BB Couture Tortuga Island

I've decided it is high time I continued my exploration of the BB Couture Hands of Hope Collection, which paid part of the proceeds for aid to Haiti. This is the polish that captures that pretty, cool spring day after a few dreary days of rain and clouds....the sun is out, and the fresh green buds and leaves are showing. Ah, spring! New growth! 

I have been into the pale colors, recently. And I like it! Out of the six colors in this collection, Tortuga Island is the only shimmer (the others are cremes, such as Cap Haitien). I just love this fresh, pale green, and I am looking forward to wearing it soon! 

These are my first BB Couture, and I am very happy with these polishes. The formula is rather thin and slightly runny but otherwise easy enough to manage. So, let's get to swatching! 

In the sunlight, with slight VNL showing:

Taken in the shade:

Ooh, I just love this delicate green. Pale green is a color I am feeling for spring. I may have to go get a pretty pale green linen jacket or something. Or maybe I already have one? Yikes, time to dig out my spring clothes, especially before I do any shopping, ha ha!

I know tortuga means "turtle" in Spanish. I Googled "Tortuga Island" and found more than one possibility, but the one in Haiti is an island off Haiti's north coast. I think it has a lot of trees, so perhaps that is why it's the name for a green polish? At any rate, I love that these colors are named after places in Haiti, and while I am running late getting all of the colors posted, perhaps this post is a reminder not to forget what is going on there in Haiti. 

Comparison of BB Couture Cap-Haïtien and OPI Do You Lilac It?

I am enchanted with my new purple beauty from BB Couture, Cap Haïtien. I naturally have to wonder if it duplicates anything in my fledgling collection. Last summer I wore Essie St. Lucia Lilac for a super pale lavender and OPI Do You Lilac It? for a brighter lilac.

Did I inadvertently duplicate Do You Lilac It? I pulled my bottle and went to work!

First, the bottle comparo. They are kind of close but do not really match. The Cap Haïtien has a pinker, mauvier tone to it, while the Do You Lilac It? reads more blue.


Here's a peak of the plates on my wall, if a little blurry, from the background of the last pic. I got them in Prague; they are from Moravia and done in the Haban style. Uh, but I digress.

Okay, that's fine but you noticed in my last post that the BB Couture was only on my ring and pinky fingernails. Well, all the better to do a comparison!


OPI Do You Lilac It? is pictured here on the index and middle fingernails.

So, outdoor pictures with late afternoon sun show that the two polishes are quite similar and in the same general ballpark, with the same difference that were showing in the bottle love pics. The OPI is definitely coming across a bit more blue.


If you are in the market for a pretty light to medium purple, either BB Couture Cap Haïtien and OPI Do You Lilac It? would fit the bill nicely, or you could choose based on the difference in tone shown here. If you are a true purple freak, you might like to have both! I would be part of that latter group.

Hands of Hope, Continued: BB Couture Cap-Haïtien

Gee, what to post, what to post....continue with the Essie Art of Spring collection that I had started? Or continue with my BB Couture Hands of Hope that I had sort of started. That's a toughie!

Okay, I can't resist, I'm continuing with the Hands of Hope Cap-Haïtien....it's PURPLE!! Not a pastel but a lovely light to medium purple. I heart this pretty polish!

Here are some pics of Cap-Haïtien on my ring and pinky nails, outside, late afternoon sun:


Ha ha, you can see the snow! And a peak at my Essie Tart Deco on the middle finger. Time was in short supply, so I didn't do full hand swatches.

The formula is thin as I reported on this collection, in general. I didn't have problems, though, and I didn't have the streaky, spotty coverage that I did in the paler colors in this set. Smooth sailing!

Cap-Haïtien is a city on the north coast of Haiti. I don't know what that has to do with this beautiful purple. The mountains to the west? The color of some of the French buildings? Flowers? If you know, post a comment!

My Absolute Fave Color: Bassins Bleu!

Well, I reported that I got my Hands of Hope BB Couture collection from Overall Beauty.

So, today was beautifully sunny if still a bit below freezing. Yay, swatching time! I put BB Couture Bassins Bleu on first and began snapping some pics. My camera battery died, as expected, so I reached for the additional battery. Um, it wasn't there. Oh. Uh. So, I went around searching for my battery charger.

Long story short, I couldn't find it, I was totally upset that I stood to miss the swatching time, and I was quite befuddled. I either need to stop travelling or get more organized! I finally accepted that I was not going to find anything at that moment and that I should just go organize existing pics. Peace. Zen. Clarity...I looked one more time and found the charger!

Well, while the charging started, I removed the Bassins Bleu and started working on something else. So, I have like, three pictures but I assure you I will be swatching this color during the next sunny swatch session. (ha ha, alliteration! Ssssss.)






This polish, as I reported, is thin and runny. It goes on pretty well, but the first coat can have some streaks, and you run the risk of the "bald spot" phenomenon...the polish is smooth but below the surface you have some holes in coverage.

I think, however, that two coats will do the trick as long as you take precautions for the above issues. The important thing to know is that this polish is my favorite of all time. I just decided that. It's the best. The BEST, Jerry, the BEST! (Seinfeld reference, I'm full of those.)

The color is not quite a pastel, but rather a light turquoise blue that has a very healthy dose of green....much like many gorgeous turquoise shades. It is just mesmerizingly beautiful, and holds the promise of spring and summer. Bassins Bleu is a site in Haiti consisting of a series of basins, or pools, that have waterfalls connecting the basins to one another...or something like that. Check it out: Bassin Bleu.

I've seen some posts saying this polish is green. Well, no, it's blue to me with a good dosage of green. It's a turquoise. I'll take some pics outside in the sunshine and see if I still believe that. Hee.

My Hands of Hope Collection Arrived!!

Yay! My Hands of Hope special collection BB Couture polishes came this Friday! These are my first BB Couture, and I was convinced to get this set when I saw them on Body and Soul. The colors are fresh and spring-like, great for spring and summer! The colors include a light turquoise blue that leans green (Bassins Bleu), a pale baby blue (Kyona Beach), a light purple (Cap Haitien), a milky pale lilac/off white (Paradise), a dark pink/fuchsia (Labadie Beach), and a pale green shimmer (Tortuga Island). They are all cremes except for the pale green.

Here are swatches I painted on over my Lincoln Park After Dark mani, and a less than stellar shot 0f my first nail swatches. I painted those stripes Friday night and took the picture Saturday night (yesterday).


The formula is super thin and runny. You have to be super careful to wipe all excess polish off the wand and brush, and if you make one false move you can have puddling (which happened with my purple nail).


The turquoise has a bald spots and needs a third coat. I had some streakiness with the milky lilac/off white.

For the most part, however, the application was very nice, as long as you took care to deal with the thin formula. I look forward to playing with these further and hopefully doing full-hand swatches!

25% of the proceeds of this set go to the Salvation Army's efforts in Haiti. I might have done better to contribute the whole amount to Haiti, but I know I am going to want pretty polish for spring so why not buy the ones that are making this donation??