Monthly Archives

October 2010

Rescue Beauty Lounge 50% Sale

Friday, 29 October, 2010

This came to me by email:

Whatever am I thinking?

Last year’s 5-hour 50% off sale resulted in literally thousands of orders, 10 straight days of round-the-clock packing and shipping (during a blizzard, no less!), employees threatening mutiny and more than enough frantic emails to short-circuit the Apple store.

So why am I preparing to go through this all over again, beginning at 11:00 am – 4:00 pm on November 1, 2010 EST.

Why, because I love you, my crazy polish-heads. I swear, this will be the only time you ever catch me in sneakers, just to keep up with the demand

But I do ask that you follow my glamorous Do’s and Don’ts…

  1. Do stock up on your favorite Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes and body products (you asked, we listened!). And while you may purchase the new Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty colors, they will NOT be marked down during the sale.
  2. Don’t be fooled by a stray “Free Shipping” banner you may spy on the site. During this special event, you will be charged for shipping. C’mon, I’m already giving you a 50% discount!
  3. Do double-check your order before you purchase. We cannot edit, change or combine orders. And don’t go looking for the “customer notes” on your order form. It does not exist during the mayhem that is this sale.
  4. Do a practice run a few days before the sale to make sure you have the correct email address and log-in information and get familiar with how the site works. Don’t leave anything in your basket as they will be emptied a minute before the sale so we will have an accurate inventory of what is in stock.
  5. Don’t call us (or show up at the door). If you must email us, please do so ONLY to customerservice@rescuebeauty.com and not to any other email addresses. We’ll post something on our Facebook page if there are any technical difficulties. Do feel free to leave any raves there too.
  6. Do make a wish-list ahead of time along with some alternatives in case something is sold out.
  7. Don’t beg, plead or wheedle. Sold out means just that—we don’t have a secret stash in the back room.
  8. Do be patient with deliveries. We ship on a first come, first served basis. Allow approximately 10 to 15 business days for domestic orders, and 20-30 for international before you get panicked. (Again, check our facebook page for frequent updates). If you really need your “Frugalista” in a hurry, choose overnight or 2nd day shipping.
  9. Don’t forget that Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes make amazing holiday gifts. Stock up on stocking stuffers!
  10. Do check back during the sale as some shoppers will fill their baskets in a frenzy but not buy everything. Don’t hoard if you have no intension of purchasing everything in your basket.
  11. Don’t forget to use (FIFTYOFF) at checkout, otherwise you will NOT get the 50% discount.
  12. Do have your MasterCard, Visa or American Express card warmed up and ready to go!

That should do it! Now I’m off to bribe (lie to) my wary employees with promises of trips to Bali, holiday bonuses redeemable at Harry Winston, and rumors that packing boxes for hours on end actually eliminates wrinkles and reduces cellulite.

I’ve gotta go rest up.

As always, Ji

Zoya – Maura and a small Project Runway Rant – don’t worry, you won’t see it unless you want to

Friday, 29 October, 2010

Note: I’ll try to post pictures this weekend to make up for the past 2 days of no blog entries. I simply wasn’t motivated to do anything. >< However, I had a request for a pink and I found one I had yet to swatch! So if the weather permits, you will find it here on the weekend. =)

SPOILER WARNING/AVOIDANCE — To read my rant, highlight the paragraph below that you can’t see!

Small diversion/rant: I am not happy with Gretechen aka WRETCHED being the winner that was chosen for Project Runway. Furthermore, I don’t feel the clothing of said designer is now and hip. It’s frumpy. It’s dated. It lacks the wow factor I want in my clothing. It’s effortless dumpy. I don’t like hobo chic. That’s not boho chic. That’s right, I said it HOBO. That clothing is suited for coat rack built girls, not hourglass girls like me. Patterns were awful and I felt the collection was so bland. If that is where fashion is heading, I’m sitting out the next few seasons. Hopefully people won’t fall for the dumpy frumpy look of said designer.

Anyway, rant over…

Part of Summer 2010’s Flash collection, Maura is this wonderful cherry tomato red.

It’s funny because Maura on me looks red while I’ve seen it on some friends and it looks like a coral. OH MY! Friends don’t let friends wear coral. 😉 Just kidding! I’m always jealous of people who can sport colors like that and not look like they’ve aged themselves by 30 years. It’s the green eyed monster in me…pure and simple.

Now what I truly love about this color is that the moment I put it on, it was true to the color in the bottle – bravo! It didn’t have that odd undertone of when you sometimes put on some polishes and go, “Uh, I swear I thought I bought a RED, not a pink.”

Zoya’s formula, as always, is friggin’ fabulous – fast drying and perfectly opaque in 2 coats.

Nubar – Moonshadow

Tuesday, 26 October, 2010

I loved this color in the bottle. It promised great splashes of duo chrome-y goodness. I was disappointed that the duo chrome was so tame. I have Nubar’s Wild Life and that sucka throws off so much goodness I tend to get mesmerized by it when I wear it!

Nonetheless, this polish is beautiful…and I’d recommend it to anyone because it is a gorgeous purple in its own right. Please excuse tip wear – I had been wearing this color for a few days before I snapped the pics. Furthermore, I apologize for the misspelling of Moonshadow on the pics. I had done this a while ago and had thrown away the .psd for it.

It looks raspberry-ish in this shot, but it’s really a lovely purple.

Extreme shot and angle of MS to get the duochrome.

Hai, sun. You washed out the duo chrome!

Nubar – Iris Dust

Monday, 25 October, 2010

I wanted something happy for the gray rainy days we’ve been having…and this epitomizes warm weather and sunlight to me. Iris Dust is this crazy duochrome thing where it’s kind of a raspberry, then it has flashes of orange/bronze in it. The sunlight shot definitely washed out whatever duochrome goodness may have been going on, but the shade shots definitely caught them. This really is just one bottle of nail polish!

Not sure when this came out, but I happened to find it while browsing the duo chrome section on Nubar’s site.

Formula was a bit on the thin side and I had to do three coats to get it opaque because I didn’t think this was a sheer color.

China Glaze – Holiday 2010 – ‘Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice

Friday, 22 October, 2010

This is a seriously image heavy post…28 pictures. I didn’t want to break it up because…well, I didn’t want to. 😉 It’s my eye candy and Friday Red. Enjoy!

All of these were two coaters and they dried in record time.

BOOM! Right out of the gate…this is my favorite red this season. Beautiful. Opaque in 2 coats.

I liked this, but it’s not my favorite red. It’s a bit too light for me. I am sure it would look better on someone else where it looked ok on me.

A gorgeous mulberry with a shimmer that makes it a perfect holiday shade.

I didn’t think I would like these, but I do. CTY is a lovely metallic foil that some other brands didn’t quite get right. This really sparkled and shined, truly reminding me of tinsel. MK was a lovely rich foil gold…absolutely gorgeous and I kept thinking it was a wonderful shade of almost 18k. Jingle bells is a bronze that doesn’t quite shimmer like CTY and MK, but it is very subtle. While not flashy, it’s still a pretty shade to behold.

A sheer white base with white glitter thrown in…it reminded me of snow.

This is a wicked shade of green…it glows. I swear, it generates its own electricity! Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, just look at it.

A wonderful blue, but it really reminded me of OPI’s Yoga-ta Get This Blue.

The jury’s still out on this color. I can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a pinky/red jelly based color with pinky/silver glitter. Removal was a pain, but I’m not sure about this.

I no longer mourn the loss (that much) of my beloved Chanel Rouge Noir. How can I with these fabulous dupes that are 3-Free?

Oh the glitter…the humanity. THE SHINY! I like it a lot, but ugh…the removal. The removal is a pain.

How pretty is this? I love that it’s an olive green tossed into the mix…to make it even 700 shades more awesome, they made this a shimmer. Fabulous!

White creme…’nuff said. I think of this as a base for nail art and not just a color to be worn on its own.

This is China Glaze’s answer to OPI’s Tease-y Does It. I like both and I like that this is lighter and has a fine micro glitter.

Of course, I had to include Mistletoe Kisses because it’s part of the collection, even though I had done a comparison earlier in the week. FYI: MMUTM = Meet Me Under The Mistletoe.

And there we go…all 16 colors swatched. Yay! Hope you enjoyed it.

Deborah Lippmann

China Glaze – Awakening Collection, Halloween / Fall 2010

Thursday, 21 October, 2010

I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on this…but I also know it’s been shown by a slew of other people. I don’t care. Here are my swatches.

Formula was awesome – quick drying and flawless. All of these were two coat applications.

China Glaze is seriously knocking it out of the ball park with their seasonal collections. I enjoyed Awakening and I’m seriously looooving their Christmas Collection – Tis the Season To Be Naughty and Nice. That is up for Friday. All 16 colors.  Anyway…

Here are the three colors from Awakening with a comparison of Mummy May I to Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance.

Warning: This is an image heavy post.

 

A black jelly nail polish packed with orange glitter. Very Halloween. Very fun…and I may be rocking it the next few days to support the Giants. Yea, I’m a Bay Area sports girl – born and raised so I feel a lot of loyalty to my home teams.

 

Really liking this green because I don’t have anything like it. I’ve heard it’s similar to SpaRitual’s Optical Illusion, but I haven’t had the chance to compare it because I don’t have OI and SpaRitual is a lot harder to get ahold of than most nail polishes. Pity SpaRitual doesn’t sell on their site because I’d rather purchase through there.

And finally…oldie but goody comparison of Mummy May I and Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance. BR is a collaboration she did with Lady Gaga. You can also read the original review here.

Bad Romance has different shapes of glitter and the base is a deeper, denser black. Had I not done a side by side comparison, I’d never have even thought that these were even different aside from the glitter size. Mummy May I is a cute name! I just looked back on my notes when I swatched these and BR and MMI are 3 coats.

China Glaze – Out On Safari

Wednesday, 20 October, 2010

This is a wonderful shade of green – it’s shimmery, it’s pretty…BUT it took 3 coats to get it this opaque and it took forever and a day to dry. Plus, it’s the old formula and the fumes nearly killed me as I applied this. I swear I smelled the formaldehyde and I was so close to retching. I need to wear a mask next time I apply this.

However, despite the delay in drying time and the overall fun-kay smell while applying, this color made it worth it.

 

Comparison: China Glaze vs Orly vs Zoya – Mistletoe Kisses vs Meet Me Under the Mistletoe vs Ivanka

Tuesday, 19 October, 2010

Not sure what is up with my comparisons lately. I rarely did them before, but I guess with the whole slew of colors I have…it was bound to happen. 😉

China Glaze’s Mistletoe Kisses is part of their Christmas Holiday 2010 collection of 16 amaaaayzing colors. If all their formulas are like Mistletoe Kisses, I’ll be a very happy girl when I finish my swatching. As it stands, I’ve got Mrs. Claus and Party Hearty down. We’re expecting company this week and it’s only for a couple of days, but the preparation and the cleaning are cutting into my nail polish time.

MMUTM was the darkest of them all and frankly, I thought it was the lightest. Ivanka was the one that literally glowed while next to these colors. While all of these colors are gorgeous, Ivanka just outshined them. I don’t know how she did, but she did. MMUTM is beautiful with gold glitter throughout. Mistletoe Kisses was a bit jelly-like but I did love it. When I’m done swatching the rest of the collection, MK is going to be on my nails for the weekend.