And the winner is....

Rescue Beauty Lounge Iconoclast.

Ooooo. This is a charcoal almost-black grey with definite micro-shimmer in it. The shimmer is subtle and I could see it lots better in the bottle than on my nails. You can see hints of it in this pic.

Here is another shot of it:

OK, why does my ring finger look black? Whatevsies. You can see that micro-shimmer there on the pinky nail and on the ring finger a little. These might be good pics to click on and check out full size. The preview pane isn't letting me do that to see if it shows up better.

Awhile ago I had picked up the care kit from RBL. It's called the Nail Treatment set and...it's currently unavailable, but no worries because you can buy the pieces separately. It contains the nail prep treatment, a rather lovely base coat and a top coat. I wanted to see how all this performed together. The answer is hells yeah. For the 4 days I wore this I think I had one teeny chip. Granted it really only got work abuse. The most I think it did was cook one meal and the dishes thereinvolved, but I was impressed. No real tip wear, which given that I put in 3 very long days off before the end of my vacation time, was pretty great.

I kept looking at the color and thinking...where is all that glorious microglitter in the silver and other colors? Then I went to meet Ruby Pumps and checked it out in the sun. Ahhh. There it was. Unfortunately, I never had an opportunity to snap a pic. You see, I don't really advertise that I write this. I am terrible at self-promotion and in fact, today was told that my self-deprecation was bordering on the pathological and it needed to stop because it was more self-flagellation than deprecation. I told him to come back when he was in the mood to watch me emotionally cut again. I am harder on myself than any other 50 people would be, I think. So, I tend to think that I write this thing for myself, which is where all the babbling comes from. No one's really reading it, right? Right! So...it's all good.

I had a point...oh yes. That Ruby Pumps doesn't know that I write this. I am not sure how she would feel about being called Ruby Pumps, actually, though it IS her favorite polish and her go to when she's feeling like sparkling but not pushing the envelope. She's not a polish risk taker but I think there is one in there. She is pushing herself which is awesome. I think most times it pays off for her and I hope my complete lack of traditionalism in all things polish gives her courage. After all, how daring is her China Glaze Dear Audrey next to my RBL Iconoclast? Yeah, not so scary, right? Relatively speaking, we are still outside her comfort zone but not THAT far out.
I don't have a comfort zone. I'll wear anything.
My point again...OH! That I couldn't just stop there in the parking lot and find a pose and shoot swatches. Not without explaining myself and I just didn't want to do that.  She didn't like this, not "for Summer". I don't really buy into the seasonal color scheme idea. Sometimes I feel like wearing a Summer kind of color but it might be January and I'm not going to let that stop me. Color is a very mood powerful element to me. If I feel like busting out a neon in February, I'm bloody well going to do it.

So anyways. I entrusted my tips to RBL nail treatment system and it was a raging success. I recommend whole heartedly. I confess I was a bit skeptical on the whole base coat prep idea but it did clean the nails and leave them almost matte? It wasn't a polish, I think it simply whisks away anything that might keep your polish from sticking.

Then the base coat goes on nicely but not so opaque that you couldn't do a nice sheer over it if you wanted. RBL has some nice sheers so maybe that was the idea. I was a little worried, it was like giving up my rebuild security blanket. I felt like Linus after Snoopy runs off with the blanket? You know how his hair goes all haywire and he can't function until he steals it back? Yep. But they survived, quite nicely, I might add. And the polish stuck to it like glue. Awesome. The top coat went on nicely. It seemed a bit thin at first but it was really lovely, actually. It made it easy to apply and I think I might have just been Seche conditioned to think all top coat needs to be like automotive clear coat. (Incidentally, my father the car nut informs me he can get me automotive clear coat for my nails a LOT cheaper than Seche. He thinks he's hilarious. I love him, but he doesn't get it. He does like to see what I've done, though.) The top coat dried reasonably fast, but I did manage to bungle one nail afterwards. I thought they were dry enough but they were dentable. It fixed right up easily, I'm happy to report. No probs after that.

So to sum up, this was:

1 application of Rescue Beauty Lounge Nail Prep
2 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge Base Coat
2 coats Rescue Beauty Lounge Iconoclast
1 coat Rescue Beauty Lounge Top Coat

What do you think?

OO you can see some of that lovely micro shimmer there...nice.

Ji Baek, the owner and founder of Rescue Beauty Lounge calls her followers ReBeLs...how cute is that? I'm one. Obviously. If you ever try her polish, I bet you will be one, too!

Happy Polishing!