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!





Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk

I already wrote a preview post of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk Collection.  The collection will start to be sold on Rainbow Honey's website tomorrow, Friday, January 25, 2013, in time for Valentine's Day!  If you click through to my preview post, you can see pictures of the adorable packaging for XOXO and Sweet Talk, and you can see pictures of swatches on my nail wheel of each of the polishes by themselves and in combination with other polishes and with a matte top coat, and you can see a picture of the third polish in the collection, Be Mine, that I don't have right now.  My past few posts before that on my blog have been reviews of Rainbow Honey polishes, too, from the Yokai Collection for Halloween.

If you click through to Rainbow Honey's website right now (Thursday, January 24, 2013), the Sweet Talk Collection polishes show as "sold out."  Don't worry!  That's just a "placeholder"-type message until the official sale begins tomorrow.

I already reviewed XOXO, a gorgeous glitter top coat in Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk Collection, here.

Now I'm reviewing the namesake of the collection, Sweet Talk.  Sweet Talk has purple, light blue, and dark pink matte hex glitters in medium and small sizes and some stealthy tiny peachy irridescent flakes in a milky white base.  The milky white base is polish formula perfection!  It's not thick or clumpy, nor is it too thin, and it doesn't pool, pond, or flood my cuticles.  It goes on smooth and has a shiny finish, and the glitters lie flat.  The light blue hexes seem to reflect light at some angles, like they have an underlying metallic quality.  The brush is thin and worked well for me, and there is a lot of glitter, so you don't need to fish for it or dab it on.  The polish dried quickly, and I had no smudges or dents. I used one coat of Gelous over the manicure and a coat of Seche Vite over that to make the mani glassy smooth.  I didn't have any shrinkage from quick-dry top coats.

I loved this polish so much that I put it on as a pedicure, too.  It is definitely perfect for Valentine's Day and reminds me of those conversation hearts candies for Valentine's Days.  I think the colors are nice for Easter, too.  And, this polish has completely satisfied my desire for jawbreaker-like polish.  I didn't own a single jawbreaker-looking polish, and I wanted one, and Sweet Talk is the great look with the fantastic formula and the consistently great quality that you get from Rainbow Honey.

I wore Sweet Talk last week as a manicure over Essie Blanc.  The white of Essie Blanc matched the base shade of white in Sweet Talk.  The first coat of Blanc was streaky and balding in spots, but it mostly evened out with my second coat.  It had a glossy finish and gave me a mod look on my nails.  Over Essie Blanc, I used one coat of Sweet Talk on some nails and two coats on some other nails.  It was pretty both ways.  With two coats there were some glitters submerged beneath milky polish.

Here are some pictures of the gorgeous Sweet Talk over two coats of Essie Blanc:

Seldom-seen right hand
Sunlight
In the ring finger nail, at the top, you can see the stealthy tiny flakes in the polish
Top/ring finger, one coat of Sweet Talk
Bottom/pinkie, two coats of Sweet Talk

Still the seldom-seen right hand
Indirect sunlight
You can see how the blue hexes reflect light with an underlying metallic quality
Top/ring finger, one coat of Sweet Talk
Bottom/pinkie, two coats of Sweet Talk

Left hand
Sunlight
From top to bottom:  one coat, two coats, two coats, one coat of Sweet Talk

Left hand
Indirect Sunlight
So shiny and smooth!
From left to right:  one coat, two coats, two coats, one coat of Sweet Talk

The Sweet Talk Collection will be officially released on January 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM EST at rainbowhoney.com and participating Retail Partners around the world. Rainbow Honey generously shared a promo code for $5.00 off a purchase on their website.  PROMO CODE = SWEETTALK$5 (promo code expires 2/28/2013). Promo code RH25%OFF is also still active (also expires 2/28/2013), and free shipping on all orders over $25 has been extended until 1/31/2013.

Also, Rainbow Honey now has two additional very limited edition polishes that they will be giving away. They are "Dearly Beloved" and "My Love." They are glitter top coats with heart-shaped glitter in addition to traditional glitter! Every purchase of $50 or more will receive one of the two special edition polishes. They also have a giveaway that ends when the shop opens and the sale of the collection starts at midnight tonight, so you have until midnight to enter the giveaway here. They are giving away three sets of Dearly Beloved and My Love. If you click through to the giveaway link or to Rainbow Honey's website, you can see more pictures and swatches of Dearly Beloved and My Love in addition to these:

Thank you Rainbow Honey for the promo codes, the giveaways, the free goodies, and for letting me review these lovely polishes!

Note:  I received a free bottle of Sweet Talk polish from Rainbow Honey and was asked for my honest and unpaid review of Sweet Talk.  I am not affiliated in any other way with Rainbow Honey other than as a regular customer because I do buy, love and use their products.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Cover Band Sticks and Stones Comparison to Candeo Colors Sprouse and Lush Lacquer Salt N Peppa

On Saturday I put a coat of Cover Band's Sticks 'n Stones as an accent on each ring finger nail on top of the Revlon Top Speed Chili that I had been wearing for a week.  On Sunday, before removing the polish, I added Candeo Colors' Sprouse to two different fingernails and Lush Lacquer's Salt N Peppa to another fingernail to compare them to Sticks and Stones.

Sticks 'n Stones is a copy (of sorts) of Lynnderella's Connect the Dots.  Sticks 'n Stones comes in a clear base, which I like.  It doesn't affect the underlying color, and the pattern comes across as very crisp.  The matte glitter is larger in Sticks 'n Stones than in the other two polishes.  Lush Lacquer's Salt N Peppa has a lot of colorful holo glitter large enough to show through and obscure the base color.  Sprouse has very tiny holo glitter that shimmers a little, and it has larger blue glitter.

I didn't have a problem with application, and the glitters dried relatively flat and were even smoother after a coat of Seche Vite.  I didn't have to fish for glitters.

My husband's favorite was the Salt N Peppa because it didn't "have all those 80's" bars and hexes.  My favorites were the other two, of course, *because* they have all those 80s-look bars and hexes.  In terms of getting the look of paint splatters that I like, I think the Sticks 'n Stones does it best with a little more white to it.  I do like the little blue hexes in Sprouse, though.

In each of the pictures below, I have base coat, three coats of Chili, a coat of Seche Vite, about four coats of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, a coat of each of the glitter top coats, and a coat of Seche Vite, and I had been wearing Chili for a week with no chips and just a little tip wear and shrinkage (from the original Seche Vite but not so much shrinkage from the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat).

Outdoors in the sunlight (holding my husband's phone)

Top to bottom:  Sprouse, Salt N Peppa, Sticks and Stones, Sprouse.
I asked my husband if he could tell which two were the same, and he figured it out!

Top to bottom:  Sticks and Stones, Salt N Peppa, Sprouse.

Sprouse, Sticks 'N Stones, Salt N Peppa

Sprouse, Sticks 'N Stones, Salt N Peppa

In these last few pictures, you can see that the glitter lies flat.  There's a little piece of black bar glitter on one nail that was outside the polish area (near my cuticle, ring finger, last finger on the right in the photos), and I clipped it off easily later on.

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Candeo Colors Sprouse over L'Oreal Greyt Expectations

I painted my nails with L'Oreal Greyt Expectations on a Sunday, and the following Saturday, 6 days later, I added Candeo Sprouse.  Sprouse is similar to Lynnderella's Connect the Dots, but it has holographic microglitter instead of CtD's shimmer, and it has blue glitter that CtD does not have.  I really like Sprouse.  It was very easy to apply.  I had no problems with getting enough glitter on each brush stroke, and I had no trouble with glitter placement, and the glitter lay flat except for one bar glitter that I put on the most curved part of my nail.  I used cuticle nippers to clip the piece of bar glitter that was sticking out.  I believe I added a coat of Gelous and then a coat of Seche Vite.  The finish was smooth after that.  I like the paint splatter effect of top coats like this one; I think the paint splatter effect would have been even better with a little more white in the mix.  Because I wore the L'Oreal manicure for 6 days before taking these pictures, there is visible tip wear.

Here are some pictures taken in low sunlight on a mostly cloudy day:

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Amy's Nail Boutique Liberty

I have started to add a top coat to my manicure on the 7th day that I wear it, just before I take it off the next day to do a new manicure.  I do my nails on Sundays, so the 7th day is Saturday, and because it is not a work day for me, I don't have to worry about whether the top coat is work-appropriate or not.  So, after wearing Hits Speciallita No Olympo Ares, a red holo, I tried Amy's Nail Boutique's Liberty as an accent nail on each ring finger.  Liberty has red, white and blue matte bar and hex glitter, and it has matte stars, too.  I was trying it out to see if I would like the look for July 4th.  I had wanted Nostalgic Lacquer's Pride, but that was limited edition and is not sold anymore.  Liberty has satisfied my desire for a patriotic top coat, though.

Here are some pictures:

You can't really see the red matte glitter, but it's there.

I wanted to show how thick this many layers of polish gets.  I had base coat, one thin and one thick coat of Ares, six layers of top coat (I add one each day), one coat of Liberty, a coat of Gelous, and a coat or two of Seche Vite.

You can see that the glitter lies pretty flat and smooth.

In indirect sunlight, left hand.

Sunlight, right hand.

Sunlight, left hand.

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