Showing posts with label BB Couture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BB Couture. Show all posts

Vampy Varnish BB Couture Collection: Part II

Above & Below: Redwood Forest, shown in 2 coats. This is a vibrant, deep Kelly green shade with a jelly-type base and aqua glitter. Pardon the mess on my cuticles! This was my last swatch and I was getting tired!
Below: Vampy Varnish, the collection's namesake polish, is actually a very complicated color to explain. It seems to have a charcoal base, but there is definitely green in there as well, although it is difficult to capture with a photo. The glitter is actually Emerald green and quite obvious in real life. When I applied this shade, my first thought was 'this is China Glaze Emerald Sparkle's deep, brooding older brother'. Simply beautiful.
Below: Kelly's Green, shown in 2 coats. Now this is what I call a unique shade, and I adore it. I showed my husband this collection and he chose this one immediately as his favorite. Not that he'd ever wear nail polish, but he does like the color. I would describe this as a pastel olive, if there is such a thing. It has tiny silver, gold, green and black glitter...those are the colors I see anyway. Click here to read Kelly's more detailed color descriptions.
The last 3 shades in this collection are just as beautiful as the first 3 I showed earlier today. I'd have a difficult time choosing my personal favorite, because I honestly love all of them. These shades are all unique to my collection and the finishes, although all glitters, seem to have quite a bit of variance as well. I wish the sun were out, because I just know they'd impress me even more...especially Napa Valley Red and Vampy Varnish. All 6 of these polishes covered perfectly with 2 coats, although I was able to get away with just 1 coat of Union Square in the post below. Scroll down if you missed the first 3 shades in this collection developed by Kelly, of Vampy Varnish fame. These are available at Overall Beauty for $9.00 each.


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Vampy Varnish BB Couture Collection: Part I

Above: Napa Valley red, shown in 2 coats. This is a deep violet red or deep burgundy red-toned jelly base with coordinated glitter. No matter how many photos I took, they simply do not do this shade justice. Kim at Overall Beauty believes this is the best-selling one, and I can certainly understand that.
Above & Below: Union Square, shown in just 1 coat! Unbelieveable coverage on this metallic bronze shimmer with what appears to be tiny silvery pink glitter. Below, with a matte top coat.
Below: Mendocino Midnight has a special place in my heart, because I have always been partial to tealish green shades. I used 2 coats on this shade. It looks like a deep evergreen with hints of teal on the nail, and the small glitter reflects an emerald green sparkle in less direct lighting.
As many of you know, the lovely Kelly from Vampy Varnish recently had the opportunity to work with BB Couture in developing her own polish collection. You can read about her experience and see her swatches here. BB Couture polishes have always impressed me with their formula, their color selections, and their range of finishes. Combine that with Kelly's eye for color and style, and I knew these would not disappoint. I purchased mine from Kim at Overall Beauty last week. I happened to be on Twitter when Kim announced one of her fabulous sales...buy one get one free, limit 3 free. I jumped on that opportunity immediately, because it was only available for one day, and ordered the entire collection. This is the perfect trifecta of nail polish...the quality of BB Couture, the unique and beautiful polishes that Kelly designed, and the customer service of Overall Beauty! Congratulations to Kelly for doing such a wonderful job turning the colors in her imagination into such beautiful polishes!


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Playing Catch Up! More BB Couture Men's Polishes

Above: BB Couture Grenade may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it! These all covered nicely in 2 coats and the photos were taken indoors with a flash. Grenade is an Olive green shimmer with very fine gold and multi-colored shimmer or glitter.
Above: Night Ops is more of a shimmer with glitter. It's a deep cobalt blue with a hint of teal, and the glitter is an aqua jeweled tone.
Below: Military Blues is one of those special polishes that seem to glow from within. It's a deep royal blue shimmer that reflects the light in such a way that the color appears to fade from a lighter to a darker shade.
Whew, I got my Rescue Beauty Lounge order in! I'm trying to play catch up on my blog today because I'm massively behind on swatching and comments. I keep a small stash of polishes on my desk that I never got around to posting about, usually leftover ones from collections I've started to share with you but never finished, so I'm trying to clean those up. Today I have the last of the men's polishes from BB Couture/Overall Beauty that I was posting last week, and I still have 2 China Glaze Glitters and 2 of Old Navy's Tip Toe polishes sitting here, which I'll try and swatch later today. I received swatches from Yen at Victoria Nail Supply of the new Color Club Japanese Exclusive Glitters they'll be stocking soon, so I'd like to get those posted up as well.


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Friday Follower Freebie!

Two random winners will be chosen over the weekend for this week's FFF prizes! Check the FFF box in the right hand column on Monday for the winners, and for a preview of the 12/18 FFF prize. Each winner of today's drawing will receive 1 full sized bottle of Treasured Body Tropical Waterfall Body Lotion (8 oz.), 2 mini bottles (2 oz.) of Treasured Body lotion in a variety of different scents, and 1 bottle of BB Couture nail polish from their latest men's collection, either Pipe Bender or Impact Driver. Note: There is no choice on the smaller lotion's scents or nail polish shades. Thank you Kim and Overall Beauty for furnishing today's prizes!

The rules are simple: You Must Be A Follower Of Some Sort. You Must Leave Your eMail Below In The Comments Section As Your Entry. All Entries Must Be Received By Midnight Tonight.


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Grey Day, Grey Polishes! BB Couture Caliber, Widow Maker, Blue Steel

Above: BB Couture's Caliber is a bright silver with a chrome/foil finish. I apologize for the glare, but we're trapped in the the house today because of a blizzard, so a flash was the only option.
Below: Widow Maker, a light grey shimmer, is a very nice shade. It's my favorite out of these 3 because of the finish type.
Below: Blue Steel, despite it's name, does not show a trace of blue to me! It's a dark Charcoal grey with a chrome/foil finish. All 3 covered nicely in 2 coats.
These 3 shades are all from BB Couture's men's polish line and were released a few months back. Their latest men's releases can be found in my posts earlier this week, if you'd like to scroll down. We're having our first snow day today and it's extremely cold, windy, and of course, snowing. So I'm busy trying to keep my daughter entertained and our newest dog distracted from the cats! I have been very frustrated with the lack of sun and bitter cold temperatures, because that means I'm forced to shoot only indoor photos, which always have lighting issues. I wanted to mention that Joann Fabrics has their Ott Lighting 50% off this week, which is a fabulous deal. I need to get mine out, because it definitely helps with indoor shots.

Back to the polishes...there were 3 greys in this first collection, which seems a bit much to me. I'll have the other 3 shades for you later in the day. They all covered exceptionally well in 2 coats, and dried quickly to a high shine. Caliber and Blue Steel have a chrome, and somewhat frosty finish, which I'm not fond of, but the brush strokes were minimal compared to many other brands with this finish. Widow Maker is a lighter shade, with shimmer. I would call this a Dove grey. All in all, they're nice shades, and I'd have to say that of these 3, Widow Maker would be my first choice, simply because I'm not a fan of chrome finishes. Just a reminder that Overall Beauty is offering free shipping through 12/11 on all of their orders.


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BB Couture Impact Driver, Wire Stripper & Pipe Bender

Above: BB Couture's Impact Driver is a smoky blue/grey tone with silver/blue shimmer. I only used one coat on this one and that gave me total coverage. All photos are indoors with a flash because we're under a winter storm warning and there is no sun and 50 mph wind gusts!
Above: BB Couture's Wire Stripper is shown using 2 coats. This is an interesting shade, because it looks like a Charcoal grey shimmer with light-changing shimmer in several colors. In real life, there is also a touch of an olive green tone, especially in darker lighting.
Below: BB Couture's Pipe Bender looks to be a darker Emerald green shimmer in the bottle, but once on the nail, a veil of iridescent blue/green/violet/silver shimmer appears as a shifting focal point around the center of the nail.
Today I've got the last 3 shades from BB Couture's latest men's polish releases. If you scroll down to yesterday's post and Sunday's post, you can see the first 3 I swatched. Pipe Bender and Impact Driver were the two that initially caught my eye, given the fact that they're a green and a blue. They did not disappoint me in the slightest, but I'd find it difficult to pick a favorite from any of the 6. They're all different and unique shades, they all covered wonderfully in one (Impact Driver) or 2 coats, and honestly, I love all of them. I had a hard time describing the colors of them, because they don't seem to fit into just one specific shade/color category. Overall Beauty is still having their free shipping offer through the 11th, and 2 lucky winners will each receive one of these polishes on Friday as part of the prize offering for the 12/11/09 Friday Follower Freebie.


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Man Week Continues~BB Couture Hammer Drill & Stud Finder

Above & Below: BB Couture's Hammer Drill shown using 2 coats. Above photo is with a flash, below photo is no flash. Both pictures were taken outside under snowy skies.
Below: Finish detail.
Below: BB Couture's Stud Finder shown using 2 coats. This picture was taken with a flash, while the photo below is shown with no flash.

Below: Stud Finder with one coat of Essie's Matte About You.
Below: Finish detail.
Here are 2 more shades from BB Couture's latest collection of polishes for men, Hammer Drill and Stud Finder. I kept hearing Hammer Time Can't Touch This in my head as I was swatching Hammer Drill, so now that I've gone and gotten it stuck in your head, let's talk about this color! Hammer (Time) Drill is a shade that falls into the burgundy/maroon/wine family, although there's something about it that makes it difficult to fit into any of those families. I really like this shade, but again, I'm having a hard time defining the color. I'd call it a muted or dusty burgundy shimmer with the slightest hint of a brown undertone in darker lighting. The shimmer is mainly gold, but again, it too is somewhat muted, making it difficult to define.

Stud Finder is also a unique and very pretty color, and again, to define what the shade actually would be called, is causing me a slight problem. As I was applying it, I thought it almost looked as if gold, silver and bronze had been mixed together, because I saw traces of all three of those colors. This too is a shimmer, and I can see both a bronzed gold and a silver tone within the shimmer pieces, although the silver is much more evident. Once applied, I'd have to say that the best description is a deeper taupe shade. I wondered what it would look like with a matte finish, because it reminded me of OPI's You Don't Know Jacques from their matte collection. One coat of Essie's Matte About You convinced me that indeed, it is very similar. The matte coat darkened the shade slightly and refined the shimmer.

I'll finish up with the newest BB Couture men's polishes tomorrow, and then move onto their earlier collection of polish for men. Overall Beauty is still offering their free shipping offer, valid through 12/11 . Make sure and check out their newest polishes called The Disco Collection. Oh great, now I'll have Dancing Queen stuck in my head!


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Man Week! BB Couture Vise

Above & Below: BB Couture Vise, shown in full sun above using 2 coats. The photo below was taken in the shade, and the photo below that was in filtered sunlight.

Below: Close-up of the finish. The shimmer in very small and shows up as a lighter blue with aqua tones as well as violet.
I think I'll designate this coming week as "Man Week" on my blog, because I'm going to be swatching Overall Beauty's BB Couture's 6 newest polishes for men, as well as the 6 polishes for men they released a few months back. Now if you really want to add to your Man Week, make sure and check out Nixxy's blog for her weekly installment of MWCILTRMND Monday. Most of you are familiar with Nixxy and her blog, but in case you're not, her weekly feature showcases "Men With Chests I'd Like To Rake My Nails Down"...so her title ties in nicely with a nail blog and gives you a little something extra to start your week with!

Today's NOTD is Vise, from the most recent release of BB Couture's polishes for men. This collection includes 6 shades, all aptly named after tools. Vise is a Cadet blue shimmer that has the slightest hint of deep teal in darker, indoor lighting. The shimmer is very fine and is a combination of blues and violets, as you can see in the close-up above. The coverage was typical of BB Couture, excellent after one coat, perfection after 2. If you haven't seen this latest collection for men, check it out, because there are some gorgeous shades. And no, they're not just for men! Kim at Overall Beauty is offering free shipping right now through December 11, and through tomorrow, there's a buy 4 get one free deal going on as well. Just mention the free one you'd like in the comments section of your order. There's a limit of 3 free on this special. I also noticed she just added a Disco Collection, which includes even more new shades.


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3 Greens from BB Couture Cantina Nights

BB Couture's Cantina Nights collection contains 3 green shades that all contain varying degrees of bright blue/green and gold micro glitter. I want to point out that unfortunately, my photos don't show the glitter as being blue/green very well. But it is!

Above: Kiwi Margarita has a frost-type pale green base with glitter. I used 3 thin coats in all of these photos and they were all taken indoors with a flash. This one was quite sheer.
Above: Grasshopper, my favorite of these three, is a very slightly toned down lime green creme with glitter. Of the three shown, this one has the most amount of glitter. I love this base color!

Below: Kamikaze, a bright yellow/green creme with glitter, actually reminds me of a Shrek green! I think this would look much better if I had a tan.


Kamikaze and Grasshopper looked very similar to me in the bottle, but as you can see, they are completely different. Grasshopper wins as my favorite, with it's bright hue and unusual shade of green. Kamikaze is just plain fun--bright, summery, Shrek-like. I don't dislike the shade of Kiwi Margarita, but I definitely would have preferred to see it with a creme base rather than a frost.
*Products featured were furnished by Overall Beauty for review.


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BB Couture Huckleberry Martini with a Twist of Wild and Crazy Purple Glitter

Huckleberry Martini is a shade from BB Couture's most recent collection, Cantina Nights. This is a purple (although it appears more blue in my photos) shimmer with tiny blue and pink glitter. I used 3 coats on this one, because I had a little balding action going on. In real life, this shade reminds me of Grape Crush soda.

Below: In the shade it takes on a much more blue tone. I love the fine shimmer this one has, in addition to the little glitter pieces, which are more noticeable in brighter lighting, but still quite subtle.
Below: Macro shot of the finish.
Below: I topped Huckleberry Martini off with 2 coats of Wild and Crazy Purple Glitter, and I don't know if it was too much glitter overload for my camera or what the problem was, but my photos only picked about about half of the glitter's intensity.




If you like glitter polishes as top coats, you might want to be on the lookout for Wild and Crazy Purple Glitter. I believe this line is manufactured by Mirage Cosmetics, which is the same company that manufactures Sinful polishes. I picked this up for $1.49 at a small independent beauty supply in my town. It's a clear-based polish filled with turquoise and purple glitter and the amount of glitter in the bottle is unbelievable! I don't know how it would work by itself, but I love how it looks over Huckleberry Martini.
*The BB Couture polish was furnished by Overall Beauty for review.


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BB Couture Cantina Nights: Dirty Mother & Cosmopolitan

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone's enjoying the food, festivities, and drinks of the holiday, and I have a couple of drink-themed polishes for you today. First up is one that didn't impress me too much in the bottle, but this Dirty Mother made a fool of me, because I love it!

Above & Below: Both of these photos of Dirty Mother were taken outside in full sunlight and 90 degree heat, which I'm not complaining about one bit. I used 2 coats and had a satisfactory opaque look with just one coat. How to describe this color...I thought it was a dusty lavender-type shade in the bottle, but it's almost a taupe with very slight lavender under tones.
Below: In the shade, in addition to picking up reflections of everything surrounding it, it takes on a much more obvious medium taupe shade.
Below: Cosmopolitan also covered perfectly using 2 coats. This creme shade looked a little less fuchsia in the bottle, but once applied, I would call it a slightly dusty shade of fuchsia, or a deep rose shade. The photo directly below was taken in full sun, while the photo below this one was taken indoors with a flash.

Both of these creme shades are nice and applied in typical BB Couture fashion, which is a good thing. Let me start with Cosmopolitan--if you're looking for a fuchsia that is somewhat toned down, this would be a good choice. It's bright and colorful, but not as vivid as many fuchsia shades. I had seen it on some other blogs, and while the shade looks similar, mine is a creme, whereas others have silvery shimmer in theirs. I'll see if I can touch base with Kim at Overall Beauty, and maybe she can leave us a comment regarding the correct finish of Cosmopolitan. Dirty Mother is a gorgeous pink-based taupe that has the slightest lavender hue to it in certain lighting. It's a perfect neutral shade for my skin tone and I am pleasantly surprised by just how much I love this one.
*Products featured were furnished by Overall Beauty for review.


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BB Couture Pina Colada

Here's another shade from BB Couture's Cantina Nights collection, and it's a sheer yellow with tiny silver and green glitter. I used 2 coats on this, and even though it's sheer, I like this shade of yellow with my skin tone much more than I thought I would. I had very little streaking, which is not normally the case for me when I use yellow shades.

Above & Below: The top photo was taken with a flash, and the bottom photo was taken in direct sunlight. This is such a delicate shade of yellow, and it does indeed look like pineapple juice and coconut cream.
Below: I took this picture under the shade of a tree, and I love the pearlescent look it has.
Below: A macro shot of the polish shows the silver and light green glitter.
I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I like this shade, and for some reason, I prefer that's it's on the sheer side. It just seems to work for me in this case. I had to laugh to myself, because when I was making fettuccine for dinner tonight, I had the cream in a pot and I poured a stick of melted butter in and it was a perfect match to my nails! I am constantly finding yellow nail polishes that look great in the bottle but not so great on me, so I'm adding this one right next to the only other yellow that has totally worked for me, Misa's Summer Sun.
*Product featured was furnished by Overall Beauty for review.


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