Rainbow Honey Petit Four Swatch and Review

Welp my tattoo is still peeling - it's getting to that stage where it's super tempting just to peel it all off. I am a bit bad, though - I sometimes "trim" the parts that are already lifted. This is probably too much information. Ah, the life of tattoos... So to paint you guys a prettier picture instead of colourful scabs, here's Rainbow Honey Petit Four, which I received in my May Mystery Bag!







Rainbow Honey is a confectionary polish with a newborn baby yellow crelly, with a playful amount of bright coral and teal glitters. It applies fairly smoothly, similar to Sweet Talk, and I feel like the yellow builds well enough to not have to worry about a base creme. I had to do a bit of patching, but nothing that's a nuisance. My swatch is with two (and a half for patching) coats, and I've used Essence XXXL Shine Gel Look top coat, just to level off the look:











Truth be told, Essence XXXL Shine Gel Look is one of the worst top coats I've ever used due to the fact that it never dries fully and invites ALL THE INDENTS! Not good. So I really just use it when I want to swatch a polish for show. And of course... My outlining impulses couldn't be stopped... So I outlined my nails (again) with a Kiss white striper and slapped on some OPI Matte Top Coat on top of that:





I'm really intrigued by this! I know it's fairly similar to the "Sweet Talk" formula of crellys and glitters, but palette wise, I think it's very pretty! It was a huge hit amongst Rainbow Honey May Mystery Bag recipients judging by the noise on their Facebook page.

Any tattooed readers out there? What do you do to distract yourself from the peeling? What do you think of Petit Four? Any predictions on what the rest of the collection surrounding that polish will be?

China Glaze Sunday Funday Swatch and Review (Bonus: Katy Perry Dark Horse Blue with Black Outline Inspired Nail Art)

Godzilla is the most mediocre movie I have ever seen. I am almost upset. It just seemed like they didn't know what they wanted to accomplish with the movie. Great cast yet acting was off. I wanted to like it... But... Anyway. To make up for it, I have a backlog post with China Glaze Sunday Funday! Just to make things a little more interesting, it also features me trying to outline my nails for the first time... Truly terrible but I hope I've improved since then!

China Glaze Sunday Funday is a bright blue creme that kind of reminds you of summer pools. Kind of. There's no signs of green leans, or purple shifts. Just blue, which is why I dig this polish. Formula wise, it's fairly thick and opaque so while a one coat is probably possible, it's best to go with two coats. Here's my swatch in two coat with no top coat:











And I hope you're not going to laugh because it's so bad - this is the first time I tried to outline my nails. I wanted to emulate those blue nails that Katy Perry had in the Dark Horse music video. But rather than using a striper, I used a little detailing nail art brush so of course all my lines are uneven and not smooth! Waaaah! Anyway, check it out here:









Overall, China Glaze Sunday Funday is a great polish - I really like this type of shade, and the formula works out really well! I kind of wish it was called "Funday Monday" because that's Day[9]'s name for doing crazy things in StarCraft for his show; but who knows, I actually haven't tuned in for about a year, so maybe Monday Funday is abolished. I hope not!

What's your favourite movie that you've seen this season? Any recommendations? If I had to recommend a movie that's out right now, it would be for Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier!!! Most definitely. Because reasons. What do you make of Sunday Funday?

Pure Ice Nail Polish Flirt Alert Swatch and Review (Bonus: Rainbow Honey Suu)

So I always thought that if I was ever going to be featured on Kotaku, it would be because of my esports or cosplay photography, but as fate would have it... It would be for my nail art! Last night, my Transistor nails made it onto Screenburn a la Kotaku. Thanks guys for having me - I'm so humbled to be up there! Anyhow, today we're flipping tables and it's Cheap Polish Tuesday! Here's Pure Ice Flirt Alert.





I remember I picked this polish up from Wal-Mart last year - it's been a while now but I believe that these were in the $2 range, which makes it a perfect candidate for Cheap Polish Tuesday. Pure Ice Flirt Alert is a near-neon raspberry creme that has a pretty cringe-worthy name, right next to the last Pure Ice nail polish I looked at named Jail Bait. (It seems like I have a penchant for getting nail polish for the sake of the name!) Formula-wise, it's actually quite decent - a very pigmented and opaque self-levelling creme and you get full guaranteed coverage in two coats. It also has a pretty decent natural shine without the use of top coat!:









For funsies, here's Rainbow Honey Suu over top, with some vanilla highlights:



And then I immediately decided I wanted to go matte with OPI Matte Top Coat because matte top coat and glitter together make a whole lot of magic!:







Overall, it's a pretty decent polish especially considering the price of the $2 range. It's nothing too unique but if you're lacking this kind of colour and might use it occasionally, it's a fairly decent candidate!

Have you ever accomplished one of your goals in a not-so-orthodox way? Or in a way that you wouldn't have expected to? Did you still give yourself a pat on the back? What do you make of NEON raspberry cremes with funny names?

Supergiant Games' Transistor Video Game Inspired Nail Art

I am excited today. I don't know why. I am sort of bouncy for no reason - well - here are some reasons I can think of: 1) It's Shitty Nail Art Monday and I don't feel that shitty about it for once!; and 2) I made a big move: You can now access good ol Claw of Cthulhu here by going to www.clawofcthulhu.com (or clawofcthulhu.com for that matter). Seriously! How was your weekend? Was it awesome? Mine was awesome - I played Transistor wearing no pants all weekend and loved it. I loved it so much, I had to make some Transistor inspired nail art. Jen Zee is awesome - her use of colour just kills it.







For this nail art, I had to use a few colours - I felt like the Transistor colours were VERY unique and I wasn't quite sure I had the exact colours but the ones I chose are close enough. Here's a list of polish and supplies:

+ dotting tool
+ nail art brush
+ Zoya Zuza (Transistor base)
+ Essence That's Not What I Mint! (Transistor bright detailing)
+ Zoya Wednesday (Transistor subtle detailing)
+ Essie Good As Gold (gold tip details)
+ Essence Fame Fatal (red highlight)
+ Kiss Black Striper (hilt geometry and red detail)
+ Seche Vite top coat



I was really nervous when I was making this nail art because I wanted it to be good! I LOVED the game, and I love Jen Zee and gah - it just had to be good! Overall, I am pretty happy with it. I was going to make the same uniform design on each nail, but spreading the Transistor details across all nails was the way to go. The index and middle finger black work geometry form the triangular hilt.









I went into Transistor without knowing anything about it. I know it might sound foolish, but I saw the teaser trailer and I was sold. Absolutely sold. I even went to PAX 2013 with a playable demo but avoided it! I was such a fan of Bastion that I wanted to go into the game completely unbiased, and completely thrown into the Transistor universe solely based on my trust with Supergiant Games. I don't regret this at all!

And even though I skipped out on the PAX 2013 demo, that's not to say that I didn't pick up some merch! Here's my signed Transistor (one of two of them) poster by the talented Jen Zee!:



Here's my nails placed over top of the Transistor:



It was a year of waiting for Transistor to come out but it was worth the wait. I am not sure if the combat system is for every gamer, but I personal salute their choices to integrate such a rich customizable scheme. The art of the game was bang on (obviously!), Darren Korb KILLED the soundtrack (holy shit did he ever) and even though I found myself wanting more out of the story in my first playthrough, I ended up sucking into the semantics of my second Recursion playthrough and understood all the missing details that I had wanted.

How was your weekend? I obviously just played video games all weekend in my underwear but my excuse is that it was raining anyway (not that I wouldn't have been in my basement during sunshine due to last week's exhaustion). Any of my readers fellow video game players? Have you tried Transistor yet? Check out the teaser trailer to see a taste of the pretty art and of course, one of my favourite songs from the soundtrack:

A England Briar Rose Swatch and Review (Bonus: Iron Throne Bottle Shots)

End of the week! OH MY LORD, I never thought it would come!!! IT'S HERE! IT'S FRIDAY! *crying* So I'll be making some changes to Claw of Cthulhu for the next while - it's been a while (a while meaning almost two years) since I've updated some content, so don't mind the mess in the meantime! I've also added a new category called "the Iron Throne" up at the top. It's to signify that the polish passed with flying colors in my review and I REALLY, REALLY like them. Speaking of which, that Iron Throne is going to make another appearance. Right now.

Enter A England Briar Rose.







Yes. So much yes.

Briar Rose is from the Burne-Jones Dream Collection, which is based on the Legend of Briar Rose series of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones. (Check it out here on Wikipedia.) A England Briar Rose is - for lack of better terms - flawless. It's a subtly holographic pink toned red. Formula wise, it knocks it out of the park - smooth, timely drying, and a natural glossy finish. Here is my swatch in two coats:











I loooooove this polish. I think if you're looking for a strong holographic polish, you might be disappointed. It's a holographic polish but not as linear as some are. I still think it's very pretty and just the smoothness of the look is more than enough in my books. I haven't tried the rest of the collection yet, but man, it's off to a great start. Also Game of Thrones won't be on this weekend because it's an American holiday on Monday and apparently everything revolves around America so baby Iron Throne will ease my fixings for now.

TGIF or what? Any plans for the weekend? I am totally ready for couch, sleeping in, oversized t-shirts and no pants.

Rainbow Honey Birdcage Swatch and Review

I am currently on my last overtime day for the week, hooray! I've been shooting event photos after each 11 hour day though so really I have been working 16 hour days this week. It's worth it though - I've been shooting some very cool artists this week and hope I get approved for some more tonight and the weekend. After that, I swear: Couch. No pants. Oversized Slytherin t-shirt. It's what the doctor ordered! So with that said, I've just got a swatch today - no bonus glitter, no nail art. For one thing, it doesn't need it!

This is Rainbow Honey Birdcage from the Clover Trio set, which was made as an ode to all-female manga artist group Clamp. On the site, the polish is described as one that holds black and holographic glitters and stars, with sparks of iridescence hiding in a shimmery gray base". Formula wise, this polish is finicky. I found it very hard to work with - the star glitter is very thick and heavy and had to be fished out. The inside neck of my bottle was starting to get a bit crusty since I was trying to reserve some glitters there. (The idea of pouring polish out to fish for it makes me sad, what a waste!) Because I was trying to get an even balance of glitters and the grey crelly base, I found it very hard to make it look even. I was successful after about three (and a half, give or take, there was a lot of patching to do) but it was also in dire need of a top coat since the glitters were gave a lot of bumps. I used two coats of Seche Vite to accomplish a smooth look. Despite the hard application, I think it was a huge pay off:











I think overall I could have done without the black circle glitter but I do love this polish. Applied with patience and finished correctly, it looks great. I'm a sucker for slate, grey colours and the black star glitters made for a very beautiful look. I would recommend this if you have the patience and aren't in a hurry to polish your nails.

Do you have any polishes that are terrible to apply but give a decent pay off? Do you think "pay off" polishes are worth it?