On January 12th, a massive and devastating earthquake slammed the Caribbean island of Haiti, affecting an estimated 3,000,000 people.  Rescue and aid efforts – both big and small – immediately went into high gear, and today I will bring you one such humanitarian endeavor; the BB Couture for Nails ‘Hands of Hope’ Polish collection.

BB Couture are hoping to raise $10,000 in aide, and to this end, up until the 19th of February 2010 (or the 20th for day ahead Southern Hemisphere dwellers like myself), 25% of the proceeds of sales from these polishes will be donated to the Salvation Army’s Haiti Relief Fund.  So there is no confusion, that means from each and every bottle  – even if you buy just one, 25% of the proceeds for that bottle will be donated.  If you buy the whole collection, 25% of all 6 bottles will go to help, and you will get a free topcoat too.  WIN!

There are actually 6 polishes in this collection, but I only purchased the 5 you can see above.   After the jump you can see my swatches from the 2 green/blues – Kyona Beach and Bassins Bleu – as well as some comparisons….  The last (but not least) 3 will follow – in part 2 – in a timely fashion….

Kyona Beach is a light, soft minty blue/green with fine, subtle shimmer in the bottle… I take my hat off to the creative mind that dreams up the the BB Couture shimmer combinations.  This one is particularly pretty, and surprising!  It is barely visible on on the nail, AKA secret shimmer, but it is there, all be it very subtle….any way I digress lol, I was starting to tell you that during the day the secret shimmer is silvery, but then at night, the silver is replaced by pretty jade green and bright pink shimmers.  Fabulous!

Now, I know you are all thinking it, so I’m going to just come out and say it – Kyona Beach is a not a dupe for any of this seasons minty greens (not ones that I own anyway).  I’d classify it more as a cousin, one that leans far more towards blue, shares the soft greyed out effect and throws a shade or 3 darker.  Observe.  On the nail wheel below I have painted (from left to right) American Apparel ‘Office’, Spa Ritual ‘Delight’, Essie ‘Mint Candy Apple’ and then Kyona Beach.  Next to the minty greens you can clearly see how it is significantly bluer.  So you see, it is NOT just another minty green, and you DO need Kyona Beach in your stash lol *enables*!

Bassins Bleu + me = LOVE!!  I thought I would like Kyona Beach much more than this one, in fact i was pretty sure I would, but as soon as I had Bassins Bleu on my nails it was True Love!  Though calling this one a blue is kinda a stretch – yeeeeaaah, it is absolutely the sort of colour I have seen water at the seaside, but for me this shade is one I associate far more with jade than the ocean…so that is how I will describe it, as a pretty light jade cream.  Interestingly this seems to be the only one of the 6 in this collection that is pure creme with no shimmer at all.

I’ve only recently dipped my toe into the green pool, so the idea of certain shades still makes me a little nervous.  Which is why there is no Tortuga Island for me to show you – the idea of a frosty bright green was just too much for my trembling knees, and largely why I thought that this jade may be a bit too much for me…. but no, it is awesome, and a lot more flattering than i was expecting.

There is not a huge colour difference between the 2 Hands of Hopes greens, so i have included a quick comparison for you…. just to tick all the boxes *hehe*!

And yeah, I gotta do it, I gotta pimp my code a bit… it’s my first one, and I’m pretty stoked   All that is required of you is to head over to http://www.overallbeauty.com, fill your shopping cart with gorgeous polish and type ROS1 during checkout.  Then you can just sit back and enjoy getting $3- off your $30- order.  So simple, so sweet, so hard to resist You won’t resist, will you?!?

xox ESOP (o: