Rainbow Honey XOXO over Sally Hansen Satin

My last post was a preview post of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk Collection for Valentine's Day.  If you click through, 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 have been reviews of Rainbow Honey polishes, too, from the Yokai Collection for Halloween.

XOXO is a gorgeous glitter top coat.  It has red glitters in medium and small sizes.  Sometimes they came together to form a heart-like shape here and there on my nails.  There is also a gold shimmer or gold microflakes like tiny little pieces of gold leaf, and there is holo glitter in the polish.  The holo glitter is what I call the "pastel" holo glitter.  I've seen holo glitters that flash in pastel colors and holo glitters that flash in brighter primary colors.  The holo glitter in XOXO flashes appropriately in pastel shades.  The base of the polish is clear and not too thick but just right so that it goes on smooth and shiny, although even with one coat of Seche Vite and another of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, it's still not perfectly smooth, but it's very smooth without any jagged edges to the glitter.  It's not top-coat hungry, it's just that top coat doesn't sit perfectly smooth over the glitter, similar to but much less pronounced than the effect of top coat over flakies.  The red glitter flashes a gorgeous purple at times.  I used two very thin coats.  I tried to be subtle for work and used only one thin coat at first. One coat provided enough coverage, but then I wanted more glitter!  There was no shrinkage from either top coat; I love that about Rainbow Honey polishes.

I have seen a couple of other reviews of this gorgeous top coat on other blogs.  On the Galactic Lacquer blog, there are gorgeous pictures of XOXO over a strong pink polish.  I don't own a lot of pink polishes, so I didn't have many to choose from in my stash.  The result on Galactic Lacquer's post is what my ideal would have been if I had the "right" pink polish.  The Lacquerologist also shows XOXO over a perfect pink polish and also has pictures of Sweet Talk.  On the Nails in Nippon blog, there are pictures of both XOXO and Sweet Talk, and she has a picture of XOXO over black polish that is AMAZING!

In addition to being perfect for Valentine's Day, I think XOXO would also work nicely during the Christmas holidays, and I wonder what it would like over other colors like maybe a medium blue polish.

Here are some pictures of my XOXO mani:

Sunlight
Seldom seen right hand
You can see some of the gold micro flakies and how the red glitter flashes purple at times.
You can also see the holo glitters flashing in pastel shades.
Please excuse the cuticles; I had moisturized and was about to walk out of my house when I spotted a doggie peepee accident, and my OCD wouldn't let me not clean it up right away, and scrubbing tile and tile grout with cleaners is rough on my right hand, and I was running late and couldn't stop to moisturize again.

Left hand
Even in very low light conditions, this polish magically sparkles.
Didn't use this hand to scrub after the doggie accident,
but I did wash both hands and with that washed a lot of my prior moisturizing efforts away.

Seldom seen right hand
Indirect Sunlight
Sparkly even in low light
This picture comes closest to showing the true color of the pink "underwear" polish; the sunlight washed it out in other pictures.

Indoors
Seldom seen right hand
Camera was too dazzled by this polish indoors to take a better picture

I used Sally Hansen's Satin as "underwear" for XOXO.  Satin is a very pale pink with a peachy tone from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line.  I had wanted those pastel polishes ever since last Easter, and around Christmas they went on clearance at CVS, and I bought the pastel pink, orange, green, blue and purple polishes.  Now I'm all set for Easter this year!  I used two coats of Satin, and I still had visible nail line, but it looks nice.  I had heard other bloggers complain about the formula in the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line pastel colors, saying that the formula was thick or difficult to work with or dragged or left bald patches.  I didn't have any of those problems.  The only issue I had was a couple of small bubbles, but I had just shaken the bottle before applying the polish, and you couldn't see the bubbles after I applied the XOXO top coat.  I thought the formula was good, not too thin or thick, and it didn't pool or flood my cuticles, and I barely had any need for cleanup.  There is a bit of a frosty shimmer to the finish, but it's not too brushstrokey.  The brush is wide and the end is curved like my cuticles, although that curved end is trimmed unevenly in places and looks like it has jagged edges, but the brush worked well with the formula, and the polish went exactly where I wanted it to go.  Below are some pictures I took of Satin while I was doing my nails, so it's pre-cleanup, and it's very poor quality indoor lighting:

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- one coat of Satin
Pre-cleanup, manicure in process
The pale pink polish has a bit of pearly shimmer to it.

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- one coat of Satin

Very poor indoor lighting -- left hand -- two coats of Satin
Pre-cleanup, manicure in progress

Very poor indoor lighting -- right hand -- two coats of Satin
You can see one of the small bubbles on my pointer finger, on the far right. 

The Sweet Talk Collection will be sold in a private sale at fab.com from January 16, 2013 through January 19, 2013. The 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). Thank you Rainbow Honey for the promo code and for letting me review these lovely polishes!

I should have a review post of Sweet Talk by next weekend.

Note:  I received a free bottle of XOXO polish from Rainbow Honey and was asked for my honest and unpaid review of XOXO.  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!

Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk Collection Preview

Happy New Year!  This is my first post in 2013!  I haven't been on the computer much.  I am waiting for my eye glasses to be ready.  I was without them for over a week in December, but when I got them, I was even worse off and couldn't see.  My right eye is very nearsighted, my left eye has astigmatism and presbyopia, and I wear progressive lenses, but my brain couldn't reconcile the huge difference between the right and left lenses, so my vision was not aligning vertically, and I had to go back last week to the eye doctor.  They are trying one last tweak to the glasses, and even this may not work completely, but hopefully it will be an improvement.  Right now, without the glasses, the computer screen is blurry, so I have avoided doing anything on the computer other than when absolutely necessary for work.

I'm very excited about this post, though, so it's worth the eye strain.  This morning I received an e-mail from Rainbow Honey announcing their new Sweet Talk Collection that will be out just in time for Valentine's Day.  I love Rainbow Honey polishes, so that e-mail was already great to me, and then I read that they were sending me samples to review!!!!  Even more exciting, they said they had already sent them, and they were on their way to me as a surprise!  I clicked on the tracking number and found that the polishes were going to arrive today!  I'm off from work today, and I was going to change my manicure, so it's perfect timing!  In the e-mail, Rainbow Honey also shared a promo code for $5.00 off a purchase on their website.  PROMO CODE = SWEETTALK$5 (promo code expires 2/28/2013). I don't receive anything for you using that promo code, so it's not like one of those referral links on other websites. All the bloggers who are reviewing samples of the Sweet Talk Collection received that code to share with their readers. Please feel free to share it with anyone you know who might be interested.

There are three polishes in the Sweet Talk Collection.  These are Rainbow Honey's descriptions of the polishes:
Be Mine: A lovely kiss of pink on your nails with a dusting of microshimmer and gold flecks
Sweet Talk: A decadently sweet collection of pastel glitters in a white jelly with hidden shimmer
XOXO: A ravishing blend of glitters and flakes in a clear base for easy use over any manicure
Be Mine and Sweet Talk are wearable on their own. XOXO can be used as a glitter top coat over an accent nail or over an entire manicure.

Here is a photo with bottle shots from the press release I received for the Sweet Talk Collection:

Rainbow Honey sent each blogger two out of the three polishes. I received Sweet Talk and XOXO. I had thought I would choose Sweet Talk for my manicure thinking it might be more work appropriate because it's less blingy. It's hard to say which is more appropriate for work because pastel glitter doesn't convey that aggressive image you sometimes want to convey as an attorney, but blingy glitter is more likely to stand out and get noticed, and conservative clients may not appreciate glitter. I try to avoid glitter during the work week, but when I swatched Sweet Talk and XOXO, I loved XOXO too much to wait to wear it! I have pictures below of the adorable package I received from Rainbow Honey and pictures of both Sweet Talk and XOXO swatched by themselves and in combination with other polishes. All my photos were taken using indoor lighting.

This adorable little card was enclosed with my polishes!
The dates for the release of the polish have been revised.
The revised Fab.com release dates are in the text of my post above.

How adorable is this packaging?
And, it added to the suspense of not knowing which two of the three polishes I had received!

I received Sweet Talk (on the left) and XOXO (on the right).
Full size bottles!

In this photo you can see the milky white base of Sweet Talk.
The pastel glitters remind me of Valentine's Day candies.

There are pinkish red glitters, purple glitters, and light blue or silverish glitters.

The glitters look matte in some lighting, but they are definitely shiny and reflective if they catch the light.

There are gorgeous pinkish red glitters in XOXO, and there are small gold glitters and/or shimmer flakes.
Some of the microglitter has a holographic effect.

XOXO

From left to right:
#18:  one coat of Sweet Talk
#17:  two coats of Sweet Talk
#16:  one coat of XOXO
#15:  one coat of XOXO over Revlon Electric Pink
#14:  one coat of Sweet Talk over Revlon Electric Pink
#13:  one coat of XOXO over China Glaze Poinsettia
#12:  one coat of XOXO over Sally Hansen Persistent Peony
#11:  one coat of Sweet Talk over Sally Hansen Persistent Peony
#10:  one coat of Sweet Talk with a matte top coat
#9:  one coat of XOXO with a matte top coat

XOXO over Sally Hansen Satin (from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line)

XOXO over Sally Hansen Satin (from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line)

The Sweet Talk Collection will be sold in a private sale at fab.com from January 16, 2013 through January 19, 2013. The Collection will be officially released on January 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM EST at rainbowhoney.com and participating Retail Partners around the world.

I'm off to go do my new manicure with XOXO! I was going to layer XOXO over Sally Hansen Persistent Peony, like in #12 in the picture of the swatches on the nail wheel above, but then I thought to try it over a very pale pink, Sally Hansen's Satin, from the Smooth and Perfect Color and Care line, like in the last two photos above. I think the pink background is perfect with the Valentine's Day theme of the collection, and it's my favorite combination, so that will be what I use for my manicure. I may be able to have a review post up with pictures of my XOXO manicure as soon as in two days.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Pride

I wanted Nostalgic Nail Lacquer's Pride polish for months.  It is a top coat with a clear base and white star and bar glitter and blue and red hex metal glitter.  It was a limited edition polish, and I did not get it when it was sold on Nostalgic Nail Lacquer's website store.  When I saw a bottle on a blog sale, I snatched it up!  I love it!  When I received my precious bottle in the mail near the end of October, I was wearing Rainbow Honey's Kawako, a nice dark navy blue polish that I reviewed here.  Once my work week was over, I added a coat of Pride to my Kawako manicure.  Nostalgic Nail Lacquer's polishes are very high quality.  The polish went on easily and smoothly.  I got star glitter easily on every nail.  The bright blue and red metal hex glitter didn't curl or bleed, and it was mirror-like in the way it reflected light.  All the glitter lays flat, even the star glitter, although I did use a coat of Gelous over it and then a coat of Seche Vite just to be sure everything was glassy-smooth.  I have used other red, white and blue-type top coats, but often the glitters are paper-like, or crinkle-paper-like, if that makes any sense, and this is the only glitter top coat I've seen with these gorgeous metal hex glitters.

Here are some pictures (any bubbles are from the top coat):

Sunlight
You can see how the gorgeous hex glitters reflect light so that they're different colors at times.
You can also see the silver flakie-like glitter in the beautiful Kawako base coat.

Indirect Sunlight

Shade
Even in low light, look at how those metal hexes glow!!!

Sunlight
Jeans in the background show how close to denim the color is in Kawako.

Shade
Again, look at how the metal hex glitter glows, even in the shade!

Thank you for reading my blog!

My First Dotticure!

As my base manicure, I used Rainbow Honey's Kitsune from the new Yokai Collection.  I had a preview post here on the Rainbow Honey Yokai Collection with pictures of the package I received and of the three polishes swatched on nail wheels by themselves and in combination with other colors and matted.  The Yokai Collection polishes are limited edition for Autumn 2012 and were released only days ago on October 13, 2012.  The polishes are available on Rainbow Honey's website for $10 each.  These are good sized bottles at a half ounce each, and $10 is a very reasonable price for these indies that are so professionally produced and look like little mini works of art.  The first of the Yokai Collection that I wore was Kitsune.  I reviewed Kitsune here.  I wore Kitsune all of last week as my manicure, and then on the 7th day, on Saturday, I tried my first dotticure over Kitsune!

Kitsune is referred to as the Magical White Fox on Rainbow Honey's website.  The base is a gorgeous cream color, like the color of French vanilla ice cream or like eggnog.  With its golden microflakes and its small sparkling holo and red-orange glitter, this creation looks like a beautiful stone.  The polish has amazing depth and the microflakes and small glitters don't just sink into the polish but show right at the top of the manicure.  It's like someone cut a slab of perfect natural stone.

The colors in Kitsune made me think of fall and fall colors.  In my preview post on the Rainbow Honey Yokai Collection, I had tried Kitsune over different fall shades of nail polish, but then it occurred to me that instead of layering, I could add dots of my favorite fall colors of nail polish.  If I had practice with nail art, I might have tried to create leaves or other fall shapes instead of dots, but I ended up really liking the dots.  They were very whimsical, and I was happy every time I looked at them.  Even my husband liked them.  The lady behind the register at Walgreens complimented me on them.  Unfortunately, I took them off the next day.  I would have wanted to keep wearing them but the underlying manicure was not going to be able to last more days, and I had to go to court this Monday and felt I should wear something a little more serious.

I don't have dotting tools per se.  I tried the bottom of the handle on my one dotting tool, but it didn't make a dot as wide as the handle. On the other end is very tiny dotting tool, maybe for drawing small eyes or pupils on tiny faces on small nails.

A chopstick worked well for the larger dots I wanted. At first I was not getting enough paint on the chopstick so my dots were dimpled and not filled out. Then I had too much paint, and my dots were very thick, sticking out in 3D. No problem. For not enough paint on dots, I could go over the dots once I learned to add more paint to my "dotting tool."  For too much paint, I could dot over it with a wiped off chopstick again and again until enough paint was taken off.

On my first fingernail I did, I smeared the dots as I learned, but I had enough coats of top coat on there that I was able to use acetone to remove the dots and start over without removing the original manicure polish (Rainbow Honey Kitsune).

All kinds of nail art would look nice with Kitsune and these colors I used. I could see a funky French or half-moons or stripes or a tape mani looking nice.

It was so much fun to create this dotticure!

In the pictures below, I have:

Zoya Tamsen, dots created with a chopstick
China Glaze Papaya Punch, dots created with a chopstick
OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby?, dots created with a hair pin
Sparitual Solstice, dots created with a hair pin
topped with 1 coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.

That was over the original manicure of:  base coat, one coat of Sally Hansen Persistent Peony as "underwear," one coat of Rainbow Honey Kitsune, one coat of Seche Vite, one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, one coat of Gelous, and three coats (one each day) of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.

Sunlight
Left Hand

Sunlight
Left Hand
My jeans in the background

Sunlight
Right Hand
I didn't intend for some dots to be touching on my pinkie finger, but my hands shake a little, so the dotting tool did not always "land" where I planned.  I liked the end result, though, and in the future I may deliberately make dots touch.

Sunlight
Left Hand

Indirect Sunlight
Left Hand

Sunlight
Left Hand

Sunlight
Right Hand

Left Thumb
Sunlight

Left Thumb
Sunlight
A little blurry, but you can see the underlying shimmer and holo glitter in Kitsune

Right Thumb
Indoor Lighting
Immediately after Dotticure, Pre-Cleanup and Pre-Moisturizing

Thank you for reading my blog!

Rainbow Honey Kitsune from the Yokai Collection

I had a preview post here on the Rainbow Honey Yokai Collection with pictures of the package I received and of the three polishes swatched on nail wheels by themselves and in combination with other colors and matted.  I am really excited to be reviewing these polishes, and I'm honored that even with my blog being new, Rainbow Honey still sent me these polishes for review.

Rainbow Honey is an indie brand, relatively new but you would guess the opposite looking at their polishes and professional packaging.  These are my first Rainbow Honey polishes, although I have eyed many of them in the past.  After receiving the Yokai Collection, I went to the Rainbow Honey site and ordered minis of Hoof Wrassle, 20% Cooler and A Little Kindness.

The Yokai Collection polishes are limited edition for Autumn 2012 and were released only days ago on October 13, 2012.  The polishes are available on Rainbow Honey's website for $10 each.  These are good sized bottles at a half ounce each, and $10 is a very reasonable price for these indies that are so professionally produced and look like little mini works of art.

The first of the Yokai Collection that I wore was Kitsune.  I wore Kitsune all of last week as my manicure.

Kitsune is referred to as the Magical White Fox on Rainbow Honey's website.  The base is a gorgeous cream color, like the color of French vanilla ice cream or like eggnog.  With its golden microflakes and its small sparkling holo and red-orange glitter, this creation looks like a beautiful stone.  It is amazing to me that the polish has so much depth and that the microflakes and small glitters don't just sink into the polish but show right at the top of the manicure.  It's like someone cut a slab of perfect natural stone.

You can wear multiple coats of this polish, but I preferred the look of just one coat, so I wore "underwear" underneath it.

I have read other reviews where other bloggers describe the formula as thick and perhaps in need of a small amount of thinner.  I don't have really great manicure skills, though, and my hands shake a little, so I really *loved* this formula and didn't find that I wanted to add thinner to it.  I liked that it didn't pool or flood my cuticles, and I liked that where I put it, that's where it went and stayed.  I basically didn't need to do much cleanup, and I had no balding or dragging, even though I didn't wait between applying the underwear coat of polish and the coat of Kitsune.  The brush is great, round but a nice size and not too thin.  It was a very fast and easy mani, and I got so much payoff in terms of the beauty and complexity of the polish.  With a look that rich, you would think that I had put together layer after layer of this and that to make up the final look, but you get an amazing look in just one coat of Kitsune.

I found the formula top-coat hungry.  I like my manicures glassy smooth, and this mani didn't get that way until about Thursday.  I do my manicures on Sunday nights, so by Thursday I had the initial Seche Vite top coat plus another four coats (one per day) of Sally Hansen Quick Dry Top Coat.

The manicure wore extremely well for an entire week.

The polish reminds me of eggnog, and with the holo glitters and red-orange glitters and the very reflective gold mini flakes, it is very festive.  So, while it looks like shades of fall, I think it would also be a nice holiday polish.

You can count on Rainbow Honey polishes to be unique and unlike any other polishes out there.  I definitely don't have anything like Kitsune in my collection of polish.

In the pictures below, I have on a base coat, one coat of Sally Hansen Persistent Peony as "underwear," one coat of Kitsune, and one 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Sunlight
You can see the small and very reflective gold flakes in the polish.

See the holo glitters?

Indoors, not 100% color-accurate, but the color does look a little different in different lighting.

In this blurred picture you can see the golden shimmer effect.

Thank you for reading my blog!

OPI Danke-Shiny Red

OPI Danke-Shiny Red is beautiful both in the bottle and on the nail, and it has a gorgeous glow.  It is very similar to A England Perceval and also to a discount drugstore polish I have.  It may be a little warmer than Perceval.

In the pictures below, I have a base coat, two coats of Danke-Shiny Red, a coat of Seche Vite, and in some pictures an extra coat or two of Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat (I add a coat almost every day so that the manicure lasts longer without chipping).

The polish was opaque at one coat, but you definitely need two coats to get the depth effect of the polish and to get to the bottle color.  The polish dried quickly.  This polish has the OPI pro-wide brush, and it's easy to use.

It has a metallic shimmer finish, and it's just a little brushstrokey.

Cleanup did take a while.  Clean up takes me a while with red polish or black polish.  Removal was easy, but I did get some staining on my nails.

I didn't have any shrinkage from either Seche Vite or the Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.  I did have some tip wear.

This is from OPI's Germany collection for fall, but it's a perfect color for Christmas.

Here are some pictures:

Sunlight
iPhone camera cannot deal with the shimmer and glow

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indirect sunlight

Indoors

Indoors

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.

Thank you for reading my blog!