Friday, December 23, 2011

Revlon Carbonite


The fall semester is officially over, yet some of my grades still aren't available. I just got my final back in the class I was most worried about and most thankfully I scraped by with a passing grade! I'm back home with my family which is really nice and relaxing. I sleep in super late most days which is a nice break from my constant schedule of early mornings and late nights during the semester.

I found this little cool puppy in Rite Aid last month, but hadn't tried it out until last week. Carbonite is supposed to be the Revlon equivalent to Chanel's Graphite. It's a silver foil with a grungy, gritty feel to it. (but it dries relatively smooth). Looking at photos of the Chanel online, it's clear that this isn't as great of a copy as Perplex was for Chanel's Paradoxal, but I think it's a good attempt. (By the way, could Revlon get any more obvious with the names?? Doubt it)




I was pretty pleased with this. I tend to avoid Revlon because I dislike the bottle design, but they've been coming out with some great colors lately (Blue Lagoon anyone?) and the formula seems to have improved. This is two coats and Seche Vite top coat. I did have problems with chipping about 5 hours after I did my nails, but it was easy to fix with a touch up and another coat of SV. 

I've become obsessed with Chanel's Morning Rose. I don't think it's available now though, which makes me super depressed. Here's hoping a good substitute comes out some time in the future. I'm usually not a pink person and Morning Rose is the epitome of girly pink to me. It's not too bright, has little gold flecks of glitter, just girly! But I think I'm in love. There's a great photo from Michelle at All Lacquered Up.
It's just gorgeous and I really wish I could get it without spending ridiculous amounts of money.

Are you excited for the holidays, or do you have special plans? I plan on curling up on the couch most days with my family and drinking eggnog until I'm sick :D

Friday, December 2, 2011

Sinful Colors San Francisco

I'm in a very foggy headspace today due to the all-nighter I pulled last night. I'm completely smothered under a pile of work and despite all the effort I put into getting things done, I still haven't made a significant dent on my to-do list, which mostly has to do with all the extra assignments that have been added at the last minute. Bah.

On a higher note, I found a few spare minutes to do my nails! Sinful Colors San Francisco



My camera has issues with bright colors like this. It makes the green look much more blue toned than it is, and it actually has more of a yellow base. It was extremely sheer and took about 3-4 coats. Super pretty in the sun, but in normal indoor light it fell flat.
I also had issues with shrinkage at the tips. You can see where the polish started pulling away at the edge of my nail, leaving a green stained tip in its wake. And it stained my nails horribly.  I did like this polish, but I just didn't find it super special. This will be a perfect polish to wear for St. Patrick's Day though!




Monday, November 7, 2011

Essie Midnight Tango

There are only 4 weeks left in the semester (not including the week of Thanksgiving) at my University. I think it's fair to say I am freaking out!

This is Essie's Midnight Tango from the "Morticia's Nails" collection released in 2010 (I think) for the Addams Family Musical. It's a very deep navy with blue shimmer, but it's not really apparent until you get into full sunlight. Normally it just looks like a really dark navy.





Isn't this so super gorgeous?! I die.

I'm a big fan of Essie's polish, and Midnight Tango is no exception. This polish is extremely pigmented and smooth. I'm anticipating having smurf fingers once I take this off. I've worn this polish for a exactly 7 days and no chipping! Only minor tipwear, and the combination I used is ULTA's Professional Base Coat and Seche Vite. 

Now, the bottle says Midnight Tango but I am 100% certain this is a rebottled Midnight Cami. Lauren over at Dizzy Nails has a great comparison here, along with a thorough look at the entire collection. I bought the collection as well and didn't have time to do a full post on it, but it's in the works ;)

I don't know if many people heard much about this collection? They only produced about 5,000 sets to benefit The Actors Fund. I'm not sure if every color in the set is a rebottled formula, but I wouldn't doubt it, merely because of the small production.

I'll post the rest of the collection later, once I've swatched the rest of the polishes :) What do you guys think of this one?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Milani Rad Purple

You know how I said in my last post that the weather in the Denver area was still warm? I lied. Today, we all woke up and were greeted by about 5 inches of wet, drippy, slushy snow, and it's still coming down. Tree branches are breaking everywhere, and the bus I took to work this morning got momentarily stuck in the parking lot.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the mess outside, it didn't even occur to me to take a picture this morning so I didn't have my camera.

I do however have photos of polish. This is Milani's Rad Purple; I finally caved and bought it online from Cherry Culture. And I have to say, this is one of my absolute favorite, top polishes of all time. Look at how squishy it looks!! SO AWESOME. I love it. I was a little heavy-handed on my ring finger during application, so that's why it looks so much darker than the othes. I don't even care that it's a pink toned purple, it looks fabulous on me and I get super excited every time I look down at my nails.


It even matches my african violet in the background!


I really have nothing more to say about this. except that it's so pretty :)  I don't even mind the opaque bottle, which I know bothered a lot of people.

I have a portfolio draft for a Poetry Analysis class due today later, and I'm really struggling with getting good, if any information down for it. I'm hoping that my "draft" will be allowed to be relatively rough, because I need way more time on it than I've had in the past few days.

Thoughts on Milani? Has anyone been able to find their products in the Denver/Colorado area?

Monday, October 24, 2011

OPI You Don't Know Jacques!

The weeks are just flying by, aren't they? I can't believe October is almost over, and I don't even remember it starting. The leaves have changed colors and are starting to fall, but the weather in Colorado isn't yet cold enough for daily coat use. It gets pretty chilly in the morning but warms up significantly in the afternoon, and I can't wait for it to be cold all the time. I absolutely love fall, sweaters, scarves and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks (it's the only time I buy them) :D

OPI's You Don't Know Jacques! is a great fall color. It's a dark brown/greige/taupe/mushroom (by the by, I hate the word "greige". It sounds weird.) BUT the color is great. I'm actually a big fan of this, and the formula was wonderfully creamy and consistent.



You really have to look around to find the right taupe/mushroom tones for your skin color. That Essence polish that I tried out here just didn't do anything for me. But this definitely does. I can't say exactly why I'm a fan, but something about the deeper color and maybe the onset of fall has me going. I don't know.

If this post makes absolutely no sense, it's because I got absolutely no sleep last night, and am exhausted. I really need to start nailing (ha, no pun intended) down a true schedule and sticking to it, because at the moment I dont' even have one. I just sleep when it's gotten too late, and my homework is always finished last minute. You would think that a 4th year university student would have learned to properly manage her time, but that's a big fat no.

So what are your thoughts on You Don't Know Jacques! ? I know it's a pretty popular color, or used to be...

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Zoya Shawn

I don't have much time to post today so I'll make this one a quickie.
I used Zoya Shawn, and on my ring finger I used CQ Cosmetics Golden Green #542 for an accent finger. I thought this was pretty fun, and want to do it again with different polishes.

Sorry my nails are so dinky by the way! They peel horribly and I have to chop them off so they won't continue to peel. This frustrates me. 




 In terms of the polish itself, the Zoya was wonderful, I was very pleased with the formula and it only took two coats. The CQ was on par with most drugstore polishes I've tried, didn't knock me out of the park, but did the job well. It was a little prone to brush marks, so you need to be careful during application.

While I was wearing this manicure, I had one person ask me if I was a Texas Longhorns fan. When I looked at him with a confused look on my face, he said "well your nails are two different colors, are you a football fan?"
image source
Orange and white are very different colors from olive and green hahaha. And no, I'm not a football fan, but I thought it was hilarious he thought so. When I explained that no, the colors didn't mean anything specific, he was the one who was confused so I had to explain that I did it solely for the aesthetics.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Revlon Emerald City

Today's nail post is over Revlon's Emerald City. The bottle says "Matte Suede" but don't believe it. There isn't anything matte about it. I didn't get a picture of it dry without a top coat because I just couldn't stand looking at it. When it dried it almost looked like leather. Not glossy or matte, just a weird in-between that I wasn't fond of. so I put a coat of Seche Vite on top and voila! This is one beautiful polish.





In the bottle it looks almost blue-green, but on the nail it changes in the light. As I'm typing I'm sitting in low light shade, and it looks like a deep emerald, but if I get out in the sun, it turns into a glowy-green fire. The first day I wore this I thought, "Hmm, this is awfully pretty and I never wear green!". After the 4th day, I've decided that this is one of my absolute favorites. I really don't want to take it off.


WARNING: Photo of spider below!

Friday afternoon I was sitting in my room and I look out the window and see this little guy has made a web right on my window pane. I am completely freaked out by spiders, but this one didn't bother me that much. I wanted to name him Herbert, but the BF nicknamed him "Fang" and now that's stuck hahaha. He seems rather peaceful. 


Right now I'm on a plane travelling to Ohio, where my extended family lives. I'm very excited to see them again, and it's always a lot of fun so I'll try to take a lot of photos :) Of course I'm auto-posting this entry, so I'm technically writing this the day before! Have a great Tuesday everyone :)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Wet 'n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire

This is a Wet 'n Wild from their "Fast Dry" Collection. These are slightly more expensive than the regular WnW, but still pretty cheap. I thought I would really like this polish, but in reality I hated it. The brush was horrible and made application difficult. The polish itself was very goopy and thick, so my coats were really thick.




Glittergasm. Seriously, it's like a blue unicorn threw up on my nails. Taking this polish off was ridiculously difficult because of all the glitter, and in my opinion, this was just really tacky. Long story short, not a fan and I will be trying to find a better home for this bugger.

In other news, I will be traveling to Ohio soon, and I realized that you cannot put Nail Polish remover in a smaller, cheaper bottle. The acetone will not only eat away the plastic bottle, but also the ziplock bag the bottle was in, and any other plastic lying around before it evaporates and leaves a very weird, melted-plastic-smell in your bag. Disaster. 

Happy Sunday!

Friday, July 22, 2011

ULTA Grin & Berry It

Last Christmas I went out with my mum to Ulta, and picked up this sassy bottle of Ulta's Grin & Berry It.




It's much pinker in the photos than it is in real life, but this was a truly jewel toned berry. Although it complemented my skin tone, it did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't like it at all, which is kindof sad. :( Don't get me wrong, I think its really pretty, but it's not my style.

The "check engine" light went on in my car this morning, which is a pain. It did this last summer and it ended up being because my gas was evaporating slightly in the heat. Hopefully that's what the problem is now. I'm going to take it over to the car place later today to see if they can run a diagnostics on it. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it's nothing expensive! :/

Happy Friday!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Wet 'n Wild Sugar Coat

We went to go see the last Harry Potter movie Friday night (D:). It was absolutely awesome. Alan Rickman's acting was incredible, and I'm really glad I took so many tissues with me to the theatre. I was a wet, sobbing mess. I did have a few issues with the movie though, mostly because it moved at such a frantic pace the entire time. I feel like it would be better viewed right after Deathly Hallows Part 1. Other than that, it was made of awesome sauce, and I can't wait to read the books all over again.

Anyways, on to the polish. This is Wet 'n Wild Sugar Coat, a color that I was afraid was going to be too sheer to wear. But, as you can see, it wasn't!



This is a soft baby pink that I adore. It almost looks white in the photos but it's really just a soft pink. It's totally not me at all, but I am loving it. This took two coats and there were still small bald patches on some nails but I really didn't care enough to do a third. I actually wore this twice in a row because I was so crazy about the color. 

Not much else to say today!

Friday, July 8, 2011

CQ Slate

This is CQ Cosmetics Slate. This is one of those cheap drugstore finds I told you about awhile ago. I decided to wear it when my roommates went to the bar a few weeks ago, so this was a very last minute manicure and I didn't get photos until the next day.


A super pretty teal that is extremely dark and very pigmented. I LOVE the color! Unfortunately, this wore horribly, it flooded my cuticles and gave me smurf hands when I tried to remove it even though I was careful. And when I say it wore horribly, I mean it was god-awful. I had a huge chip come off when I was getting breakfast the next morning. LAME.

It is ridiculously hot outside right now, which is why I'm very glad to be inside my air conditioned office most of the time. It's so hot and humid that my hair is doing this stupid frizzy thing, and I was so desperate for a hair tie that I had to resort to using a rubber band and bobby pin, and I really hate using rubber bands in my hair :(

So it's Friday! Do you all have special plans?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Fame is for the Famous

It's Thursday! Which means, only one more day to the weekend :D
I've been searching for a replacement for my favorite nude/beige poilsh, which is an Urban Outfitters polish called Nude 4. Essence Walk of Fame was (I thought) going to be a good replacement. Sadly, I was wrong.

I haven't posted Nude 4 yet, but it looks nothing like Walk of Fame.



This is an almost cement meets purple meets grunge color. It was definitely interesting, but to be honest I really hated it on me. It brought out the brown undertones in my knuckles so my hands almost always looked dirty, like I had been gardening or playing in the dirt. I couldn't wait to get it off, so I started peeling it off the polish in chunks...which was not a pretty look.

It was the BF's 21st birthday last night, so we went to this grungy bar near my apartment and had the most delicious burgers and beer. I wish I had gotten pictures :( I need to start bringing my camera with me places. He was so hungry that when I set the burgers down and sat down across from him, I looked up and he had eaten half of his burger in one bite hahaha.

Its a beautiful day outside :) Get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Essie Lapis of Luxury

Happy 4th of July!
Good gracious I've been gone a long time. My work schedule is weird, I don't work until 12-5pm, so I feel really sluggish when I get home and don't feel like doing anything. This leads to snacking and watching TV, which perpetuates the sluggish cycle.

But I have been painting my nails and have some photos for you :)




Essie Lapis of Luxury. This is a super smooth, really lovely cornflower blue, and I loved it. The night I put it on I was so-so about it, and then when I woke up in the morning I was like, "What was I thinking? This is gorgeous!" It stayed on forever too. My nails were still nice looking way after I was sick of the color.

I'm writing this from the BF's house which is ungodly hot. He's measuring his window for an AC window unit as we speak; I think the heat is getting to him too. We would have gone swimming today if I hadn't forgotten my swimsuit. :(

In other news, my bottle of Seche Vite is dying on me D: It's gotten to the point where I have to tip the bottle to get more top coat on the brush, and it's starting to get super stringy. I think it's time to either buy a new bottle or get the Seche Restore to salvage it.
I've considered trying a new type of top coat, but I've really gotten used to Seche and I think I've figured out how to make it work even when it's a stubborn brat.

So I've completely forgotten to mention fireworks or anything of the sort. Are you guys doing anything special? Me, the BF are going out to watch the fireworks from our friend's deck later tonight. I'm super excited because I don't remember doing anything fun for Independence Day last year.  Have fun guys!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Summer! Yay!

It is officially summer now. Even though it's still pretty much spring here, and its been raining non-stop for the past two days, and it's not as warm as it was last week, but it still means that it's summer! Why? Because classes are over. Hehe. Finals pretty much devoured my soul. I'm satisfied with how they went though, and am actually looking forward to next semester.

So in celebration of finally being done with classes for the summer, I used one of my favorite polishes to do my nails FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS. It was a ridiculously long time without polish. And it felt weird. Sidenote, the nail strengthener review? Kindof bust. I used it for a week, saw no improvement, and moved on. I probably should have given it more time, but I was short on time and patience.

But wait! Which polish did you use? (You ask).




New York Color Canal Street. This is a dark burgundy with a deep red microglitter (shimmer?). It almost has a purple undertone to it, but not enough to make it readily apparent, and it looks more brown in dim lighting. Get this baby in the sun though, and it just glows. It's got that lit-from-within thing happening, and it is super gorgeous. I think dark colors look extremely chic on short nails, so this makes me feel pretty fancy.







These guys are about $2 everywhere I go, so it's pretty good quality for cheapo polish. The formula was a little thick and would get thicker the longer the bottle was open. (Annoying!) but it's totally manageable.
  
Yesterday I went on a pilgramage to all the Walgreens and Rite-Aids in my area in search of Milani polishes. (I'm lemming for Dress Maker and Rad Purple). Ever since I saw Rad Purple on Steph's blog from Short 'n Chic , I've been wanting it pretty badly. But alas, my pilgramage was a bust. I visited two Rite-Aid's and a Walgreens and no such luck. I don't believe Milani's distribution reaches us in the boonies out here in DENVER. (SARCASM) I did walk away with a mini-haul though. I found two brands I've never even heard of, Jesse's girl, and CQ Cosmetics.




I came home the very proud owner of a really pretty coral/pink glittery polish from Jesse's Girl, a dark teal and an olive polish from CQ, and two Wet 'n Wild's, a light pink which I'm hoping isn't sheer, and another dark ruby/burgundy color. I think I'm on a pink kick right now, which is super weird because I HATE pinks on me. They always seem boring, but both the WnW and the J'sG were calling out to me "Wini, BUY ME! I'm pretty! And you've never even heard of my brand! So BUY me!"

Yes. My bottles of polish are sentient. It's a problem.

And now I have Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield stuck in my head.




P.S. Rick Springfield is kindof creepy in this video. I especially like it when he smashes his sink mirror with his guitar. Really, who plays electric guitar in the bathroom?? 

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Nail Strengthener Review

Wow, I've been skimpy on posts. Bare with me, it’s nearly finals week so I'm reaching that edgy – panic mode when school seems like a looming, crushing monster about to eat you. I'll be back into the swing of things once my classes are over. T.T 

Unfortunately today I don’t have a polish to show you, but I AM going to do a review of Sally Hansen’s Green Tea + Bamboo Nail Strengthener. This review will probably span over a few days, so tune in later for results and such. 

A few months ago I noticed that my nails were peeling every time I took off my nail polish. So I tried giving my nails a break, and it really didn't seem to be working. I would cut them super short past the peeling areas, and when they would grow back, they would peel all over again. Super frustrating!

So I decided to try to use a nail strengthener and see if it helps me. I picked up Sally Hansen's Green Tea + Bamboo Strengthener, and here it is:



It comes in a 0.45 fl. oz frosted glass container, and a shiny green chrome cap. The brush is kind of long and it picks up a LOT of product, so be careful to wipe the excess off before you apply it to your nails. The directions say to shake it gently, and then apply 2 coats, letting each coat dry in between application. You can use this as a base and top coat so you can still wear color on your nails, but I wanted to use it clear.

The formula is a bit like really thick nail polish, but it was easy to control, and it still smells like nail polish but not as strong. I read somewhere online that to get good results with weak nails, you shouldn't use anything with chemicals like Ethyl Acetate or alcohol in it, and unfortunately this contains both in the first few ingredients.  

I used two coats on all my nails, and although it shows the ridges of my nail the product dries pretty glossy, so this is a clean, classy look if you want to go bare. Just make sure to carefully clean out your finger-nail beds, because that shiz gets nasty if you don't.

Ahh naked nail!!

This picture is super mis-leading because my left hand isn't as damaged as my right (go figure).  But there is some definite peeling, it's just not as visible.  To show you the visible damage, I edited this photo with a swanky little arrow. The area it's pointing to isn't glossy like the rest of the nail. It's wonky from the peeling. You might have to click on the picture for full size to get the idea. 




Well, that's my initial review of the nail strengthener. I'm going to give it a week and see if there's any improvement at all. I don't want to give my opinion on the Strengthener just yet since I don't have results, but so far I found it easy to work with, and it dried relatively quickly so that's a plus. 

This product was not sent to me for review, I purchased it all by my lonesome. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Fatigued

Not much to say about today, other than when I woke up, I felt refreshed and happy. I haven't felt that way in a very long time. Normally I wake up half dead and miserable, and I feel like a zombie the rest of the day. Not today!! So in order to take advantage of my good mood, I have my day planned out and am ready for it.

I have a weakness for the nail polish that Target puts out, by Sonia Kashuk. It's probably the simple bottles they use, or the shiny silver brush cap, but I can't help myself! I changed my polish last night, and put on Sonia Kashuk's Fatigued.





When I bought this, I was positive it was a dupe for Essie Sew Psyched, but I've been looking of photos online, and I'm now convinced Fatigued is much darker (I'll have to get the Essie to investigate!). I'm sure they thought of this when they named the color, but this is the exact shade of Army fatigues. It's the same drab olive color that you'll find in any military surplus store. It's not my absolute favorite, but it's a good alternative for neutrals when you want something understated, but with a twist! Just look at this close-up: 


You might have to click on the photo to get the full size, but can you see all those tiny pink and gold and green sparkles?! They're not apparent until you get in full sunlight, and you have to look pretty closely, but it's so pretty! I saw a slight shimmer in the bottle before I painted my nails but I wasn't hopeful that it would show up on the nail. I'm glad to be proven wrong! Most of the time however, it looks like this:

Cloudy
And although you can't see the pretty shimmer all the time, it's still a great color. I probably won't keep it on for very long, but I'm a fan. 

So about yesterday. I said I was making a pie...well, I didn't. I bought a pie, cause I'm lazy. We ended up with peach! The BF picked it out, and although I had never had peach pie before, it was really good. It was much more tart than I expected! 

What I'm listening to right now: Fallin' For You by Colbie Caillat.


Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Cocktails Anyone?

It appears that the laziness I acquired over spring break hasn't dissipated yet. I'm still struggling to get motivated, and we only have 3.5 weeks left of school as of today. SCARY!!

Last Friday I painted my nails, and was a bad nail blogger and didn't take (really bad) photos until Monday. So all I have to show you are not fab photos of a not so great manicure. BUT the color was pretty :)

This is ULTA's Cocktails Anyone? Its a deep, vampy purple, and i loved the formula.  However, the color was really dark, almost black in normal light, and I'm not sure that I like that on me. I caught the reflection of my nails in the rearview mirror on the bus this morning, and it just looked almost too dark. This photo however was taken with a flash, and it really shows the blue-purple base of the color.


As much as i wasn't super excited about the color ON me, it looked fabulous in the bottle, haha. Sorry about the smudgy-fingerprints. I'm a slob. pah.

Tonight I'm making pie. It will be delicious, but I'm not sure which type to make yet. I love love love cherry pie, so that's a thought. I made muffins the other day too, which were incredible even though I didn't put them in paper muffin cups and should have. (The tops were ripped off when I took them out of the pan...woops). I used strawberries, walnuts, and cinnamon, and they were perfect for breakfast.

As I have a test in two days, so I'm going to go study, and hopefully I'll do well. Wish me luck!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Why hello there...

Well, here's my sorry butt pulling up a new post on my computer because I feel a tad guilty not writing anything for quite a while. It's spring break! But it's almost over   :-( I've had a fabulous time hanging out with my family though, its nice to relax and be completely spoiled by your parents.

Unfortunately i don't have a polish to show you! I haven't put anything on since I took CH off at the beginning of this week, but soon I will have a haul from ULTA to flaunt, I just need to take the photos. (pst...thanks mom :-) I also haven't done any homework either, which may be bad news bears. I think tomorrow I'll have to pull out the books and force myself to read Immunology. Yay for cytotoxic T-cells! (no really, they can save your life!).

Enough science geekery. Here's a photo of the flowers the BF got me for Valentine's Day:




Aren't they lovely? They lasted forever and brightened up my day like you would not believe. 

One closing question, do people think it's OK to not use turn signals anymore? When did that stop being necessary? The Answer: NEVER. You should always use your turn signals, even if you're just changing lanes!

Sorry for the rant, there are stupid people on the roads sometimes, and they make me grouchy. Maybe I should stop letting other people's actions control my emotions...hmmm. Food for thought. 

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Catherine H

I've done something really, really bad. 
So bad I can't believe I actually did it. 
I spent an UNHOLY amount of money on one nail polish. ONE. Oh my aunt kitten's whiskers.

What is this polish you ask?
The gorgeous and incredible Catherine H from Rescue Beauty Lounge.




I was lemming after this, but didn't plan to buy it since RBL's are sooo expensive. The only other one I have is Concrete Jungle from last year's 50% sale, but unfortunately it's no longer in stock.

So why did I buy this full price? Because it's one of those things that's love at first sight. I was craving Anne, another color from RBL's Tudor Housewives Collection, and when that one sold out, I panicked and absolutely could not miss out on CH. I even had to break the "no buy" rule me and the BF had set down. He and I made a deal that if he was allowed to buy his solid state drive for his computer, then I was allowed to put down an obscene amount of money for this polish.

I know I keep complaining about the price, and I'm making it sound absolutely horrific. RBL's polishes run at $18 a pop, and with $7.50 shipping, that's $25 for one! So yes, it is horrific. But I don't feel too terrible for paying so much because I have so much respect for the company, which has great customer service and holds itself to admirable high standards. I swatched this last night, and here are the photos from today:

in shade

sunlight






The adorable box and wrapping that it came in. 

This is one FABULOUS polish. It went on smoothly, opaque in one coat, but the color is more vibrant with two. I honestly can't stop looking at my hands; it's starting to get pretty distracting. The color isn't loud by any means, but it's so subtle that it's intriguing. It has a Wedgwood blue base, but is filled with blue, pink and purple microglitter that gives it character and depth. I put a top coat of Seche Vite on and it dried to a very weird eggshell-type finish. I've never had Seche do that to me, and I wonder if it had something to do with the formula of the RBL. I'm not complaining though, because it only adds to the unique-ness of the polish.

So was it worth it? For me, definitely. I love so much about this brand. I love the formula, the company behind it, and as silly as it sounds, I love love love the little square bottles it comes in. Classy, unique, and clean cut. Thank you Ji Baek, thank you.

Just so you know however, I will be reinstating the "no-buy" rule I had in place...for a very loonngg time.