Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War vs. MAC Dry Martini: Comparison Swatch Picture and Review

On Monday, I posted a picture of olive-green-brown RBL No More War. Another shade in the same general color family (albeit a much darker and browner version) is MAC Dry Martini, which was released as part of the Nail Trend FW09 Jin Soon collection (along with Cool Reserve, Dance All Night, For Fun, Rich Dark Delicious, and Beyond Jealous… none of which I bought). The marked difference between the two polishes can hopefully be seen in the following comparison shot:


In the picture above, RBL No More War is on my index and ring fingers, while MAC Dry Martini is on my middle finger and pinky.

I discuss the qualities of No More War in Wednesday's post. As for Dry Martini, it was my first MAC polish, and going in I was a bit worried as I'd heard bad things about the application of MAC polishes. However, Dry Martini was creamy, even, and richly pigmented (the swatch you see is two coats), and on top of that I loved the brush! It made for easy, neat application

Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War: Swatch Picture and Review

Some people love browned olive green shades; others hate them. Regardless of which side of the spectrum you fall on, these colors are certainly unusual.


RBL No More War was released as part of RBL's Fall/Winter 2008 collection, one of the very first polish collections I fell in love with. I remember loving the juxtaposing of more traditional shades like dirty pink Plie and plum-brown Bruised with less traditional colors like dark blue-green Teal and of course, No More War. RBL used to have a salon right by my apartment and I fought with myself for weeks, trying to justify the purchase of such expensive polish, before I finally made my way in and bought Teal. Plie, Bruised, and No More War came later, in one of RBL's famed 50% off sales, but eventually they found their way into my Helmer too!

This polish was a pleasure to apply, smooth and opaque in 2 coats. I have to say that I don't love this particular color against my skin tone (although I'll bet it looks darker and therefore better on pale skin), but I do like deeper versions of the shade. Stay tuned for a comparison with MAC Dry Martini, which I much prefer!

rescue beauty lounge grunge and streetwear black widow: swatch pictures and review

recently, i was given a tip as to where i could find a treasure trove of old revlon streetwears, and this was one of the long-discontinued and htf polishes i scored! rbl grunge looked totally wack on me on its own (i'll do a full post on it soon, but in a nutshell: brown girls beware!), but i thought its fairly nude/neutral color would make a good base for black widow:


my inspiration was a manicure done by my friend eve, in which she layered black widow over a nude polish to create the effect of a nude slip dress topped with a black mesh, lace, and sequined overlay. her mani was far superior to mine though - i did 3 or 4 coats of the sw, but maybe i should have done even more!

here's a close-up shot of black widow so you can see all the various kinds of glitter it contains: black regular glitter, silver regular glitter, and black bar glitter:

comparison swatch: rescue beauty lounge bangin' and opi red my fortune cookie

if you missed the recent rbl surf collection pre-sale or didn't want to shell out the big bucks for those polishes, you're in luck... because opi red my fortune cookie is pretty much a perfect dupe for rbl bangin'.


in this photo, i have bangin' on my index (leftmost) and ring fingers and red my fortune cookie on my middle and pinky (rightmost) fingers. please note that some browsers distort colors and that rmfc and bangin' are both bright warm reds... neither is orange at all irl.

in terms of color: in indoor/dim lighting, these two polishes are perfect matches. in bright lighting, bangin' appears to be just a hair more vividly red than red my fortune cookie, but i had to really look to make out this tiny difference.

in terms of formula/application: i would describe the formula of red my fortune cookie as great, and the formula of bangin' as absolutely perfect. both of these polishes went on very smoothly and had great pigmentation (requiring two coats for total opacity), but the formula of bangin' is just… sooooo unbelievably buttery smooth.

rescue beauty lounge surf collection swatches: 360, bangin', and diddy mow

what better way to come back from my little blogging break than with the latest collection from my absolute favorite polish brand, rescue beauty lounge? the spring/summer surf collection is now available again for pre-order through this wednesday, april 7, so i thought i'd share my swatches for those of you who are debating whether or not to take the plunge on these.

by the way, the formula on all of these polishes is absolutely perfect. creamy, smooth, buttery, pigmented... exactly what i expect from rbl. each of these polishes was close to opaque in one coat and was perfect in two.

diddy mow is a completely unique and seriously cool blend of gray and green. i can see myself reaching for this polish again and again and again come fall:


here's a close-up of diddy mow to show its secret shimmer:


360 is a muted medium aqua that's very pretty. it's slightly darker than what i'd normally consider a summery color, but it works:


the secret shimmer in 360 is slightly stronger than the secret shimmer in diddy mow - here's a close-up:


and finally, bangin' is an amazingly bright warm red creme and my current notd. i know many are passing on this color because it seems dupey, but i consider bangin' to be the ultimate, most beautifully pigmented version of my favorite polish color. some browsers are doing funny things to this pic, so please know that this is pure red, not orange at all:


okay, basketball needs my attention again. gordon hayward is so boyishly adorable; i want to fix him a grilled cheese sandwich or something. maybe bring him a glass of chocolate milk.

swatch: rescue beauty lounge chinoise

i'm planning on posting today's notd (american apparel downtown la) in the next installment of my swatches/reviews of the aa line of polishes, so for now here's a picture of what in my mind is a somewhat similar red creme - rbl chinoise. please note that the color accuracy of this photo varies from browser to browser - for your reference, chinoise is a cherry red with no orange tones at all.


this polish had smooth application and was opaque in two coats, but for some reason i'm not wowed. first, i think i prefer the creamier, super-pigmented rbl colors - shades like teal, mismas, and orbis non sufficit. second, i think opi does many red cremes that are every bit as good as this polish but come with a much lower price tag. and finally, i just don't think cherry red is my preferred shade of red polish, especially for my skin tone. i like for my red polishes to really pop, and so i gravitate toward uber-bright reds with orange undertones - for example, opi monsooner or later.

swatch: rescue beauty lounge coral

this photo varies wildly depending on the browser in which i view it, so just for reference rbl coral is a very vivid and juicy pink with slight melon undertones.


i absolutely love this color; it's so spring-y and thus perfect for the warm weather we've been having lately. it required just two coats for opacity and applied very smoothly... i adore rbls!

bf says: "you can see the reflection of the window in your nails. a csi person would be able to figure out where you live."

swatch: rescue beauty lounge purple haze

recently, i've gotten a couple of emails from people asking how to follow my blog - i actually didn't have the followers widget added because i personally use google reader instead, but i've just added the followers tool to the top of my sidebar for those of you who have been looking for it. i'm sorry about the confusion! and now, on to the polish:


a fairly vibrant medium purple with only a slight touch of gray, rbl purple haze in my opinion doesn't look its best on darker skin tones (a problem with most light-medium purples, i've found). while it's a pretty color and looks great on others, it doesn't quite pop on me in the same way. instead, it blends into my skin tone (not quite as badly as american apparel dynasty, however) and doesn't provide the contrast and boldness i typically look for in my nail colors.

on the plus side, the application of this polish was good. on the first coat it seems a bit like a jelly and as if it might require three coats for opacity, but it quickly evened out with just a second coat.

bf says: "there's a flaw in your application!"
me: "no, that's a bubble from my top coat. it's a chemical thing; i can't control it."
*long argument about polish application ensues; bf for some reason references marilyn monroe.*

swatch: rescue beauty lounge opaque nude

it's strange that i consider rbl opaque nude - a neutral - my comfort polish, considering that normally i gravitate toward vampies, bright pinks and orange-reds, and teals. but for some reason this polish always feels 'right' to me.


opaque nude is now unfortunately discontinued, but i have two bottles stockpiled so hopefully i'll never have to be without it! its application is great for a pale shade… pretty streak-free and opaque (true to its name) in just two coats.

to see how this polish looks on someone with a lighter/cooler skin tone, check out tobywoo's pics here.

bf says: "that's skin tone for a white person... you are not white. who do you think you are?!"

swatch: rescue beauty lounge atame

for a few days after i wore misa dying love i had on opi red hot ayers rock, and now i'm wearing rbl atame:


atame is patchier than most of my other rbl polishes, requiring three coats for opacity. its consistency is very smooth and easy to work with, and it still applies fairly well, but when i use an rbl i hope for the richly pigmented, almost-a-one-coater formula of polishes like teal, orbis non sufficit, and mismas - and atame unfortunately doesn't compare in that regard. still, it's a nice color, and i'm always happy to add to my rbl collection.

bf says: "blluhhh-dh!"

swatch: rescue beauty lounge lulu

this polish didn't have quite the opacity and smoothness of most other rbl cremes i own, so this mani required three coats:


i wore lulu with a super severe black dress - heavy fabric, high neck, and sharp, padded shoulders. i loved the contrast.

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.

swatch: rescue beauty lounge recycle

i don't love this one nearly as much as i used to... it was on my top 20 list last june, but now i'm thinking about swapping it away. how our tastes change! recycle is a true medium-green creme (that is of course quite a bit darker in indoor lighting), whereas these days i prefer my greens dusty or super-vampy. some of my current green loves are rbl orbis non sufficit, illamasqua rampage, sopi dark room, and zoya envy.

recycle isn't quite as richly pigmented as the other rbl cremes i own, but it should still be fine in two careful coats (i opted to do three less-than-careful coats, haha).

bf says: "your fingers look like a white person's in that photo. you are not white and are in fact quite brown." hahaha

btw, as soon as i can get the swatches done i'll post comparison pics of recycle with orbis non sufficit and bb couture green goblin... stay tuned!

swatch: rescue beauty lounge scrangie

this color is absolutely beautiful in the sun; the duochrome comes alive and the individual shimmer particles can be seen distinctly. however, i'm not in the sun that often (especially not in new york in november), and in the shade i like this polish much less. in the absence of sunlight, scrangie's shimmer appears frosty rather than particulate, and the duochrome effect becomes so subtle as to just make the base purple color look dull and muddy. both of these issues are completely understandable and couldn't have been avoided in the creation of this polish (or for that matter, any duochrome shimmer), but they're still issues that make me eager to change my mani and remind me why i don't normally do duochromes.

application on this was great, just like i'd expect of an rbl - three thin, easy coats to perfection. i know some girls on the nb reported that their bottles were streaky and chunky, resulting in bald spots and the need for "impossibly thick" coats, but i had none of those issues.

by the way, for those of you wondering how this compares to brucci typhoon lagoon, i did a comparison here.

bf says: "holy moly i like that np." (yes, he's also started shortening "nail polish" to "np." ha!)

swatch: rescue beauty lounge orbis non sufficit

observations:
1. it's very difficult to accurately capture just how grayed-out this polish is - i needed to mess with this one in photoshop quite a bit
2. rbl bottles are a major pain to hold for photos; i finally had to settle on this slightly odd pose
3. rbls tend to be chippy on me unless i wrap my tips, and this one was no exception... i had noticeable tipwear and a number of small chips after just 8 hours.

loooove how dusty this is - the muted/grayed quality of this polish really sets it apart from the rest of the green pack. and application on this was awesome - had i been paying more attention, i could probably have gotten away with just one coat (the above picture is of two).

(p.s. tt students, i seeee yoooou! hahahaha. feel free to call me out on any grammatical errors i make!)

comparison swatch: rescue beauty lounge scrangie and brucci typhoon lagoon

just did this for one of the nb girls, so figured i'd post it here as well.

scrangie is on my index and ring fingers; typhoon lagoon is on my middle finger and pinky. irl, they generally appear more different than they do in this pic (i think because the shimmer takes over in photos and makes it harder to see the differences in base color), but at some angles/in some lighting they do look quite similar.

main differences:

- opacity: this swatch is 3 coats of scrangie and 4 of typhoon lagoon. i bet scrangie would've only needed 2 though, had i been more careful.

- shimmer particles: the shimmer in typhoon lagoon is more "frosty" (which imo makes it more cheap-looking), whereas the shimmer in scrangie appears in larger, distinct particles. this difference is seen better in the pic below than in the one above.

- color of shimmer/duochrome effect: typhoon lagoon's is plain light blue, whereas scrangie's is green/greenish (which makes it, imo, more interesting).

- base purple color: scrangie has a slightly darker purple base color than typhoon lagoon, and then the fact that scrangie's shimmer is in particles rather than an all-permeating frost makes it look darker still (because the overall appearance of the polish isn't lightened by the shimmer in the way that typhoon lagoon's is). here's a pic that shows this well:

overall, i greatly prefer scrangie, not only for its ease of application but also for its darker purple color and its distinct shimmer particles rather than frosty appearance.

swatch: rescue beauty lounge mismas + maybelline colorama ruby rays

in love with this combo!

two coats of mismas topped with two coats of ruby rays

swatch: rescue beauty lounge mismas

the most amazingly smooth, amazingly pigmented purple creme evaaaaar.

this photo is of two coats, but mismas was practically opaque in just one. when i originally saw pics of this polish, i was worried it would be too cool-toned for me, but now that i'm wearing it i don't find that to be a problem at all (and i have very strong yellow/green undertones). in dim/indoor light mismas does get quite a bit darker - and with that, quite a bit cooler - but i don't find that it looks 'off' with my skin tone even then.

swatch: zoya sloane + rescue beauty lounge matte top coat

as per the request of my loyal reader micah (a fan of all things matte), here's an update on yesterday's notd of zoya sloane:

excuse the photo's low quality; this picture was taken under my desk lamp at two a.m. btw, i received the rbl matte top coat from a very generous friend today, and i have to say - it's amazing, if you like the matte look. super easy application, a very pronounced matte effect, and lightning-quick drying time.