Rococo Nail Apparel from SPACE.NK.apothecary

I discovered Rococo Nail Apparel on 2 of my favorite NY-based bloggers Beauty Moogle Zone and New York City Pretty (both possess fashionably great taste and are always in-the-know) and knew I had to check out this brand.

I ordered a few colors from SpaceNK online and this past weekend I had a girls-day-out to Orange County and stopped by the SpaceNK in Bloomingdales at South Coast Plaza to check out the rest of the line.

I first need to RAVE about their customer service. For my online order, one of the colors I received was the wrong shade and SpaceNK online was really great in trying to correct the mishap. Since I was going to be near a SpaceNK that next weekend, she called all the California stores near me to make sure they had the right color in stock and that they were aware I’d be coming for a possible exchange.

My experience at the South Coast Plaza location was also incredible. I’ve been to SCP on several occasions but never even noticed the SpaceNK corner as it was a bit hidden. Those not familiar with Bloomingdales, next time you go, I highly recommend you check it out. If you have trouble finding it, just ask. My friend and I met the most knowledgeable associate we have ever encountered there. We spent about 3o minutes smelling the perfumes and looking at the skincare and we were both amazed at all the information he had about each item. Anything we pointed at, he was able to give us the FULL 411 on. He described each fragrance topnotes and undertones and gave us recommendations based on our likes. For skincare, he was able to tell us the ingredients of any skincare product, explained in detail how to best use it, he even explained how to use that muslin cloth in the Eve Lom Cleanser set. We were both thrilled.

For my Rococo experience, I have slightly mixed feelings. The nail polishes come in a stunning range of colors with great pigment – but there seems to be some inconsistency with some of the batches in the actual color you get. We pulled out 3 different colors: R2T2, Gothic Lolita, and Organza and there were clear differences between the tester and product being sold. For example, the Gothic Lolita tester was a gorgeous blueberry jelly shimmer while the product sold was a shimmery gunmetal. The Organza tester (can see it on the SpaceNK website) was a straight beige with iridescent gold shimmer, while the one I bought has a slight pinkish shimmers and undertone.

There are 2 types of labels which I will picture below. I think the type of label on your bottle will indicate what variation of color you get. Unfortunately you don’t really know which type of label you will get.

So – my frustration with this line is the lack of consistency in colors with the same name. I did however appreciate the honesty from the associates at SpaceNK at Bloomingdales. They mentioned up front that I should know there is a slight difference from some of the colors that they believe was due to a difference in manufacturer or batch production. The sales associates were kind enough to open up several boxes of their stock so I could compare them the testers to make my purchasing decisions.

The swatches on paper look different from what goes on the nails, but I’m conducting a few nail-related projects so it’s going to take a while for me to swatch them all, so please bear with me. I will get around to swatching them all on my fingers. I just got a mani with Re-Issue (which I am totally in love with) – see that in a post coming soon.

I’ve since seen a few more posts on London Makeup Girl featuring Blu Skywalker & Visionary Beauty featuring Metal Jacket. Have you seen this line in person? What are your thoughts?

My personal rants aside about consistency, I was very pleased with the whole SpaceNK shopping experience. I think this line has great colors with lovely pigment and formulas. There’s nothing like great customer service that makes your shopping experience all the more better and enjoyable – especially for the 2 of us who went completely giddy smelling the unique perfumes and blabbering about the high-end skincare lines. It was nice to find a sales associate who didn’t make us feel awkward about our beauty obsession (which I have to say would have been totally understandable as we were probably acting to the equivalent of teenage girls screeching at a Twilight or New Moon premiere). These nail polishes retail for $16.50 each and the line also carries a gold-flecked nail polish for $32.50 with real gold flakes (which I did not purchase).