BB Couture Tuxedo Night

Vampy. Seem to be very vampy-prone at the mo.

Reminds me of fruits and seeds. Not raspberry exactly because raspberry juice would be paler but...well, raspberry-esque.

This is actually 2 coats of the BB over 2 coats of a Zoya which I shan't even bother to name (Divincia or some such) because it is pathetic. The BB however is a BB and is a class act (despite my ham-fistedness).

One of the BB Couture men's range. Do you know any men who wear nail polish? I think I do but I'm not saying any more because even he (though he's quite 'out there' in many ways) just kinda plays with it and then removes it. Is it just rockers? I'm sure many men have very nice nails and hands and would look good in polish. Would you freak if a fella close to you wore polish?

Jenni

BB Couture Opposites Attract

I don't have many greys. Actually this may be the only one.

Plenty of silvers I have. Greys not so much. But if you want a grey this is a good one. Ever so slightly textured. This is probably 2 coats. I have fiddled so comprehensively with my camera that I have c0cked it up completely. Ah, well.

A Nars tomorrow and a back-story (how I hate that expression) of how I obtained it.

Back to work tomorrow. Tra la la. Oh, well. I have a clean car, a full stomach, a loving OH, a new grandchild to look forward to, a cup of tea at my right elbow, a box of chocs downstairs. Everything has to be worked for! Toodle pip!

Jenni

BB Couture Joker

Spellbound was fabulous. Joker goes beyond superlatives. Behold.

3 coats.

And 2 more pix for no particular reason.

We are way beyond the cat's night-attire or the dog's appendages. This is Polish Paradise!

The font they used for Joker is my all-time fave font too. Does anybody have any idea why it differs from the font BB use otherwise? Is there some special significance to it? I know it must have a proper name but I shall call it Mediaeval Magic.

Do you have a favourite font? I use Tahoma a lot because it's plain and neutral rather than because I like it much. I like Lucida and I hate Times New Roman. For teaching the many Sassoon fonts are popular.

Jenni

BB Couture Spellbound

Now this is seriously hot.

And I persevered with my camera (only had it a coupla years!) until I got a reasonable snap.
This is a deep and abiding love.
Usually I have no time for 'so dark they might as well be black' vampy shades but this is incredible. 2 coats over Ravager. This one makes me feel so good. My hands are winter-dry and cracked but this polish turns me into a femme fatale. In my dreams.....

I have some obsessive-compulsive issues - hence my ruined skin due to excessive hand-washing.
You have any OCD? Or rather, as I believe we ALL have these traits, WHAT are your compulsions?

Jenni

BB Couture Ravager

Got a 5 for the price of 3 on BB and chose some less well known ones. This one poses a huge question. Why is it plain creme when it is quite clearly sparkly in the bottle? How do they DO that? It was a complete s0d to photograph like most purples. And I'd also like to know why my camera seems to have gone all 'grainy'. Admittedly I have tinkered with the settings so I may have to tinker them right back again.

Very highly pigmented. Very shiny. Oozed onto the nail and could have been a single coat if I'd been paying attention. Lovely jubbly. Will probably not remove this but use it as a base for a couple of darker BBs.

What's your favourite purple?

Jenni

BB Couture Golf Pro + Studio 54

I call these happy greens. They have blue but they are not TOO blue.
I know what I mean.

The Golf Pro is the base and Studio is on all except middle finger. Quite plain for this festive time but looks fairly tidy. Puts me in mind of my Savoy cabbage and beloved sprouts.

Come on then. It has to be asked...

Brussels. Not beansprouts. Just to clarify. Proper sprouts.
For or against?

Jenni

BB Couture Bullfighter

Squishy, jelly red.
The ridges on the ring finger nail are just SOOOOO bad.
Sorry.

3 coats.
This is one amazing polish. It sorts of gloops on in a way one can almost feel and HEAR. It's beautifully thin and controllable but it has the consistency of double cream or something. I just painted and painted because it was so satisfying. I've since added Napa Valley Red to it and that's special too.

Loving this. (I did have a huge chip on the middle finger after 2 days though which I do not believe was my fault. Hm. No matter.)

Jenni

BB Couture Eve

Is it brown or dark olive green? Not sure. With teal sparkle.
I love it. I love all BB polishes - even the ones (usually blue like Sea of Cortez) that don't suit me. There's something special about BB. Not just the fabulous customer service you get from Kim at Overall Beauty. Not just the funky colours. Not just the small-business ethos.  Somehow I love everything about BB.

Waxing lyrical over. Photo.

The next one, heavily flash-bleached as it is, does show the different glittery sparkles. One review says this polish dries quite bumpy but I didn't find this to be the case.

Trying to get my nails square as they tend to come out rounded but my patience is quickly exhausted with this kind of intricate enterprise. Hence the odd little finger. Heck, all my digits are probably odd. I really can't be faffed with nail shape/length accuracy.

Your polishes are arbitrarily restricted to only
A blues
B browns
C greens

Which would you opt for? I think I'll have to go with B but I'm getting ever fonder of C.

Jenni

BB Couture Poison Ivy + China Glaze Party Hearty

There is about 3 or 4 days of wear evident in this pic. Hence the particularly dodgy middle finger. Didn't put enough PH over the top either. And the nail growth.

Eek! But I've been busy with my cousin and her husband from Philly. Too busy to worry about nails.

Feeling more Christmassy today as it is now December and we had our Christmas fair at school. This can go either way and make me completely 'Bah humbug!' or cautiously festive. Today I'm leaning towards 'slightly seasonal'.

Jenni

The Christmas poll

Are you
A a droopy Christmas fairy
B an industrious Christmas elf
C the Grinch's evil twin
D a shiny bauble on a magic tree?

BB Couture Santa's Sak + China Glaze Phat Santa

Enormously exasperated and very vexed that my photos don't show how jolly cherry-juicy these reds are. The Phat Santa is darker IRL. Glossy and gummy.

The first pic is today because I played with layering more Sak (!!!) over Santa. The bottom pic is mostly just 2 coats and is from yesterday. I'm pretty sure this is 2 or 3 days of wear.

Joyful polishes. Optimistic. Cheering. Just want to suck my fingers. Yummy.

The dreaded Christmas-craziness has begun to infect the school.

"I've already got my tree up, Miss."

'Is that so? Well, Christmas isn't coming to MY house for a long time yet and would you kindly consider actually doing a bit of work, you idle child!!!"  

I don't quite say that to them - not QUITE - but why do kids (er, they're actually 16-18) have to down tools this early? Grrr.  I want to work. When they take it easy they just make mischief. Teacher's nightmare is Christmas....

But the food is good. Lovely Bakewell sponge today. And leek and bacon quiche. Not in that order.

Jenni

BB Couture Shift Stick + CND Effects Gold Sparkling

One of my BB Couture haul from the ever-fabulous Kim at Overall Beauty.
Gorgeous mustard. I love fugly colours.

I did 2 coats. 3 would be better. But the CND is a super-subtle sparkle. Love it and it did mean I didn't need a 3rd coat but didn't change the overall effect too much. Result.

Stick Shift. Or as I know it - gear stick. Automatic cars feel like such a lazy option (I'm so old-skool) but I did love the one I drove in Canada. So simple. My new car has a 6-speed box though and very good it is too.

Oo, it's dark and there's not a breath of wind. Eerie. Will there be snow? We shall see.

Jenni

BB Couture Kelly's Green

I am so sick of my nails at the moment.
My skin is peeling. The nails are either too long or too short. Yesterday's debacle with shimmery peach made me almost nauseous with disgust. Oh, dear. Do you often get days when you simply can't be on easy terms with yourself?

I needed something relatively low-key/muted/unobtrusive yet possessing some character. So I lit upon this. I do love it. I think I'm going to be drawn to taupe and grey and variants on sludge in the coming weeks. Expect mud, dust and leaf mulch.

3 coats + top coat.

As a bonus I add dogs.

Even they look fed up. It's rather warm and humid again today and it's in the nature of the spaniel to look sad in any case. They're trying to guilt me into entertaining/walking/feeding them.

Suddenly realised that the six-week holiday begins on Friday thus leaving me plenty of time to blog. Must think of something interesting. I have also been instructed/advised to sell a third of my stash as I'm always complaining about money. No bloomin' wonder. Multiply 300 by an average £3 (ahem) and you get (since September 2009) more than a few bags of chips. So I'll be ebaying a load of stuff in all likelihood.

What's on your nails today and how much pleasure is it giving you?
I'm giving Kelly's Green 7/10 but I'm in a distinctly critical mood today.

Jen

Sinful Colors Mint Apple + BB Couture Bassins Bleu II

Got the Mint Apple from Silver Diva over at Nail-ing Life Online in a swap
Coz I specifically asked for it
And for once
For once!
It is actually as delightful as hoped
It has sparkle, it has inner beauty...

None of this - Oh, they're a wonderful squad man-for-man, far superior to the Germans, just you wait, they'll make mincemeat of the opposition, Premier League players, best in the world! - nonsense.

No, this is a polish that promises fabulosity and DELIVERS. Hear that, S Gerrard? DELIVERS! No empty boasts.

Not that I'm bitter or anything. Not that I feel duped by the hype at all.

The accent nail is my beloved Bassins Bleu (why not Bleus so the adjective agrees with the plural noun?) and is quite a surprise because they look a lot closer in the bottle than on the ongle. You can see here, yes? But in the final analysis *hums Final Countdown* it's far darker.

Do I think mint has had its chips? No. Not in this house. It's a new classic. That's my final word on the matter.

It's hot. I made a worse mess than usual. I seek pardon.

Jenni

A cautionary tale - no, 2 cautionary tales!

1 Easy. Use basecoat before you apply Jessica Aqua Tint or you will get smurf-paws like this... Ta da!

See those cuticles! I have had pumice stone all over these fingers. I was 50 kinds of fool not to use basecoat under a blue. (This looks slightly washed-out in the sun. My cuticles are much worse IRL.)
This is part of universal nail-lore. Blues stain. Yellows streak.

What's on my nails today?

This is cautionary tale 2 btw.

CT 2
I check ebay for OPI bargains. The one on the left was sold as an unnamed OPI. Caveat emptor. Look at the pic, buy it if you like it. Fine. Nowt exciting but..fine.

The one on the right was described as Overexposed in South Beach. The pic wasn't great. Hey, it was described....(Yeah, I did that bit). Now that's a polish I wanted. £5.99. Ting! Thank you.

It duly arrives. I tear open the parcel to be confronted by....all I know is this. It ain't OE in SB. I negotiated a partial refund from the seller because I couldn't be @rsed to go through the faff of returning it. It's a pink foil of no particular distinction whatever. It's functional for days when I just can't decide. They said that the labels had been mixed up. It came with a label saying: Not So Berry Daring. It isn't that particular baby either! I don't mind them guessing at an attribution if they make it clear that there is a degree of doubt. I got a fair deal for an average polish so it's OK. It was meant to be love but it's just the nice lady I talk to at the supermarket - pleasant but not earth-shattering.

The accent nail?

It has to be slightly blurry to pick up the fleck in the jelly. It's over the lighter unnamed OPI. It is???

Who said BB Couture Napa Valley Red? All of you? Good.

My daughter's dog is moulting like a moulty-thing and I am getting white dog hairs all over my nails. I must be inhaling its hair because it's everywhere and on everything.

Jenni

BB Couture - Impact Driver - Incognito

REPORT on my BB experiment w/out base and top coats

Removed the pink and green very reluctantly
After 2/3 days had tipwear
1 chip on a thumbnail but that was due to a slight peel beneath and was easily remedied

Verdict: you can afford to dispense with the base and top coats with BB Couture (as claimed), moreover BB doesn't always cooperate well with other products so it also safer not to take the risk and go commando

As a consequence I decided to forego the usual preparations again today (and it's easier for lazy slobs like me)

The blue is ID and the other one is Incognito

Both from the men's range

ID has 3 coats

Incognito 4 but could take more (don't moan - how long does it take to wipe a brush over a nail?)

Very easy to apply, very thin, very streaky unless you put more polish on the brush (not rocket-science, is it?)

They have a matte-ish (satin) quality and are the first polishes from the men's collection for me - but not *fiendish cackle* the last...

MORE details

This is my attempt to show the oil-slick mauve/violet/pink aspect of this grey (?) polish

Simply unique

I am harping on about Incognito and took many a pic to display what the naked eye can perceive but no luck...I mean, can you glimpse a special something in this pic (middle finger)? No?  Bah. Well, go google some better photos - and there are certainly better swatches out there. This particular colour was only released a couple of weeks ago so there aren't many examples of it but they are all sharper than mine!
Impact Driver is tremendous too. It has particles. Not glitter. Particles. BB is the only brand I know that makes these innovative finishes. There's no sun here but I know they have more to give and they are more colourful than they look here.

This has been very frustrating trying to capture these! Boo.

Got my Barielle quartet. NOT brilliantly packaged. Nor were they the first time I purchased from them. Why skimp on that?

Stuck in the house and waiting for the rain to cease before parading my dogs.
 Do you think muddy/dirty colours are OK or do you hanker after brights? Answers on a postcard, please.

Jenni

PINK and GREEN should ALWAYS be seen - BB Couture

Love Drunk and Studio 54 - perfect partners - not just a quick night-club fumble - a potential long-term partnership based on equality and a common background...

See them together! The green is showing a little too light. A leee-ttle, leeeeeee-ttle bit. And you can mish-mash the brush and swish-swash it and spruce it up and slop it all around. Brilliant for cack-handed me.

Managed to take this under halogen lights and it does show the glitter better.

I had one colour on the LH and one on the RH but they feel so right together.

The pink is day 3 and the green is fresh on - 2 coats.

I'm continuing my experiment on the other hand.

What experiment? Neither base nor top coat. And the Studio 54 in these shots is freshly applied w/out BC and TC. 

I wanted to have a shot taken in full sun but I'm too impatient to wait.

Studio 54 is my official new BEST GREEN EVER!

Everything darker than this is going up for swap-city. There's no point in them. No point, I tell you!

Love Drunk is a candidate for TOP PINK. And I've 3 untried BBs at my left hand!

The photos are 7 sorts of sh!te compared to the real thing, I swear it.

Can Jenson or Lewis beat the Red Bulls??? 

Feminism, Fools and BB Couture...

BB Couture Studio 54

2 coats.

Fools? What fool is this? The fool may be I. Wherefore?

No base and no top coats on this. BB reckon this is a 4 in 1 product and you don't need the afore-mentioned. I don't know about you but I don't think it's possible to get any decent wear without BC and TC. I am about to put BB to the test.  So, will I turn out to be a fool, duped by a sales claim? We'll see. I'll TC it later as I do like me a bit of gloss and it dries a tad matte but (d'you know it's growing on me as I type) I might just persevere with it ungarnished/unvarnished.

Nonetheless, whatever the outcome I shall still love BB Couture. The brush is beyond brilliant. I had no clean-up to do with this.

Looks a little dark as this kind of green is wont to do in different condition. Still a valid pic though.

BB Couture? As this is the 3rd consecutive BB I have sported perhaps I should declare a BB week? I can always change my mind...And it gives me the opportunity (again) to harp on about how fab they are and reiterate my devotion to Kim from Overall Beauty for her exceptional customer service.

Bringing me finally to feminism.


I started this because I wanted to feature polishes it was easy to purchase in the UK - better still British-made (ha!).

BB is from California. So, it should not (theoretically) be on my radar.
However, it IS easy to obtain - courtesy of Kim.

The feminist bit? Kim runs her own business and BB is a small mother-daughter operation. OPI et al are great products but I'd rather put my business Kim's way because she has the personal touch and I feel I might just be supporting women in work they love. The colours and formulae aren't the tired-old-lazy-old-what-everyone-else-is-doing-this-season and I just love them.

Do you know of any small-time manufacturers of anything? Women? British women even?

Happy days to all
Jenni

BB Couture - Love Drunk - pink - I LOVE this with a very great and passionate love...

So I got my 5 for the price of 4 from Kim at Overall Beauty plus a mineral eyeshadow and 2 nail wheels as my gifts! How much do I love Kim!

And I got them out (got them out? You know how it is - tore the box to pieces like a wild beast...) and was aghast. What have I done? Why did I buy that hideous pink? It will be awful!!!

But....

I know nothing, Mr Fawlty!

2 coats, slap it on, done.  Oo, I love foils! I might add a 3rd for the hell of it. In the sun you could beam messages into space with the light bouncing off this beauty. You could store enough energy to power a small town. Holy hotness!

Sorry about the smudge but I have to photoshop my ring finger (vilely gruesome wart) and it doesn't always work so well. 

Sort of taken in oncoming shade. Sun going behind a cloud. This makes it look pink. It IS pink. The 3rd pic (this) is the most representative. I googled this before I ordered it and it isn't a polish that's much blogged about. Not one of the iconic BB Coutures like...well, some others.

Phew *mops brow* this is one of those I'm-sorry-what-did-you-say-can-you-repeat-that-as-I-was-looking-at-my-nails polishes!

Leave a comment if you like and answer the questions up top to enter the giveaway. There's plenty of time left anyway. 

Plans for the weekend? Off to the jolly seaside?

Jenni

BB Couture - Dragon's Breath - jelly goodness - more giveaway news...

Rebecca of www.nailsnailsetc.blogspot.com  was raving about BB Couture yesterday and I wanted something easy-going on the right hand as I was expecting bother with Topshop Bees Knees so I selected Dragon's Breath from BB. (Bees Knees proved a lot more accommodating than expected so I was a happy bunny).

3 coats but 2 is fine. How do I love thee, Breath of the Dragon?

Just slop it on. 

Cue the praise for Kim at Overall Beauty. Honestly, you HAVE to buy some just so you can deal with Kim and experience great customer service.

Outdoors in sun.
This is one of those desert-island polishes. I don't have a Top 10 but this would have to be on it.

Now the RoW giveaway for Europe and beyond! Apologies for shoddy photo.

A lippie (Bourjois), some things you put on your nails (in little boxes), 3 of the Barry M ice-cream collection - berry, pale blue and a pale pink. They are all cremes and they'll be off-trend by the time you get them and Barry M has boring product names but it is a brand that isn't readily available everywhere and is identifiably British so....

Anyway the giveaway T&Cs will be posted later today. And the British giveaway won't be as stingy as just 3 polishes, I promise!

Later, later...
Jenni

Greens - Nubar Reclaim, Cutex Sweet Pea, Hot Looks Ninja, BB Couture Redwood Forest

I had some new greens and I wanted to try them/compare them.

Reclaim 2 coats - why don't I do a whole mani of this??? a lovely holo
Cutex Sweet Pea - 2 swift coats and a stray bit of sparkle - dirty creme
Collection 2000 Ninja - creme 3 coats, a bit streaky
BB Couture Redwood Forest - you have to see this IRL, jelly dark green with blue glass fleck, just get it, I am a huge fan of BB so I'll say that you should get everything they make! 2 coats - no need for more, perfect in 2

The pic washes out the Cutex a bit. I have never seen these swatched which is a very great shame. They do a dirty blue creme also (Huckleberry) which appears to be one of a range of 6 autumnal colours. They include Cider and Eggplant. I don't have those but I mean to acquire more. Cutex used to make lots of shades in days gone by. Perhaps they were merged or taken over by some other corporate giant. Who's to know?

The moral of this posting is: on the whole you get what you pay for. There are caveats to this and I'm sure we could all think of exceptions.

Happy days

Jenni