BB Couture for Men - Stud Finder

Stud Finder. BB Couture can be so tongue in cheek.

I often love the men's polishes more than the women's. They're edgier, tougher...the colors tend to be a little more out there because they aren't colors usually associate with women or with nail polish, for that matter. Stud Finder does not disappoint.

That is my smoky quartz ring I bought on sale...I love it. It's HUGE, which is not normally my style but when the stone is as pretty as that one, you kinda have to go for it. It is a heavy thing, too. I wore it in the swatch because it compliments the smokiness of Stud Finder so well.

Stud Finder is a difficult polish to describe. Fortunately, the swatches turned out near perfect. I took them at work! The best place, so I don't have bottle shots for you. Those are nice, I like to see them because sometimes bottle color is deceiving. In the bottle this is somewhat darker.

This is a near perfect swatch. It's exactly the pewter beige color of the polish and it captured the signature BB Couture micro shimmer ideally. The shimmer is there and visible but it's not like the last couple swatches of Ozotic bling. It's more subtle. This is perfectly office appropriate.

Kind of an attempt to show this in different lights, but it's merely meh, isn't it? The thumb nail looks amazing, though...

Isn't it lovely? I liked this and I loved wearing it. It's kind of ice queeny, isn't it? It's a fun neutral, if such a thing is possible.

The mechanics were my standard:

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques Formula 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
2 coats BB Couture Stud Finder
1 coat Seche Vite Top Coat

It wore pretty well but I abused it so it chipped. I think my top coat is going again.

I promise, I'll get off the BB Coutures for awhile. You guys have seen a lot of BB Couture lately. That isn't a bad thing, but the other companies put out some fun stuff as well. I have some great Christmas polishes to show you from Butter and China Glaze and I will do those! Next will be Deborah Lippmann Brick House, which I am wearing now. (wearing great, incidentally!)


Happy Talons!!

Ozotic 528

I only bought two of the Ozotics. They're on the pricey side and I've spent too much lately so, as you guys always hear, I'm on a buying hiatus!!! Strict No Buy! Well, one exception for the Rescue Beauty Lounge pre-sale of Bring it Backs, but that is IT!
But I digress yet again.

528 is a green and blue sparkle machine. It is really incredible to look at and more fun to wear!

Here's a preview of what you're in for. Swatch heavy again. This time I have some from the best swatch lighting in the world: my desk.

These come, incidentally, in these great rectangular bottles, which are easy to store, easy to hold and give you lots of bottle area to admire the color. Like.

See how this almost ombres down in color? It does that on the nail as well. You can see it here. You might want to click on this swatch to enlarge it.

The label shot. Kind of have to respect a company that doesn't feel the need to try for your attention with catchy and goofy names. As fun as the names are, it's kind of nice they let the polishes speak for themselves.

Another shot to let you see the bottle, but if you look at the middle finger here, you can see what this does quite well. It starts with a pinky fuschia, goes to blues, then a hint of purple and then green. Cool..

This shows it pretty well again. Even though the pose is different the color order is somehow the same. These play in the light.

Blurry shot to show the sparkle.

I loved this one, in case you can't tell.

These are all taken in sort of normal lighting. Just a lamp.

You can see here that the sparkle does cause some texture on the nail, but it's nothing you can't cure with a top coat. I don't think these had top coat on at the time the swatches were taken.

And now the desk shots!!! See how this lights up? Imagine the sun! I would have liked to have got you a sunlight swatch but that would have required the sun and I haven't seen it in days.

The only problem is that the flash only shows the green, but as the green wasn't all that cooperative before, is that really so bad?

Just to show another angle.

Last one!


This was over BB Couture Cash Black. The recommendation is to put these Ozotics over black because you'd never achieve a real density with doing so. I do wonder how this would do over say, Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle. Maybe I will have to try that one day!

I believe this manicure was 2 coats of Ozotic, which is where that heavy density of sparkle comes from but I would not swear to it. It's been a little while since I wore this.

Oh wait. There is another swatch!

OOO, the best for last!

Happy Talons!

Ozotic 529 - The Sparkly Wonder

Ozotic 529 is an amazing sparkly starlight kind of thing. Select colors are now available at OverallBeauty.com, which will provide you great service, I promise! These are imported from Australia and are worth every penny. I actually wore this manicure so I can give you some idea of wear as well on this one.

It's incredibly difficult to photograph because it changes so much. There are a lot of swatches, so be forewarned.

The sparkle in this is blue and purple. These appear to be in a clear sheer black base with a great sparkle, but it's not glitter. These will dry pretty smooth.

OverallBeauty recommends putting the Ozotics sparklies over black, which is where Cash Black came in (see the last post). It gives it a firm base. I think these on their own would be a hot mess. They sparkle isn't dense, it spreads out in the application, giving a night sky sort of appearance. However, it's dense enough that you don't really need to layer it unless you feel you simply must.

As the polish is moved through light, it changes colors, it shifts. It's really amazing. It's not a holo, not even close.

You can see here the differences just on the curve of the nail, how on each finger you can see different colors. It's stunning and eye catching.

Meh. Kind of a crap swatch, actually. But you can see the particles.

A bottle shot...see there is even a little pink in here. Very nice.

So this was:

1 coat Seche base coat
1 coat Nailtiques Formula 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild strengthener
2 coats  BB Couture Cash Black
1 coat Ozotic 529
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

This wore beautifully until it didn't. It came off in huge peeled chunks. On some nails. On others there was practically no wear at all. It appeared to almost dry out and flake off. it was strange. Because this was such a complex manicure, I couldn't really repair it.

The Ozotic went on easily enough, no need to rearrange anything, not that I think you could. The particles are very small, almost micro. It dries almost smooth. It's very smooth, but a good top coat will clear up any random lumpies very easily.

Pretty great!

Happy Talons!

Bb Couture - Cash Black

Cash Black is sweet glossy black polish. It's inky and deep. I'm not generally a big black polish wearer, but I admit that sometimes it is the depth you need under something more sheer. That was the reason I bought this. That post will be tomorrow to explain further so wait for it!


I only have a couple pictures of it because...well, how many pics do you need of a straight up black cream? Plus, I managed to get it ALL over me, which was bloody brilliant.

True black and the gloss is compliments of BB Couture. This doesn't have a top coat. I'm not sure how I managed to get it all over me...seems to me I nearly spilled it. So, I guess, take that as a sign of good wear. I couldn't get it off!

VERY black.

As usual for BB Couture, this went on beautifully and everywhere! It's creamy and applies easily. The litmus! Look at the cuticles, they look about perfect and as ever that is not me. I have a good technique but it's far from perfect. Without good polish I will have a mess, but these are always reliable in formula.

If you need a good black, this one will do the trick!

Happy Talons!

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

Lust...This is going to be one short post, peeps. The thing is...my pictures for this were all RED. I mean...there isn't really a lot of red in this polish so I deleted most of my swatches. I kept the one that is reasonably true to life and another that I tried to doctor so you could see why you aren't getting the normally 4-5 swatches, but that's about it. None of the rest were representative of anything.

Lust is a dirty orange brown. It's not really orange, it's not really brown...it's about the color of cooked pumpkin. Know what I mean? It's a straight up cream, no shimmer or hidden anything. BMWWU would call it "baby poop". But it's a baby poop that looks surprisingly good on me.

I wouldn't call this pretty exactly...it looks very chocolate milk colored here, but it's really a tad lighter than this and a smidge more orange. This is the best I have though. Look at this hot mess:

It looks nothing like this. I don't know what happened. I tried to lighten this, I tried to fiddle with the colors...It still looks more burnt orange and it's not. So...

Formula was great, applied nicely, well pigmented...just apparently it throws off the camera somehow! I'm sorry! When I wear this, and I'm sure I will, I will have to do another post on it with new swatches. What a drag!

Happy Talons!

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

Pride. Not the lion kind but the "I'm the shit" kind. Hm. How do we manifest this as a color? BB Couture did it with purple. Deep, dark purple.

It's almost black. I apologize, my bottle shot was painful and I deleted it. We have to start with this one.

This color is almost black. Maybe as black as the blindfold those who are prideful have when they look at themselves.

Wow does this look black. But it's not. It's deep dark purple.

You can see a hint of it if you squint here!

This really is a gorgeous blackened purple. I'm sorry these swatches do not do it justice.

A small word about the perfect formula: it's perfect. Regard the nice cuticles there, you can really see it. Highly pigmented, I think it's easy to see that as well. Nice polish, lovely dark color, looks great on my nubbins.

Happy Talons!

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

Envy...it's a terrible dark feeling. It makes you feel sour and mean and awful. I hate feeling envy and am pleased to say I rarely do. Usually it manifests as self-pity. I beat myself up, dust myself off and soldier on. I think this version of Envy is spot on. It's a very good rendition of what that feeling is. It's slightly olivey and dank green with a side of gunmetal for coldness.

This swatch only shows you a slight hint of the olive but a whole lot of that dirty.

More of the dirty. Like most of this collection, this color is one thing from one angle and one thing from another. However, not a duochrome, not in the, for example, Nubar sense.

NOW we're starting to see some green. It's not...it's almost more dirty olive and less green, if you see what I mean. It has a pearly shimmery thing going on which gives it interest. Straight olives we've seen: Rescue Beauty Lounge's No More War to name one much lemminged example. Something like this is a whole other animal. This is olive on the dark side. This is drab BDUs that have been in the battle and returned.

See, it's almost charcoal here. It's just a matter of lighting.

Now you see some olive, but really...I don't even know that I would call this green. It's so grey and dark. It's BB Couture's Ashes with a hint of green thrown in.

I really like it. It's edgy, it's shimmery, it's different.

As ever, great application and formula, great shine...what's not to love? I don't know that this color will be for everyone. This is the kind of color that BMWWU wouldn't want to put on me and tell me I'd better do myself! But, I do like it. It's moody, it will suit some episodes of life, but I think this is a color that says don't mess with me. Me likey.

You likey?

Happy Talons!