Company Overview: Rescue Beauty Lounge

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

Rescue Beauty Lounge is a New York City-based nail polish company that I think is on the large/professional side for an indie--they've been written up in magazines like Vogue, Lucky, and Allure--but I do still think of them as an indie company rather than mainstream. I believe they have at least one physical location (the actual Rescue Beauty Lounge) in New York where you can buy their products in person, or have them used on you in manicures/pedicures, but I've only ordered their products online.

They have an interesting preorder system where they send out samples to various nail bloggers for swatching ahead of time, then open up preorders for a limited amount of time--you're not guaranteed to be able to purchase the polish on the website unless you preorder. I feel a little uncomfortable with this system, somehow, but I think it's more because of the various emails I get from them hyping me up to buy with "LAST CHANCE!" wording preying on my fear of missing out.

Packaging: 

The packaging for RBL polishes is beautiful--can't remember how the packages actually arrive, but the bottles are the rectangular, minimalist design that is my favorite style. I hate polish bottles with a large or irregular footprint (I'm looking at you, Wet 'n' Wild Megalasts, OPI Nicole, and Urban Outfitters nail polishes...) since they take up too much room in my nail polish box.  

Selection: 

It seems that all RBL's colors are essentially limited edition, although they carry a permanent base coat, base coat prep (?), and matte and glossy top coats. They carry a range of finishes from jellies to metallics to glitterbombs, and a range of colors from light to dark, warm to cool, muted to bright, all polishes being 5-free and not tested on animals. At the moment it looks like around 40 colors are available for purchase.

They also sell the founder Ji Baek's book Rescue Your Nails and a selection of bafflingly expensive tools, such as this $80 nail file.  

Samples: 

Samples are not available.

Quality: 

I've only used two polishes from RBL--Oh Slap! (a pink cream/jelly) and Fire Queen (a pale green jelly), pictured at the top of this post both in the bottle and on my nails. Both apply smoothly, though require three thin coats for even coverage, and have a very good wear time.  

Cost:

Mad expensive. Most of the nail polishes in my collection cost between $1 and $6. Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes are mostly priced at $20, with a few being priced lower, at $18. My honest opinion after having tried these is that I don't know that it's really worth that much money, unless there's a really undupeable shade they sell that you're dying for. (On the other hand, I do sometimes justify buying nail polish to myself by reasoning that I'd happily spend $20 or so on a salon manicure where I only get a single application of polish, so a bottle with many applications in it doesn't seem so expensive by comparison.)

(I will NEVER buy an $80 nail file, but that's just me.)

They do sometimes run sales, and have a standing 25% off discount during your birthday week if you register with the site ahead of time.

Customer Service: 

I haven't had to interact with RBL customer service, but it is surprisingly hard to find contact information on their site. (It's here--they provide an email address and mailing address.)

TAT: 

My order was shipped the same day it was placed, so their turnaround time seems great from my experience. They promise a 3-5 business day TAT.

Shipping: 

• From their website, shipping policies are as follows:
• Shipping to the United States for orders totaling up-to $49.99 is a flat rate of $5.50.
• Free shipping to the United States on orders totaling $50 or more.
• International Shipping Flat Rate: 1- 5 bottles: $13.50 (un-trackable).
• Free shipping internationally on orders totaling $100 and up. We're not responsible for your duty fees, please check your local customs rate.
• All prices and services are subject to change without notice.

Please allow 10-16 plus business days (not counting the weekends), depends on the country's customs and postal systems. USPS does not provide tracking routing, it will stay and remain in New York, and until the orders are delivered then the status will change to "delivered". *Please note some countries take up to three months plus until the orders are delivered; please continuously check your local post office. 

Note: We may not ship to some countries due to inconsistent mail service, frequently lost packages, and high rates of fraudulent orders. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Personal Thoughts:

I love seeing swatches of RBL's polishes online, and I love many of their colors--some are really interesting and lovely--but the polishes are simply too expensive for me to justify, for the most part. I hemmed and hawed about using my 25% off coupon during my birthday week, but couldn't find anything in their collections at the time that I found unique enough to justify the price. I'm happy with the two polishes I have (although I sort of regret not picking something with some kind of unique shimmer or duochrome, since non-shimmers are more easily dupeable) but it would take something pretty amazing to make me order a $20 polish from them again.

If money were no object, here are the current colors I'd pick up first:

• All About Yves, a take on International Klein Blue--cobalt blue is my weakness (my pedicure is Sinful Colors Endless Blue at the moment). I have so many variations on blue cream and jelly polishes, I can't really justify buying this, but I LOVE the color. 
• Galaxy Glue, a glowy, iridescent teal multichrome.
• Will They Won't They, a lavender with a silvery microglitter/glass fleck running through it 
• Bicicletta, another microglitter/glass fleck polish with a blush pink base

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Pinterest, and/or follow us on BlogLovin to get all of our updates!