Jessica Gelato Mio! Collection Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

Jessica's new Gelato Mio! collection is a set of six summer pastels that "...suggests the mouthwatering flavors of Italian ice cream, and the endless possibilities of long summer nights." And you know, they really do remind me of gelato, especially the green because it's my favorite gelato flavor- pistachio!


Jessica Banana Peel. This is a light creamy yellow that looks different from the other pastel yellows I own. It's a little dirty, like there's some beige mixed in. Sort of an egg custard color, not quite as beige as China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, not as white as Illamasqua Load, not as yellow as Maybelline Banana Puddin'. I'm pretty sure this is unique in my collection.


Jessica Barely Blueberry. Light baby blue creme. Has a milky, soft look. Not too stark. Leans a little periwinkle.


Jessica Lime Cooler. Light but vibrant lime green. Like the rest of the shades, it looks soft and creamy and not stark and chalky. Yellow toned and very fresh looking. Doesn't give me the lobster hands either, I might add.


Jessica Strawberry Shake It. Light creamy baby pink. Just like the color of a strawberry milkshake.


Jessica Surfer Boyz 'n Berry. Soft light turquoise. Leans more blue than green. Quite lovely.


Jessica Tangerine Dreamz. Soft coral-leaning orange creme. Like I mentioned above, all the shades in this collection have this really gentle, soft creamy finish to them. They're not crazy saturated and they're not stark and chalky like some pastels tend to be. I'm not sure I'd call this color a pastel, but it is soft for an orange.

The formula on these was perfect. I didn't have any trouble at all with application. They're thick but flow readily and don't drag. Most of the colors only needed two coats, but I did three anyway. They look very good at three. Dry time is average, and even a little bit faster than I'm used to for Jessica.

Overall, super cute collection. All the colors are soft and flattering but still fun and colorful. Maybe not the most creative or unique set of colors, but hey, they look good and the formula is nice. I dig it.

The Jessica Gelato Mio! collection is available now on jessicacosmetics.com.

(This was sent for review.)

Zoya Surf Collection Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

Now here's the good stuff- part two of the Zoya summer 2012 collection, Surf. This set is all foil and metallic finishes with bright, punchy colors. The colors in the Surf collection are:

Rory - Carly - Kimber - Myrta - Meg - Zuza

Zoya Carly. This is a color I would have expected in a fall or winter collection, but that's okay because it's amazing. It's a red-based purple foil. It will look lighter and more red-toned at some angles, but darker and bluer at others. This applies with really dense color and shimmer and it positively glows.



Zoya Kimber. Another amazing color, but it's so bright and colorful that my camera can't seem to focus on it! It looks a lot more red here than it is in real life. It's the same as this in intensity, but it has a gorgeous warm, super-saturated pink jelly base instead of the red base it looks like it has here. It doesn't seem to be a foil like the rest, but has some very shiny gold shimmer that peeks through and gives the color depth instead of looking metallic. Super gorgeous color.


Zoya Meg. This one's a true foil in a light apple green color. Yellow-toned, my favorite kind of green. It looks very sparkly in the sunlight, and the sun also brings out a lot of iridescent shimmer particles that you don't see in low light.


Zoya Myrta. Another foil, but in a soft orangey-coral color. It's a red-toned orange/coral this time, and it's colorful but doesn't seem too bright or punchy.


Zoya Rory. Odd... but not bad. It's a light pink/mauve foil where a lot of the silver foil base pokes through and gives it a speckled look. Zoya has a Rory but no Amy? And, for that matter, a Rose but no Martha or Donna. Though they do have Melodie, Sarah & Jane, and Jo...



Zoya Zuza. Like Kimber, this is another one of those colors that you have to see to appreciate. It's so much more vibrant and colorful in real life and it looks flat on camera. Anyway, this is a teal/blue-green with some speckly-looking metallic foil shimmer. I think this one might be my favorite of them all. It's so rich looking and summery. Perfect summer pedicure color, if you ask me.

The formula on these was also good. They go on very smooth, but you have to be careful not to use too many strokes when applying because they start to dry very quickly (like a matte) and can get lumpy/chunky if you go over it too many times once it's started to dry. Give them a minute or two in between coats and you won't have a problem. I did three coats of each and each looked best at three coats. The extra coat adds a little extra color and density to them. Good dry time on these, even at three coats.

I like these much better than the Beach collection colors. Zuza, Kimber and Carly are AMAZING. Myrta, Rory and Meg are okay, but I don't really love them. The finish on these looks great in the sunlight and the bright colors are much more cheery and summery feeling to me than plain pink.

The Zoya Surf and Beach collection will be available starting April 1st on Zoya.com.

(This was sent for review.)

Zoya Beach Collection Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

The Beach collection. Part one of a two-part summer color collection, this half has all the creme shades. The other half has all the shimmers. The colors in the Zoya Beach collection are:

Reagan - Lara - Shelby - Arizona - Tracie - Wednesday

Zoya Arizona. Arizona is a light orange creme. It's not pastel, but it is lighter than most orange creme polishes tend to be. It has a yellow tone to it so it looks more like coral than pumpkin.


Zoya Lara. This is a medium fuchsia creme. I know it looks neon here, but it's really not. In real life it has a soft but very pigmented look, just like the bottle color in this picture.


Zoya Reagan. This is a darker fuchsia, not quite purple but not berry either. Right in between. It's not particularly bright, but it is very colorful. Lots of pigment to this one.



Zoya Shelby. Another pink! This one is light, slight blue tone, slightly brighter finish than the others. It's not neon and it's not pastel, but it does really stand out on the nails. It dries darker than bottle color.


Zoya Tracie. Tracie is the only non-creme polish in the collection. It's a soft avocado shade with some very fine frosty shimmer. Not enough to make it sparkly, but just enough to give it a slight pearly finish.


Zoya Wednesday. This is a faded-looking beachy turquoise. It has a lot more green to it than my camera will pick up, and it's also coming out brighter in my pictures than it looks in real life. In reality, it's very soft and muted looking, not as crisp as it seems here. Refer to the group shot's bottle color- that's how it looks in real life. Love the name, but I'm somewhat disappointed that it's cheery turquoise and not black.


The formula on these was good. It's a little thicker in texture than the last two creme collections, so it's much easier to control without it running or pooling as much. The texture is very smooth, but it does still have a slight tendency to drip when you least expect it. Opacity is good- most looked fine at two coats, but I did three of all just because they looked that much better with the extra coat. Dry time is average.

Personally, I'm not sure I like this collection. Or at least half of it. The three pinks seem so overdone and not at all unique, plus they don't even feel like summer colors to me. They're not really very bright, but they're not faded enough to look like they fit with the retro/vintage vibe of the other half of the collection. The other three polishes, Tracie, Arizona and Wednesday, are great. They seem less easily dupe-able than the pinks, they're beautiful on the nails, and they definitely give off a retro-vintage-beachy feel to me. I really like the dusty/faded/antique look they have.

The Zoya Beach collection will be available April 1st on Zoya.com.

(This was sent for review.)

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Rescue Beauty Lounge's highly-anticipated fan-created collection is finally here, and it's a good one. The fans that created these colors have some seriously good taste. This might be my favorite Rescue Beauty Lounge collection to date and I'm sure I won't be the only one who feels that way. Here's the official press release that talks about the inspiration behind the colors:

We’ve Made Their Dream Colors Come True, Finally! Introducing, The Fan Collection.

It has been a long haul in making The Fan Collection. Our fans submitted the first ideas almost 13 months ago. The nail-biting voting event ended February 15th, 2011. The path to creating our four winners’ dream colors was engrossing; it was a year full of nail polish connoisseurship, coupled with our mutual love for these colors. During this robotic back-and-forth dance of color submissions, rejections, numerous tweaking, corrections and one technical disaster, these creations are worthy of every droplet of my sweat and tears.

The hilarity of our loquacious email exchanges have been a novel-worthy read and their iron wills for not settling for less than their vision and not caving into my seductive, alternate baits turned me into their humble servant. Any wonder why they’re our fans? I must thank Danielle, Kay-Di Kat, and Nora for their generous time and keen participation, and I especially thank Neeta, for teaching me all about copper.


Halcyon: Danielle's dream color is a soft, sage green with a pink glimmer of brilliant reflective shine, just like when the morning dew tenderly kisses a succulent plant. The beauty of succulents keeps her calm and serene.


Aqua Lilly: A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the Kuda Huraa Island of the Maldives. The turquoise water is a crystal-clear sea green and what really had me spellbound was that it reflected a shimmery-pink hue from the shedding scales of the colorful, vivid, and exotic tropical fish. This color is Kay-Di Kat’s homage to her beloved mom, Lily, an Aquarius who swims like an enchanting mermaid. I imagine Lily swimming in this paradise with its mesmerizing water in the Island of the Maldives.


Cuprum (Cu): The metamorphic moment when the presence of ammonia meets copper (II) transforms into a radiant blue. Cuprum is Latin for copper, and the dual nature of this element is what Neeta wanted to capture in a bottle.


IKB: 2012: A bright, vibrant, electric blue with blurple (blue-purple) in a jelly finish, hence, the creation of the most densely pigmented jelly-like finish I’ve ever made. Nora’s endless search for that Yves Klein signature blue (International Klein Blue) is finally over.

Available: End of April 2012.

Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are exclusively available at www.rescuebeauty.com, the polish sells for $20.00 per bottle.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Nail polishes are created with resin and high molecular polymers to improve flexibility, durability and high shine. They contain no harmful Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and we do not test on animals.

Aqua Lily - Cuprum - Halcyon - IKB:2012

Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily (by Kaydi-Kat). Aqua Lily is a light turquoise creme base with a very fine-textured, subtle pink and purple shimmer throughout. The shimmer comes out beautifully in sunlight, but is only barely visible in low light. I know that this was inspired by an aquatic theme, but to me this is reminiscent of amazing, retro, 1950s-style pink and turquoise fashion and home decor.


Rescue Beauty Lounge Cuprum (by Neeta). This is a medium blue shimmer with very tiny pink and copper microglitter particles. I love the inspiration behind this one. While I do think this color is very pretty, it seems like the shimmer base of the blue drowns out the copper. The copper is visible if you look closely, but it's not obvious at first glance and it doesn't stand out as much as it does in the bottle.


Rescue Beauty Lounge Halcyon (by Danielle). This is a faded-looking medium sage green with color-shifting pink/copper/gold/green shimmer. Straight on, the shimmer looks mostly pink, but when you angle your nails, you can see that it shifts to many different colors. The shimmer is subtle but always visible.



Rescue Beauty Lounge IKB:2012 (by Nora). This is the bluest blue ever. Subtle jelly finish, but not sheer. This is so blue that I can't even believe how blue it is. So blue it's almost purple. It looks a little lighter here than it appears in real life, but it's so vibrant and vivid that may camera had a hard time focusing on it. I also can't help but think that this may be the best TARDIS blue I've seen so far. Amazing, amazing color.

The formula on these was varied, but generally good. Aqua Lily and Halcyon were the usual buttery-smooth Rescue formula. IKB:2012 had an odd rubbery texture that wouldn't self-level, but I've been assured that the formula is still being tweaked and will be different when it's finally released. Cuprum actually gave me the most trouble with application as it was thicker than average and didn't flow smoothly. I needed to wait a few minutes in between each coat on IKB:2012 and Cuprum in order to get a smooth, flat coat. Drying time is longer than average, but allowing each coat to set for a couple minutes helps speed things up. I did two coats of each plus topcoat and all shades were opaque in two.

The fans did a really fantastic job imagining and designing their colors. Each is beautiful and unique in its own way. Aqua Lily is both tropical and retro looking to me, Cuprum has one of the most fascinating color combinations ever (Blue and copper together? Perfection.), Halcyon is so misty and hazy looking but has that little electric shock of duochrome shimmer to balance it, and IKB:2012 is the most insane and wonderful blue ever. I do wish that the formula on Cuprum and IKB:2012 were smoother and thinner, and I think Cuprum could use some more copper to help it stand out against the blue shimmer, but those are my only criticisms.

The Rescue Beauty Lounge Fan Collection will be available at the end of April.

(This was sent for review.)