I've been holding off on posting this until I could photograph all the colors next to the originals, but I can't seem to find my Full Metal Jacket and can't get my hands on King Kong and I just need to post these before they become irrelevant. Argh! So much for plans.

Anyway, this year NARS was awesome enough to bring back a few of their old discontinued shades including the mythical ZULU. I'm insanely happy about this and it really makes me view NARS much more positively. Many of us have been begging for a Zulu re-release since the day it disappeared- and apparently they listened!

Here are the shades:


King Kong. Rusty brown shimmer. I never recall this being a super popular shade as far as NARS polishes are concerned, but it's actually really pretty. Reminds me of fall for sure. Very smooth and velvety looking on the nail.

Full Metal Jacket. A silver-grey frost. This is one of the few frosts that I actually like. It's a little streaky but not obnoxiously so, it does dry a lot smoother than it applies. It's very shiny and metallic looking, but not quite chrome-like. It's sleek and sexy.


MASH. I think I'm just as happy about the re-release of MASH as I am about Zulu! This is an incredibly beautiful dark olive green with gold shimmer. One of NARS' best old shades, if you ask me.


Midnight Express. This one can change appearance a bit depending on how it's applied. This is two rather thick coats, but I think it looks better with three thin coats. It's a jelly, so the more even you apply the coats, the better. Really brings out the jelly effect. This is a super dark blue which looks especially nice in a jelly finish. Illamasqua Propaganda is similar in color and finish, but this was easier for me to apply and had a more jelly look.


Zulu. I apologize for the strange pictures. Zulu is really hard to capture and I wanted to show the green-ness of it. If you're not familiar with Zulu, it's a super dark blackened green jelly. One of the most unique and gorgeous polishes ever released. I know some would disagree with the 'unique' label, but I've really never worn, seen or frankened an exact match for this. The closest I've used is George Evergreen. Somehow none of the Zulu-clones have that dark jelly depth and squishiness that the original Zulu has. Unfortunately, the new Zulu also lacks a lot of the jelly effect of the original. Still awesome, though.

The best thing about the re-released polishes has to be the formula. It's three-free and greatly improved. The old ones were a little on the sheer and slightly runny-goopy side (I think they were three-free before, weren't they?) and took a while to dry. These are now thicker and more opaque which means they're easier to apply and need fewer coats. They also dry quickly. NARS' brush is not my favorite- too thin- but that's the only complaint I have about the bottles and formula.


I do wish they had re-released Platoon along with these to make a full six. But, they re-released Zulu, MASH and Midnight Express so I really can't complain! Really cool of NARS to bring back the old shades. If only some other brands would do the same- like Urban Decay or Revlon!

(These were sent to me for review.)

NARS Vintage Collection Fall 2010

I'm really not happy with how some of these pics turned out. I've re-done a few of them a couple times and I still don't like how it came out... But, I already have the pictures taken, I may as well post. I think this is the last of the BB Coutures I have left to post! Well, except for that one collection from last fall but I haven't been able to bring myself to post it... It's just... so... yeah, let's just get on to the post.

Cantina Nights Collection - Summer 2010

Adios Mofo

Blue Bahama


Cosmopolitan



Dirty Mother


Grasshopper



Hangover Blues



Huckleberry Martini (not as blue in real life)



Kamikaze


Kiwi Margarita



Pina Colada



Sex On The Beach


Tequila Sunrise



Men's Formal Collection - Spring 2010

Award Medal

Ceremony

Dinner Jacket



Dress Rehearsal



Incognito



Tuxedo Night

Saints Of Ruin Collection - Summer 2010

Ashes



Dark Tommy




Dying Time



Fairy Tale



Nightmare



Ruby Ruin

(These were sent to me for review.)

BB Couture Spam featuring Saints of Ruin, Men's Formal and Cantina Nights

I have a couple of the latest Dazzle Dry collections to review so I'll go in seasonal order. Here's the Fall collection. It's called Heat Wave and consists of only four colors:


Emerald. This is more of a topcoat than a wear-alone glitter because it's so sheer. It's a fine opalescent emerald colored glitter in a clear base. I have on about five coats and you can see it's still quite sheer. With Dazzle Dry you can actually do five or more coats if you wanted and it will still dry faster than normal polish and it won't bubble. It's a gorgeous color but an odd choice for a layering polish in this collection- it doesn't seem to go with any of the other colors!



Red Hot Chili. Holy moly, that's bright. Awesome. As you can see it's a painfully bright light red with orange tones- this actually looks pretty coral-colored on my skin tone but more red in the bottle.


Savory Cranberry. A rusty type of soft red shimmer. It's not orange enough for me to truly call it rust and it certainly doesn't look cranberry colored to me, so I'm not sure how to classify this shade. All I know is that I want Thanksgiving dinner right now.


Serious Cinnamon. Easily the most interesting shade in the collection. Also my favorite of the bunch. It's a really rich brass shade made up of tiny little sparkly particles. You would think it would be a foil based on how it looks in the bottle but it's not! It's more comparable to those Milani metal shades (like Melt In The Sun) but I find the finer-textured particles in this to give a prettier finish. Absolutely perfect for fall.

Before I go on to talk about the texture/formula, I must address one thing. These are not 'normal' polishes- they are a special quick-dry formula and must be used with the Dazzle Dry system for them to work as intended. I'm sure you could use your regular basecoat and topcoat with these and the color will look just fine, but you won't get the lightning-fast dry time and steel-like chip resistance.

The formula on these is quite unusual, but I suppose it's normal for Dazzle Dry. In a cold room they're almost jelly-like but still apply pretty smoothly. Once they warm up they're the texture of regular polish. They seem like they'll be too thin but they're very pigmented so you don't need many coats. I did three of all except Emerald which is five. They only needed two but I wanted to see how they would look with three. Dry time is unbelievably fast, even with the five coats of Emerald.

If you've never used Dazzle Dry before, here's the quick summary of what it is:

There's a set of treatments that you use in conjunction with the Dazzle Dry polishes. There's a nail prep, a basecoat and a topcoat. You apply the nail prep to cleanse the nail, apply the basecoat and let it dry completely (about a minute), apply as many coats of your Dazzle Dry polish as you want and then apply the Dazzle Dry topcoat. It will dry completely within five minutes, give or take. And I do mean completely- not just set or dry on the top- completely dry from top to bottom. See my previous post for more information.

Overall, tiny collection but still not bad. I like the gold. I like the Emerald glitter but it doesn't seem to belong in the collection. It doesn't look right layered over the rest of the colors, but it does look fine alone if you don't mind a sheer glitter. What I like most about these is their drying ability. You can rush and be sloppy and glob it on super thick and it will still dry flat and smooth in no time at all.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Dazzle Dry Heat Wave Collection Fall 2010

Here's a couple of the polishes from SpaRitual's fall collection. The big standout of the collection is definitely Health, Wealth and Happiness:


Health, Wealth and Happiness. Don't mind the tipwear, this many was two days old when I took the pictures. It's a crazy-awesome duochrome in the bottle but less so on the nail. Still duochrome enough to make me love it. The base is a deep blue shimmer with purple duochrome. It reminds me of some of the old Sally Hansen Prisms layered- maybe Burgundy Orchid over black?


A World Of Compassion. A slate/periwinkle/lavender mix in a creme finish. Very soft and calming. I'm actually rather fond of this one. Understated color.

Dreams Becoming Reality. Medium teal creme, bordering on the blue side of teal. I think I like the look of teal more than I like how it looks on me. I think I have a hard time pulling off this color. That said, it's lovely to look at. It's nice to see a lighter, cleaner shade of teal, too. Seems like a lot of the ones I've seen recently are dark or dusty. This one's only a little dusty.

The formula on these was so-so. I'm not generally a fan of SpaRitual's formula- I found these to be runny. They had that 3-Free texture- runny and drippy yet thick. The opacity was varied- Health Wealth and Happiness needed three coats, A World Of Compassion needed two and Dreams Becoming Reality was an almost-one coater. I did three of all. Drying time is painfully long.

Unfortunately I don't have the rest of the shades to review so I can't comment on the collection as a whole. However, I do like these three colors. A lot of SpaRitual colors seem to be themed- most of them are calm, earthy or relaxing spa-type colors. Some of them are just Orly colors in a prettier bottle. One thing I'm noticing about this brand (still new to me) is that the names veer dangerously close to Misa-Cheese territory.

(These were sent to me for review.)

SpaRitual Imagine Collection Fall 2010 (Partial)

For your educational pleasure the LMC Art Department has added three new talented instructors.

Mckenzy Germain is teaching animation


David Tallitsch is teaching painting. He isn't even close to as harsh as this photo makes him look.

Roger Yee is teaching ceramics. That's clay and pots and sculpture for you non-ceramicists.

Hello Fall 2008