Wednesday, November 30, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, the Women's Collection - Anger

Anger. Know how you get so angry everything just turns color? You're practically homicidal at that point. That's kind of this color. It's a purple with a dusty feel with silver mini micro shimmer to add to the iciness.


This is a very blue purple, obviously, and the shimmer is so dense that it's easily visible even in this not very close up shot, both in the bottle and on the nail. I love that micro shimmer, it lends a subtle sparkly and doesn't get all over you when you remove it!

The little collection label. Plus, check out that shimmer in there. See how dense that is? That's how BB Coutures usually are with that micro silvery yummy. Here it looks tealy-blue. That was my initial response to this polish was blue, but it's a changer. In different lighting you will see different aspects.

Very blue purple here, as you can tell. You can still see hints of the shimmer, too.

Gorgeous cuticles! What does that mean? Great formula, of course.

This is a nicely pigmented polish. Lots of color, super saturated, but still very do-able in the office, I think. Keep in mind we kind of get away with a lot at my work, but I think you could still easily do this.

 And another lovely glimpse of shimmer! Also, this is just a swatch so there is no top coat here. That shine is all in the polish. BB Couture says you can wear it alone. I never do just because my nails tend to be a bit of a peeling brittle mess. I want that extra bunch of paint and strengthener on there to keep them together, but if you have nice strong nails you may be able to wear these as they are. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has and what they thought.

Happy Talons!!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, the Women's Collection - Gluttony

Gluttony....I got nothing. I don't know why they chose this name for this polish. All of the ones I've reviewed up to now have all made sense to me on some level but this one does not. This is the lovely pinky purple of spring flowers...

OK, in this swatch it's more bluey-purple, but does it make you think of Gluttony? Doesn't me so we'll just decide that doesn't matter!

OK, here's the pinky side. This is one of those colors from my crayons that was worn down to the nub. I love these kinds of colors.

This one has the added benefit of having silver lovely sparkly that looks like dew drops. I don't know if I successfully captured that or not.

You can see a hint of it here....

Ahhh, the trusty bottle shot FTW. This silvery goodness comes across much better on the nail than I am able to capture it. It has a hint of shimmer to it.

Something a little different. I was trying to show what a changer this is. It's not a duochrome, not by any stretch, but it does appear to be different things in different lights. Pink, purple...it's purple, but it's muted a little.


Last shot.

It's pretty, isn't it? It makes me think of Easter eggs.

Happy Talons!

Monday, November 28, 2011

BB Couture - Wild West Collection - Bandito Shout Out

We must interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to give a shout out to a friend who has a birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SPACE BANDITO!

Adding to the wonder, it's a great purple! It's what I'm currently wearing as my regular mani, not a swatch, but I just applied it so there will have to be a Bandito Redux to cover wear.

I'm also trying out the BB Couture base and top coats so I'll have lots to tell you all!

Bandito!!

Lovely reddish plum. I've seen other swatches for this where it seemed a lot more royal but this is gorgeous. I really love this color.

This was a little more watery than I'm used to. It started to come together as the bottle was open and the second coat was easier to manage.

It has almost a metallic sheen to it but it's not. You can see the lovely pearl like quality.


Isn't that pretty? It does give me a slight reddish tint, though, doesn't it. Oh well. Might be the lighting. This is very accurate to color. Actually, this is such a strange polish...when I first put it on in indirect light I thought...I'm gonna have to write Kim, I think I got as weird batch, this is like gunmetal. Then I got it in more direct light and I have this lovely thing.

One last view:


Pretty pretty pretty!

This was:

2 coats Hard On Nail Strengthener (BB Couture)
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
2 coats BB Couture Bandito
1 coat Top-Rock top coat

The top coat did dry fast, but I had some softness in the lacquer underneath. Also, it picked up the pigment of the lacquer, but that may have been my rushing things more than anything. As you can see, it produced a nice high shine.

I'll let you know how it wore later on! This will come off Wednesday night when I should have my regular mani, though. Not a true road test.

Happy Talons! And Happy Birthday to the Bandito!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, the Women's Collection - Greed

Greed. Greed is good.
Well...the polish is. The action of greed is not.

Greed is a wonderfully understated light mocha color. There is some depth here, though it is pretty much a cream. I was surprised at how much I did like this. If you read this blog at all regularly, you will know I'm not much of a beige person. It's just so....beige. However, I wouldn't call this beige. I would call it mocha. I dub thee! MOCHA!

See? Darker than beige. It has a sort of melted light chocolate feel to it, it looks liquid.

Regard the perfect cuticles...good formula, that's what does that. Love BB Couture's formula.

I guess this is actually a putty. I think cafe-au-lait sounds better though, don't you? This is prettier than putty. It's richer...


Very wearable. Not edgy, really, but pretty and creamy and neutral. Suitable for any office. I think though, this has just enough grey in it that it might not work on everyone. It looks good on me, but I'm paper white, so most things will at least work.

I like it. It's not probably the first thing I'm going to grab, but it might be the first thing I grab for an interview or something like that.

Happy Talons!!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Egotistical

Egotistical is a royal purple. It's a royal purple that suggests that your ego is so supreme that you need to be drenched in the traditional color of royalty.


OOOO. It looks lit from within. This is a gorgeous color, which once again, has that lovely kind of pearly feel to it that is so hard to capture. I think you can see a touch of it here. It looks almost milky? But the color is still so intense. This is, as you can see, a lovely deep, deep purple.



Hm. Slightly blurry, but I like that they are trying this. I kinda know what's in each collection, so I kinda know what I want to go for and this helps me find it.


The question is...did I take ANY good pictures that day? My phone is the easiest way, and uses free internet, which I don't have for my computer, and I can't always tell they're blurry when I'm swatching! I need to figure that out.
Regardless, look at how this blackens around the curves of my nails. Pretty sweet. I like when they do that, it adds depth and mystery.

Here's a flash of the bottle, because I think it's nice to see what this looks like in the bottle and on the nail. Also, it allows the camera  a better opportunity to pick up the way the particles in the polish reflect the light and show what's happening in the formula, which is all good. As ever, this applied like a dream. Very opaque, very pigmented. BB Couture is, in my opinion, one of the best out there. I like it better than OPI, which I won't buy any longer. I'm not going to say you guys will never see an OPI on here because I have a substantial amount of it from when they were independent, but I won't buy any more of it, not with the COTY connection.
See the clean cuticles? Good formula. I admit, how easily I can get it around my cuticles and whether or not it stays where I put it is my litmus for formula. That and coverage.
Ugh. Nubbins. I need to get back on those vitamins I was taking. I'm trying to eat right but...I can't handle the nubbins!

Last one! Look at the shine!! That's no top coat, lads. This is such a deep purple. Original? Not so much, but really, it's mostly been done, hasn't it? I mean...for wearable every day colors, we've seen them. The question is, do they do it well, put their spin on? I think this fits the bill. I'll definitely wear this color. It's edgy but not crazy, it's pretty and interesting...that's what I like!!

Happy Talons!

Monday, November 21, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Selfish

Selfish is brown. Maybe because, for me at least, when I realize I've been selfish I feel like poop. It's much nicer than poop, but you still feel kind of brown and not so radiant. Or at least I have that problem.

There is a shimmer to it, and I have better pics of that. If you notice, this is the same color as my pillow, errrr....background!!

Slightly blurry label shot, but you can see on the nails that this has a very fine particle shimmer in it. The Men's collections from BB Couture tend to have this lovely micro-shimmer in them, almost like dust, which is cool. I'm pretty sure they're onto the fact over there that we steal the men's polishes, don't you think? I'm having trouble deciding what color I think that shimmer is. It has a red feel but the polish doesn't take on a red feeling at all.

All poo kidding aside this is really a lovely dark chocolate brown. It's definitely chestnut brown, there is no confusion that it's so dark it could be black or so much shimmer you could call it anything else. It's a lovely brown, and looking at this pic, it is a nice brown for me. I don't wear browns easily, I don't think. This would probably look good on most skin tones.

I like this shot because it shows the shimmer particles so well. I was lucky to grab this. They look red, they look gold...could be both.

This is a nice clear shot. You can see everything in this swatch. It's very true to color, you can see the hint of greyed out tint, the lovely dark chestnut brown, the shimmer particles...This is very true. 



OK, I had another shot to share with you but something is going wrong and I can't get pictures to load. Maybe if I leave this space holder here, it will turn up because this is a bottle shot that really shows the polish well. Maybe tomorrow I can get it to work better!

I hope you like this. I'd be interested to know what you are planning to pick up from this collection if anything!

Happy Talons!!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Indulgent

I have no idea what color I would think of for Indulgence. I have no idea what that should look like so when you see BB Couture's color manifestation of it...well, in my case anyways, I don't care what you call it, as long as I get to wear it.

This is a beautiful aubergine but the thing that was so hard to get to come across was the pearly quality of this. It doesn't want to translate on the picture. I guess, that's OK as long as I get to wear it!

I have another bottle shot, slightly different lighting.

Maybe if you click this and make it bigger you can see the hint of the pearl quality. This is not a straight cream, I think you can see that much? I hope you can. It's hard for me to tell sometimes because I know what it looks like in real life.

This is a great purple. It's dark, it's moody, it's strong. It's not quite amethyst, it has more depth.

In a desperately sad attempt to show the pearliness, I took this angled bottle shot. You can kind of see some shimmer there. Blue, pink, red...this really would like to have a flash to it but it doesn't quite. It's restrained.

Love love love love love...I'm like that tree in the Last Unicorn. LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE!!! This is sort of the color of Schmendrick's hat, I suppose....


It's so complex...this whole collection is complex. I don't think I have any other purples quite like this and I have a lot of purples. Purple is one of my favorite colors so I am drawn to it. This is one of the greats!

One last attempt at the pearly. Doesn't quite work, does it. I wish I could figure out how to get some of these accurately. I try angles, lighting...There has to be a way.

The formula was great, this is one of the more dependable labels that way. Great application and normally great wear. I only swatched these so I can't speak on that from experience on these particular colors, but in general BB Coutures wear quite well.

I hope you like it! Feel free to Indulge!

Happy Talons!

Friday, November 18, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Desire

Desire is about the color of the cherry brandy. There is a rusty, dirty quality to the color, which is perhaps fitting. If you're a seasonal color kind of person then this one is great for fall. But it's definitely a reddish color. It's not orange, it's not rust...Just look for yourselves!

See what I'm sayin'? It's not red. It's not brown. It's not rust. It's not burgundy. It's dirty red. I really really like it, whatever you want to call it. There is a very slight shimmer in it, which is mainly red so maybe that is all that is giving this it's red sheen. It's very subtle.

This looks a bit more red...I don't think I'd call it red, though. I suppose we can label it whatever it we want, this is what it is. It's very lovely.

This shows a bit of that shimmer. You can see one or two tiny specks of the red in this swatch. It's not really frosty, either. No worries there. You notice you're not seeing brush strokes or anything. This went on beautifully, actually. I'd be shocked to have a BB Couture that didn't.

Cherry brandy...that's the best descriptor I have. With a little shimmer. Very subtle shimmer. It's definitely work appropriate.

Pretty, huh? And this isn't a color I would choose for myself. I really like it on my skin tone, though. This one was a surprise because I expected it to be terrible on me. I'm so glad it isn't! This might go in the bag for my mani this week!

Like it? Desire it? Ha ha. Corny.

Happy Talons!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Jealousy

Jealousy is not green. I think for the Men's Collection she's gone with more how these emotions make you feel rather than what we tend to think of them being colored. At least that's my impression, anyways. Look and see what you think. You'll have a lot of opportunity because this post is also really swatch heavy.

Jealousy is a taupey grey with different microshimmer and some black micro in it. I think I have a swatch that will show you that. The black is rarely more than a hint. I like that. I like that it's kind of a feel more than something you clearly see. Maybe you wonder if you've seen it. It adds interest.

 With blinding flash to show you the sparkle. This is the one where you can see the black. Click this swatch and zoom it up larger and you'll see it. There are two specks I can see now on the pinky nail.

See the dull grey with a hint of kind of bland taupe? It's...this is how I feel when I get jealous. It's not a very nice feeling but it makes a really interesting and lovely nail polish!


Without flash. This is more ordinary lighting, what it will look like, but the flash does show how much shimmer there is in this, doesn't it?This shows the taupe sense better. You can still see the silver, both on the nail and in the bottle. Part of what is so great about BB Couture is that it's almost never a polish where you see something in the bottle that doesn't show on the nail. They are very WYSIWYG that way. It's a very nice quality. Ever see a bottle or a bottle shot, take it home and put it on and go WTF? Doesn't happen with BBC.

OK, no more acronyms!

It looks brown here. That's the taupe coming through at this angle and light.

Here it's showing it's grey side. This doesn't look smooth here, but I assure you, these dry pretty smooth. All that shimmer is so well incorporated that you don't feel it. You'll still want to top coat these, though they claim not to need it. It just helps protect your nails and polish better if you do.


There was such a lot happening here, I took a ton of shots of it. See the hint of purple on the pinky nail? That's the shimmer in there. This has a lot of character. It's hard to capture that in a picture, particularly since we've had so little sunlight here.

OK, last one. This shows the color and shimmer the best of them all, I think, though it has more color to the shimmer in real life. I really really like this. It's nice on me, as well.

Formula is great, easy to apply. See the perfect cuticles? BB Couture makes that easy to do! Good brushes, easy to handle, nice consistency. I love BB Couture.

Jealous? =D

Happy Talons!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BB Couture - Sinfully Polished, The Men's Collection - Enraged

OK. Enraged is blue! It's a complicated blue sparkly foil sort of thing.You might have thought red for "Rage" as a Seven Deadly, since that's the inspiration for these collections (Men's and Women's) but I think it's really more that steely blue color your thoughts turn to when they get full of rage, hate and fury. I associate fury with coldness...well, we don't know what she was thinking, but it works.

This post is very swatch heavy because I just couldn't seem to capture everything Enraged is. I took a lot of shots of it. I deleted a lot of shots of it.
I would call this denim, quite honestly. I have a pic against my jeans to prove the point. BUT. If you put this in another light it will do something else. Just my standard four swatch poses weren't going to show you everything you need to know about this.

This is a cool new thing for BB Couture: the collection name on the cap. I likey. If you're like a lot of us polish hounds, you're not leafing through 10 bottles, you're going through hundreds to find what you want. Maybe hundreds of BB Coutures. Not quite that guilty yet. Close! As you guys know, this is one of my favorite polishes.

However, look at the sparkly microshimmer foil thing going on on the thumbnail. This shows it pretty well, it's also pretty true to color. It's not quite this purple...there is purple in it, but it's not really purple.

Wow. Looks purple here. It's really not. It's more denim. OPI had a color like this years ago...Sahara Sapphire? I think that was darker. They're not dupes. I'm not saying that.

This definitely has a blue steel sort of quality to it. Not the Zoolander Blue Steel. I'm pretty sure this will turn left. But it does have that kind of coldness to the color.

Noticing how each swatch has different lighting and each time the polish looks different in it? Yes. This is not a duochrome. Not at all. It's always blue.

It always has that silver light to it.

AUGH! Yikes! See how this went royal on us? This is with flash, that's why. See how it brings out the lighter underpinnings of this polish? I love this. It's so complex. There is just a lot of stuff going on. We have a definitely silver microshimmer, we have a blue microshimmer, we have the foil quality...now we have royal.

Oh, now...see? Blue. Looks like sparkly denim. I love this color. It's casual but edgy, it's going to fly OK with dress pants for work, if your office allows anything but beige, pink and red, but it's still POW. Great color.

Different lighting again. Pretty pretty rocker princess color!!

Last one, I promise. This is a good one to talk about how easy this was to apply. Gorgeous application, as expected from a BB Couture. It almost goes without saying. But if you're a first time reader, never heard of BB Couture...then I need to keep saying it. These go on like a dream. Seriously one of the best formulas out there. I haven't found anything I like better. The brushes are consistently good, the polishes consistently edgy and fun and forever easy to use. Look at those perfect cuticles! I can't paint that well with a bad polish. I'm not a professional, I'm just a junkie. That that cuticle edge looks like that is purely BB Couture and it's perfection. Love this polish, love this brand...I feel like I need to be throwing flower petals in the air to convey the love.

Don't you love it? See why I needed 417 swatches? I hope so. I really wanted to show this off so you'd love it as much as me.

As ever, I purchased this collection as a whole from Overall Beauty. So easy to work with over there and she's doing some exciting things working with Australian companies to make it more affordable for all of us. Keep an eye out for a couple Ozotic reviews coming up! I did a swatch for Overall Beauty and it's posted on their site. I'm trying to get her a better one. You guys know I'm a perfectionist most of the time!

OK, I think I've babbled on enough about this one, don't you?

Happy Talons!