Sunday, April 21, 2013

Orange Holographic Polish Comparison

**Polishes Purchased by Me**

I love orange polish, and I love holographic polish, so I go crazy over orange holographic polish.  It's not that easy to get a bright holographic orange polish.  The holographic part of the polish seems to dull the color of the polish or make it look a little "dusty."  The color itself in orange holographic polish often seems brownish rather than a more yellow-based orange or a more red-based orange.   I own a few orange holographic polishes, but until recently didn't have one that was a true orange holo that didn't look dusty or brownish or dull.  The creator of Dollish Polish recently offered to make custom polishes, and I asked her for my dream orange holo polish.  The result was The Holo Grail that she made especially for me:









My blog is now a year old, and my next post will probably be a giveaway post, and one of the prizes will be a bottle of The Holo Grail.  I bought three bottles--one for myself, one as a backup, and one to give away.

As far as orange holo comparisons go, The Crumpet did a very nice orange holo comparison post here.  There are also a few different posts at The Pointless Cafe with one-to-one or small group comparisons of orange holo polishes, for example, here and here.  If you know of any other good orange holo comparison posts, please let me know in the comments section below.

Here are some pictures with comparisons of the orange holo polishes that I own:

Left to Right:  Dollish Polish The Holo Grail, Enkelini Lainey Lou, Jade Uau!, Literary Lacquers More Like Fire Than Light, Hits Demeter, and Different Dimension Tubular


Left to Right:  same as above


Literary Lacquers' More Like Fire Than Light



One coat of each (above):
#8:  The Holo Grail
#7:  More Like Fire Than Light
#6:  Uau!
You can see that Jade's Uau! is very saturated even at one coat.


Two coats
On #9 is Pretty & Polished's Incinerate My Heart which I'm wearing on my toes right now.


The linear holo gets stronger at two coats in Literary Lacquer's More Like Fire Than Light, #7 above.
The Holo Grail, #8 above, has a weak holo effect indoors on a nail wheel; I haven't seen it outdoors.


This might be the picture that shows the holo in The Holo Grail (#8 above) the best.


You can see that the Literary Lacquer's holo (#7 above) has more yellow in it than Jade's (#6 above).




The Holo Grail (#8 on top wheel) has a very similar base color to China Glaze's Riveting (#3 on bottom wheel).


Hits Demeter (#6 on the top wheel) is more of a coral color.


The base color in The Holo Grail is similar to that in Hits Hula (#10 in the top wheel), one of my all-time favorite polishes.


A red holo, Hits Ares (#15 on bottom wheel), for comparison.


Different Dimension's Tubular on the bottom wheel at #16.
Tubular has a very weak holo, at least indoors, and it has more yellow in it.


On the bottom wheel were last year's Pantone set of Tangerine Tango polishes from Sephora.


On the bottom wheel at #1 is Enkelini's Lainey Lou, a really bright orange holo with more yellow in it than The Holo Grail.



Enkelini's Lainey Lou on the left.


Revlon's Haunted Heart on the top wheel at #6.



**Polishes Purchased by Me**

Thank you for reading my blog!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

**PR sample provided by company representative**

My husband asked me yesterday what polish I was wearing on my nails.  I answered "Yoshimi," not thinking that it would mean anything to him.  He immediately responded: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots!"  I asked him how he knew that I was wearing Rainbow Honey's Robot Collection.  I actually had Femme Bot, the pink metallic foil polish, underneath Yoshimi, a clear top coat with black and white square matte glitter along with small black and white square glitter plus some small holo sparkle glitter scattered throughout.  Both polishes look appropriately reminiscent of robots, the Femme Bot because of its metallic foil finish and Yoshimi because of the mod sci-fi look of the pieces.  Anyway, back to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  My husband asked me to use that for the name of this post.  Turns out it's a Flaming Lips album, their tenth album specifically, released in 2002.  It's electronic-influenced music with sci-fi themes, so again, a perfect reference for this collection.

Officially, though, the Robot Collection is a collaboration between Rainbow Honey and illustrator Mary Winkler with inspiration from "anime, video games, super cheesy B films, and the work of Mary Winkler, illustrator, jewelry and textile designer."  Here is the official promo picture for the collection:

 
 
I had no idea I was receiving any of the polishes in this collection for review, so it was a complete surprise when I opened my mailbox a couple of weeks ago and found an adorable package from Rainbow Honey with the entire collection in their new tall mini-bottles for review.  The new mini bottles allow for a longer brush which is great for easier application.
 
Here are some pictures that show that even down to the packaging, Rainbow Honey is always both visually appealing and high-quality:
 
Front of the box of mini bottles that I received, nicely plastic-wrapped.
 
 
 
Back of the box.
 
 
 
The art on top of the front of the box folded out to a larger sheet with this information on the back about the collection.
 
 
 
It's such a pretty mini-poster!
 
 
 
Inside the box, Rainbow Honey's signature classy and cute touches with packaging.
 
 

Here's what was inside once I broke the heart-shaped seal on the wrapping paper.
 
 


 

 

I had just done my manicure the day before when I received these samples for review.   I had on Pretty & Polished's Day Trippin', a temperature-reactive, color-changing polish.  I immediately put Yoshimi on top of that.  I will post pictures at some point.  But as soon as last weekend came around, I put on Femme Bot.  I had a lot of court hearings this past week, so I didn't want to go with the blue or green polishes, and when I read the names of the polishes out loud to my husband, he predictably said, "I like Femme Bot," just based on the name alone.  ;-)
 
All the colors in the collection are really pretty.  They are spring-like, but just a little edgy, so not the routine overdone pastel cream-finish spring colors.  The polishes are made with aluminum flakes, which, according to Rainbow Honey's website, makes "the metallic lacquers of the Robot Collection simultaneously sparkly, reflective and smooth."  The finish on Femme Bot, the pink metallic polish, is definitely both reflective like a foil and also sparkly, especially in sunlight, and the finish is definitely smooth.  The formula was excellent on this polish.  It went on extremely easily, and I do not have great skills at polishing my nails, so that's saying a lot.  I was stunned to find IT WAS A ONE-COATER!!!  I was able to finish my mani very quickly, and the polish dried quickly as well, and I had no cleanup other than evening out the area around my cuticles.  The best part was that even though I only used one coat of Femme Bot, the polish has lasted an entire week with just a bit of tip wear.  I only applied Yoshimi after wearing Femme Bot the entire week by itself, and because I had to go to court so many times, I didn't have time for my usual morning routing which includes adding a coat of quick-dry top coat to my mani, so this one-coat mani lasted a week pretty much on its own.  I did add a coat of Seche Vite on top of the one coat of Femme Bot immediately after applying Femme Bot, and in the pictures below, I had a coat of Gelous and another coat of Seche Vite on top of Yoshimi.  Femme Bot didn't seem brushstrokey to me.  I think it might stamp well, being so opaque and being metallic.  Yoshimi applied very easily in one coat with no "fishing" required to get all the different glitters on the nail, although I did have to separate a duo of square glitters that had ended up together on my nail.  The glitters in Yoshimi were flat on my curved nails and didn't stick out, and although my nails aren't glassy-smooth with top coat, they are very smooth.  Removal of Yoshimi was also easy.  I did that last week when I removed Yoshimi which was then over Pretty & Polished's Day Trippin'.  Removal of Yoshimi required very minor scrubbing, and I only used one very small cotton ball per finger.
 
Now for a few pictures:
 
Left hand, in sunlight, which we only got for a minute yesterday!
I thought we wouldn't get any sunlight at all; it's been all April showers (storms) here in South Florida.
You can see that the polish is very reflective.
Can you believe how the manicure has held up after a week, especially with it being only one coat?
 
 
 
Right thumbnail.
You can see the little holo/iridescent glitters in Yoshimi.
 
 
 
Seldom-seen right hand, sunlight.
The nail on my middle finger is broken about a third of the way up, and I am babying it until the break is beyond the free edge of my nail.  It's just being held together with layers of nail polish, no silk wraps or glue or anything.
On my ring finger you can see some of the iridescent glitters.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Left hand, indirect sunlight.
I still can't believe that I just had a bit of tip wear after a full week of wearing Femme Bot.
 
 
 

 
I highly recommend you click through to Manicurity's blog post on the Robot Collection.  She has some amazing photos including some with a matte top coat over Yoshimi and some with Yoshimi over a solid grey polish that really shows you all the glitters in Yoshimi including the small holo glitters, and she really goes into detail to show you how great these new tall mini bottles with full-size brushes are.
 
The Rainbow Honey Robot Collection is available at Rainbow Honey's website and at worldwide retailers.  Rainbow Honey is offering free shipping on orders over $50 on their website as well as giving you a free special polish with orders over $50 on their website.  April's special polish is Bubble Beam! You can see photos of Bubble Beam on Rainbow Honey's Facebook page.
 
**PR sample provided by company representative**
 
Thank you for reading my blog!