Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Stormy has been in the core line of indie polish maker Rescue Beauty Lounge since at least 2008. At least, that's the year of the earliest review I found, from the archives of the wonderful blog The Polish Addict. Described by creator Ji as a "moody and mysterious dark gray" "like winter clouds heavy with snow," this could be the poster polish for February this year! Actually, I think of it as a perfect medium wet-cement grey, half way between black and white. It appears achromatic in the bottle, but dries to a shade with just a breath of blue to it, not enough to qualify for a cadet grey but enough to make me want to call it chromatic. It's a soft, silky shade, with a presence on the nail that is both demure and moody. This also happens to be a very accurate descriptor of myself as a child so I feel a certain kinship with this polish... ha!

Application was awesome. Stormy has an outstanding formula, like many RBL offerings. A key aspect of RBL's formula for me is how effortlessly it goes exactly where you put it, with no streaking, patching, pulling, running, blobbing, pooling or otherwise messing around. It's the kind of formula that makes you feel like a polish artiste, like you're watching a video of someone else's perfect application... except, it's you!

The consistency of Stormy is fluid, creamy and light with a whisper smooth glide over the nail. Self-leveling properties are excellent, and how this occurs with such a light, fluid formula is a mystery in this world and a miracle for my furrowed nail beds. Pigmentation is very good with completely even opacity in two thin coats. Cleanup is a snap-a-lappa-ding-dong. Stormy dries naturally to a shade ever-so-slightly darker and bluer than bottle color and a glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Stormy over treatment and basecoat with a somewhat sloppy topcoat of Seche Vite.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

Rescue Beauty Lounge Stormy

So sleek and silky! I was pleasantly surprised by how neutral it looks in my photos, but if you take a look at multiple photos of Stormy from across the web, as in google image search, you can see the variations it can produce depending upon circumstances of viewing and complexion of the wearer, not to mention stuff like camera and computer screen interpretations. Possibly my favorite iteration of Stormy is under incandescent lighting, where the blue comes forward quite a bit and the polish takes on a Wedgwood coloring, a very soft dreamy grey blue. 

love,
Liz