Some old BB Couture NOTDs: Paradise, Caterpillar and Moon Over Manhattan

And thus begins my effort to try to post all of my old swatches that I haven't ever gotten around to posting -- part of my massive and massively delayed spring cleaning efforts. I will try to get to the rest of the China Glaze Vintage Vixen posts this weekend though. :)

BB Couture Caterpillar

I think this is an incredibly cute color: kelly green with gold shimmer. The day I took the photo, it was overcast so it's hard to see the shimmer... but it's there! Three coats. Typical great BB Couture application. I believe this is from the Spring 2010 collections (the bug, butterfly themed ones).

BB Couture Paradise

Mmm, lobster claws. I love this color but it did impart a certain lobstery look to my skin. It kind of reminds me of the color of calamine lotion, maybe a shade more purple than that. This was from the Haiti collection. Three coats, again, really wonderful application.

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

This is a relatively old BB Couture. I've had for... oh, probably a year before wearing it. I LOVE this shade: dark blue with a hint of green with silver microglitter. It's jelly but not quite as squishy as most BBC jellies I've encountered before.

Closeup of Moon Over Manhattan

It's not a sparkly polish but it's got spark to it. :)

NOTD: BB Couture Horned Devil

This is 3 coats of BB Couture Horned Devil, from the recently released Butterfly Collection. Horned Devil is, as Flinty mentioned a few weeks ago, similar to Hermosa Surfer Girl - it's multi-colored glitter suspended in a jelly base. I do have some visible nail line (VNL) though I can't always see it - it depends on the lighting. I had to use 3 coats of topcoat to get it smooth. I am absolutely in love with this color. I'm also trying a new pic style, what do you think?

Sunlight:


Blurred:


Semi-shade:


Shade:


You can purchase Horned Devil from overallbeauty.com.

Are any of you trying to lose weight right now? One unfortunate side of graduate school has been weight gain for me. :-/ I finally weighed myself this weekend and it turns out that I've gained about 15-20 lbs. :( Aside from a few pairs of jeans that were always a little tight on me, my clothes still fit so I'm not sure where this weight has gone, but I'm convinced that I need to start dieting. I already work out about 5 days a week, 45 min - 1 hr (usually cardio, strength training on odd days) so I'm not sure what else to do workout-wise. If anyone has any tips, I'd be happy to hear them!

Thanks for looking!

BB Couture Spring 2010: Man Bug and Horned Devil NOTDs

BB Couture does glittery jellies RIGHT. None of this gloopy formula with obscured glitter that has no sparkle! They have beautiful jellies that just shimmer with multicolored microglitter.

BB Couture Man Bug

This is the seafoam (slightly minty) green version of BB Couture Sea of Cortez. Gorgeous sheer jelly with a ton of gold, green and possibly silver microglitter. This is three coats and even though I'm not a fan of VNL in most polishes, I do think it works for these types of BB Couture polishes. I loved this as an NOTD when I wore it a week or so ago. (What is a Man Bug anyway?)

BB Couture Horned Devil

This one is ON FIRE. It reminds me of BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl, one of my favorite jellies. It's orange-y red with a truckload of gold, green and red (possibly?) microglitter that just lights up my nails. Such an awesome, lively polish. Again, this is three coats and so squishily jelly. :D Definitely one of my favorite NOTDs of late.

Old N-Art-OTD: icy gradient using BB Couture Electric Avenue, ChG Nova and Claire's Hollywood

I'm flying to New York tonight so I thought I might post a pic of a mani inspired by cold, ice and snow. I've tried a few gradients before but this was the first that turned out presentable. It was so hugely thick by the time I was done with it, it looked like I had fake nails on.

Indoors with flash:

In the lightbox:

Outdoors in the sun:

I used BB Couture Electric Avenue (a icy pale blue jelly that took five coats to even start to resemble opaque), Claire's Hollywood (a mix of fine silver glitter and small holo glitter) and China Glaze Nova (big hex glitter mixed with small holo glitter). I messed up a couple of times so I kept on having to paint new coats of everything on top of what I had already done: by the end, there were at least a dozen coats of polish (including base and top). Took forever to dry and I got bubbles but I loved this look and kept it on for over 36 hours (which is a lot for me these days!) Just long enough to wear to my SO's work's holiday party at least.

BB Couture Tropical Sunset

So here's the game I play regularly with my swatch photos:

Phase 1: take photos.

Phase 2: decide to not upload them until I get a whole bunch.

Phase 3: upload them, select the ones I want to use, crop them.

Phase 4 (usually two weeks after uploading them): regret not LABELING the photos with the names of the polishes.

Phase 5: spend hours trying to match polish pic with polish name... which is especially a challenge with 500+ polishes... and the fact that I do swap/sell somewhat regularly so by the time I get around to labeling the photos, I may not even have the polish anymore.

Phase 6: give up on ID'ing those photos and just take photos of other polishes and immediately upload and label those. Swear to myself I'll always be that vigilant.

Phase 7: Go back to old habits. Rinse, repeat.

As a result, I have about 40 unlabeled photos (in about 1000) of polishes taken awhile back but that I can't post them because I've been a slacker. Also, some were taken half a year ago when I was barely above nubbin (the last few weeks of my first year of grad school included a lot of nail biting) so they barely look like my nails. Witness:

Okay, they're a tiny bit more than nubbin. But not by much. Pretty sure I gave this polish away. FingerPaints website is a pain and a half for accurate representations of their colors. Am I ever going to figure out what this somewhat ordinary pink with gold shimmer is? Is it worth my time? And then I always get paranoid about being wrong: I don't want to say this is one polish when it might be another.

This is typical flinty-esque slacker behavior. The slacking off that happens early on inevitably extends the process of doing things later. I do this with my research too. I run analyses and fail to label my output and graphs and then have to work backwards weeks later to figure out WTF I did. Me and my sucky habits. I'd have so much more time if I just do things when I'm supposed to do them.

Anyway, the reason I went on this whole long thing is because I just went through the process of backtracking to figure out what this polish was: man, I'm inefficient! I did this swatch a month ago. Looking at the time-stamp has convinced me that this was the mystery hot pink polish (actually, hot coral pink) that I was under my Amour Rain Glitter swatch: these current photos were taken on Thursday, October 15th at 2:32pm and the Rain Glitter photos were taken on the same day at 2:37pm.

BB Couture Tropical Sunset

Like I said, hot coral pink creme. Practically neon and a little more corally than it appears in this photo. As with most BB Coutures, application was easy-breezy and the above was two coats (how dumb is it that I remember how many coats I used but I don't remember the names of the polishes?). I'd rather it as a pedi shade personally since I'm not much for neon-ish pinks on my tips (let's face it, I'm not much for neon-ish pinks anywhere) but for those who like this color family, it's a great polish.

Old NOTD: BB Couture Sea of Cortez

BB Couture Sea of Cortez

For those who can embrace the VNL... what a jelly! Vivid blue with of blue, green and silver (it looks like) microglitter. Like most BB Coutures, it applies like a dream. In this case, three coats (so no, probably can't get rid of the VNL). This tipwear is after two days with Diamont.

Close-up of Sea of Cortez

It's like sailing on a gorgeous fake glittery ocean. :)

Some more BB Couture swatches!

Another Monday. I so don't want to go to school right now. One week in and already exhausted!

First up, a polish that's been posted everywhere.

BB Couture Green Goblin

Dark green creme. For some reason, the application on this one was harder than the other BB Coutures that I've tried: a bit thick and hard to control.

BB Couture Green Goblin with La Femme Sapphire glitter on top

Two layers of this blue and gold glitter suspended in dark dusty blue jelly. Gorgeous in the bottle, not as fab on the nail. The above shows three coats.

BB Couture Hot Spot

Very bright orange (almost red) with gold shimmer. Went on nice and easy. I don't think it looks good on me though.

BB Couture Hound Dog

Dark chocolate creme with highly glossy finish. Three coats is pictured above; it could've used a fourth coat because it was still slightly uneven. True, this was a quick swatch and I probably could've exercised more patience in application but there are a lot of polishes that I swatch quickly that are even in three coats. Still, I love this polish.

Yesterday's NOTD: BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl

I'm positive the reason that this polish gets so little love is because it doesn't photograph well at all. It's ridiculously glittery and playful; a quintessential happy summer color. As far as I can tell, it's gold, green and red glitter suspended in a reddish-magenta jelly. A fantastic twist on what I usually consider a boring color.

BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl

Video of the sparkliness in action!

(As usual, don't forget to enter in the BB Couture for Men polish giveaway! Submission form is in the upper right of the webpage.)

Back to School BB Couture for Men Giveaway!

Thanks to Kim at Overall Beauty, Polish or Perish is able to offer our first giveaway! We are giving away three BB Couture for Men polishes to one lucky Polish or Perish reader. Contest starts immediately and ends at 11:59PM, September 7th, 2009; the winner will be announced on September 10th. The three polishes are Grenade, 45 Caliber and Military Blues!

To refresh your memory...

BB Couture for Men Grenade

BB Couture for Men 45 Caliber

BB Couture for Men Military Blues

Old NOTD: BB Couture Zuma Wave Rider + Chinoiserie Plexi

Doing last minute things before heading to the airport. I hate long plane rides. I hate plane rides, period. And before you tell me that I have a greater chance of dying in a car crash than in a plane crash, I hasten to tell you that I don't like cars either. :P My plan is to have a cocktail at the airport, then one on the plane, and hopefully, I'll get some rest on the freakin' red-eye to NYC. And I know that alcohol is actually not good for sleep but bad sleep is better than no sleep!

Anyway... one more NOTD before takeoff! In honor of the last few hours of the BB Couture sale at Overall Beauty (details in post below), an old BB Couture NOTD!

BB Couture Zuma Wave Rider

These apply so well. Pastels are often fairly streaky but this one was as smooth as can be after two coats. (Three coats is pictured above.) There aren't that many polishes that I think live up to their hype, especially not ones that cost over $5 (in my mind, $5+ is "expensive") but the 10 BB Coutures I've tried so far have been impressive. I'm unlikely to buy many more when there isn't a sale but it's definitely a brand I'll pounce on when I can get them for less than $9.

BB Couture Zuma Wave Rider with Chinoiserie Plexi on top

I was pretty miffed at this Chinoiserie (and generally disappointed with the brand in general, with the exception of Stellar Night which was... stellar). It looks so interesting in the bottle but it turns out to be extremely sheer with little color build-up and almost no glitter, even after three coats (as pictured above)! Can you imagine if this wasn't sheer? Oh well, I guess I'll have to franken one when I get back from New York... :)

BB Couture for Men swatches and BB Couture Sale!

An utterly fabulous sale is going on right now (as D has already noted but I want this to be at the top of the page for awhile)! For those on the Overall Beauty mailing list, BB Coutures are Buy 2 Get 1 FREE at OverallBeauty.com! No coupon/promo code required, but this sale expires tonight (11:59PM, August 15th, 2009). Minimum 4 free bottles and free shipping with purchases of $60+! Also, if you purchase 6 bottles, you can choose between a free BB Couture topcoat or basecoat!

For those who snoozed on joining the Overall Beauty mailing list, you have definitely lost out... but not totally, because starting at 12:01AM August 16th, non-mailing list folks can get BB Coutures at Buy 3 Get 1 FREE. Again, no promo/coupon code required, free shipping with purchases of $60+ and a limit of "only" 3 free polishes. The non-mailing list sale ends at 11:59PM August 16th, 2009.

Also, if you mention us, the Publish or Perish blog, in the comments section when you order on the 16th, non-newsletter folks have their maximum free polish limit bumped up to 4!! :D (So if you lost by snoozing, you still get a little extra by following this blog. ;))

Now, the important stuff... swatches of the brand new line of BB Couture for Men polishes!

Thanks to Kim at Overall Beauty, I got to test run these polishes a few days early and they, like, all the other BB Coutures I've tried, are some of the most tractable polishes I've ever used: they go where you want them to go. They don't go elsewhere on the nail. You put your brush down, that's where the polish lands! Amazing! :D

It's a somewhat limited color range: three grey/silver-like colors (though not really, and I'll get more into that in a moment), a dark blue and a dark green. At first, I was disappointed in the fact that it seemed so monochromatic but after swatching them, I'm convinced that it's actually a very beautiful, subtle collection of shimmer and metallic colors.

Here are some swatches on me. I hope that I'll get some swatches of these on my SO up in the coming weeks. :)

BB Couture For Men Grenade

Dark olive grey, chock full of gold shimmer. This one was my pre-emptive favorite: I love green! And it's a gorgeous color, a deeper, richer green than OPI At Your Quebec and Call, and far more glossy, shimmering and multidimensional than Quirius Cresskill Eve. It's a very elegant, dignified shade even if it's not a traditional polish color (or marketed for women). Two coats was enough for pure perfection. But it wasn't my favorite, suprisingly enough! Not even my second favorite.

BB Couture For Men 45 Caliber

Not quite gunmetal grey, as I would imagine a gun-named color would be (or maybe 45 Calibers look like this? I wouldn't know since I don't know anything about guns). Instead, it's a light metallic silver that does retain evidence of brushstrokes (but unlike others, I actually kind of like the look of brushstrokes). I was "eh" on this one, mostly because I'm picky with my silvers. Still, this was opaque in two coats and very easy to apply.

BB Couture For Men Blue Steel

My absolute favorite from the collex. The name suggests a blue sheen to it -- and this photo is misleading because it was taken in early morning light which gives it an orange tinge -- but to me, this was the color of oiled, oxidized steel. It's a metallic black that has a silver sheen and is SO beyond gorgeous. Because it's so glossy and metallic, it catches the other colors that surround it in photos and reflects them. It was so hard for me to get a good pic of this one! I'll do an NOTD of it and try to get more pics of it someday. An incredibly sexy color.

BB Couture For Men Blue Steel with Essie Matte About You topcoat

Unlike ManGlaze The Death Tar, which has a lot of silver shimmer in its black matte, when Blue Steel is mattefied, it still reflects silver but it's not a silver shimmer nor the speckled look that mattefied shimmer polishes have. It looks like brushed black metal (which is something that I enjoy in furniture and, apparently, on nails).

BB Couture for Men Widow Maker

There's something really f'ing creepy about the name of this polish, what it's named after and the sentiment it represents, but this polish is a real beauty. When I saw it first next to 45 Caliber, I was like, "Man, why are there two boring silvers in here?" But when I put them on, it was obvious that they were VERY different. While 45 Caliber was a metallic silver, this is more of a taupe with silver microshimmer. It reminded me a lot of Orly Pixie Dust in its finish and luminance. I find it to be an understated, sophisticated color. Second favorite of the collection, officially nudging Grenade into the number three place. Sorry, Grenade.

BB Couture 45 Caliber on middle and pinky fingers

BB Couture Widow Maker on index and ring fingers

Again, my amateur photo skills diminish what it actually looks like in person but a side-by-side comparison might help people see why I actually think of these as very different polishes. I don't capture the difference in color here too well but the finishes are very distinct.

And last but not least...
BB Couture for Men Military Blues

A deep metallic blue. This was the smoothest polish in this collection, which is saying something. Very minimal brushstroking once the polish settles. It's such a rich, vibrant shade. I'm not at all a fan of metallic blues -- all other blues, yes; metallic blue, no -- but I liked this one a lot. I don't think it's anything incredibly special but it is a color that catches the eye. I should've done a matte tc with this one, too...! Oh well. :)

Obviously, this is a great collection for women but for any men out there who are curious about polish, this is a great way to get into it: the application is very easy (since most guys do have a lot less practice in polish application than many women) and these colors are stunning with very little effort. No glossy topcoat was used for any of these and yet they look highly shined and fine without. They are definitely "masculine" colors but if you need matte to be manly, that's nothing a little Essie Matte About You or Nubar V for Men won't cure!

As a feminist, I'm really overjoyed that it has become more widely acceptable for men to wear nail polish (check out a fabulous new blog by ybpolishboy!), even though people still seem to need to "butch it up" for the guys.

Women are still both professionally and socially penalized for not following typical gender roles... but what's nice is that some women are at least aware of this fact. Men are generally left in the dark, it seems, about the fact that they really aren't "allowed" to do things that women do. For instance, the facetious but insensible observation remains that women can wear pants but men can't wear skirts. Why not? And my facetious but sensible reaction remains: umm... isn't it better for men to wear skirts? True, really tight pants are no longer in style -- thank heavens -- but I imagine a little more freedom of *ahem* movement is not a bad thing for *ahem* the guys.

ANYWAY. Back to the new BB Couture Line. The only other polish line I know that is marketed as "for men" is the ManGlaze pair of matte polishes. That black and grey pair are called The Death Tar and Fuggen Ugly. Butch enough for you?

While the normal BB Couture line has a little paragraph on the bottle about how it's a basecoat, topcoat, nail color, nail strengthener in one, the squat square 0.5fl oz bottles (slightly smaller than the normal 0.6fl oz bottles) state simply:

SPECIALLY FORMULATED

JUST FOR MEN

With added natural strengtheners

Reminds me of a pair of nail clippers that I saw in a Sky Mall catalogue that was advertised as manly titanium nail shears, guaranteed to cut through even the toughest, manliest nail. ...I just keep telling myself that progress is gradual. Though I don't think I'll live to see the day that a pink nail polish will be found in "men's nail polish"...!

Before I wrap up, just a word to the shopping wise (or not, because without sales, I would have a lot more money in my bank account): SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS. If you must, create a separate email account just for newsletters. You will catch so many more sales that way. :D Or you can continue to read this blog, because I'm trying to pass on every sale that comes my way.

(Reminds me, AveYou, a good source for SpaRitual polishes, is also having a 10% entire purchase sale with the code AYPSS10. Expires August 22nd, 2009.)