Nail Layering with Sally Hansen and NARS

I REALLY need to get better about the timing of my posts- I took these pictures last fall. I guess that would be fine, but the two Sally Hansen polishes I used were limited edition and no longer available. I suppose a few may be floating around on eBay if you get desperate enough.

I LOVE layering. It's rare these days for me to wear just one polish by itself. Some times the layering experiments are huge fails and some times they turn out awesome. This was one of the awesome times. I layered Sally Hansen All Aglow, a purple foil-y polish, over NARS Midnight Express, a dark blue jelly, and slapped Sally Hansen Crystal Beading, a sheer multichrome that flashes from teal to blue to purple to pink, over the top. My pictures didn't manage to capture the best duochrome actions, but it was fabulous. Trust me.

Rainbow Honey- The Yokai Collection

I have been drooling over polishes from indie seller Rainbow Honey for months now, so when I was given the opportunity to review the newest collection I jumped at the chance. The three new polishes, part of the Yokai collection, are limited edition and a unique twist on a traditional Halloween collection. According to the infallible and omnipotent Wikipedia "Yokai are a class of supernatural monsters from Japanese folklore". Pretty cool idea for a collection right? These polishes had a lot to live up to in my mind, and they definitely did not disappoint. Take a look!

Rainbow Honey The Yokai Collection

I think these polishes and my two Chanels are the only ones that have come in boxes. Really awesome, professional packaging. I'm impressed!

Rainbow Honey The Yokai Collection

All swatches are two coats of polish with top coat.

Rainbow Honey Kawako

Kawako- "The mischievous river child". This polish is a shimmery navy base with silver glass-like flecks and iridescent flakies. Because of the opacity of the base the flakes don't show up much, but do give a little flash every now and then. This polish is on the thicker side and it helps to let the first coat dry a little bit before applying the second.  I've tried a lot of dark blue based polishes with silver glitter over the years and this is by far my favorite. It manages to to both fresh and unique.

Rainbow Honey Kawako

Rainbow Honey Kitsune

Kitsune- "The magical white fox". This polish is a sandy tan base with gold shimmer and red, holographic, and gold glitter with smaller specks of glitter that look black in the picture above. Whew, this one was hard to describe. Like Kawako this polish runs on the thick side. However, it is one the coolest, most unique polishes I have.

Rainbow Honey Kitsune

Rainbow Honey Oni

Oni- "The malevolent, wild demon". This polish is a blackened base chock full of tiny irregularly-shaped gold and purple glitter flakes. The glitter does look predominantly gold, but for some reason my camera refused to pick up the purple. This one had the best formula of the three and was completely smooth- not thick or lumpy at all. It's is absolutely stunning and has a lot of depth and dimension even in the shade.

Rainbow Honey Oni

The collection will be released at rainbowhoney.com on October 13th at 12:01 AM EST. The polishes sell for $10 (a great price for a bottle of completely unique polish. You won't find any dupes for these!) and remember, the collection is limited edition. The biggest test when reviewing something that was sent to you is asking yourself, "Would I have bought this if it hadn't been sent to me?" And for me, and this collection, the answer is a resounding YES. I absolutely love the collection. I like the explosion of indie polish companies and their many unique products, but I do get tired of seeing endless collections of multicolored glitter in a clear base. These polishes are unique and opaque in 2 coats.

So what do you guys think? Do you have any polishes from Rainbow Honey? Do you plan on picking any of these up?

Disclosure: I was provided these polishes for consideration by Rainbow Honey. My opinions are my own and as always, my first priority is you lovely people who read my blog.

OPI Absolutely Alice

Just a quick post for today. I've managed to get a lot of polishes swatched that I wanted to, but now lack the energy to prepare the posts, haha. Also I ate half a box of Bottle Caps candies and now my stomach hurts. I'm so bad.

So, I'm still kicking myself for not buying OPI's Mad As A Hatter when it first came out. I didn't realize how popular it would be so I figured I would have time to get it later. Absolutely Alice (from the same collection) is awesome too, but not on the same level as Mad As A Hatter. So this the only reason I was able to get Absolutely Alice. The eBay prices weren't TOO inflated, haha. But the polish still is really pretty! If you can find a bottle for a decent price I recommend picking it up.

I believe this was 3 coats.

OPI Absolutely Alice

OPI Absolutely Alice

I Love Me Some Flakies

I fell in love with flakie polishes the first instant I saw them. I was lucky enough to be able to snap up Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure when it came out like 2 years ago. I was torn between using it all the time because I loved it so much and never using it because I loved it so much and didn't want to run out, haha. So I was glad when polish manufacturers finally realized how awesome flakies were and they became more readily available. If you don't own one you need to rectify that situation immediately! I know Essie runs a little bit on the higher side for a drugstore polish (although it used to be salon only!) but Shine of The Times is a must own (it's basically a Hidden Treasure dupe).

This was back when my nails were long and pretty. Sigh. I need to start taking my biotin again...

This is 2 coats on Nicole by OPI Party in The Penthouse with a coat of Essie Shine of the Times on top.

Zoya Swatches

Sooooo... I got the makeup counter job I wanted. The one I only had a million interviews for. Well, 4. But still. The last one was a "structured phone interview" where they fire questions at you and don't give you any feedback at all. Nor can they clarify anything. It was kind of weird, but my boss said I passed with flying colors. Apparently 2 other people from other stores made it all the way up to the final phone interview like I did but they failed to get the job. Unlike me! It's nice to know that other people believe in me. It just makes me want to work extra hard to prove myself. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what the company is. I don't see why it should be a problem, but when the lady comes to train me I'll ask her about it. It will probably be pretty easy to figure out eventually anyway seeing as most of my paycheck will go right back to them and I DO have a makeup blog. So yay me!

Well, this is SUPPOSED to be a makeup/nail blog. Although recently it seems to mostly be nail polish. And continues to be such with today's post.  I have swatches of the 7 nail polishes I picked up during Zoya's Earth Day sale. I'm excited because I loved them all. Usually there is at least one that disappoints me, but not this time!

From left- Kennedy, Wednesday, Zuza, Skylar, Lotus, Tru, and Rory

I guess I was in the mood for blues and purples!

All of the following swatches are 2 coats with no base or top coat. Sorry for the messy swatches. I still need to get a new clean-up brush.

Zoya Kennedy in the sun

Surprisingly this is one of my favorites. I hesitantly added it to my cart after really falling in love with swatches and I'm so glad. I LOVE it. It's a pink based nude while most others seem to be yellow based. I have my good friend Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetics Hoarders Unite to thank for my recent foray into nude polishes. If you don't already follow her, you should. She's amazing!

Zoya Kennedy in the shade

Zoya Wednesday in the sun

I can never get enough of this type of color. With creme finishes I usually have the urge to slap some glitter over them, but this one is pretty enough to be left alone. In case you missed my last post, I found a dupe of this one from Sinful Colors.

Zoya Wednesday in the shade

Zoya Zuza in the sun

This color was the one I was most excited for. It's a teal foil and completely different from anything in my collection. I love it.

Zoya Zuza in the shade

Zoya Skylar in the sun

Skylar is a dusty slate blue with multicolored shimmer flecks- mostly gold, pink and blue although they can tend to look silver. It is ridiculously pretty too.

Zoya Skylar in the shade

Zoya Lotus in the sun

I've been wanting this one forever! It has the same size shimmer flecks as Skylar, but they are pink.

Zoya Lotus in the shade

Zoya Tru in the sun

This is a similar concept to Lotus, but different enough I had to own them both. Tru has a more saturated red-violet base versus the dusty purple of Lotus. And instead of the pink shimmer, this one looks more reddish gold.

Zoya Tru in the sun

I guess I forgot to get a picture of this one in the shade!

Zoya Rory in the sun

Rory is another one that isn't my typical nail polish. I don't wear pinks that often, but when I do I prefer a bolder, more in-your-face color. This is a more delicate pink, but it's a foil and another that is completely unique in my collection. I'm so glad this one didn't disappoint.

Zoya Rory in the shade

And of course I could pass up an opportunity to assault you with cute pictures of my pug. She's sleeping in my mom's bed. My mom and her always take naps together; it's so cute.

So did you guys pick up any polishes during the Earth Day sale?  If you don't already have an account with Zoya you can use my link here. If you sign up using my link we each get a coupon for a free polish. If you use this coupon and add 2 more polishes to your order, you will get free shipping, too. So 3 nail polishes for $16 when with shipping would normally cost you about $30. Zoya always has the best deals. I love them!

Wet n Wild Limited Edition ColorIcon Ice Baby Nail Color Collection Swatches

I was so excited to find these nail polishes along with the baked palettes and the matte palette at my local Walgreens. The drug stores near me NEVER carry any limited edition collections. Instead they have ugly gift sets of cheap cologne and rock hard eyeshadow palettes. The display was missing two of the colors, 24 Carats and Give Me A Price, but I'll post pictures of those as soon as I can get my greedy little hands on them. I absolutely love these glitters! Apparently a few of them are dead on dupes of some Nails Inc polishes (see Scrangie's comparison here) and a few look like the limited edition mini set of Deborah Lippmann polishes from Nordstrom (see swatches here). Of course I prefer Wet n Wild's because they're cheaper!

I used three coats to get full coverage with all 6 polishes. Some you could probably get away with using 2 coats. The formula wasn't terrible for being opaque glitter polishes in a clear base, but some thinner might help the thickness a bit. And these do dry very... textured. You will need a few coats of top coat to get that glass-like finish I'm obsessed with. Some thicker glitters don't layer well, but I found that one coat looks amazing over black. I'll show the layered swatches at the end. Also, those are the only ones with top coat. All others are left in their natural, gritty glory.

Sorry for the bad clean up on my nails. That's what i get for doing swatches while sick.

Rockin' Rubies in the sun

Rockin' Rubies in the shade

Cost Is No Issue in the sun

Cost Is No Issue in the shade

Believe Me, It's Real in the sun

Believe Me, It's Real in the shade

Back Alley Deals in the sun

Back Alley Deals in the shade

It's All In The Cut in the sun

It's All In The Cut in the shade

Diamond In The Rough in the sun

Diamond In The Rough in the shade

From left- Rockin' Rubies, Cost Is No Issue, and Believe Me, It's Real over black

From left- Back Alley Deals, It's All In The Cut, and Diamond In The Rough over black

What do you guys think? Do any stand out to you, or do you plan on picking any up?


Available:

• These retail for $2.99 and are limited edition. Check out this interactive map by Nouveau Cheap to see if the collection has been spotted in your area.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!