As promised, here are the swatches of the Hands of Hope Collection from BB Couture for nails. The collection consists of 6 shades all with names of places in Haiti. As I mentioned before, 25% of the sales from this collection is donated to the Salvation Army to aide the women and children affected by the earthquakes in Haiti.
Tortuga Island, Kyona Beach, Bassins Bleu
Paradise, Labadie Beach, Cap-Haïtien
Tortuga Island - Tortuga is an island off the northern coast of Haiti. Its name in Spanish (Isla Tortuga) and French means "Turtle Island" or "Tortoise Island". Tortuga Island the polish, is a pale, yellow-green with a lot of silver shimmer that gives it a bit of a frosty look. It reminds me of key lime pie. This swatch is three coats, as I thought the finish was a bit too thin with 2 coats. This is not a bad color, but it's not one of my favorites.
Kyona Beach - Kyona Beach is a gorgeous little beach on the western coast a little north of Port-au-Prince. Kyona Beach the polish is a very pretty robin's egg blue creme. I am calling it a creme but it does have a little hidden shimmer in it, but it is very hidden. This gave me a really bad application the first time I tried to swatch it. It was very uneven, even with Seche Vite. I don't know if it was the lack of a base coat or that it was too thick, but the next time I swatched it I did use a base coat, and I thinned it a bit and that make everything okay. The swatch is 2 coats.
Bassins Bleu - The Bassin Bleu in Haiti consists of a series of natural rock bassins arranged in cascade, successively pouring water into one another. That sounds amazing! Apparently Bassin Bleu is restricted to a minimal amount of tourists per day to preserve its environmental integrity. Bassins Bleu the polish is a blue sided, shamrock green creme. It looks to me like it has itty bitty black particles in it, but they are very sparse so I don’t know if it is contamination or intentional. Regardless, I like the color and application was great. This swatch is 2 coats.
Paradise – This is so awesome! When I first saw the pics for this collection, Paradise looked like a peach creme. It’s definitely not a peach creme. This is the color of putty. It is beautiful. I wore this for a few days and got many, many compliments on it. In some lights it looks like a pale mauve-purple from just a hint, to very mauve-purple. It’s awesome. In the swatch you can see that there is a lot of golden shimmer, which I am sure we can attribute with making this shade look peach, but it really doesn’t translate to the nail. This is my favorite of the bunch and this swatch is 2 coats.
Labadie Beach - Labadie is a strip of land on the secluded Pointe Honore near Cape Haïtien, Haiti. This beach is one of the world's best sandy beaches and it is protected by coral reefs. Labadie Beach the polish is a cool, medium pink with purple shimmer. Very pretty and has great application. This swatch is 2 coats.
Cap-Haïtien – Cap-Haïtien, Haiti is a city on the northern coast of the country. Cap-Haïtien the polish is a really awesome medium purple. I think it is much better in real life than in the swatch. In real life it is a bit darker/more saturated and just prettier, but in a way that I can’t seem to find words for. This is very stunning and not like any other purple I have. This is my 2nd favorite from the collection. It has a small amount of very fine red shimmer, but sadly it is pretty invisible on the nail. This was a dream to apply. I probably could have gotten away with one coat. This swatch is two coats.
The entire collection retails for $54, or $9 per bottle. If you can’t spring for all of them right now, it is okay. You can purchase them individually and still 25% of the sales will go to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. They can be purchased at Overall Beauty.com