Rainbow Honey Electric Love Nail Art Glitter Swatch and Review

It's almost the end of the month, which (hopefully) means the end to shitty cold weather! Sickness that we give each other and last weeks! Seasonal depression! ALL OF THE THINGS! So, needless to say - I am excited. Let's move on forward already, shall we? Today I've got a review of one of the items I received in my Rainbow Honey February Mystery Bag - a brand spanking new product: nail art glitter. Poking around on social media, I found there were 3 different permutations.



This particular permutation is Rainbow Honey Electric Love Nail Art Glitter (phew, that was a mouthful!). It's a small pot, plentiful filled with iridescent micro glitter, neon pink hearts, mega hexes and multi-sized squares, a slight off neon pink raspberry hex, and a pinch of neon lime stars. I went through a bit of trial and error with applying this as I've never played around with loose glitter before - totally foreign to me! As a foundation, I had one of my invoices folded so I could dump the excess back into the pot. At first, I would apply a coat of polish, and while wet, I would pinch a bit of the nail art glitter and throw it onto the nail... It didn't make for a lot of control!!! What I found worked a bit better was I took a couple of pinches and put them onto my working paper foundation. Then, I would essentially "pick" which glitters I wanted to have fall on the nail. I would pick bigger glitters first, then pick up the small ones. I think I've still got a ways away to get this looking good, but I did like my results!

As inspiration, I took Dee's glitter spill from Instagram and applied it to my nail. For the base, I used Zoya Noot. (I wish I had a slightly lighter grey but apparently out of 400+ polishes, I don't have one!)

Here's my successful one first, haha. This is where I used the method of spilling the glitter first, and then picking which glitters would fall onto the nail. I used Seche Vite to finish it off with a nice sleek finish:







Now here's the go where I was pinching a bunch of random glitter from the pot and basically throwing it onto the nail. *headdesk* Yeah, that's me, clumsy ol Cthulhu. For this one, I finished it with the Rainbow Honey Unscented Top Coat, which I think might work as a usual top coat, but as a top coat for glitter - it dries too thin to have a nice even finish. The ridges of the glitter shapes still stand out. I'll have to re-evaluate it when I use a regular non-glitter polish. For now, Seche Vite is still my top vote, hands down:









You know, I actually ended up thinking this product was a lot of fun and produced a nice result. I was pretty apprehensive but once I figured out how to get more control of the glitter, it actually turned into a lot of fun. I did have some smearing with both top coats with this combination but I think it was due to my own impatience. I would still recommend to use Seche Vite as these glitters are a bit larger than usual and need that extra thickness to even the surface to a nice glossy finish.

What do you think about working with loose glitter? Do you have a favourite top coat for glitterbombs? Let's say good riddance to February already, have a good weekend guys!

Julep Dahlia Swatch and Review (Bonus: Barry M Boots Limited Edition D 335)

Well it's snowing here but when it snows here, my Eastern Canada friends always just laugh and tell me that we don't know what "real snow" is. To tell the truth, they're totally right. But still - whenever it snows here, no one manages to know what they're doing! Anyway I am trapped at work for a while so I'm just going to hope that by the time the day is done, I won't have to deal with traffic. One can hope. Anyway with all the snow news aside, I figure that now's a good time to show off a shade that my NPBFF Caitlin from Addicted to Lacquer gave me for Christmas.

This is Julep Dahlia, a shimmery-as-fuck, bright-as-fuck golden sunflower yellow. (There wasn't any way to describe it.) This polish was heavily pigmented and I got decent coverage with two coats. You can see my free edge in the right light, but it was mostly unnoticeable. Application went on smooth and was very impressive. Here's my swatch with no top coat:









I wanted to have a bit of PARTY! on my nails so I also put on a Barry M polish called Boots Limited Edition D 335 that I got from my BFF. (Boots is a drugstore in London, I think so anyway so I imagine this shade would just be an exclusive they had at one point.) No other descriptor can be found, and I couldn't find any information online about this one! Ah well, it's an assorted colour bar glitter. Here's two coats applied with different vertical and horizontal brush strokes:









Julep Dahlia is super bright so it's not a polish I would wear all the time. It's nice, through. What I didn't like about it was that it's a bit of a stainer! So just be careful with this one.

Do you like wearing BRIGHT-AS-FUCK colours on your nails? If so, do you save them for cold wintery days, or do you coordinate with the summer weather? Also, I totally just did 100 skips with my skip rope and it was a sure sign that I need to work out on a regular basis. #fml #officelife

Valentines Day (Sort Of) Themed Skittles Nail Art

Hey everyone, I know I am kind of late on the train to posting these but I figured I would paint my nails for Valentines Day anyway even through I am kind of a Scrooge about the whole thing. Kind of. I can be romantic... When I want to be... I think. Anyway I was contemplating for probably close to 30 minutes on what to do! I guess this is what happens when you have too much polish? I knew I wanted to revisit Rainbow Honey's first limited edition polishes for the month of February last year - Dearly Beloved. This was even back then when they had sticker labels instead of the nice sleek screen printed ones they have now. *sniff* They grow up so fast!

Anyway I wanted to center the focus on Rainbow Honey Dearly Beloved. There was a part of me that wanted to open up Sweet Talk: Part 2 but I guess with the broken nails, I was too grumpy to do it! But nonetheless, I used OPI Black Onyx, Fancy by Rainbow Honey Fancy Red, Rainbow Honey Gilded Angel and Rainbow Honey Dearly Beloved, of course. I think it turned out well! I wanted it to be fun, but not too crazy or distracting. Here's what I came up with:







And because it's Valentines Day and everyone needs a little love, including my Cinderella hand... My claddagh ring, straight out of Ireland makes an appearance too:





I know most of you had long weekends so I hope you guys all had a nice long weekend! I am jealous! Haha, I want a long weekend! (Even though I totally just had one last week, but you can never have enough 4 day work weeks, right?) I just shot the PIXIES last night so that was SUPER exciting for me as a huge fan. What did you guys get up to for the long weekend? Any fun nail art you did for Val/Galentines Day?

Rainbow Honey February Mystery Bag: Unboxing!

OK I am going to try something a little different here. As you might have read, I broke not just one but two nails while moving around computers at my work, so I will be spreading out my backlog a little more. I'm buying an extra day of post! So typically I show off just nail art and nail photos but I personally get SUPER FREAKING excited when I get nail mail - and Rainbow Honey has introduced their "mystery bags" in Christmas. It was a HUGE hit that they introduced them again for February and I have a sneaky feeling that they're here to stay. Why?, you say? Because this one was explicitly labelled as "February's Mystery"... Oh God, more to come? IN EITHER CASE, LET'S GET TO THE UNBOXING!!! (And don't laugh at my broken thumbnail, siiiigh!)

So it came in a simple pack like this:



Upon opening, revealed a bubble wrapped pack:





ALL OF THE CONTENTS! OH MY GOD, ALL THE COLOUR!



Here's the "February's Mystery" card. Oh God, "February's Mystery"? Does that mean another one is coming?!







Here's what the card read:

Front: February's Mystery / Rainbow Honey

Inside: Greetings from the Rainbow Honey Lab! Thanks for picking up this month's Mystery Bag! This time around, our selection includes: Sparking Agave - from our upcoming Midnight Garden Collection, coming March 2014 / Poffin Party - this one's still a prototype so let us know what you think! / Sakura Matsuri Mini Rollerball - making a return later this spring! / Fast Dry Top Coat - goes perfect with our new... / Nail Art Glitters - a first look at some awesome blends of glitters ready for nail art, decorating, or wherever your creativity takes you!

Back: We hope you've enjoyed this month's look at some of our upcoming products! And since it's not longer a mystery, tell us what you loved the most - and tag your posts to make sure we see them! / #RainbowHoney #RainbowHoneyLab #RainbowHoneyMysteryBag / Thank you again for being such a loyal fan! Love, The Rainbow Honey Lab (see you in March!)

Wait wait wait - SEE YOU IN MARCH?!?! OH GOD ANOTHER ONE IS COMING!!!!

Anyway, here's the new nail art glitter. This is a brand new product, in my knowledge of Rainbow Honey, I don't think they've had a product quite like this. I got a nail art glitter called "Electric Love". It made a bit of a mess in my Mystery Bag with some loose glitters sitting right in the bubble wrap pack but nothing too severe. Looks like this one consists of opalescent microglitter, neon lime stars, hot pink hearts and squares, and matching lime green and hot pink smaller hex/square glitter. Not sure how applying this will be clean at all - might be a mess! But nonetheless, colour me intrigued. (And neon!)







This is the Sakura Maturi Eau De Parfum Mini Rollerball - and I'll be honest, I don't remember Rainbow Honey offering perfume before. I was pretty tunnel visioned with the MLP polish though, so that could be why. Anyway, apparently this guy is "making a return" for the spring. I personally LOVE the small of Sakura Matsuri - I was first introduced with the scent with the cuticle sticks and I freaking LOVE IT. This tiny package is also super freaking cute. I am dying. Check out the mini cuteness:









And now my favourite part... THE POLISH MINIS! I got Poffin Party, Sparkling Agave (love that name) and Unscented Top Coat. How coincidental is it that Poffin Party matches the palate of Sparking Agave perfectly? Initial thoughts: Sparking Agave looks shimmering and amazing. Really love that shade and the name sake! Seriously can't wait to swatch it. Poffin Party, I gotta swatch - I think dot/circle glitter can be hit or miss and depending on the glitter. I've seen a lot of circle/dot glitter to be quite thick and it's very unflattering - not sure if it's just something I see, or what not. Anyway, I can't really tell from the mini bottle if the glitters are thick or not, but I gotta say that I love that colour palette! Reminds me of a subdued Magic Cake!







So I hope you enjoyed this "UNBOXING" post! I know it's not my nails, but my thumb and index nail are hurting and I think it'll be a couple of weeks to get some growth back.

Do you like these kinds of UNBOXING posts? Should I keep going with it? Did you grab Rainbow Honey's February Mystery Bag? What did you get? Are they the same? Or are there a few permutations going around? Be sure to let me know - as a huge fan, I'd love to know!

Barry M Matte Nail Paint Crush Swatch and Review (Bonus: OPI Pure 18K White Gold Top Coat)

I had to work some overtime on the weekend and with that, I was moving some computers and I broke not just one but two nails! So for the next while, I am going to space out my posts to make them last while my nails grow back - haha! But I did get my Rainbow Honey order so I'll be doing an unveiling of what was in my Mystery Pack! (Love them Mystery Packs.) Anyway, I've got a brand new brand (haha) to show off on the blog today - I have some nail polish from Barry M! You've probably heard the name before as all of our UK friends seem to have them in the spotlight. My BFF who lives in London now brought a random handful to me for Christmas! So here's Barry M's debut here on Claw of Cthulhu.

This is Crush, a Barry M Matte Nail Paint. It's a deep bloody red - application wise, it goes on fairly smooth and even. My swatch is in two coats, no top coat - so this is the natural finish:











I am not sure if I am too crazy over the matte finish - this is the first matte nail polish I've owned that isn't black. I feel like matte black really works but for a shade like this, I feel like it kicked it down a notch and made it less dynamic. It seems really low key. To bring it up to life, I added OPI Pure 18K White Gold Top Coat and I liked it a LOT better. I think it made a huge difference:







Overall, I found my first Barry M polish to be great application wise, but I wasn't too big of a fan of the natural finish with the shade of the polish. Turning it into a glossy polish made all the difference for me.

What do you think of Barry M? Have you tried any of their polishes? Is the matte trend over, or are you still into it?

Rainbow Honey Papillion Swatch and Review

You know what's better than being able to bring breakfast every day with you this week (yes! I accomplished my goal of not buying anything!)... STAT HOLIDAYS! That's right, it's going to be Family Day here in British Columbia on Monday so I'll be back on Tuesday! (Although with that said, I am actually working tonight, tomorrow and on Sunday (let's pray for that snow storm) so apparently I am a sucker and don't even get to relax - C'est la vie!) I am going to wake up early tomorrow, get me one of those Starbucks Blossoming Peach Tea Lattes (they're fucking delicious), but before I get to that, I have one last polish from the package of samples Rainbow Honey sent me. This one is badass because it's not even out yet! Woot!

This is Rainbow Honey Papillion, which is going to be released this spring along the rest of the Midnight Garden Spring Collection. It's comprised of a touch of shimmer, and holographic pink and purple butterflies and multi-sized glitter. I am so into this. I used a couple of coats for my swatch, but you can go with as many or as little as you like - you probably for the option to do some crazy gradient if you wanted as well. Here's Papillion over OPI Black Onyx - I loooooove how it really POPS! Wonderful contrast:











And are you ready for the most gorgeous thing ever? Think it looks good over black? Now let's add my favourite matte top coat - OPI Matte Top Coat - feckin' Hell, look at that! BUTTERFLIES FROM SPAAAAACE! It seriously looks almost galaxy-like, I love it! Quite the twist on a spring theme! Check it out, yo:









And just because, I figured I'd try and match Papillion with more of a lighter colour. I used Rainbow Honey Dusty Bot. I am not sure how I feel about this one. I like that it looks soft and delicate, but I think for Papillion - because it has those awesome butterfly shaped glitter - I think a darker contrast works much better! But alas, here's Papillion over Dusty Bot:











Anyway this glitter topper is awesome! And just because I feel like it... I just want to show it off again over black with a matte top coat:



Seriously guys, SERIOUSLY!

I can't wait to see what else is in the Midnight Spring Collection - after my hiatus, I fell off the wagon of trends, so I can't wait to see what else Rainbow Honey is up to!

What do you think of this butterfly glitter? Do you prefer a more subtle look, or something with some contrast? Do you love stat holidays as much as I do? You probably relax on them, don't you? Actually, now that I am on the topic, how do you relax? I need some advice. Legit! See y'all next week.

Full disclosure: This sample was provided for an unbiased review.