Nails: Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze

Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze is a sexy, greyed-out purple.

Direct sunlight.

This is a medium purple creme that manages to be simultaneously pastel and neon. It plays tricks on your eyes. I can't decide whether to call it lavender or violet. Either way, Purple Haze is a strong color and will grab attention (and compliments).

At an angle to sunlight.

Application was wonderful initially, but five minutes later I discovered that the polish had bubbled badly. None of my other RBL polishes have given me this problem, so it may have been a fluke. I still love the indefinable color.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Purple Haze is a twist on purple nails for spring.

fin

Nails: Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War

To think that Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War wasn't even on my want list. I picked it up only because it had come back into stock along with Sheer Nude, and I felt guilty spending shipping on one bottle of nail polish.

The name is misleading. "No More War" evokes associations with camo green, when the color is in reality a deep, muted, earthy olive green.

There is a heavy brown undertone, which I suspect is causing my nails to skew slightly less green in these photos than they do in real life. Be assured that the color is distinctly green to the naked eye. The brown does make No More War much more wearable than it may seem in the bottle.

Temptalia has beautiful swatches, while Polish Police does a good job of showing the balance between green and brown. No More War appears brighter in their swatches than it does in mine, but the shade does wear rather dark on me most of the time. After all, for most of the day you're not training a light on your nails directly.

The formula is slightly jelly-like, and the finish catches the light in a squishy sort of way. Two coats rolled on perfectly to achieve a smooth and opaque manicure. My nail technician was in ecstasies over this bottle and asked me where I got it. The next day, my high school students complimented me on the color. I can see why teenagers would like this funky shade.

Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War is a very unique color for a polish. Factor in the excellent finish and wear time, and this is one polish you need to grab before it sells out again (edited: too late, I must have gotten lucky). Now if only they would restock Diddy Mow.

fin

Nails: Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane

It is hard to describe Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane using words. It is just . . . lovely. All I want to do is pair it with an oversized cream sweater (which I already have done so).

Cool-toned shimmer under a slightly overcast sky.

Jane is a gray-beige with very subtle microshimmer. Basically, it pulls gray under cool lighting and beige under warm lighting. The color also could be described as greige or putty. The microshimmer is white-gold with an extremely sheer wash of pink flecks. It reminds me of the "secret shimmer" found in some of Chanel's polishes. The microshimmer gives Jane depth and prevents it from looking like cement on the nails.

Warm-toned flat beige. Looks like two completely different bottles, doesn't it?

The formula is typically excellent, and two coats are sufficient though completionists may want to add a third. Jane has held up for five days on my medium-long nails. Temptalia and Scrangie both have good swatches that show the shimmer and the beige tones better than mine does. Scrangie compares Jane to Grunge, and I have to say I thought the same thing.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane manages to be a modern, edgy, and utterly elegant neutral.

fin

Nails: Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge & Bruised

If you are a nail polish aficionado, then you know Rescue Beauty Lounge held its much-anticipated Bring it Back pre-orders last weekend. I'm still rather new to the brand, but I adore it already. Two weeks earlier, to celebrate the impending sale, I brought Grunge and Bruised to my favorite nail salon. Upon seeing the combination, my nail technician murmured, "perfect," and got to work.

RBL polishes apply beautifully. The first coat of Grunge rolled onto my fingernails like butter, and we added a second coat mostly out of habit. Under the lamp, the sheen was incredible: it wasn't shiny or shimmery, but as rich as caramel. Seche Vite as a top coat actually took the sheen down a bit. I'm going to have to try RBL's own top coat.

Grunge is a fascinating color. It's a greige that runs the gamut from gray to beige to brown to nude. In certain lighting, I looked as if I had the chicest mannequin hands. My photos, obviously, could capture only a small range.

Indoor lighting, at the salon.

I thought Bruised would look good on my toes, and they turned out to. It may show up as simply plum in my photo, but Bruised is another complex RBL color. It's a mixture of red and brown that, name aside, evokes old blood and nasty bruises. Bruised is a punky, vampy, darkly fleshy color, like dirty cabernet or merlot.

The two colors play off one another well, don't they? RBL polishes are also known for their durability and longevity; in my case, Grunge lasted a full eight days before I got my first, minuscule chip.

Rescue Beauty Lounge in Grunge and Bruised have instantly become some of my favorite fall nail colors.

fin