I don't think I could hide the gigantic level of excitement I am in today even if I wanted to!
I've been keeping this secret for interminable months now... It actually feels so weird to finally be able to say it out loud write it: yes, I am one of the (extremely) lucky bloggers collaborating in the Rescue Beauty Lounge Bloggers' 2.0 collection!
When I started blogging, a little over 2 years ago now, I didn't think people would care enough to visit my page or read my ramblings... But this! Being offered the opportunity to create a polish for one of my favorite brands? No way! Still, when I look back at these past 2 years, I wouldn't be where I am today without you, my readers, and your visits, comments, emails or mentions on social media. I often think that I don't share enough with you girls, my posts are usually straight to the point and I barely talk about anything even relatively personal; not that I don't want to but I have a very busy life as a full time working mom and I guess it's just how things got over time...
This is why, I have decided that today I'd be posting not only the RBL unveiling but also one of my own. I will no longer hide behind that avatar of mine ^_^
So this is me.
This is what I look like 90% of the time, with a very natural makeup : concealer, khol, mascara, blusher and lip balm.
Now that this is out of the way, we can finally talk polish! LOL
The Rescue Beauty Lounge Bloggers' 2.0 Collection is a set of 6 polishes. Five of them created in collaboration with nail bloggers and one by Ji Baek herself, owner of RBL.
"The Bloggers’ Collection 2.0
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."
So the five bloggers are (in alphabetical order) :
Fashion Polish (aka me LOL)
and Scrangie!
All swatches below with RBL base and top coat.
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."
As Ji describes in her Press Release, the shade I had in mind was a mix of red and gold shimmers / micro glitters in the blackest black base, inspired by a beautiful sunset over the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a city I particularly heart, the city I was born and raised in.
Truth be told (sorry Ji, this might be a surprise to you!), when I received the package with the sample versions, they weren't exactly what I expected. I wanted something more colorful somehow, I kind of imagined a splash of color in the black base and they all seemed so... black... But then I tried them, all six of them, and I completely fell in love. I actually loved one of them sooo much that I remember thinking to myself that I would have been sad if it had never existed. Yep, sad over polish, can you imagine that?
Anyway, it's black and probably not for everyone, but if you give it a chance, it might surprise you. Quite like me, come to think of it and I wouldn't have it any other way ;-)
Fashion Polish is a jet black base scattered with a heavy mix of gold, red and sparse green micro glitter. Smooth, easy to work with and highly pigmented, it reached full depth and complete opacity with the second coat. As for the micro glitter, they were very saturated and visible in sunlight and direct lighting and more subdued in terms of color (not sparkle) in the shade. I used 2 coats plus 2 coats of topcoat in the swatches below and that's how I recommend wearing it as the heavy amount of glitter tend to dry to a slightly rough finish.
One last (blurry) picture shows the otherwise camera shy glitter color spectrum.
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."
Kellie Gonzo is a bold coral pink or pink coral crelly with a mix of gold, silver and red microglitter. Definitely a happy color and so appropriate for Kellie indeed! I really love this type of pink (or coral LOL) and I can already see myself wearing it a lot this Summer. Formula pretty much lived up to RBL's standard, even and easy to apply, as usual. I used two coats plus topcoat and although the shimmer was a bit subtle, it definitely added a nice sparkle and enlightened the base.
Rescue Beauty Lounge NailsandNnoms
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!
NailsandNnoms is a bold carrot orange infused with an overall blue flash consisting of blue, pink and orange shimmer. Now this is a combination I would never have thought of and it looks surprisingly beautiful on the nails! The cool flash didn't alter the warm base in any way but brought it to a whole new level somehow. Formula was slightly thicker here but still smooth and easy apply. Two coats plus topcoat below.
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."
Liberty is a delicate muted mint crème with a subtle blue flash and a touch of silver (white?) shimmers. This is definitely the softest shade in the Bloggers' 2.0 collex and it couldn't be more different from your usual pastel. Subtle and yet complex at the same time, it looks perfect on my skin tone thanks to its cool shimmer. I know green isn't for everyone but if, like me, you're into greens, you will love it! Formula was also slightly on the thick side here but didn't give me any trouble with application. Two coats plus topcoat.
Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie 2.0
by Scrangie.com
"Naturally, I tagged Queen Scrangie first, who can forget what we’ve
made together already? And, of course, she wanted that elusive nailpolish-goliath.
A black oil slick with a multifaceted ring visible in lowlight. 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."
Scrangie 2.0 is a deep and complex antique brass shimmer with a slight green duochrome as well as a rainbow of shimmer particles. Of course Scrangie would create another stunner LOL. For a dark polish lover like myself, it's definitely a must have. I love everything about it and I can already see it reaching an iconic status. It's a very versatile color and depending on the lighting, it will either reveal its green cool or brass warm side. On me, it tends to pull greener here but I'm sure it would have looked warmer if I had been been able to swatch it in the sun (I mean seriously, no sun in June?!). Formula was flawless was you'e looking at two highly pigmented, perfectly even, coats here.
And finally...
Rescue Beauty Lounge An Accidental Interloper
by Ji Baek, Blog.RescueBeauty.com
yes, Ji actually qualifies as a blogger ;-)
"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??"
An Accidental Interloper is gunmetal grey shimmer with sparse pink and green micro shimmer particles. I really love greys but I'm kind of difficult with grey shimmers, they usually are too light or too metallic for my taste. Fortunately here, Ji found the perfect balance IMO. Extremely pigmented and butter smooth, it literally applied itself. Two coats plus topcoat here as well.
Rescue Beauty Lounge nail lacquers can be purchased on RescueBeauty.com (international shipping available) and retail for $20 each.
48 hr Pre-Order is scheduled for 6/28th noon EST.
Well, this was a pretty long post, wasn't it?
I feel so grateful to have been given the opportunity to create my dream shade so thank you Ji, from the bottom of my heart.
As for you, my readers, thank you for stopping by this small nail polish corner of mine. I hope that you will enjoy my creation as well as my fellow bloggers'. We all put our heart and soul in our blogs and it's always such a privilege to be able to interact with you all ♥
To visit all the Bloggers' 2.0 reviews, please click on the links below :
Kellie Gonzo
Nails and Noms
Polish Polish
Scrangie
