BB Couture - Glampyre

 I haven't done a BB Couture in forever. I don't know why that is. I love them. If you read this at all consistently, well, not recently, but in the past, you will know that I love them. I've even missed the last couple of collections being released. I think I stayed away because I knew I would have to have them and that was $120 bucks I don't have to spend. I'm on a strict no-buy for awhile, except for the really great stuff. Like the new Cult Nails collection, which I will have to scam money for from somewhere.

Regardless!

Glampyre was a late addition to the Saints of Ruin Collection which was inspired by...The Saints of Ruin. Which is a band. I'm old. I don't know them and I don't care because the collection is great and late or no, Glampyre was a great addition.

As you can tell, it's a lovely shimmery blackened olive drab concoction of wonderful. It's changeable, it looks brown in some lights, it looks definitely olive and at times definitely gold. There is a lot of gold in the color.

And it does that fantastic blackening past the curve of the nail thing. And it has the male seal of approval as well!

There is it's olive coming through. And the shimmer. And please keep in mind that each of these pictures is true to it in one light or another. I didn't get any sun shots of it because honestly, we're in record highs where I live, the air quality is shit and they are warning people to stay in. Healthy people. I am not unhealthy but I do have crap lungs. I can barely breathe most of the time and that's in the air conditioning so I don't go out there unless I have to.

Lookit me, pretending to be in an advertisement.

This is an example of it looking brown. Just one more of the colors it offers. You can see the goldish green color in the bottle...it reminds me of a patina. That is really the way I see it. Gold that has a patina on it, like bronze. But yes, you will see it look brown as well.

Not the world's to die for swatch, to be sure, but it does show the blackened darker aspect of this. You will never mistake it for a black but black is a big part of what is happening with it.

Just one more shot of the blackened olive gorgeousness.
Now...I appreciate this color isn't for everyone. It's not going to work on everyone and it's not going to appeal to everyone. It's really pretty unique and it takes some cojones to wear it. it's one of those colors people will look at you crazy for. Which I don't personally mind. I find a nearly sarcastic benign smile takes care of the judgmental and fearful of color people out there, but if you've never pulled that smile off then...I understand your taking a pass on this one. However, I love it. There are similar ones out there, I'm trying to think of that Nars one...MASH? Think so. I think too, that it lacks this blackened dark and sinister quality. Think so. Then again, that's not for everyone, either. And of course, I won't promote that...animal testing! Not Nars but their parent company Shisheido. Of course, almost all the big cosmetic companies are animal testing because China is requiring it. Huge step backward.

This is at the end of it's life. The manicure is 5 days old, it's filed hundreds of papers and washed a lot of dishes. It's still holding it's shimmer but you can see the cuticles are starting to peel and it's just looking shabby.

This was a problematic manicure for a lot of stupid reasons. Here's a tip, don't play xbox while painting your nails. It doesn't work out. When repairing said damage the next night, don't smack your nails into your computer desk. I got this all fixed but it did take it's toll.

Given the hard luck life of this manicure it did amazingly well. I had to put another coat of paint over the existing top coat to fix the xbox massacre so that helped. But it also caused some peeling and lifting, which you can see where a chunk came out towards the top of the middle finger. Nice.

Wait til you see the other hand that I've been picking at.

DOH! There it is. Bad, huh? Yeah..it's going away tonight.

You can see on the tip of the index finger where I tried to clean up some of the mess I made. I should have started over! Plus, my base coat isn't wanting to dry so it just had problems. None of that is the fault of the lacquer, which held up amazingly well with the whole nail world stacked against it.

And it looks bronze here. Such an odd color.

Application was great, when I wasn't messing it up, and it went on in two lovely coats. Very opaque, very easy to manage. It dried just fine, what was under it didn't so I would guess drying time to be quite good on this.

It's readily available on Overall Beauty. Kim's a sweetheart so check out what she has going on. She's now handling quite a few polish lines including GlitterGal, Ozotic, Cult, A-England...I need to write to her and suggest she talk to Cheeky Monkey...maybe I will.

Glampyre...Just try it.

Happy Talons!

Do you ever wonder...

...how a polish addicted and or addled blogger chooses her next polish?

I thought I'd share my sometime process, which will also allow me to do picture spam! Because...honestly, it was kinda fun.

First things first...you have to raid the stash unless you've got something you absolutely MUST wear right now, which is hardly ever the case for me. I usually have about 9 colors in mind, orrrrrrrrr I am in the mood for something, maybe a feeling, and I go searching for it. I was coming out of LCN Green Temptation, and I didn't bother taking it off to try other stuff. You can get an idea by just slapping it over the old stuff.

It seems I was in the mood for dark:

These are, from Left to Right: Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle, MAC Biker Blue, and Rescue Beauty Lounge Under the Stars and Iconoclast. Hmm....Biker Blue didn't really cover well. You can see in the bottles it's quite a bit darker than Under the Stars and not really opaque.

Razzle Dazzle...that's truly sparkly!

Hmmm....Let's look at that again.

Rescue Beauty Iconoclast and Under the Stars, MAC Biker Blue (which is not faring well over Green Temptation. Nope.) and Lippmann Razzle Dazzle. Under the Stars is dazzlin'....Razzle Dazzle is too fun...Hmmmm. I've really been wanting to try to Iconoclast and I'm thinking that fighting with an opaque base coat to work with Biker Blue is not what I want to deal with right now. It's very pretty, though. Plus, my promise to you readers to not show stuff you can't get...it was in the "soon to retire" section on the MAC website. **Rant: that is what I hate about MAC. They put out these great colors and they have like 9 of them. I swear they must sit back and laugh at us addicts. It's sadistic. Truly. And yet...what am I showing you? A MAC. Yep. I'm a sucker, too. End Rant**

What else have we got in the drawers? *Yes. Drawers. There is furniture.) Oooooo! While we're playing here, let's check out that A England Lancelot....Can you see the red in it when it hits the nails?

Hells yeah, you can. It's a dried blood kind of red...it's blackened red. It's...wow. I put that on and went OOOOOOOO! **Happy polish dance!**

But I don't think I'm in the mood for that.

What else have we got? A couple I've been dying to wear but can't seem to find the right moment:

S'pose those are BB Coutures? Only one of my fave polishes? Yep. Ashes and Glampyre, respectively. I like this pic of Glampyre...it really shows it's a lovely blackened gold. It's dazzlin'. (That is my happy word these days. I dunno why.)
Love them. BUT....what else have we got?

OOOO! Sparkly! That Lippmann Razzle Dazzle...What all can we do with that?

How about Rescue Beauty Lounge Moulin Rouge under Razzle Dazzle...

Errr...Moulin Rouge is showing WAY more purple than it is in real life. I would describe it as a plummy red, actually. Well, regardless, it works well with Razzle Dazzle, makes a nice solid foundation for the more jelly base of Razzle. Pretty. I thought I might have a winner but...Iconoclast was still speaking to me.

However...now I'm intrigued by Razzle Dazzle. (Oh lord. The Beatles Pigges just came on. "With their piggy wives")

What else can I do with this lovely thing?

***think, think, thinkthink**

Bright pink! Who does a great BRIGHT PINK? Illamasqua!

OOOFA. I rememeber putting Illamasqua Collide on (and it nicely covering that green, incidentally) and thinking "WOW. Now THAT is neon.) And look what Razzle Dazzle does. It's a whole other look. Fascinating. Hmmm...I still have that A England Lancelot on...

Coooool. It's like a midnight party...Good to know, good to know!

Yes. I can spend hours doing this. I can't help it. I love the colors. Obviously the whole taking the polish thing off is a bit of a nuisance to me, but then again, painting over the old mani can let you see what you're going to be dealing with.

Which one do you think I chose?

Stay tuned!

Happy Polishing!