Random Swatch: Rescue Beauty Lounge Au Chocolat

As much as I love all the colors of the rainbow, there are certain colors that I just seem to have an affinity for- brown would be one of them.

Fall is my favorite season- if it was October all year round I'd be ecstatic- and a few polish colors really remind me of fall. Gold, copper, bronze, orange and most of all, brown. Needless to say I have quite a few brown polishes, ranging from chocolate milk colored to fresh dirt colored. I like brown shimmer, brown creme, brown glitter, brown frost, you name it, I'm there.

Out of all my brown creme polishes, I've found a new love: Rescue Beauty Lounge Au Chocolat.



Here's Au Chocolat. It's the perfect dark chocolate shade without a hint of shimmer. It makes me want to put on a warm fuzzy sweater and go for a walk in the crisp, cold autumn air. Unfortunately, it's July and I have to suffer through a few more months of summer.

But, still. Look how pretty that is. I feel like my nails don't do it justice. It's perfect.

I know most people don't consider brown to be a beautiful color- in fact, I think most people find it boring, but I love it. If I can't convince you, check out The Polish Addict's swatches of gorgeous, vampy brown colors. There's a chocolate shade to fit every skintone, and I think you should really give one a try!

Scrangie's Nail Care Must-Haves!

In response to a request from lovely reader Gef, here's what I use to maintain my nails:

TOOLS:
Glass File (I like OPI's and Essie's)
Buffer (cheap three-ways from nail supplies work well)
Metal Cuticle Pusher (Round on one end with a pointy thing on the other)
Cuticle Nippers (must be extremely sharp and clean!)
Nail Brush (cheap disposable ones that I change out often, used every time I wash my hands)

Treatments:
Creative Nail Design Cuticle Remover (the clear gel in the big squeeze bottle)
Creative Nail Design Solar Oil
Creative Nail Design Cuticle Eraser
Qtica Intense Cuticle Repair Balm
Qtica Half Time Drying Drops
OPI Nail Envy
Seche Vite (or Poshe)
Cutex Original Nail Polish Remover (or if I'm feeling fancy, Zoya Remove+)

So, there are my absolute must-haves. Now, how to go about using them...

My basic routine is mostly upkeep. I never really take much length off my nails so I usually just file them to maintain their shape. When I do a full manicure, it goes something like this:

1. Remove old polish
2. File nails to desired shape using glass file.
   
3. Apply CND Cuticle Remover and wait a minute.
4. Begin pushing back cuticles and cleaning up around sides of nails and under nails with metal cuticle pusher. Be gentle, but remove as much as you can.
5. Wash off cuticle remover and scrub hands with a grainy sugar scrub.
6. Using cuticle nippers, cut only what's hanging off or sticking up. I never actually cut my cuticles, but if I have a hangnail or just too much excess cuticle I carefully trim it.
7. Gently buff nails with 3-way buffer. I only do this if I need to. Too much buffing weakens my nails, so I only buff when they look rough.
8. Apply tons of lotion and Solar Oil.

Pretty simple, nothing fancy, but that's how I do my manicures.

Now for the "treatments" portion of the list. You'll notice that I have a lot of favorites. I love cuticle oil and cuticle balm and I apply it several times during the day. With the CND Cuticle Eraser, I apply that once or twice a day, sometimes only every other day or whenever I remember to. I also like Poshe's AHA Cuticle Therapy- it comes in a better tube with a label that doesn't peel off and it doesn't smell like rotten lemon juice.

The Solar Oil (or OPI Avoplex, which I also love) I apply constantly. I have the big bottle near my couch, so whenever I'm watching TV I apply it a few times. It soaks in really quickly, so you can apply it repeatedly without getting greasy fingers. I buy tons of mini bottles and stash them all over- in my purse, in the bathroom, in my car, in the kitchen, everywhere. Apply the oil every time you see it.

The Qtica Intense Cuticle Repair Balm is special. It's a new favorite of mine and I don't know how I didn't find this sooner. It's super thick, rich and a little sticky- perfect for after you wash your hands. It really locks in moisture and it's so soothing on dry cuticles. I put this on before bed also.

OPI Nail Envy is one of my favorite treatments, but I'm also really digging Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator. I use them as a base coat before polish. They seem to prevent chipping and staining quite well, with the added benefit of strengthening your nails at the same time. If I'm using a base coat, I like it to double as a treatment. I used to use Nailtek II Foundation, but I've misplaced my bottle and have no idea where I left it.

As a topcoat, I always use either Seche Vite or Poshe. I tend to favor Seche Vite because it seems to dry a bit faster, but Poshe seems a little shinier. Anyway, I don't know what I would do without these! The way to use them, if you've never used them before, is to apply it directly on top of wet polish. You get a decent sized bead on the brush and you spread it over the nail. it will even itself out, but it does start drying right away. Once you apply the topcoat, your nails will be dry to the touch in a minute or two and completely dry in 10-15 minutes. To speed it up, I use Qtica Half Time drying drops. All you do with the drops is drop a tiny amount onto each nail and it protects your polish while it's drying and helps it to dry faster. They rock.


So, there you have it. My bare necessities, my basic nail care must haves!

OPI Make Love...

A request from the lovely Sanna!



OPI Make Love... An opaque milky baby pink. Very cute. Looks especially cool layered with Orly Rock Candy!

Once again, if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do! :D

China Glaze Sexy Sport Collection Swatches

So, really, this isn't much of a "collection" as it is one new polish lumped in with a couple old ones displayed alongside a really terrible and bizarre advertisement. I'm not about to post that ridiculous Sexy Sport promo image with the sweaty silicone-laden football player again.

Anyway, the new color, "Sexy Lady" is a medium bright pink creme, not ugly by any means but definitely nothing special.


Sexy Lady.

And the old ones:


Sex on the Beach. Very pretty sheer peachy duochrome with fine shimmer. Reminds me of OPI Peach A Boo!


Sexy In The City. Bright blue with deep frost and shimmer. This one reminds me of MAC Plasma Blu, so if you're unable to find that one, this would be the next best thing.


Sexy. That's exactly right. This is a bright orangey-red "jelly" with that glass fleck shimmer that I love so much. It's bright, vibrant, shiny and sparkly.

Zoya Chit Chat Collection Swatches

Zoya's Chit Chat collection is really cool. Each of the colors has a fine gold metallic shimmer that makes the color come to life. From the pictures they just seemed flat, but once I saw them in real life I fell in love.


Annie. This may be my favorite out of all of them. It's a bright reddish orange with gold shimmer. Really awesome.


Bekka. This is the one I was most excited about, but I was pretty disappointed with it. First of all, my brush had a bunch of long hairs sticking out which made it impossible to use, so I had to give it a "haircut" before I could use it. Second, it took four coats to even out. And third, it wouldn't mix- it was chunky when I was applying it. See that grey sludge in the bottom? It wouldn't mix in and I have no idea what it is. Closer:




Elke. Isn't this pretty? It's reddish with gold shimmer, makes it look coral. It shimmers like crazy. Reminds me of Rimmel Play Fast in Out Of Control.


Erika. Pale pink with lots of fabulous gold shimmer. Not a color I would wear very often (I'm just not much of a pale pink girl), but you have to love how beautiful it is.


Gaia. I LOVE THIS. It's what I wanted Chanel White Satin to be. It's a pure, clean white with gold shimmer. White with depth, definitely! No white-out here.



And last but not least, Lianne. Bright orange with gold shimmer. Perfect for summer. I really love how the gold shimmer makes the orange appear to glow.

Overall, I really loved this collection. All of them, with the exception of Bekka, applied beautifully. Thin, smooth, beautiful, even coats. The shimmer is what I like the most. It adds interest to the colors and makes you want to keep looking at your sparkling nails!

You can get all of these directly from Zoya.

Nfu Oh Shiny Opal Swatches

At last, Yasmeen is gone and I have the astonishingly beautiful Nfu Oh polishes I've been dreaming about since I first saw them.

The formula is not without flaws; it's thick and goopy (must be 3-free!) and smells kinda weird. Otherwise, these polishes are perfect. They have depth, iridescence, glow, fire, shimmer, all that good stuff.

Here are the ones I chose:


49. Very blah on its own. A subtle yellow/gold/green/red opal shimmer. Looks much better over black.


44. Very nice deep orange opal with green reflection.


45. The fire polish! It's a rich, vibrant red/orange with incredible orange flake shimmer that looks like burning, glowing embers.




51. It has many faces- blue, purple, red, green, gold. It's mesmerizing and truly stunning. My pictures do not do this polish justice.




52. Dark blue/green/purple opal. Again, my pictures can not accurately convey how beautiful this is.



53. Blue with purple/red/gold opal flakes. Reminds me of mermaids.


55. Bleh. This color looks dull, flat and lifeless. Green with gold flakes.


56. This is a deep green with blue reflection and complex shimmer.


57. Another blah color. Pale green with red and gold flakes.




60. A masterpiece of polish. My pictures can't capture it, but this is a rainbow in a bottle. It shimmers and reflects every color of the rainbow, as you can see in the bottle. It has an oil-slick look to it.


66. Seafoam green holographic polish. Dries matte. I don't think I like this one.



Various colors over black. The black just makes the opal glitter flakes POP. It's a really cool effect.

I'm so happy to be able to swatch again! I have plenty coming up, including the Ulta Exclusive Essies!

Sephora by OPI - Sephora Exclusive OPI Shades

Looks like the rumor is true!

Beauty and The Blog just gave us all a look at the Sephora by OPI line!

This is going to be awesome! It says they're going to be available in-store in July and on Sephora.com by august.

From the picture, it looks like these colors are going to rock. Metro Chic looks awesome. I am very easily excited. New nail polish makes me all giddy.

As soon as I can get my hands on these, I'll have pics!