BB Couture Ashes: Swatch Picture and Review

I picked up BB Couture Ashes (from the Saints of Ruin collection), even though it's not my typical shade, because I thought it looked and sounded interesting based on Vampy Varnish's review. Unfortunately, the color I received doesn't look quite like I was expecting to get!


What do you think? To me it looks like a pretty straightforward charcoal shimmer, with a different base color from what I expected and none of the multicolored shimmer I was hoping for. I feel like I got a completely different polish! It applied well and was opaque in two coats, but it's not as unique as I thought it was going to be.

Edit: I've since done a bit of investigating and it really looks like my polish is so different from many of the other ones I'm seeing out there. (Examples: 1 2) I take care to make sure my pictures are accurate to what I see on my nails in real life, so I'm wondering if different lighting may have played a role (I take my pictures in natural light) or perhaps skin tone.

BB Couture Bonnie: Swatch Pictures and Review

BBC Bonnie is a rich green jelly with lots of eye-catching glitter! This beauty is from the Infamous Lovers collection:




Since BBC Bonnie is glitter in a jelly base, it required the expected three coats for full color and opacity. The application was smooth, and with topcoat, Bonnie easily acquired an even, glossy finish. So vivid and sparkly!

swatch: bb couture poison ivy

hi everyone, sorry for my absence from the blog lately! the past couple of weeks have been crazy-busy, but hopefully i can get back into the posting groove again smoothly! so without further ado, here's a green notd from last week, bb couture poison ivy:


the formula on this is a tiny bit thick, but i found that worked to my advantage as i was in a rush to get out the door for my st. patrick's day plans and wanted something with serious coverage. and poison ivy didn't disappoint, as it was opaque in two quick coats.

by the way, i don't normally comment on any nail polish's wear time because i change my mani so frequently, but i recall being very impressed with the lasting power of this polish. i kept this mani on for four days last week, and even though i'm seriously hard on my hands, i didn't get even the tiniest chip.

the fact that i was able to keep this mani on for so long when i normally have to change my polish every day out of boredom is also a comment on the quality of the color. poison ivy is a vibrant green creme - brighter in the sunlight (for example, in the picture above) and darker indoors - and i really enjoyed having it on my nails.

and also, for those of you who are coming here from getcha nails did, welcome! thank you brooke for mentioning my little blog!

swatch: bb couture impact driver

from the "tools for men" collection (i know, i know):


this polish had great application and pigmentation (this is two coats) - it flowed onto the nail beautifully and was easy to control. while i love the dusty blue color, this polish isn't ultimately for me because it has shimmer and i'm almost exclusively a creme and glitter girl. if you like it, though, it's available at overall beauty.

bf says: "that has a hint of shimmer... no, sparkles. is it sparkles? a hint of glitter?"

swatch: bb couture for men grenade

i'm having pangs of swapper's remorse over this one... but then again, i never wore it in the months that i owned it, so it's good that it went to a better home. a gorgeous olive green absolutely packed with gold shimmer:






very smooth application, three coats. bb couture polishes (including the men's collection) are available at overallbeauty.com.

comparison swatches: bb couture, illamasqua, rescue beauty lounge, and zoya greens

i haven't yet decided on today's notd (currently leaning towards nails inc. curzon street, but we'll see), so in the meantime here are some green comparison swatches i did this past weekend.


from thumb to pinky: bb couture green goblin, rescue beauty lounge orbis non sufficit, rescue beauty lounge recycle, zoya envy, and illamasqua rampage. orbis non sufficit is the dustiest of the bunch and has the best formula, envy is (clearly) the darkest, and rampage is the only one of these polishes with a jelly finish.

i wasn't thinking and didn't include orly enchanted forest in this comp, so i'll try to take pics with it included in the near future. i also have a dark green from l.a. girl's flare line that might be interesting to compare as well.

as you can see from the above pic, green goblin and recycle are quite similar, so i did a second comp featuring just those two polishes:


bb couture green goblin on index and ring finger, rescue beauty lounge recycle on middle finger.

recycle is more of a "clear"/true green, whereas green goblin is more yellow/brown (which i personally prefer). also, green goblin's formula is superior to recycle's - while green goblin was perfect in two coats, recycle was more watery and needed three coats for complete evenness.

scrangie has a comp of recycle and green goblin here that makes the two polishes look much more different from each other, but i can honestly say that they didn't look nearly that different on me, even under a bright desk lamp. the pic i posted above is literally the *most* different they ever look on me, and in most/dimmer lighting, the two polishes are practically indistinguishable.

intro and swatch: bb couture night ops

hiii. :) there's such a dearth of darker-skinned bloggers in the nail polish world, so i'm hoping this notd log (i hesitate to call it a blog) will help other girls with my skintone who've struggled to visualize how certain polishes might look on them (btw, i'm ~mac nc42). i collect nails inc, love street wear, hard candy, and urban decay, and am a major sucker for a good vivid pink or orange-red creme.

anyway, here is yesterday's notd, bb couture for men night ops - a beautiful murky deep teal jelly full of microglitter. this photo is of 3 coats in indirect sunlight:

welcome!!