Hydrated Chromium(III) Oxide

... a blue-green pigment of medium saturation and relatively dark in value.

Aka Illamasqua Viridian


That's how wikipedia (heart!) described viridian. Illamasqua describes this Polish as Metallic peacock green. I think that works too.

This is a shapeshifter. It's not really a duochrome, but it appears different colors depending on the lighting. Indoors, it's a standard forest green shimmer. Outdoors, in the sun, you see way more blue making it more of a teal color.

Price: 13.50 GBP (approx. $21.31) on Illamasqua.com or $14 on Sephora.com (unless you're lucky enough to live near a Sephora brick-and-mortar that carries these).

What I used: One coat of Nailtek Foundation II, 2 coats of Viridian, one coat of Seche Vite.

Application/formula: Very nice. This was slightly more watery than the other Illamasquas I have tried, but still a very, very good formula. Went where I wanted it to go, no pooling, dripping or balding. It even dried pretty fast. I only had to wait about a minute and a half before doing the second coat. Also, completely opaque in 2 coats (definitely needs 2). Not much else to say except typical Illamasqua loveliness.

Sorry if the reflections on the pics make my nails look lumpy. I assure you those are just reflections (because it's so shiny!) and this is a smooth as a baby's butt.

Painted by Color and Foiled Again!

Not sure where I came up with that one, but it sort of sounded clever. Maybe... A little? Anyway... I wanted to show you swatches of the Kat von D Painted Love & Foiled Lipstick Set.

Here's the pic in the package from: Sephora

 Here's the pic I showed you before:

Adora, Backstage Bambi, Whiskey Woman, Hellbent, Vestalula, Celebutard

Now onto the swatches!!

No flash:

Flash:

Left to right: Backstage Bambi, Vestalula, Whiskey Woman, Celebutard, Adora, Hellbent


Backstage Bambi: Yeah, pretty much. This is the lipstick that is left on um, the "shirt collars" of rockstars from the groupie chicks (bambis, if you will) that go back stage. Perfect. Anyway, it's a bright, hot pink. Maybe a little fuschia leaning. Looks way more muted in the tube than on the lip.

Vestula: Sephora calls it a "Medium brown". I say it's more of a pinky brown-red. I need to try this one on, not a color I would normally pick but it looks like it could be flattering.

Whiskey Woman: They call this one "Pinkish brown". I call it a muted magenta leaning red. Another one that I will have to take on a test drive.

Celebutard: Good name, because it makes me think of Kim Kardashian. I think the woman is gorgeous, but she's none too bright if you ask me. Or maybe she is, that wedding gave her a lot of publicity. Whatever, I digress. This is a peachy nude. It's wearable for me with a lip liner (my lips are pretty pigmented and light colors don;t work well as the red from my lips tends to show on the edges).

Adora: Beautiful foiled red. Candy apple red, metallic. Awesome. However, I have an even better metallic red to show you later ;-)

Hellbent: Deep burgundy red.

I haven't really test driven any of these yet to comment on wear. They do smell like lipstick, but not in a cheap, nasty way. I actually kind of like that smell sometimes. They are nicely pigmented and were a pain to get off my arm, so they should wear well. I'm not really one to wear lipstick, but I will update if I ever wear one.

I'm happy I got this. For $28, I get to sample lipsticks that I have been eyeing but would ever spend full price on because I never use an entire lipstick.

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.

The Thing I Had to Have SO Badly...

...that as soon as Sephora gave me 20% I snatched it up along with a few other things - because who could possibly not get as much as possible when it's Sephora and it's 20% off, duh - that I spent (again) entirely too much money on shit I probably won't use.

Anyway, I promised swatches of the Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette and here they are. I've never done this before and I used my cell phone, so sorry for the slightly crappy quality. I'm lazy and I find my Droid easier than breaking out the camera...

It looks like a lacy book the flips open to reveal eye shadows and there is a palette that slides out of the bottom with the blushes, bronzer and highlighter, plus some goofy, unhelpful cards on how to create looks. Yes, that is a mirror on the top flap, it's getting the ugly marlite in my mom's bathroom HAHA.

Ok...

The Shadows:

No Flash

Flash

From left to right, vertical swatches: In the Buff (matte vanilla), Peach Fuzz (sheer, shimmery peach with golden/coppery micro sparkles), Copper Peony (metallic copper) Teddy Bear (matte medium neutral brown), Lovey Dovey (dark bronze with micro sparkles), Satin Sheets (sheer light pink with a golden sheen), Cut the Cake (light lilac with a subtle golden sheen), Party Girl (rich violet with sparse glitter), Nice Ash (gunmetal shimmer), Smolder (almost black matte navy)

Across the top from left (sorry, ran out of arm): Honeymoon (antique white gold metallic - possible dupe for UD's Maui Wowie without the annoying glitter?), Label Whore (dark reddish brown with teal sheen - duochrome!!), Nice Stems! (yellow toned bright green shimmer with slight gold sheen), Cop a Teal (dark, dark teal shimmer), First Dance (Deep matte purple/eggplant)

Thoughts


In the Buff is the perfect end of shadow to brow filler (or highlight if you will) for those times I am using super bold or dark colors or going for a monochromatic look and I don't want a shimmery or frosty highlight color to take away from it.

Peach Fuzz is sheer but the sparkles are nice and don't give horrid fallout (think UD midnight cowboy, ugh!) and it's perfect for a sparkly overlay that won't change the base color too much (on lighter colors) or a nice sparkly highlight.

Copper Peony is one from their new Midnight Garden (? I think) collection. I have the full size and it gives much better color payoff if I remember correctly. Lovely color regardless.

Teddy Bear is my go-to brow color.

Satin Sheets and Cut the Cake both are a little sheer but have a lovely sheen to them.

Label Whore is one of my favorite shadow colors. I have a Loreal HIP loose shadow in the same color and I LOVE it. This one has the best payoff of all of them.

Nice Stems! great color, disappointing payoff.


The Cheek Drawer:

Top to bottom: Chocolate Soleil, Cocoa Rose, Sweet Pink, Candlelight Glow


Thoughts:


Chocolate Soleil smells like freaking chocolate, holy crap! Totally wasn't expecting that. Other than that, it's a matte brown color that makes my skin (at least on my arm) look bruised. And not like, "ouch my kid left legos on the floor yesterday and I hurt myself" bruised. More like, "I used my arm as a hammer 3 weeks ago and it's just now fading away" bruised. Maybe it will look better when I have a tan, but then, who needs bronzer?

Cocoa Rose is a dusty brown rose color. Perfect blush color for me. And it's matte, which I love. I'm not big on the NARS Orgasm shimmer (thought I do wear it and it looks good).

Sweet Pink speaking of NARS Orgasm.... Same concept, more pink and less shimmer.

Candlelight Glow I believe Too Faced meant this to be used as an all over face color. It's a tad too shimmery for me to do that. It makes a decent highlighter, but, as you can see, it doesn't show up really well. This is good (and you can partially blame my bad pic) for the most part, but I'd like a tad more payoff with this.

Overall, I really like this palette. Though, unlike last year's palette, this one seems to have slightly less pigmented versions of the shadows (which you often see in palettes like this). For $52, though, there are enough shades in here that I will use regularly and this had replaced last year's (with the shitty pull-out thingie for the shadows) as my travel staple. (This also came with a full-sized Shadow Insurance tube).

Still available at Sephora.com!

Big Burrito Nails

Aka Even an Envelope Can Be Inspiring

So my wonderful non-state-sanctioned husband is a subscriber to the "Big Burrito mailing list"... It's basically a restaurant franchise that includes Mad Mex and Casbah here in Pittsburgh. And now you're asking "WTF does this have to do with nails, Trbo?" And I answer, "Stop being so damn impatient! I'm getting there!"

Sorry, didn't mean to yell at you. Anyway, he got some holiday coupons from Big Burrito (nothing to write home about really - $10 off an entree at a place that's approx $60/plate? I'd feel totally ghetto pulling out that coupon, I have to say). They came in this gorgeous metallic/shimmery/matte green envelope. I told him that I needed a nail polish that color. To which he replied something like "you mean you don't already have that color? I don't believe it."

So, I set out to recreate that beautiful envelope... (Picture of said envelope is, sadly, unavailable)

Ok, wipe your chin, there's a little drool...

Here's what I used: One coat of Nailtek Foundation II, 2 coats of Sephora nail color in Prom Night (not to be confused with $OPI, these are the little mini Sephora brand Polishes), one coat of CND Effects in Gold Pearl and 2 coats of Essie Matte About You topcoat.

Application: Sephora Polish - Very nice. Love the brushes in these. They're like the Sally Hansen Instadri brushes if those brushes were done right and not put in a horrible Polish formula. Flat, thick and rounded at the edges. Plus, it's  mini bottle so the stem on the brush isn't too long causing dripping. They're also not so wide that they splay off the nail. It was opaque in 2 coats.
CND Effects - Ok, this one is a "pearl" which pretty much translates to "Hello, brushstrokes!" but other than that it applied nicely.

I am really digging the matte over shimmer/frost. It's still very shiny, but satiny shiny instead of glossy shiny. It looks like metallic velvet to me.

So did I get close to the envelope color? Well, I don't have the envelope handy to compare, but I will say there was much less yellow in it. If they had "silver pearl", it would have worked better. Alas, this is what I had to work with and I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Heart Purple

I LOOOOOVE purple. So much in fact, that I caught myself using purple twice in a row (I usually change it up every time). 

I got a couple of hauls from transdesign and Sally's, plus a nice little gem of a Polish at Ross. Have a look:

This was after a couple of days of wear. It's Essie Sexy Divide ($8 at Transdesign.com or at Giant Eagle and Rite Aid) with CND Sapphire Sparkle ($5.50 at transdesign.com). This was taken with my Droid without flash (damn mercury bulbs!!)

With flash. Isn't that sparkle DIVINE?? It's a predominantly blue (very bright and almost teal) sparkle that flashes a purple/pink color. Duochrome sparkle? I'm in! Sexy Divide applied well, 2 coats over Nailtek Foundation II, one coat of Sparkle and one coat of Seche Vite.

*@&*#&*^!*$)($$!!!!!!!!!! Do you see this??? Yes, slightly less blue than shown... this color is effing AMAZING! It's Cosmetic Arts, made by Forsythe - makers of Color Club and Fingerpaints, and found at Ross Dress for Less for $1.99. I have a few of their Polishes and really like them. This one was a bit watery, but in a weird way. It was watery but didn't want to spread very well. You'd normally think that watery would mean a dripping, pooling mess. It wasn't awful, but not top-notch formula either. It did reach opacity in 2 coats, however, and dried super fast (and semi-matte, which makes me think there is some neon pigment in there).

The accent nail is a brand I have never heard of before that I picked up at Rite Aid for $3.99. It's Hedy's ma.nish.ma. holographic nail color. That's what the brand is called. The color is Blaster. I don't see much holo but it is sparkly and duochrome-y. There are tiny pink and blue sparkles suspended in what look like a milky, lavender base. One coat, went on nicely, not much else to report expect the $4 bottle is pretty small - .22 oz. Not really worth it for what amounts to a layering Polish that I probably won't use much.