Tint alone retails for $29. The kit contains a full sized Cha Cha Tint, a full sized BADgal Lash Mascara (which rocks, by the way), a full sized Instant Brow pencil and a mini High Beam. So, obviously, pretty good deal. If I didn't already have all the things in it I'd be buying it for myself, so I thought it would be worth mentioning.

Otherwise, this is available at Sephora, Ulta, pretty much everywhere they sell Benefit and it's part of the permanent line.

(This was 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.)

Makeup Monday: Ulta-Exclusive LORAC Multidimensional Beauty Kit

I was so excited to get this when I ordered it, and then things got crazy and I never got to finish my post.... I'm still excited about it, actually, and I've had it for a couple months already.

LORAC Multidimensional Beauty collection. This is an Ulta exclusive and I'm pretty sure it's limited edition. In case you can't tell from this picture, the box is HOLO:

See?! How cool is that?? I know it's just a cardboard box, but it's a hologram cardboard box and you know what a sucker I am for good packaging.

But the outer carton isn't the only thing that's holo-esque... This kit comes with a metal-plated makeup bag that is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. My only complaint is that it's not big enough to carry as a purse. I took a million pictures.

The left hand side of the bag has a rainbow pattern that's always visible, but the right hand side has no stripes.

It changes colors depending on the angle. It's mesmerizing to look at. See down toward the opposite edge of the bag, where it looks like it's lighting up aqua? It looks even better in real life. Holo makeup bag. Gaaaaah so awesome....


Okay, enough about the bag already. Here's what's inside:

Three full sized eyeshadows in 3D-Luxe, 3D-Mension and 3D-Licious plus an Ulta exclusive shade of LORAC 3D Multiplex lipgloss in Ulta Glam.

3D-Luxe is a light ivory with peachy tinted duochrome and subtle iridescent sparkle, 3D-Mension is a plain metallic bronze and 3D-Licious is a MAC Club dupe (red toned brown with green-blue duochrome shimmer).

3D-Luxe is my favorite one... it's so gorgeous, none of my pictures come close to capturing how beautiful it is. It has such delicate iridescent sparkle and just a faint sheen of duochrome across the color...

If you enlarge these, you might be able to pick up a little of the depth of the color. You sorta have to see it in person to fully appreciate it.

The Ulta Glam shade of Multiplex gloss is just as mesmerizing... I think the purchase of the kit was worth it just for this beauty:
Ulta Glam is a copper rose shimmer base, sheer, with strong brassy gold duochrome at one angle and darker pink-rose duochrome at another angle plus lots of iridescent microglitter that also adds to the color-shiftiness. The best part? There's BLUE MICROGLITTER. Blue!!! Glitter!!


Swatched dry over bare skin: 3D-Luxe, 3D-Mension and 3D-Licious shadows and Ulta Glam Multiplex 3D gloss. You can kinda see the blue sparkles in the gloss, right?

This also came with a gift with purchase that I thought was pretty neat:

A sample of LORAC's new Multiplex 3D Lashes mascara that comes on a holo card, in a tube with holo text. Yep, no denying it, I'm easily swayed by how much holo foil comes on the package... The mascara itself it's something I'd normally use. I like the curved plastic pointy bristle brush, but the formula doesn't add any volume. It makes your lashes super long and defined, but doesn't add any thickness. It kinda seems like it makes them curl like those old curling mascaras, but it could just be my imagination....

The formula on the shadows seems consistent with the other LORAC shadows I've tried. Like I've mentioned before, I'm really new to LORAC shadows and I'm still not sure if this is the normal quality and texture or not. The texture is disturbingly soft and loose- I say disturbing because it seems like it loosens so much product every time I touch it with my brush that I could use the entire shadow in a week. Very loosely pressed, soft and powdery. Medium pigmentation and payoff, not super pigmented or opaque. Suitable for wet use to intensify the payoff and color. I'd recommend wet use if you like your colors intense like I do. They don't seem to wear very well due to the super soft light texture; they tend to fade a bit and wear off by the end of the day (I always use primer and it behaves the same over all primers I tried). The colors themselves are pretty and go well together and they look light and luminous on.

The gloss is amazing. I love the Multiplex formula. It's smooth and silky, lasts a reasonable amount of time and tastes/smells amazing. Is it lychee? I have no idea what the scent is, but it's light and fruity and soft and I really really like it. The Ulta Glam shade in this kit does not disappoint. It's super duochrome but also full of microglitter so it's sparkly on top of being duochrome. The only downside is that the glitter is kinda gritty.

I love this kit. I really hope LORAC keeps doing the whole multiplex 3D theme. They enable me in my duochrome addiction... Just wish they'd lower the price on their Multiplex glosses!

This is gone from the Ulta website already, but I've seen plenty of kits still in stock in-store recently, so you should be able to find one if you have an Ulta nearby. The whole kit is only $35 so it's an excellent value- a Multiplex gloss alone is $22 (and no, I won't stop complaining about the price) and a LORAC shadow single is $19.

Revlon Top Speed Violet and Royal

Here's a fun one... Two colors I really really love. In fact, these were the only two I picked up from the new Revlon Top Speed line. I still love that commercial, too. You know, the one where her nail polish keeps changing colors?


This one's called Violet.


This one is Royal.


The colors look truer in the bottles here:


But the whole "Top Speed Fast Dry" thing is a bit of a lie... For some reason, every time I wear either of these, they take forever to dry! I'm talking Barielle/Diamond dry times here.... Even with Seche Vite!

Oh, and the brushes... I hate the brushes... They're so floppy and horrible...

BUT! It doesn't matter to me because the colors are gorgeous.... I can deal with bad brushes and long dry time if the color is awesome enough. I just wish these could be the entire package: Good color, good formula and good brushes. Ah, well, can't win 'em all.

OPI Serena Glam Slam! France 2011 - Rally Pretty Pink and Red Shatter

OPI and Serena Williams have just released the next installment of their Glam Slam! series to coincide with the French Open. This time there are two sets of colors which each have a sparkling polish shade alongside a new shade of OPI's Shatter crackle polish.


Rally Pretty Pink. This is a sheer dark pink/mauve/plummy brown base with insane amounts of bright, shiny gold metal flake sparkle. Looks and sounds familiar, doesn't it? Zoya Faye? They seem very similar to me. Faye seems deeper and richer, Rally Pretty Pink seems lighter and slightly pinker. I don't have my bottle of Faye with me so I haven't been able to do a true side-by-side evaluation to determine just how similar they are. I love this (like I loved Faye), it's a stunningly gorgeous color.


Red Shatter over Rally Pretty Pink. Red Shatter is really fascinating! As you can probably tell from the pictures, it's sheer. It's like a jelly crackle. Because if the see-through quality of this, details of the base polish show through the red. See all the sparkles from Rally Pretty Pink? Pretty cool. Another interesting effect of the sheerness is that the tone of the red shatter can change based on what you layer under it.



See how much warmer it looks here with the orange showing through? This is OPI Red Shatter over Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange. This looks awesome over glittery orange, like a big shiny sparkling fireball.

The formula on both was great. Nice and smooth, good texture, fast dry time. The crackle effect works much better over dry polish, but I used it over wet polish in these pictures and it's still pretty good. Just be aware that when applying over wet polish, the crackle will spread as it dries and take the base polish with it, causing bald spots.

I love both of these, but I must say... what an odd color combination. I don't know how much I like the red crackle polish over the golden-mauve base color, I think it blends in too much. I don't dislike them together, but I think the crackle effect doesn't seem as pronounced as with other colors. Needs more contrast. Maybe a yellow underneath?

(These were sent to me for review.)