Strange Beautiful Red/Blue Colorbloc Swatched

This is the colorbloc from the June Glosybox. Like with all the strangebeautiful polishes, there is no naming of these, no numbering of these, no nothing. VERY FRUSTRATING. If you pick up one of these duos from Anthropologie (this shade combo not available but others are for $18 a duo) the online store  has named them, but the brand itself? BAH!!

So we will simply call them red and blue. They are small. Like really small. 4.5 mls per polish. Which is fine since they should last about 10 manicures each. And not likely I would use more than that.

This is one coat each and no topcoat. Seriously. These are the most buttery, smooth, easy to apply polishes in the universe. They were opaque in one coat, amazingly glossy and very pretty. The red borders on tomato though, which is not great for me, but they are such an amazing formula it makes me want to wear it anyway. Both the red and blue were equally swoon worthy in application!

Glossybox June Reveal!

So Glossybox works a little differently than other subscriptions. You get charged for the box somewhere around the first week of the month (so far around the 7th-10th I have noticed) and they ship at the end of the third week of the month, so you usually get your June box the last day or two of June, though this box arrived July 1st. It just took me until yesterday to get across the border to pick it up (they only ship to the USA).

I promise you all, I had EVERY intention of quitting and cancelling my membership as soon as I got my May box. I only wanted the Bergdorf Goodman box. I mean, come on!! $21 for a box full of high end samples AND a $25 gift card to BG? I mean how can you pass that up? The box was free!

And then I saw a preview of June and had to get it. The box is $21 and inside it is a full sized $18 strangebeautiful colour block. You all know I love the brand, and it made the rest of the box $3! Now as it turns out there were THREE full sized products in this box - an $18 colour block, a $10 hand lotion (given to my mom already), and an $18 shadow pencil. So that is $46 worth of stuff without the other two samples. The RUSK texturize spray is a $3.75 value, but we all know that when buying the travel size bottles, we pay more than double that just to get the convenience and the last two mini dry shampoos I have purchased for travel have been in the $8-$10 mark even though the value of product is next to none. Then another sample size (though deluxe sample) of a body butter which has also already been given to my mom. All in all, I am pretty happy with this box, and feel even this oh so picky blogger got her moneys worth, even after giving two of the products away!

Oh! And a surprise gift card with a secret value of between $5-$500. What a flipping joke. I was annoyed at my $10 but it seems most people got $5. Shipping is like $8 and everything on the site is overpriced to begin with. It would have been one thing if there was an item from C Wonder in the box and then a coupon for free shipping or something. But a gift card that doesn't even cover shipping and has no connection to the box actually just pissed me off. It felt like a way to pretend they were adding a bonus when in reality, its garbage. /End rant!

NOW.. IF you are interested in signing up for glossybox, now is the time to do it! In the next box we are all getting the Glamglow mask!!!!!! The $19 sized one! So yes, I am sticking around one more month. As long as they can show me ahead of time that I will be happy with my box, I will hang around.

And if you are interested in getting the box ($21 and a guaranteed $19 face mask), make sure you use code CIATE to get a free nail polish.

CLICK HERE TO 

SIGN UP! REMEMBER

TO USE CODE CIATE

June GLOSSYBOX Spoiler!!!

GLOSSYBOX only ships to the USA but I must say I am super impressed with the company thus far and for any Americans (or fellow Canucks with American addresses) I thought I would show you the sneak peeks we have had thus far in case you want to sign up. I had planned on only getting May and cancelling, but $21 seems worth it to me when I want all 3 of the sneak peeks so far!! And I am really happy with the brand thus far so I will keep it!

Every June GLOSSYBOX will include the STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Library of Color Colorbloc so you can create your own stars & stripes nail designs to match our custom-designed box!

The second item that we know will be in each box is the RUSK Texture Dry Finishing Spray.

The third product in the June GLOSSYBOX this month will be the Sumita Beauty Champagne Eye Shadow Pencil ($18 value)!

AND!!!!!!!!! If you use code HAIR, You get a free NIOXIN Diamax Thickening Treatment Valued at $50 just for signing up!

YOU CAN SIGN UP RIGHT 

HERE! THIS BOX IS STILL ON SALE!!

More Doses Of StrangeBeautiful!

So I have to start by apologizing to you all. I recently introduced you all to the new StrangeBeautiful trios of polish pills known as Doses. At the time I told you all that they were not yet available at the LuckyScent store as I could not find them on there. I had no clue where to direct non Americans to purchase these! Well, guess what?! They ARE available on the Lucky Scent website. They for some reason have the brand listed as "Dose" and not as "Strangebeautiful" so I totally missed them! And not only are they there, there are two more sets that are limited edition that were put out for Valentines day!

The two sets are:
Rose Are... and includes three colours 

• Brightly Stimulated Coral
• An Overactive Pink
• A No B.S Red

The Cure (for Love) and includes three colours 

• Enhanced Gold
• Super Duper Platinum
• Any Gift From This Particular Company (Orange)

Available worldwide from luckyscent.com HERE for $20US each!!!

STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Creates Actual Doses of Nail Color - The Capsule Collection!

If you have read my blog for awhile you have already seen the brand STRANGEBEAUTIFUL before. Jane Schub is the creator of this brand and lets just say.......... there is some very unique inspiration in some of her library's. Each colour library has 10 polishes and they are always nameless. Jane believes that names can evoke images or ideas and that that can take away some of or inhibit your own emotions evoked by the colours. Its my LARGEST complaint about her polishes. I HATE when companies don't name polishes. That being said, since one collection takes its inspiration from menstrual blood and bruising (I am totally NOT joking!!!) maybe we wouldn't want THOSE polishes to be named! LOL!

Well unlike her $85 library's which leave at least ME drooling, this new line of hers is quite manageable on the budget. Now don't get me wrong. They are still not cheap. You get three itty bitty bottles for $20. But you only have to put out $20 at a time!

STRANGEBEAUTIFUL creator Jane Schub is responsible for some of the most cerebral and well thought out nail color we’ve ever seen, but this fall she’s ditched bookish allusions in favor of a more lighthearted approach to nail cravings—with the appropriate dosage. 

Call it Jane’s addiction or a remedy for the truly manicure-obsessed, her new DOSE line is exactly that—doses of high-pigment polish in tiny capsules, housed in pharmaceutical-style glass vials. Novelty is a big factor here with such a tiny package, but Jane intends for the line to be fun and not as serious as her previous Volume releases. “Cheerfulness, impulsive, addictive, and smile-inducing,” is how she described the collection to Beautylish over email. That’s a lot to say about nail color, but when you’re constantly surrounded by beauty products, it‘s rare to encounter something that actually makes you grin. 

With six trios to choose from, we’re hooked on Clever Girl’s romantic violets and Bright Future’s Halloween-perfect palette. But in the end, all of them would look as good on our vanity table as in our medicine cabinet.

These are available now at Beautylish if you live in the United States. I am not sure where we Canadians or anyone else can purchase them at this point, but if you see them around, please let me  know! I have compiled all the images from the beautylish website together below. Which ones do you want?

StrangeBeautiful Colours For Anthropolgie

Last year Anthropologie got these duos exclusive to their store. By the time I found out about these, it was too late to get them, though I did manage to get one duo which was previously reviewed and swatched. So this year, I was thrilled to actually find out in time to get my hands on the exclusive polishes for THIS YEAR!

Now before I go any further, you have all heard my bitch before about the lack of any kind of naming or numbering system to these polishes. Now these ones ARE named. And I am still going to bitch. Firstly, because though they are named on the website, the names are NOWHERE on the bottles. And secondly because the names are so messed up. I got a greeny-yellowy, brownish green and reddish brown. The names are pink, taupe purple and black. It took me 20 minutes to figure out which shade was which!!! BAH!!!!!!!!

The other thing that kills me, and drives me up a wall is that each collection is so drastically different in shape and size. It seriously drives me up a wall. I am so OCD about my polish and like nice neat rows and sorted by number and colour. Strangebeautiful does NOT allow me to do that. Not in any way shape or form. But enough bitching. Here comes the fun part. The colours in THIS collection!!

Strangebeautiful creator Jane Schub took her inspiration for this moody set of semi-opaque, fluid shades from the intricate details of her surroundings. The polish is highly saturated with pigment - a single coat will do for most shades - and extremely long wearing. Each intensely curated color is housed in a heavy Italian glass bottle and topped with a bespoke, hand-engraved acrylic cap. 

Black: a dark carbon shade inspired by the wet shale that lines the Hudson River

Purple: an almost brown shade of wet earth, inspired by the Hudson River estuary

Pink: a deep brown-rose inspired by a rush of color to the skin

Taupe: yellowy-brown, inspired by a painting by the artist Hieronymous Bosch

Now it seems to me I got Purple, Pink and Taupe. They retail for 19.00 each and by the time I knew that Anthropologie had these 4 colours, they were already on clearance for 3.95 each!!! Not surprising then that 1 of them was already sold out!!

Now I am about 75% sure I got the names right, and matched up!

Purple: an almost brown shade of wet earth, inspired by the Hudson River estuary - This one is a lot of things. But purple it is NOT. A muddy brown with a tinge of green it. The formula was super hard to judge as the brush is a nightmare to work with. But the swatches below are of three coats. I would really need one more coat to even out the patchiness. This problem with the brush I will not mention when describing the other two colours, but it was the same issue with all three of them.

Pink: a deep brown-rose inspired by a rush of color to the skin. This colour is a pinkish/brownish tinged burgundy. Very much the colour of brick.

Taupe: yellowy-brown, inspired by a painting by the artist Hieronymous Bosch. This one is a yellowy mossy greenish brown colour.

Now as you can see, the square lid comes off like most square shaped lids do. The first problem with this is that the round cap underneath is far too short to actually comfortably hold. It is the same size as my thumb nail.

Now to compare, these Strangebeautiful bottles are 9mls. Yet they are the same height as these Girly Bits polishes that are 5ml. But the Girly Bits have not only a much longer handle to grab making them comfortable to use, but the brush is actually a few mm longer, and thicker. The Girly Bits one splays out to cover much more of the nail whereas the Strangebeautiful one is firm and holds little polish, making it very tricky to use.

All in all, the colours are gorgeous, thought the naming system is bizarre, the bottle shape keeps changing, and they are a pain in the you-know-what to actually use. I do love the colours though and will get much joy in all three of these polishes!

StrangeBeautiful Library of Color Volumes 1, 2 & 5 Swatches!!

Before going on to the swatches, I just have to show you the new set that is having its presale now. OMG, am I in LOVE!!!

The Scoop
For her Dickensian Volume of Color, STRANGEBEAUTIFUL creator Jane Schub drew inspiration from photographer Joel-Peter Witkin; Edward Gorey’s The Loathsome Couple; the Brothers Grimm; A velvety lump of coal; the dull, yet metallic shards of broken shale that line the hills of the Hudson Valley; and Dickens.

The Dickensian Edition features a range of 10 compelling elusively metallic colors each shade slightly disturbing and exquisite to wear.

Thanks to Heather I have swatches for you today of three volumes instead of just my volume two!! These sets are GORGEOUS! They are also very pricey! Each set will run you 85.00 and they do NOT go on sale! If you are like me and live in Canada, expect this:

And that is for ONE set!! Now you know why volume one has remained on my wishlist! EEK! Anyways, these are a lovely formula that depending on the colour range from one coaters, to two coaters. The bottles are basically the same shape and size as the Julep bottles which I find a great size and shape to hold and work with. 

My biggest pet peeve with these polishes is the lack of names. But not only do they lack names, they lack numbers. They lack any type of identifying method whatsover! And to make matters worse, the Library of Colors used to have 8 larger bottles in the set, now they have ten MUCH smaller bottles and all the colours of have changed. So my volume one will be totally different than an OLDER volume 1 and again, no way to distinguish! BAH!!!!!!!!! 

VOLUME ONE (thanks to Heather!)

The Scoop

Volume 1 was inspired by: Josef Albers Color Theory, A Mid Century Modern Knoll Fabric, Oscar Wilde, the exuberant paint colors used to decorate the walls of the Federalist period, a color inspired by an Andy Warhol painting at the Dia Museum, the color Puce which I remember mixing when oil painting as a child, a green - winged teal, the dark inky blue of a never ending deep lake at night and the fear of swimming in it, and of course the Ettore Sottsass Red Valentine typewriter.

Willful and provocative, the StrangeBeautiful library of color will change each season so grab it while you can.

Volume 2

The Scoop

Volume 2, takes inspiration from a variety of objects: An interesting color palette of Camo called Tan and Water camo used by an elite German anti- terrorist unit. The slate blue color of a uniform in an 1846 N.Currier print “The Death of the Gallant Major Ringgold”.V iolette (Pansy Violet) ink from the venerable French ink company J. Herbin founded in 1670, the dull red color of a lobster shell immediately after it has been removed from boiling water.

These inspirations are what came to mind when creating StrangeBeautiful’s richly perverse color saturated Volume 2.

Volume 5 (one more, thanks to Heather)

The Scoop

For her Volume V Library of Color, STRANGEBEAUTIFUL creator Jane Schub drew inspiration from the spectral banks of the Hudson River estuary upon which her 19th century brick factory looms like a prescient structure in a foreboding Bosch painting.

Moody, erotic, irreverent and tender, the STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Volume V edition features 8 diaphanous veils of wildly haunting colors, each shade slightly disturbing and yet effortless to wear.

Inspirations and references range from the vampiric gradations of a healing bruise; the moody rusts of menstrual blood; sooty, phantasmal India ink; the profile of a gray blue Heron scooping fish against a background of gooey river runoff and the apocalyptic color palette of Medieval Flemish paintings. Visceral and private, each shade cloaks the finger in an aqueous film of color for an effect that is strange, beautiful, and impossible to forget.

Unlike traditional nail polishes, the Volume V shades coat the nail in a gossamer bath of color. Not quite transparent, the effect is fluid and semi opaque, as if the nail itself had taken on a mysterious life of its own.