Rescue Beauty Lounge Emoting Me Collection 2013 Swatches and Review

The latest from Rescue Beauty Lounge is the Emoting Me collection (sent for review).  It's a collection straight from the heart, and Ji's words are beautiful and thoughtful, so I'm not going to mess it up by adding too much of my own commentary.  Ji's vision for the collection is this:

"May my goods come out greater than my own, every time I walk towards your path. Please usher my footfalls, guide me to be where to be, what to do, what to say, what to write, and to whom. Let me embrace every moment you've given to me with clear vision, strength, peace, love and grace. Let me be with you every moment to moment in your magical kingdom. Let me be at your service, my heart is open to you and use me for something greater than my own. Thank you for your abundance, blessings, and your love. Thank you for this beautiful gift of today."

This is my daily mantra and how I greet each day. I subconsciously and consciously recite it from that exquisite place sandwiched between my sleepy-dreamy blur and the lustering lights of a brand new morning. It took me many years of seeking, practicing, and learning to reach this point in my life. I feel stripped naked, revealingand sharing my private daily mantra, but this is my story and also the story that is within all of us: we are all emoting.

I’m convinced that if one is ready to truly learn, this generous universe paves the road in front of us. The trick is knowing when to admit the desire to take that first baby step.

Sadly for me, my desire to take this first step came five years ago, when my beloved mother-in-law suddenly left this earth. Our sunny, delightful home came under a dark gray rolling fog that thickened with our gloom. Lingering questions struck me during this time: Can emotional darkness be contagious? Are we enjoying this sorrowful place just a tad too much? It was time for me to open my own eyes and to start my first step toward my own path and to seek my true self. I became an observer of my own life.

I read self-help books and came across many sparklingly wise words and phrases that we're told should accompany our daily lives. But by painfully peeling the layers off of my own ego, I learned that I’m responsible for my own emotions and the energy I give out.

My everyday practice is simple: I've stopped labeling myself. I’m not so evolved that I levitate in the lotus position in the snowy mountains wearing my flowing pair of tai chi pants. I process and feel every emotion, just like everyone on this earth, but I keep my daily ego in check by knowing that I'm responsible for what I give out and what I receive.

No matter what the circumstances, these are the seven words I repeat persistently: 

Thank You:  Because I'm my own worst critic, I first thank myself, then I thank others, and lastly, I thank the universe. I know that I am loved and, even in negative circumstances, in order to grow, lessons must be learned. It may be tough in the beginning, but when I close my eyes in gratitude and start with a bare, neutral nude, a cast of beatific opalescent pink shimmers radiates with thankfulness.

Be Humble:  I know that I can't be too self-congratulatory or judge others. I always remind myself to stay modest. I try to grey out my ego with this taupe lightness and allow hope to float in pink, blue, and lavender shimmers.

 

Forgiveness:  To forgive and to ask for forgiveness is the ultimate emotional cleanser, but why is it so difficult for me to open my heart and admit that I'm wrong? Guilt and regret are useless emotions. When I forgive someone, or even when I forgive myself, I step into the serene opaqueness of this dove-lavender color and then I am able to let go and move on.

Smile:  First, I always smile at the sky at least once a day. It is a privilege to be in this universe. When I lift my face to the sun and bask in its gloriousness, I blink my eyes and see this dazzling red light, a neutral red, and full of sunny, shimmery goodness. Like a smile, this color is contagious.

Pause: Violet is the color of the chakra that marks the union of the soul with the body, mind, and divine consciousness. With this come bliss, satisfaction, and rest. Being in the present moment is probably the hardest challenge I have. When I stare at the depth of this multi- faceted mid-violet silky shimmer and be at one with this color and nothing else, then I know I am in my present moment. 

Become One:  I imagine that one brilliantly sunny day in April when I looked up to see the sun flickering through a cascade of innocent leaves. This opaque green takes me to those young; verdant leaves in the spring and reminds me that nature is our best teacher of life cycles.

Turn It Around:  Once I understood the universe's law of polarity, everything made perfect sense. Negatives can’t exist without positives. If I never allow pain to wash over me, then joy becomes meaningless. From this color's dark mossy green pond, a vivid, glittering cast of copper shimmer welcomes me back to joy. 

The formula on these was good.  Smooth, easy application, very creamy.  Standard Rescue Beauty Lounge quality.  The only flaw I could find is that they dry very slowly.  If you apply a coat that is too thick or don't wait a couple minutes in between coats, the slow dry time can cause the layer below to streak, clump up, or, if it's thick enough, run toward the free edge and look bumpy.  Just take care to apply very thin coats and you shouldn't have a problem.

I think the colors are beautiful and the collection is well balanced; a thoughtful mixture of soft and pale, saturated and bright.  My favorite is Pause, followed closely by Become One and Turn It Around.  For such a pale color, Thank You is really interesting and pretty.  My least favorite is Forgiveness, not because it's a bad color, but because it's not terribly complex or unique.  If you're a fan of Rescue's signature subtle shimmer, you'll love this.  If you're looking for something with a more sparkly/glittery type of shimmer that stands out a lot, these may not be for you.

Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are exclusively available at www.rescuebeauty.com for $20 per bottle. 48 hour Pre-Order starts 4/12/13 will be available to the public end of April.

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, and Formaldehyde Resin. We do not test on animals.

(This was sent for review.)

OPI Soft Shades inspired by Disney's Oz The Great and Powerful Spring 2013 Swatches and Review

  

OPI's Soft Shades collection for 2013 (sent for review) is a set of three sheers, three glitters and one new Liquid Sand shade, all inspired by Disney's Oz The Great And Powerful.  I don't plan on seeing the film since the original one still terrifies me, but the polishes are pretty much the opposite of traumatizing and nightmare-inducing. 

What?  Come on.  Don't try to tell me that the Wizard of Oz isn't scary.  It is.  ANYWAY.  Soft Shades.

OPI Don't Burst My Bubble.  Sheer off-white.  Has a clean look as if it has a touch of blue or violet in the base rather than a yellowed/antique look.  This was a little streakier than the other two sheers but nothing terrible.

OPI Glints of Glinda.  A sheer, mostly neutral beige creme.  It's nice and sandy looking, not too strongly brown, too yellowy, or too pink, and light but not chalky or excessively white-ish.  Very easy to wear.

OPI I Theodora You.  A light, neutral, sheer pink creme.  More pink than white, but also has enough warmth in it to seem almost peach-colored in certain lights.  Very nice glossy-thick finish to this one, almost a creamy/milky jelly finish.

OPI Liquid Sand polish in What Wizardry Is This?  This has a warm, dirty olive green shimmer base with glints of gold, bronze, brown, red and even a few flecks of blue.  It dries to a sandpaper-like finish that's semi-matte.  I let this one dry for an hour before taking the picture and it still has a bit of shine to it, but I've heard from many people that their Liquid Sand polishes turn completely matte after drying.

OPI Liquid Sand polish in What Wizardry Is This? with topcoat.  I prefer it this way as the topcoat makes the multicolor particles stand out and sparkle instead of just looking textured.  It needs at least two coats of topcoat to smooth out the sandy texture.

OPI Lights of Emerald City (over OPI Don't Burst My Bubble).  A clear base (with slight blue-ish tinge) with medium square opalescent mylar glitter and large pearlized white glitter squares. I love the idea of this glitter but not so much the execution.  The clear base is very thick and gooey and the glitter is very sparse which makes it difficult to apply.  You end up with thick, globby nails and barely any glitter.  I'm going to thin this and see if it applies any easier, but I still think it could use just a touch more glitter in the base so more ends up on the nail.

OPI When Monkeys Fly! (over OPI Glints of Glinda).  A clear base with small, roung hologram glitter, medium hexagon silver and hologram glitter and giant gold chrome hexagon glitter.  Glitters this large tend to do that taco-curl thing, but these stayed surprisingly flat on my nail.  It is a bit odd-looking because there's less of the giant glitter than the other colors, but still pretty cool for layering.  OPI recommends a gradient glitter tip look with this combination:

OPI Which is Witch (over OPI I Theodora You.)  A clear base with silver hologram microglitter, medium silver and hologram hexagon glitter and tiny hologram bar glitter.  This looks way more delicate on the nail than I thought it would from looking at it in the bottle.  That's a good thing.  It's the perfect bar-hex holo combo for layering because the pieces are so small and fine.  It won't clump up or cover your base color in weird ways like larger hex and bar glitters usually do.

The formula on the cremes was good, and the glitters were smooth but thick.  The sheer cremes have a thicker texture than last year's Ballet soft shades and were a little streakier for me, but maintain that same self-levelling super-glossy quality that I liked about the others.  I didn't have trouble with any shade except Lights of Emerald City, which was thick and goopy.  Dry time on these is very fast.

Pretty and delicate with a touch a glitter.  Good for Spring or for office wear.  I personally preferred the milky jelly look of the NYC Ballet Soft Shades (especially as a glitter sandwich), but these are still flattering and natural.  They're neutral enough to be worn by a wide range of skin tones and they didn't give me a problem with streaking. 

The Liquid Sand finish still doesn't have my heart, but I love What Wizardry Is This? with topcoat.  Also: awesome name.  I have to recite it all dramatically every time I say it. What wizardry is THIS??

This collection is available now!

(This was sent for review.)

Enchanted Polish Hey Jude Swatches and Review

This is one of my favorite polishes of all time.  It was part of a set of indie polishes that I was sent to review, and I had never seen it before.  I'd heard of Enchanted Polish, I'd seen people mention some other colors by them, but I really was clueless and nothing prepared me for the shock that I got when I pulled this bottle out of that mystery box. I can't believe I haven't done a full post on this color yet.  I posted it on Twitter right when I got it, but it deserves more pictures than that.  Bigger pictures.  Lots of them.  This is about as close to my dream polish as I've seen so far.

 Enchanted Polish Hey Jude.  Do not adjust your screen.  You are not seeing things.  This polish is actually multichromatic and holographic.  My pictures don't even begin to do it justice.  It is glorious.  It's a green-based multichrome that flashes every color of the rainbow depending on the angle in which it's viewed.  It is dominantly gold/olive/green/blue in most lights, but you can get a really amazing blue/pink/purple side to pop out in dim light.  In very bright light (or with flash, as seen above), in addition to the strong scattered holographic effect, a pink base shimmer shows through and adds a nice, unexpected twist to the olive duochrome. 

 The formula on this is pretty good.  Not perfect, but not bad either.  It's nice and smooth, but if I don't take my time and control my brushstrokes, it has a tendency to pool at the edges.  It's not too thick or too thin, but it does have a bit of a 'stretchy' (for lack of a better term) quality to it.  I had the best results when I applied thin coats and waited three minutes between each.  I'm wearing four coats here, no topcoat.

Not only is it named after one of my favorite songs, it's also a combination of my two favorite nail polish finishes (duochrome/multichrome and holographic) and contains my two favorite colors (purple and green!).  This color just completely blows my mind.  I adore it.  I haven't felt this strongly about a color in a long time. 

Enchanted Polish is available from llarowe in the US and Harlow & Co in Canada.

(This was sent for review.)

Why I haven't been blogging as much as I used to.

I know that a lot of you have noticed my absence.  I used to post once daily, sometimes even more than that, but for the last few months it hasn't been even as often as once a week.  There's a reason for that.

A lot of things changed for me during my December vacation, mostly for the better, and one of the biggest changes has been a really difficult secret to keep.  But, I'm just about healed up now, so I thought it was about time I revealed that secret.

During my vacation, I traveled out of the country to undergo a ground-breaking, experimental surgical procedure that will allow me to wear more nail polish.  You know that I can't get enough nail polish, I just love it so much, and this seemed like the only logical solution.

Sure, it takes some getting used to, but I think the benefits far outweigh the risks.  I have a feeling this is going to be the next big development in cosmetic surgery and you'll have me to thank for it! You're looking at a trendsetter, right here.  Yep.

Essie Resort Collection for Spring/Summer 2013 Swatches and Review

I really like Essie's Resort collection this year.  I think I usually like their Resort collections, but I'm just really digging this one a lot right now.  The promo pictures actually make it look boring, but it's so good in real life.

 Essie Come Here.  A fairly bright red-coral creme.  Not super bright, but bright enough to make it interesting.  Still has a softness to it that gives it a bit of a sun-bleached effect.

 Essie First Timer.  Gorgeous blue-tinged light mint green creme.  Reminds me somewhat of MAC Peppermint Patti.  Creamy and sweet looking, like mint ice cream.

Essie In The Cab-ana.  A light sky blue creme.  In some lights it looks more turquoise than pure blue.  Either way, it's one of the more flattering light blue cremes on my skintone.  They usually give me dead-looking hands (yet I still love them), but this one is a bit warmer-looking.

Essie Under Where?  A light lavender creme.  Sorta pink, sorta purple, and with a really nice finish.  If it was a little more sheer, I'd call it a milky jelly.  It's not a solid chalky creme finish, but it's not quite sheer enough for me to call it a true jelly.  It looks soft and squishy, though.  Not harsh, not stark.  Just... pretty.

The formula on these was flawless.  Smooth, creamy, exactly the right consistency.  No streaking.  No problems at all.  Under Where is thinner than the rest of the colors but applies just as nicely.  I did three coats of each but only Under Where needed the third coat.  Dry time is fast.

Like I said, I really enjoyed this collection.  The colors are bright, fresh and interesting and the formula is perfect.  I'm in love with Essie's creme formula lately.  They seem to have perfected the formula of their creme polishes so that they apply effortlessly, are opaque and non-streaky (for most colors, at least) and dry really quickly.  I also like their small, precise brushes.  Sure, it takes me more strokes to cover my nail, but the small rounded brush makes it harder to get polish on my cuticles.

Plus, the names of these polishes are strangely dirty and that amuses me.

The only negative thing I can think of regarding this collection is that the colors are probably dupe-able.  Though, I think we're at that point in nail polish history where duplicates are inevitable, and as long as they have a good formula, I don't mind so much.

(This was sent for review.)

Zoya Lovely Collection for Spring 2013 Swatches and Review

 Zoya's Spring collection, Lovely, is your typical set of spring colors.  Think easter eggs, flowers, frilly dresses, that sort of thing.  Very subdued, demure, typically 'feminine'/girly delicate spring colors. As usual, it's half cremes, half shimmers.  The colors are:

Zoya Blu.  A light baby blue pastel creme.  Has a distinct white opaque base that makes the color very dense.

 Zoya Gei Gei.  A light warm pink with a good amount of flaky/chunky/irregular-shaped iridescent silver shimmer.

Zoya Jacqueline.  Another dense/opaque white-based creme that's somewhere in between pale custard yellow and sandy light beige.

 Zoya Julie.  A light lilac purple with the same irregular-shaped large silver shimmer as Gei Gei.  Strong blue tones in this one.

Zoya Neely.  A light minty seafoam green pastel creme.  Has a slight warm undertone to it that keeps it from being too blue-green/turquoise and makes it more of a jade-like green.

 Zoya Piaf.  A light golden yellow shimmer.  The same type of shimmer that's in Gei Gei and Julie.  This one makes me think of Marshmallow Peeps!

The formula on these was good.  The shimmers have a thicker texture than the cremes, but they all applied pretty much the same.  I found that I liked all the colors best at three coats, so that's what I'm wearing here.  Dry time is about average.

Nothing new or exciting in this collection.  Like I said, it's your typical spring color collection, very traditional. Not much else to say about it! All of the colors are light, "springy", and delicate, though the creme shades tend to induce lobster claw hands on my fair, cool-toned skin.  All of the colors seem to be geared toward skin with warmer undertones, so if that's what you have, you'll probably find all of these quite flattering on you.

The Zoya Lovely collection is available now on zoya.com.

(This was sent for review.)