Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk Swatch

Alright, let's get back on track! Here's the final member of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk collection - the flagship title: Sweet Talk! And my how sweet it is! This is the one that REALLY sold me. Maybe you can see why?:



Look at that solid pastel candy coloured glitter, all submerged and perfectly suspended in a white jelly. Pink, teal and purple! How lovely! The formula of Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk is relatively easy to work with. It's all on your application skills for this one. Because it's white, you need a little more of a build up and it can be a little messy because it's white. The glitter applies evenly but can be sticky. Once a glitter has chosen its place to sit, it will probably stay there. Try to avoid getting the glitters at the very tips as those are the first to go when you get tip wear. Lastly, please, please (for all that is holy!) use a top coat on this one. A top coat over a glitter/jelly polish like this is really going to make everything look streamline and clean. Anyway, enough with the banter, here's 3 coats of Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk:







I think this would really benefit by using one base coat of a white polish to get a good foundation to start with. Once you have a good foundation to work with, you can concentrate on the build up of the pastel glitters rather than the build up of the base colour. Again, I can't stress this enough but please use a top coat. I've seen swatches of this same polish without top coat and it can look crunchy and uneven.

Ruffian Nail Art With Special Guest Rainbow Honey My Love

It is... 3AM and I just finished doing my nails for Valentines Day. It all seemed like a good idea at the time but enh. I am not sure if it turned out. It's one of those times where it's late and I have lost all sense of good judgement. For example: Drinking a huge glass of tea, followed by doing your nails is not the best idea. Take it from me!

So I've interrupted our regularly scheduled programming for Valentines Day. (Barf, I know, I know.) The truth is I never wear pinks or reds and I figure, hey why not? This is a great excuse.

For my "Ruffian Manicure" (I feel weird about using the word manicure because I didn't actually do any cuticle care before painting my nails. I really just painted my nails. Anyway.), I used Color Club Poptastic as the base coat. For a stark contrast, I used Cult Nails Nevermore, a one coat black. I freehanded the shapes and tried to maintain a consistent pink curve. I wanted something a little "more Valentines" and I have been looking for an excuse to use Rainbow Honey My Love so I just went ahead and did it. I hope the results are OK!







I'll save the extended formula reviews for individual polish swatch posts, but this was a great team of colours for this type of nail art. Poptastic was a 2 coater and dried very quick. Nevermore, a one coater, applied smooth and even - and of course lives up to its promise here: being a one coater. Lastly, I love Rainbow Honey My Love. I was having SUCH a hard time choosing between My Love and Dearly Beloved as the special limited edition gift with my order but ultimately I think I picked the right one because A Little Kindness is one of my favourite Rainbow Honey polish. Yum! I'll have to save more words for a review post.

And here's a last one. It's the present I am giving my Valentine. He surprised me at work today with red roses. I never thought I'd be that kind of girl, but there I was, pretty surprised and shocked that someone would visit me at work and hand deliver me flowers. Anyway, this is a LEGO heart. It separates into two pieces and then combined again to create a heart. One of my favourite dates was when we went to the LEGO store and just built things for an hour. I'll spare the cheesiness. It's still 3AM and things could get verbose and sloppy quickly!



So there it is! I'll be posting the last of Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk collection later today and then consolidate all the Sweet Talk goodness (and then some, shhh!) into one mega post on Friday for reference.

Rainbow Honey XOXO Swatch

I've been playing a lot of Age of Empires II: Forgotten Empire lately. Valentines Day is coming up, but honestly I'd just be happy playing Age of Empires with some take-out sushi. Do I have low standards? Ha, anyway. I know I don't have low standards with nail polish.

Here's Rainbow Honey XOXO. It's... Freaking lovely. Romantic pink hued glitter, with sharp fuchsia shifts in the light. Some playful bits of holographic microglitter swimming in gold shimmer, familiar from Be Mine, but isolated and taking more of a spotlight here.



I wanted to see how well the members of the Sweet Talk collection played, so I've layered Rainbow Honey XOXO over top of Be Mine first:



Here's one coat of XOXO over Be Mine. Very subtle. You can see from this photo that this glitter is perfect for doing a playful glitter gradient.



Here is two coats of XOXO over Be Mine. I personally would stop here if layering XOXO over top a different colour. It's nice to allow your base colour to breathe and letting XOXO be noticed on its own.

To show you how well the glitter applies, I've also swatched XOXO over top of two coats of OPI In The Spot-Light Pink. Here's one coat of XOXO. Again, looking quite delicate and fair with application:



Here's two coats of XOXO over top of OPI In The Spot-Light Pink:







I almost like this better with one coat of XOXO because I really like the freckled look.

Anyway, last night I actually botched some nail art I was planning to do with the Sweet Talk collection. I am sort of bummed out! I might post it anyway for Shitty Nail Art Monday but oh well. Also, just because I am shameful - I'm on Instagram. I'm definitely a nails-only account (I keep my personal entirely separate) so give me a follow on there if you want to shoot the shit, laugh at my late night nail fails (there's a lot of them), share nail mail hauls, etc etc. Cool? Or, you don't have to follow. That's cool too.

Rainbow Honey Be Mine Swatch

Alright, I didn't think I would do it but I did!... IT'S RAINBOW HONEY WEEK. That's right. I was sort of nervous photographing these for some reason because I was trying something new but I think it worked out OK. Not my usual standard point and shoot method. Anyhoo, this week I'll be sharing my swatches on Rainbow Honey's Sweet Talk collection which took about 2 weeks to get into my filthy hands in Canada.

Here's a macro shot of Be Mine. I wanted to do these with Rainbow Honey's polishes because they are so detailed and intricate, they deserve this kind of attention. Be Mine is a delicate and soft floral pink, with little gold flecks.



Formula was OK. I get a little nervous around Rainbow Honey because they're always so gorgeous but application can sometimes be tricky, or thick. The formula on Be Mine was good. Not thick. If you double take your application like I do, it will take about 3 coats for full coverage. You could probably do it in 2 coats if you are confident. (I sometimes paint over the same part twice, removing some of the layer thus creating patches. Bad habit.)





I'm loving that Rainbow Honey came out with a solid creme colour. Sometimes less is more, and I love that this was a really great pillar in the Sweet Talk collection as it goes so well with XOXO and the flagship colour, Sweet Talk. I hope we see more like this in future collections.

Ozotic 528 Swatch

I decided that I'll be updating Claw of Cthulhu on Mondays through Thursdays, but there will always be exceptions - like this one. So, I reside on the west coast of Canada, and we've never had a stat holiday in February until this year! Next week Monday will be the first Family Day, so I guess I'll be away for a little while. For now, I've got an amazing polish that I've been wanting to post so it's a good one to hang out at the top of the blog for a few days!

Here is Ozotic 528 from the Back Up Plan collection. It's a multicolour shifting glitter that has hints of teal, blue, green, magenta. It's so amazing and beautiful. I love this polish. I haven't tried it over any other colours yet but I feel like black is definitely the best candidate as it really highlights the colours. I definitely think this glitter is a show stopper and should be the highlight. So, so, beautiful.



This was my first Ozotic polish and I feel like the formula was really slick. The brush was a little bit lengthy but it seemed to soak up the 528 formula well enough that it didn't make a fuss. I love the bottle! I was so impressed with Ozotic that I ended up buying 3 more Ozotic polishes. Yikes!



Definitely a really cool polish brand with unique colours that I have never seen before. They are also apparently a 3-free company so it's not cheap low quality stuff.

Anyway, I am off for a few days so I'll post here on Tuesday. If you're local, I hope you enjoy your long weekend and otherwise, I'll be back soon with more swatches, shitty nail art, and cheap polishes. <3

OPI Care To Danse? Swatch (+ Bonus Hello Kitty Stamping!)

While I have a lot of colourful nail polish and I find it fun to wear, I actually can't stand to wear too much colour for more than a couple of days. I guess I find it distracting. I always love a neutral colour. So I'll show you one of my favourite "go to" polishes and nail art.

Here's OPI Care to Danse?. I believe it's from the New York City Ballet collection; just like the Femme de Cirque, they are called Soft Shades, being very light sheer jellies. I sometimes wear one coat for some extra shine on my nails when I want to be neutral. Being Asian, my skintone can be quite picky with some of the Soft Shades, but I think Care To Danse looks really great from one coat, built up. Here's how the sheer soft lilac polish builds:


One coat of OPI Care to Danse (Yes, I have a chip on my index nail.)


Two coats of OPI Care to Danse. As you can see, the application and formula is very smooth. Not streaky at all.


Three coats of OPI Care to Danse. Almost fully built, I wouldn't try and get this polish to be too opaque. It's meant to be a very soft, very smooth jelly and it does exactly that.

I really love this polish. I am almost tempted to buy a back-up but I should really stop doing things like that because the truth is that it takes forever to finish a nail polish unless you're wearing it every day. (Obviously, I don't wear this every day but it is something I wear frequently.

I wanted to do something really fun this week, so to go alongside my go-to polish, is my go-to stamping plate... A "fauxnad" Hello Kitty stamping plate. I'm in love with this plate. It's so adorable and the combinations go together so well. You could use the same stamp for all nails, or use a combination and have it look very cohesive and adorable.

Unfortunately, I had one of those moments where I had a "cool idea" come into my head and I wanted to try doing a stamped jelly sandwich. (A jelly sandwich is when you put a glitter polish, or nail art between two layers of a jelly polish.) I neglected to think that the design would streak! So although it's super cute, there photos are close up enough to see that my design did unfortunately streak when I applied a top layer of jelly.



I've been listening to a lot of Taylor Swift. I should be ashamed but for some reason, I guess I'm rolling with it for now. Feelings are hard to deal with... But at least I have nail polish.

piCture pOlish Tiffany Swatch

Well I've had enough of crappy nail art and cheap polish. It's mid-week and I feel like spoiling myself a little. It's not even the first week of No Buy February and I've already indulged in a nice sushi dinner. There's a nail polish sale at Shoppers Drug Mart and it's driving me nuts. As you can see from my nail polish collection, I really don't need anymore... I have enough polish to last me until the end of the year for this blog! In either case...

Diamonds with breakfast! That's what it reads loud and proud on piCture pOlish's bottle of Tiffany - a definite ode to the luxury jewelry brand. This is my first piCture pOlish, so I am unfamiliar with the bottle and brush. I think the bottle is super cute, but I found the brush a little harder to work with. I am very partial to shorter, wide brushes as it gives me the most control. (Confession: I do zero clean up on my nails; I just aim to get it right.) The formula is really, really milky and very creamy. For the most part, it's very smooth. I applied three thin coats for full coverage.



And because I know you want to know what I wanted to know... How does it stack up against the actual Tiffany blue? Well, I just so happen to have a Tiffany bag. (Note that I don't know why I have a Tiffany bag. I own no Tiffany jewelry... Sigh, I wish I were a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller... Haha...)



So here's piCture pOlish's Tiffany with a Tiffany bag! How does it do? Not bad, actually. The tone is bang on, however it's a little bit lighter than the actual Tiffany blue. I wouldn't worry about it, though - I doubt anyone would actually notice!

Overall, I'm pretty happy about my first experience with piCture pOlish. I hope I see some more in the future!

Claire's Candy Shop Swatch

In spirit of cheap movie Tuesdays, Taco Tuesday, Toonie Tuesday, I'm bringing Cheap Polish Tuesday to this blog. I think I am anyway.

Anyway, I remember picking up Claire's Candy Shop last year when all the girls on Reddit were raving on about a Deborah Lippman dupe for... Candy Shop. What a minute, Candy Shop? Claire's didn't even beat around the bush on this one, they just went ahead and did it. To be perfectly honest, the rainbow glitter trend last year didn't really take hold of me. I was far more concerned with flakies, but I couldn't pass up a $4 polish that was a dupe of a $25 polish.

So here we go... Here's three coats of Claire's Candy Shop, topped with some aged goopy Seche Vite I had sitting around. (I really need some thinner.) The pink jelly was not my favourite shade of pink. It seemed a bit "dirty", whereas I remember Lippmann's being a little more milky in tone. (Note that I don't own Lippmann's Candy Shop; this is just based on the swatches I've seen on the Internet.) The dirtiness might have cheered up a bit if I used a white base coat. Despite the tone of pink, the application was no fuss. I had no issues with any of the glitter being biased, or pushed around.



I think it was definitely worth the cheap price tag. If I was really into a pink jelly and rainbow glitter trend, I might invest in the Deborah Lippmann original, but it's not my thing so I'll stick with this one for a blue moon wear.

Kill Bill Inspired Nail Art

I was late on the boat when the movie Django: Unchained came out, which is a bummer because I had already written up The Best and Worst of 2012 and didn't include any movies I hadn't seen. Had I seen it, this would have made it into the top 5. Of course, like with any other Tarantino new release, I spiraled back into the past, watching Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, and of course... Kill Bill. I had forgotten all about my major hard-on (so to speak) for Kill Bill. I loved the fight scenes and the anime break. I loved how much of a badass Uma Thurman was. The same night I watched Kill Bill again, I also tweeted about how I would do some Kill Bill nail art. I tend to just shout on Twitter blindly since no one really follows me, but lo and behold, my first non-robot follower had replied to me. So, here's to keeping promises... (Albeit shabby...)



This was created similar to my blood spatter nail art. Again, using Spektor's DIY nail decal tutorial, I created a base layer of yellow using Color Club's Almost Famous. I drew on a straight (well as straight as I could) black line with a generic black striper. With a regular drinking straw, I blew some Joe Fresh Cherry for the blood spatter. Originally I had tried to use tape to create a straight black line, but it lifted my polish from the plastic bag and I had to start all over again. Lesson learned: do not even try to use tape for decals. I must have been dense that night.

OPI Mariah Carey Collection Liquid Sand Swatches

It's the end of Liquid Sand Week! I am ending it with some final thoughts on what I think of liquid sand...



OPI described their introduction to liquid sands as "groundbreaking technology for a textured, matte finish infused with reflective sparkle." Now while the description is probably close to how I would also describe it, I wish the matte finish was MORE matte. I feel like the liquid sands were more about a gritty textured surface. I personally found that I was seeking something more matte, especially with Stay The Night.

While a lot of folks seem to be caking the top coat on these polishes, I really feel like it's defeating the purpose of the collection. I think that because the finishes may not be matte enough for some, they tend to resolve the issue but going the opposite route: making it fully glossy. It's much easier to get a glossy finish than a matte one!

Despite my wishes for a more matte leaning finish, I did find myself enjoying the liquid sands. I particularly loved Can't Let Go and despite some flaws, I really liked the combination of colours in Stay The Night. The formula was really easy to work with, and surprisingly, I had no issues with removal. No need to use any sort of foil method. Easy peasy, don't be discouraged if you are worried about removal!

Looking forward to seeing if OPI can improve on the textured finish. I really want to see more of a sugared finish. I hope that OPI doesn't go overboard with the textured trend because they sapped the shatter trend until it was long dead.

So to recap, here's the liquid sands from the Mariah Carey collection without top coat:









And, for funsies, here's the same collection WITH top coat:









Hope you guys found this useful and if you're already an owner of some of these, I hope you're enjoying them!