Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection: Aqua Lily

The next polish from the Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection I have for you is Aqua Lily. This color was designed by Kay-Di Kat in honor of her mother. Here's the official description: "A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Kuda Huraa Island of the Maldives. The turquoise water is a
crystal-clear sea green and what really had me spellbound was that it reflected a shimmery-pink hue from the shedding scales of the colorful, vivid, and exotic tropical fish. This color is Kay-Di Kat’s homage to her beloved mom, Lily, who swims like an enchanting mermaid. I imagine Lily swimming in this paradise with its mesmerizing water in the Island of the Maldives."

In the reverse of Cuprum, this polish was one that initially I wasn't anticipating all that much, but after I saw the first swatches it quickly became my favorite. Aqua Lily was incredibly well pigmented and went on almost flawlessly. I used two coats because there was a bit of visible nail line after only one coat. The color is gorgeous and the shimmer is stunning-- it's a fairly bright turquoise color that perfectly straddles the line between being green and blue. The shimmer is predominantly pink, but there's also some blue shimmer in there.

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Natural light - sun:

Bottle shot:

 My only minor complaint about this polish is that the shimmer, while obvious in direct light or sunlight, gets lost in the shade and is not as predominant on the nail as it is in the bottle. 

Aqua Lily is currently sold out on the RBL site, but it being brought back in November by Ji since it was so popular and sold out so quickly. If you like it, I would recommend signing up for the emails to get in on the preorder.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection: Cuprum (Cu)

Since I just received the newest collection from Rescue Beauty this week, I figured I better review the last collection, which I have swatched and sitting on my computer. Ji Baek decided to let fans have a crack at creating their dream polish and in the end, four polishes were chosen. After about 13 months, the collection was finally released! Tonight's polish is Cuprum (Cu), designed by Neeta, who used chemistry for her inspiration.

The official description of Cuprum is this: "The metamorphic moment when the presence of ammonia meets copper (II) transforms into a radiant blue. Cuprum is Latin for copper, and the dual nature of this element is what Neeta wanted to capture in a bottle."

I'll be honest, Cuprum was the polish from the fan collection I was most looking forward too initially and then the most disappointed by when I saw the first swatches. I think part of that is because the polish isn't what I invisioned when I read the first description-- which isn't the fault of the designer or creator in any way. Once I got beyond that and saw the polish in person, I fell in love with it.

The formula on Cuprum was pretty good. Went on easily and smoothly and was nicely pigmented. Unfortunately, I forgot to record how many coats of polish I needed, but I'm pretty sure it was just two coats. I am wearing it here with the Rescue Beauty base coat and top coat.

This polish was so hard to capture. I recommend that you enlarge my pictures so you can see the copper specks in this polish-- you can see them, but barely, in the pictures as they are.  I enlarged one of the artificial light photos in hopes you can see the copper flecks.

Artificial light with flash:

Artificial light:

Natural light - shade:

Natural light - sun:

Bottle shot:

In the end, I was really glad I bought this polish. Truly, this polish is way more awesome in real life than it is in photos. In photos, the brilliance of the blue definitely overpowers the copper. The blue base of this polish is definitely bright but in real life you see the copper flecks a lot better.

Cuprum is available for $20 from the Rescue Beauty website.

Chanel Orange Fizz

Tonight I have a special polish for you - Chanel Orange Fizz! I got this from my lovely friend Emily as a birthday present, since she knows I am on a no-buy and wanted to give me a polish! How sweet! And it happens to be a color I love. Contrary to the name, though, Orange Fizz isn't really orange (very sneaky, Chanel). I would describe it as a pink melon coral. Certainly, because it's a coral there is some orange in it, but not what the name would imply.

Orange Fizz is a creme polish and I was afraid it might be a little thin. But happily, it is nicely pigmented and goes on pretty easily! Certainly, it was a little streaky in the first coat but three thin coats and it looks pretty darn good! It also dried extremely quickly, which was awesome. Additionally, it's pretty darn good looking without a top coat. It looks so creamy and smooth on my nails-- gorgeous!

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Great summer color! It's an awesome coral color-- I actually need to wear this as a full manicure! Or maybe as a pedi. Or both! In any case, it's an awesome color and it was so sweet of Emily to get it for me!

June Julep Maven Box Review

The Maven Boxes for June had a summer theme to them, and even though I really liked all the colors that Julep was offering, I stuck with my American Beauty box. I got my normal two polishes and some additional brushes, because some of the ones from the last box were wonky. They also included some pixy sticks!

Lily :

Courteney:

In addition to the polishes, my June box contained a lip balm and some sunscreen:

I love the lip balm. Goes on nicely, has a pleasant but not overwhelming vanilla-mint scent to it and I like that it is SPF 15, which none of my other lip balms have. The sunscreen, on the other hand, I am less sure about. I think it is a reformulated/repackaged version of their old Everyday SPF Hand Cream, which I wasn't wild about. Daylight Defense has a mild scent, which I can't really place-- it's not very strong but I don't know if I really like it either. Contrary to their claims, I don't find this to be very hydrating-- I feel like my skin tightens up when I put it on. Additionally, I wear a tinted moisturizer with SPF in it so I don't know if I have much use for this, though I could imagine it would be easy to put this on under some bronzer for the summer months.

Overall, I was definitely pleased with my June Maven box. The only thing I'm not quite sold on is the Daylight Defense sunscreen, but overall this was a great box. I was especially pleased with the lip balm.

Julep Courteney

Tonight I have the other polish from my June Maven box-- Julep Courteney. In keeping with the summery theme of the box, Courteney is a "key-lime green creme." I thought Courteney looked a little more like a mint green in the bottle, but once she is on the nail she is definitely key-lime in color. I want a piece of pie when I look at this color. 

The formula left a little to be desired, though. I found Courteney to be a little on the thick side, and it was sometimes difficult to make it even. It is extremely well pigmented (though a little streaky with just one coat), so two coats might be enough if you have really good application. I needed to use three coats to get it perfectly even.

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Courteney is a perfect green for summer. I could see this as either a mani or pedi color for a cool splash of color during those hot summer days.