Thursday, October 18, 2012

butter LONDON 2 Fingered Salute

I wanted to show you all a mani that is...well, not artsy in any way. I bought this polish from nordstrom.com awhile back (before it was sold out, apparently!) and just wore it last week. I LOVE IT. 

All photos are 2 coats with one coat of top coat. It is not gritty polish at all.

I thought it was copper glitter in a seafoam base but it is large shimmer like in RBL Halcyon in a seafoam base. Which is why it isn't gritty.

The shimmer is a rose/copper duochrome, kinda like Orly Space Cadet but in reverse. The copper is the most prominent color with the rose shining at odd angles. 

See, I don't always franken-dupe everything! I also buy a lot of polish!

The base also has a very very subtle shimmer. I am so happy that it is PACKED with large shimmer particles because in a milky/pastel base, you really need a lot of them to make it a real shimmer. I think this is why so many people were frustrated with Halcyon; it is subtle. 2 Fingered Salute is but also is not. O_o

See, it is subtle here.


And takes a very dramatic turn in low light. 

Flash

With the flash photos, you can see the contrast! This is why I had thought it was glitter going by early swatches.

Flash

Low light

Low light

I love the low light photos best. I think the subtle intensity of the polish really shines here. It almost looks as if I used a color changing top coat on it. A true chameleon of a polish.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Comparisons: Rainbow Honey Kawako and Oni

Rainbow Honey Comparisons
Oni and Kawako

All polishes are photographed without top coat for this comparison.

I initially thought Oni was like a pumped up version of Orly Buried Alive.

I WAS WRONG. This is what I get for comparing things to my untrieds!! ><

What it really resembles is L'Oreal Owl's Night. However, they both have very different base colors and the contrast of the shimmer and base are different. Oni also has the pinky purple shimmers in it.

Orly Buried Alive -- RH Oni -- L'Oreal Owl's Night -- China Glaze Midtown Magic
NO FLASH

I also compared it to China Glaze Midtown Magic, which was way more red but had some similar shimmers in it but no gold flaky shimmers.


 China Glaze Midtown Magic -- L'Oreal Owl's Night -- RH Oni -- Orly Buried Alive
FLASH

This shows the difference in base colors for each as well as the amount of shimmer particles.

Orly Buried Alive -- RH Oni -- L'Oreal Owl's Night -- China Glaze Midtown Magic
FLASH

Here, Owl's Night looks purpleish next to Oni. 

Now on to Kawako!

I was VERY WRONG AGAIN with this polish. I thought, hey, it has a finish like SC Neptune. Not really! It is a bit more complex than that. I honestly don't own a lot of colors in this range of blue because it is not one of my favorites. :/ So I am working with what I have.

MISSHA JBL01 -- Sinful Colors Neptune -- RH Kawako -- Orly Stone Cold

I added a few other SUPER SHIMMERS to the mix. As you can see, Kawako takes on a very silvery finish without top coat. It is filled to the brim with shimmer.

MISSHA JBL01 -- Sinful Colors Neptune -- RH Kawako -- Orly Stone Cold

JBL01 and Stone Cold are both shimmers with a jelly base, so they have a
"glow" in the flash. SC Neptune is more like a glass fleck type finish, its shimmer particles looking kind of glassy. Kawako is bumpy and has a silver sheen to it. I am not sure what that finish would be other than glitter. It is very unique in my collection, though, I know that for certain.

Orly Stone Cold -- RH Kawako -- Sinful Colors Neptune -- MISSHA JBL01

Was this comparison helpful to you? What do you think?

Review: Rainbow Honey -The Yokai - in Kawako

Rainbow Honey's The Yokai Collection
October 13th it goes on sale at the above link!

Yokai are spirits in Japanese folklore, which is a WONDERFUL theme for a Halloween nail polish collection from your favorite otaku indie, Rainbow Honey! Well, they are my favorite anyhow :D

Each represent a particular kind of Japanese spirit.


This is a limited edition set of GORGEOUS shimmer/glitters in golden brown with golden flakies and pink/purple sparkle (Oni), maize camel with orange glitter (Kitsune), and a deep navy shimmer with intense silver and rainbow sparkle and flakies (Kawako)

LAST ONE!!
Here is KAWAKO! 

From Rainbow Honey's press statement:
"KAWAKO: the mischievous river child"


Of course, this is a GORGEOUS medium blue polish. I wouldn't call it a midnight blue, it seems more of a navy to medium blue. Very gorgeous. It is lighter than Essie Starry Starry Nights and I think it is a lot more complex and sparkly. The shimmer in this polish is traditional small-particle silver shimmer as well as silver micro-glitter and dark blue super micro glitter. 


What makes it really cool are these glass-like shards of indigo, blue, and purple. I would call them flakies but they seem to be made of actual glass! They cause the polish to be chunky. They also give Kawako a really neat reflective quality but are impossible to photograph with my camera!

Here, you can see the blue shimmer easier.

The formula is much like ONI has; it wasn't nearly as chunky as KITSUME but it was still very textured without top coat. I used only one coat of GELOUS though. That is not bad at all. It probably needed another coat of top coat but I did nail art so I left it at one. GELOUS is a thick clear polish (meant to be a base coat) that helps even out glitter nail polish, by the way!


I decided early on to do a little river-creature for this one. I tried to make "stars" out of the shimmery white I used for the moon here but they are hard to see in photos. I used Barielle Blackened Bleu for the water and Zoya Wednesday, China Glaze Exotic Encounters, and OPI Cuckoo for this Color on the creature. I tried to do a subtle black jelly division to keep the same color for the water but it was TOO subtle then it was TOO contrast-y. So hard to do nail art with jellies sometimes!


KAWAKO really does look like a full-moon night sky out away from the city. The kind of sky that has more stars in it than the ocean has fish! KAWAKO is shimmery, sparkly, glittery, and gorgeous. It is like a beefed up, non-jelly version of Sinful Colors Neptune Essie Starry Starry Nights. Stay tuned for a comparison post with some of this collection's stars and other polish!


So, my creature looks like the cactus thing from Yo Gabba Gabba---I think it is cute, hehe! I like the moon part, too, and the reflections on the water. 

Mattified!

Close up. I mixed some Wednesday with EE to get the splotchy texture on the monster!

How would I rate this polish on a scale of 1-10?
Uniqueness: 8
It is unique in that it has the flake-shards in it but the medium blue with silver glitter has been done before. I do like the upgrade on this one, though. I also love the addition of blue microglitter because it helps the blue to become something more than just the base color, especially in the sun. Sometimes silver is overpowering, after all.

Formula: 7
Same as with ONI; clumpy but only takes a few coats of top coat to even out. You don't need GELOUS with this, really. Application was a little clumpy due to the flake-shards.

Payoff: 8
This is my least favorite from the collection but I do think it is a very pretty polish, indeed. I have a couple similar polishes but nothing like it. I may purge those for this one if it came down to it because I do love how this polish looks not only in the light, but with matte over it. The matte doesn't get rid of the shimmer but subdues the intensity of the blue base. Makes it a velvety night sky.

KAWAKO rates a 8 for me by those standards

All 3 polishes were sent to me for my honest review.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Review: Rainbow Honey -The Yokai - in Kitsune

Rainbow Honey's The Yokai Collection
October 13th it goes on sale at the above link!

Yokai are spirits in Japanese folklore, which is a WONDERFUL theme for a Halloween nail polish collection from your favorite otaku indie, Rainbow Honey! Well, they are my favorite anyhow :D


Each represent a particular kind of Japanese spirit.


This is a limited edition set of GORGEOUS shimmer/glitters in golden brown with golden flakies and pink/purple sparkle (Oni), maize camel with orange glitter (Kitsune), and a deep navy shimmer with intense silver and rainbow sparkle and flakies (Kawako)

Here is KITSUNE! 

From Rainbow Honey's press statement:
"KITSUNE: the magical white fox"


I did not get any photos without topcoat :( It is a lot grittier than ONI was and took 2 coats of GELOUS with some fast dry topcoat on it. 

I did get a good idea of how this polish wears because ALL of these photos have at least 4 days of wear. Seems crazy, huh, but look at that GAP ;) I got minimal tip wear, too! 


The polish is a bit like China Glaze Classic Camel in the base color (which, full disclosure, I did not like and got rid of) but it has a lot of gorgeous golden shimmer, small orange hexes, small orange holo hexes, and tiny brown glitter. The glitter is what makes the polish dry rough but I forgave it for being so awesome.

Normally, I hate this kind of pale maize camel color but it just seems to...go with me, hehe. I was worried about the holo glitter BUT it seems to only glow orange and green and occasionally gold.


I had to amp up the nail art this time!

Since a Kitsune is a fox spirit, I thought it would be cute to paint a ghost fox! It looks bright but I added some jelly white over it to fade out the color. 

oops, this is not using flash but lamplight!

It has two tails to represent its power. They can have up to nine. 


Then I mattified it to give it a ghostlier glow


So painting a fox is kinda hard, hehe. I hope it resembles one as much as it can.

How would I rate this polish on a scale of 1-10?
Uniqueness: 10
This is REALLY unique! I mean, how many pale golden yellow polishes with tiny orange and brown glitter have you seen?!

Formula: 6
It was SOO clumpy but I managed to get it on. The edges of my nails were kinda hard to polish because they would get clumpy with the little glitters. It took some wrangling. It also needed 2 coats of GELOUS and top coat to get even.

Payoff: 10
OK, the payoff was worth it. Just look at the photos :D The photos are even 4 days of wear and it is STILL gorgeous. No chips, no peeling, very little tip wear. And the colors SCREAM fall. I mean, this is the perfect polish for going to a pumpkin patch or orchard!

KITSUNE rates a 9 for me by those standards

All 3 polishes were sent to me for my honest review.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Review: Rainbow Honey -The Yokai - in Oni

Rainbow Honey's The Yokai Collection
October 13th it goes on sale at the above link!

Cute boxes and labels

Yokai are spirits in Japanese folklore, which is a WONDERFUL theme for a Halloween nail polish collection from your favorite otaku indie, Rainbow Honey! Well, they are my favorite anyhow :D

This is a limited edition set of GORGEOUS shimmer/glitters in golden brown with golden flakies and pink/purple sparkle (Oni), maize camel with orange glitter (Kitsune), and a deep navy shimmer with intense silver and rainbow sparkle and flakies (Kawako)

Each represent a particular kind of Japanese spirit.


Forgive my rushed photography. The sun was setting and I was in a RUSH to put on the polish to show you all at least one mani! Trust me, I will be going back to this one.

So today, it is ONI! 

From Rainbow Honey's press statement:
"ONI: The malevolent wild demon"




This one needs a good top coat but it is not terribly thirsty for it. Oni goes on smooth for the first coat but is a little rough on the second coat and I imagine that is from how LOADED with shimmer it is. 
Rainbow Honey's bottles are similar if not identical to Cult Nails' bottles and have a pretty decent if run of the mill brush. 


This is how shiny it is with top coat. Very gorgeous! You can't see it much in this shot but there are magenta-pink and purple sparks that fly off of this one. It is like Tony Moly Mars but MUCH easier to work with and with a MUCH better payoff. Also, the base color and sparkle are much like Orly Buried Alive L'Oreal Owl's Night but Oni is a lot more complex and darker. 


I doodled a little with some Hello Kitty Gold Star glitter. There is no photographing how awesome these are together. Oni are like crazy demon troll things and I didn't have time to paint anything like that on my nails, so I went with......spirals. Waaaah waaah. Sorry, the next two will have cool art :D


You can only imagine how pretty this is through photos.


The amount of sparkle is kind of like Zoya Kimber but amped up. I am not sure how Dee of Rainbow Honey managed to pack in this much flaky-sparkle goodness without making the formula IMPOSSIBLE to work with.


Here is a bokeh shot to show you the golden-ruby-amethyst-tourmaline sparkle. UGH I love it. It is PERFECT for fall. I may purge my bottle of L'Oreal Owl's Night... >_>

How would I rate this polish on a scale of 1-10?
Uniqueness: 8
There are some similar to this but not quite as intense.

Formula: 7
It is a little clumpy but this is unnoticeable with top coat. There is no chunky glitter in this one so it makes it a much easier to apply polish than your standard indie glitter.

Payoff: 9
I LOVE THE SPARKLES. Truly, very eye-catching and gorgeous. I GASPED when I unpacked this one in particular. If you are warm-skinned and/or love brown or gold, I would recommend this polish.

ONI rates an 8 for me by those standards

I will be reviewing the next two in this collection in the next few days :D STAY TUNED and thank you for sitting through my first review!

All 3 polishes were sent to me for my honest review.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Icy Doll RGB Mani

Since I have started substitute teaching, I thought it would be a good idea to wear neutral and kinda plain colors to work. 
Today, I put on a color I got in a RGB set on copious.com for $3.60 (after a $10 credit!)


The set came with Doll (used once before) and Minty. Doll is a total bandage/mannequin hands polish and Minty is a gorgeous pale turquoise/aqua/mint color.

No flash, indoors at night. 

Very very pale!

Flash, indoors at night

I think this polish is a bit too light to wear alone. I felt like Barbie... ><
and then I got 'Doll Parts' by Hole stuck in my head...groan.

No flash, indoors at night

So I added Pure Ice Mint Dream! Which is really an aqua and green shimmer. Then I added Oh Baby! over that for some extra blue-purple sparkle.

No flash, indoors at night

 No flash, indoors at night

Flash, indoors at night

It looks like there are icy flames on my fingers! So in love. <3 Maybe I will take some photos in the daylight tomorrow before I stamp it!