Little By Little...

I am losing my freaking sanity over this freaking POLISH!

Aka Rescue Beauty Lounge Poco a Poco (pretentious Italian music term meaning "little by little", duh)

As I have mentioned before, my first RBL purchase was the "Firebird" collection. There's a story behind it, but I won't get into it because I am so absolutely disgusted that I spent $18 a pop for these horrendous Polishes.

My only experience with RBL before this was second hand. My friend at work got me hooked on Polish a couple of years ago and, when her addiction far exceeded mine (it only slightly exceeds mine now), she started buying these "$18 Polishes" and I thought she was out of her mind. Then I started reading Polish blogs and seeing all these rave reviews over the formula, I became intrigued. When one of my favorite bloggers posted the Firebird collection, I had to have it.

I coughed up $60 for 3 Polishes from the collection. They all have fancy Italian names, so let's call them "the blue one", "the pink one" (the one I am showing you today) and "the really light lavender one". The best of the three is the blue one. Good pigmentation but still not an $18 formula. The lavender one took forever to dry and went on very goopy and sheer. The pink one... well... Let's look at some pics first:

Ok, very pretty color, I will give it that. And unique, as far as I know. After all, that's why I bought these. This pic is outside with flash. There's not going to be any sun in Pittsburgh until about May, so I have to work with what I have here. Doesn't look too bad, right? I will say, the pink is a bit darker and more mauvey than shown here.

Hmmm, what do we have here? See that bump on my middle finger? Yeah, I didn't nick the Polish... That, my friends, is a brush hair. Yes, I kid you not. On the THIRD coat, one of the hairs from the crappy, floppy, bendy brush fell out, onto my nail and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

Ok, I could have removed and repainted, but this formula was so damn frustrating, that was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn't even bother cleaning up or moisturizing, so excuse the Seche fingers and ragged cuticles.

What I used: 2 coats of Nailtek foundation II, THREE coats of ($18) RBL poco a crappo, and one coat of Seche. Thank god for Seche Vite.

Application/formula: BIG FAT F. F for FAIL. EF for EPIC FAIL. No, seriously, I am so angry with this Polish right now, I am considering crushing it with a hammer and sending the pics to RBL. First coat, applied very thin, was watery but dry. It seemed like I never had enough polish on the brush to cover my nail. I just cut my nails, so it's not like they are unusually long or anything. Other than that, though, first coat wasn't too bad. Mind you, this is the second time I have tried this Polish with the same results. Second coat was when the trouble really started. I made sure I waited until the first coat was almost totally dry (still just slightly tacky, which is more time than I usually wait for coat 2). I started applying the second coat and I had the same issue with what seemed like never enough polish on the brush, so I used thicker coats, as I had no choice. This is when the first coat decided "no, I'm not really dry" and it seemed like I was applying Polish over wet polish and making a huge mess. I waited even longer for the third coat, because it needed a third coat. Pretty much the same thing, so what I ended up with was a goopy, uneven mess, with a brush hair in it, to boot! Applying the Seche really helped even things out, but I am not happy at all.

The brush sucks. Once again, it's a floppy, bendy disaster. When I say bendy, I mean that when I go to apply to the nail and start farther up than I mean to, so I can push back toward the cuticle and get a clean line, instead of moving the Polish, the damn brush bristles would BEND. I have no words for this... Ok, maybe I do: UNACCEPTABLE! Seriously, I paid $18 for a crappy formula in a smaller than average bottle and you can't even give me a decent brush with which to apply said crappy formula???

$18, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, I am harping. I paid $60 for 3 friggin Polishes and have tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, and yeah, I seriously DOUBT I will ever use them again (MAYBE only the blue one). I pay $3 for China Glaze, and while sometimes it is hit or miss, I have never used one with a formula (or brush) as bad as this. In fact, the Polishes from the Metro collection are some of the BEST Polishes (color- and formula-wise) I have EVER used. While I will gladly pay $14 a pop for Illamasqua, I will NEVER EVER AGAIN pay $18 for RBL.

After all this, and a coat of Seche, it's STILL not even close to dry (and I am typing away, hoping to screw it up so I have an excuse to take it off). 45 minutes was how long this mani took me. I am usually done and dry in 20 minutes TOPS. What, exactly, did I pay $18 for again? Maybe I can use it to sign xmas cards or something.

***Update: I posted this at about 2:00, which was about 15 minutes AFTER I had finished the mani. It's now 3:30, so almost 2 hours after I FINISHED the mani. Guess what? It's STILL not dry. I can lightly tap a nail with the edge of another nail and get a nice, big dent. So wonderful.