Julep Boris & Nicole

Now that I'm finished showing you the Firebird collection, I am going to move on to some Julep polishes. Last week while I was on vacation for the Thanksgiving holiday I managed to swatch all of my Julep polishes and I'll share those swatches with you! Boris & Nicole is one of the first polishes I got and it's truly lovely. Julep's website describes Boris & Nicole an "autumn red-brown. Lovely for fall pedicures."

And indeed, Boris & Nicole is a gorgeous polish and absolutely perfect and appropriate for fall. The polish is a beautiful red brown with threads of gold shimmer running throughout the polish. Unfortunately the golden shimmer doesn't really show up on the nail, but it does look great in the bottle. The polish is also a lot more red than I anticipated from looking at the bottle-- I think I would call this color mahogany. Boris & Nicole was almost a one coater, but I used two coats here over the Julep base coat and with no top coat. I thought the formula was a little on the thick side, but certainly not unmanageable in any way.

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

This is a perfect fall polish! I was actually planning on wearing this as my Thanksgiving manicure, but in the end opted with nothing because I was painting my nails the next day for football. My only problem is that I want to say Boris & Natasha (from Rocky and Bullwinkle)!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fortissimo

And here we are at the last polish in the Firebird collection: Fortissimo! This was a polish I originally passed over, but in the end decided to snag it when it was released to the public. I can't really say why I did except for my hoarding tendencies and the fact that I don't have another color like it. Additionally, I have recently become enamored of near black polishes and Fortissimo has a cool murky quality about it.

Ji describes the polish like this: "At last, when the light left the sky and the wind started to roar, the sky turned into a shade beyond description—a dark greenish, blackish, brown, leading to a powerful Fortissimo, the finale chord of The Fire Bird.

Fortissimo is a deep brown color that has hints of green (and maybe even some grey) to it. It leans towards black, and despite being fairly dark, I feel like it never looks black. I love the murky swampy feel to this polish and how Fortissimo has a great formula and goes on smoothly in two coats. Here I used the Julep base coat and no top coat-- you can see how nice and glossy the polish is even without a top coat.

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

While this isn't necessarily the color I would associate with fortissimo (when means very loud/very strong, if you're not a musician) but I think Ji hits upon a good point in her description of the polish-- the description of the sky as the storm hits. Now, I've never been through a hurricane, but I have seen some nasty tornado weather and the sky turns this weird yellow/green/brown/grey color that's so hard to explain unless you've seen it in person. So I do think Ji has captured the feel of the threatening feeling of the storm in this polish-- if a polish could be threatening, anyway. I don't think Fortissimo is necessarily my favorite polish of all time, but I kind of in love with it's ugly pretty quality and the fact that you don't see many polishes like this out there. I certainly don't own any like it, anyway!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Piú Mosso

Next in the Firebird collection we have Piú Mosso, perhaps the most intriguing polish of the whole collection-- at least in my opinion. This was the only polish in the collection that I knew I had to have when I saw the preview swatches. Part of it is because I love blue polishes and part because Piú Mosso is such a unique color.

Ji describes the polish like this: "Later, the ominous dark clouds bled into the sky with a fast-moving wind. Piú Mosso is an inky, blue-black that shoots through a flash of orange, the last glow of sunlight."

Piú Mosso, translated from Italian, means "more movement" and as I just sang a Latin requiem we also took it to mean singing with tension. Giving that this polish has been inspired by a hurricane, I think both work-- the winds picking up and clouds scudding across the sky and the almost imperceptible pressure that builds up as the storm grows. Piú Mosso is a color combination you don't see very often-- a dark inky blue (but never black) that has strands of copper shimmer running through it. If you enlarge some of the pictures, you can see that the copper shimmer sparks green/yellow, blue/purple, and red. Piú Mosso applied wonderfully, and was practically a one coat polish. However, I used two coats here, to ensure complete coverage. It's nicely pigmented and the formula is excellent-- not too thick or too thin.

Artificial light: 

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

Is the shimmer seriously out of this world?! It's amazing. Unfortunately, the shimmer is most pronounced under direct, bright light. You can still see it on the nail in the shade/indirect light, but it's much more subtle. I am glad I got this during the pre-order and swatched it while the weather was still nice so I show you its true depth and just how pretty it is! I don't own anything like this and if you're looking for a truly unique blue polish, I would snatch this up before it sells out!

Football Friday Apple Cup Edition: Rescue Beauty Lounge Look Rich Be Cheap

This is the last regular Football Friday of the year! I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving and either that you're enjoying a relaxing Friday or having a good time shopping during Black Friday. I am avoiding the malls today-- did some pre-Black Friday sale shopping on Wednesday and then bought some nail polishes on sale last night (from Cult Nails and a england).

This week's game is our annual rivalry with the other state university, WSU. Otherwise known as the Apple Cup (because Washington State is known for its apples, one of the main exports of our state), this is a game that dates back to 1900, though it has not been play continuously for various reasons. This year marks the 104th meeting of Washington and Washington State-- but the game, which is a home game for UW, will be played on Seattle's NFL field (Century Link, or the Clink if you're feeling derogatory) instead of Husky Stadium, due to the current ongoing renovations. Unfortunately, we're missing the Apple Cup this year because we're out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, though we are hosting a viewing party with my in-laws... who happen to be WSU fans-- well, at least my FIL, who is a WSU grad. Honestly, I'm not feeling great about the game tomorrow, mainly because UW seems to have lost all their drive and motivation in the last several games and while thankfully WSU was knocked out of bowl eligibility last week so they don't have anything on the line, WSU always wants to take UW down a peg or two. UW has won the last two meetings and obviously we'd like to keep that going.

Since this is the last regular season game, I decided to pull out the big guns for this game and go all out using Rescue Beauty Lounge Look Rich Be Cheap. I'll be honest-- a lot of bloggers are really into glitter and I'm not. Not that I don't like the way it looks, but glitter is such a pain in the butt to deal with: application can be tricky in some cases and the removal is always a hassle. But I decided to risk it. Look Rich Be Cheap is a mix of gold and purple glitter in a clear base. Ji Baek says this about Look Rich Be Cheap: "take a cue from our fabulous First Lady who mixes J.Crew with Jimmy Choo with the same ease as we’ve mixed gold and purple glitter into something chic and cool." I had heard great things about the glitter polishes from RBL so even though I wasn't sold, I decided to get this because of the colors in one of my last orders.

Look Rich Be Cheap is seriously blingtastic. My camera wigged out trying to take pictures of this and I think my eyes started to wig out looking at it. Application is pretty good, though you definitely need to wait in between coats to avoid dragging the glitter all over your nail. Below I've used three coats. As you can see, it's fairly opaque in three coats, but there is still some visible nail line. I think you could potentially use Look Rich Be Cheap over a base color to eliminate any VNL and I might try this at some point. But even without a base color, it looks pretty good. To me, I feel like the gold glitter is way more dominant than the purple, but maybe that's just because my eyes go crazy when I stare at this.

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

No holds barred glitter-- this is serious business! I liked that it was fairly easy to apply and the glitter is pretty fine, so it's not super gritty and bumpy. I used Cult Nails Get It On base coat and Wicked Fast top coat and I don't remember Look Rich Be Cheap eating the top coat, as can be the case with glitter polishes. Great polish all around. My only little complaint is that I wish there was a bit more purple glitter-- I feel like the purple gets overwhelmed by the gold because it's so shiny.

The Apple Cup has a long and important history for my husband and I-- we got engaged at the 2005 Apple Cup (my last as a student):

And because my FIL is a WSU grad, we also have a family rivalry on the line-- we even have our own version of the Apple Cup trophy! Here we are receiving the trophy in 2009:

So there's a lot on the line tomorrow! Go Dawgs! Beat the Cougars!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Poco a poco

Next up from the RBL Firebird Collection is Poco a poco! As a (non-professional) musician, I love that all the names in this collection coming the dynamic markings and/or scoring notes. Poco a poco was one of the two polishes from this collection I originally decided to purchase.

Ji Baek describes Poco a poco: "When the wind picked up, I saw Poco a poco, "little by little." This is a shade that changes from moment to moment. It’s the stunning, sparkling pink of a fanning cloud when the red and orange rays of the sun are trying to burst through."

Poco a poco appears to me to be a sort of muted blue-based pink with a ton of shimmer throughout the polish-- it looks from my pictures that there is gold, red/orange and maybe even a little blue shimmer in the polish. It's truly stunning in the sunlight. The formula on Poco a poco was pretty good as is generally the case with all of the polishes from RBL, but I found that I needed three coats to make it opaque.

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

My only complaint about this polish (ok, well two minor ones): first, I feel the base color of the polish leans a little "old." I'll admit, I was slightly disappointed in Poco a poco when I first applied it. I felt that the color was a bit aging-- but when I saw it the sunlight, I fell in love with the shimmer, which is what really makes this polish stand out. Secondly, I felt like this polish should have been good to go in two coats, but that's really a minor quibble and might be more me than the polish. Poco a poco is a lovely polish and a very unique pink!

Rescue Beauty Lounge Pizzicato

Now I am finally going to get around to showing you the most recent Rescue Beauty Lounge collection - L'Oiseau de Feu - or more commonly known as The Firebird, by Stravinsky. This collection was inspired by RBL owner Ji Baek experiencing a hurricane firsthand while on vacation. Originally I only purchased two of the four polishes (and the swatches have been languishing for a couple months) but with the most recent Bring it Back presale, I decided to buy the last two polishes in the collection. This collection of polishes tell a story, so I'm starting with the first one: Pizzicato!

Ji describes Pizzicato thusly: "inspired by the gentle tiny taps of rain droplets as they hit the tin roof, reminiscent of plucked strings. A misty white with the faintest hint of lavender, Pizzicato has a shimmer that acts like prisms of light in a sun shower." 

 Pizzicato is a white based polish with a hint of purple to make it the palest lavender color. I initially feared that this polish would be super sheer, but surprisingly, it's not! The polish had a thicker formula (but not so thick as to be goopy and unmanageable) and pretty nicely pigmented. The first coat was a little streaky, but three coats was plenty to get good coverage and even everything out. I would definitely make sure to wait between layers to make sure they are completely dry and to use a very light touch when applying this polish to avoid dragging and streaking. But considering my fears, three coats is excellent for building up this polish to opacity. There is still a hint of visible nail line, but not enough to bother me. Plus, it's honestly not that noticeable in person-- the camera picks it up.

Artificial light:

Artificial light with flash:

Natural light - shade:

I can't believe that originally I passed Pizzicato over. What a mistake! Pizzicato is a lovely delicate polish-- I surprised that I feel in love with it the minute I applied it to my nails.

Pizzicato may actually be my favorite polish out of the whole collection-- though I still have three other polishes to show you!