Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk Collection

Good afternoon polish fans!  Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day yesterday and got to spend it with your loved ones or at least doing something fun and/or relaxin' and maxin'.  I spent mine relaxin' and maxin' with my little boys for the most part but I did also manage to pop in to see my parents for a couple hours as well.  The hubby is at work and comes home next week so we'll have a belated Valentine's Day celebration of some sort when he returns.

Today I bring you a belated Valentine's mani and my review of the Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk Collection.  I received my Sweet Talk Collection in the mail a week or so ago and could not wait to use them.  I did my nails that night I was so excited for these polishes!!!  Rainbow Honey is probably one of my fave indie polish brands, if not my absolute fave at this point!  The Sweet Talk Collection are their 2013 Valentine's polishes and they could not have been any more perfect!  As a collection it had a little bit of everything I love from indie polishes and covered all of the categories of polishes.

As always I am utterly impressed by the attention and detail to the packaging of Rainbow Honey products.  Before I even get to the actual polishes themselves I am floored and overjoyed by the darling boxes that the polishes come in and all the extra information and details on the boxes.  

And obviously once you get to the polishes themselves, they NEVER disappoint!

Left to Right is Be Mine, Sweet Talk and XOXO.  I used flash for these photos and the closer up bottle shots below so that you could see all the glitters and shimmer in all their glory.  But yet these photos still don't do these polishes any justice!

Be Mine is described as "A lovely kiss of pink on your nails with a dusting of microshimmer and gold flecks."  In my opinion is the the absolute perfect pink!  It's creamy and a beautiful shade of pink, not too bright, not too girly, not too bublegummy, not too dark, and it has the added shimmer to make it not boring and give it just that little something extra compared to your basic pink creme.

Sweet Talk is described as "A decadently sweet collection of pastel glitters in a white jelly with hidden shimmer."  I love all of Rainbow Honey's white polishes so far but this is by far my most fave white polish of any brand, indie or not!  The combination of the pastel glitters with the white base is so yummy and the colours are perfect together.  It looks like candy in a bottle and so sweet.

XOXO is described as "A ravishing blend of glitters and flakes in a clear base for easy use over any manicure."  Now this is a glitter polish!!!  It's G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!!!  I think this is definitely my most fave glitter polish now and I can't wait to try it over a bunch of different colours.  It's like gold and crushed pink diamonds on your nails.  What girl wouldn't love that?!?!?!

So that's the collection in a nutshell.  The most perfect combination of polishes you could ever ask for in a trio of polish if you ask me!

And now let's get to my mani!

I could not decide which of the three polishes to use first so I thought they all worked so well together as a trio why not use them all in one mani?  Also figured this would be the perfect way to show off the whole collection and how well they all mesh together.  So I kind of turned it into a skittle mani.

So I used Be Mine in 3 thinner coats on my thumb and ring finger.  On my ring finger I used one coat of XOXO over Be Mine.  Be Mine applied nice and smooth but I had to be careful with how many brush stroke I took as I found if did too many it caused dragging/balding issues, but that is basically true of almost any polish.  I could have possibly used just 2 coats if I used thicker coats but I found this applied more evenly in thinner coats and after 2 thin coats it was opaque but there was an ever so slight VNL.  Dry time was great and it applied nice and smooth.  I did a couple photos below with flash so that it would bring out the shimmer and sparkle of the polishes although nothing truly does these justice like real life.

natural light, no flash

natural light, no flash

with flash

with flash

Sweet Talk is an amazing white polish.  It is a must have for any white polish lover!!  It applied like a dream.  I find white polishes can be tricky sometimes.  They can be too diluted and not really reach full opacity without using undies or they can be too opaque and mute and hide the glitters too much.  But this one was just perfect and I got full opacity in just 2 decent coats.  No dragging or balding issues here and all the glitters still showed nicely.  And there are tons of glitters in this white polish so you get lots of glitters as well and it's not just mainly white with a few glitters disbursed here and there, which is the other issue I have with white polishes sometimes.  I used just 2 coats on my index and middle fingers and again I used 1 coat of XOXO on my middle finger.  Dry time was great again and it dried quite smooth even though there was a decent amount of hex glitters and a couple layers as I did more than one coat with no undies.  Again I did a couple pictures with flash to show the shimmer and sparkle of the glitters.

natural light, no flash

natural light, no flash

with flash

with flash

with flash

I think of all the types of polish out there glitters are my absolute fave!  I'm like a raven, anything glitzy or sparkly LOL. Well XOXO is the mother of all glitters as far as I'm concerned.  It would look great over ANY colour I would imagine and it's just perfect.  Like I said above it's like crushed pink diamonds with a little dusting of gold!!!  It applies very well and for as much glitter and flakes as there are in this polish it's not really gloopy and it doesn't even dry all that gritty.  For a heavily glitter dense polish it dries quite smooth.  As mentioned above, I used one coat of XOXO over Sweet Talk on my middle finger and one coat over Be Mine on my ring finger and I did strictly XOXO in 3 coats alone, no undies, on my pinky.  I am dying over it on it's own!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But it is great over the other polishes as well.  The other polishes are perfect on their own but the XOXO just amps up the glitz factor and gives it a little something extra.  No picture does this polish justice, however, I did manage to get some good shots but it glistens and shines in real life so beautifully.

natural light, no flash

natural light, no flash

natural light, no flash

with flash

with flash

I topped everything off with one generous coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, as always, and I think that this has been my fave mani in a long time.  It could not have been more perfect for Valentine's Day and I am so so so thankful I sprung for the full sized bottles of these babies rather than the minis like I usually do for a whole collection.  I'm even thinking of a backup of XOXO I love it that much and will probably find a way to work it into almost any mani from this point forward LOL.

So what do you all think?

And don't forget, I'm doing inexpensive, quality manis out of my home again when my husband is home so if you are in the Edmonton, Alberta area get a hold of me to make an appointment.  I have a decent collection of brand name polishes to choose from or you can also chose to get a mani done with one of my own polish creations, Mrs. P's Nail Potions.  All my various forms of contact are listed on my Contact Me page.

Have a great rest of the day and Happy Belated Valentine's Day all! ox's

OPI DS Mystery and Glow Gradient

Good afternoon all!  Today I bring you a mani using two new OPI DS polishes I acquired from a lovely Instagram gal pal of mine.  She was looking to sell off some of her personal stash to get some cash flow to help cope with some sudden personal difficulties.  As I'm sure any of you who are familiar with me know, I am always in search of OPI DS polishes that I am missing so when she had 6 brand new ones that she was willing to sell I couldn't help but help her out, and myself in turn LOL ;)

The two OPI DS polishes I used for my gradient mani (my gradient skills need some work LOL) were Mystery and Glow.

DS Mystery is a black jelly base with loads of shimmer in all sorts of metallic shades.  There isn't really any one colour of shimmer but I wouldn't call it multicoloured shimmer either.  With the naked eye at a glance at the bottle it looks like mainly gold or bronze shimmer but as you can see from the photo directly above there is also some purple/blue shimmer and even a green shade in there as well.  It's very interesting and gorgeous and I was immediately drawn to it first when unpacking all 6 of my new DS bottles.  Even the black base is unique as it is not just black.  It's got a purple undertone to it and in some lights reads more purple than black.  It applies like a dream and is opaque in one generous coat.  I did one coat on all my nails except for my ring finger which I was going to do an accent nail on in a reverse gradient to the rest of my nails.

DS Glow is a glorious gold/bronze shimmering metallic polish.  It also applied like a dream and I was able to reach full opacity with just one generous coat.  I only applied this to my ring fingers for an accent nail.

Dry time for both polishes was very quick and I was able to continue with the gradient part of my mani without having to wait for the base to dry.

I then took a makeup sponge and sponged Glow onto the nails I had painted a base coat of Mystery on.  I applied it very lightly and scattered at first and gradually built up the coverage towards the tip of my nail so the gradient was from solid Mystery at the base of my nail to solid Glow at the tip.  I did the reverse for the accent nails and applied Mystery with a sponge so it was solid Glow at the base and solid Mystery at the tip.  Again, my gradient skills need some practice but I love these polishes and I love the look of them together.

I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.

I apologize for not having the amount of pictures of this mani that I normally do but the shimmer in these polishes was making my camera go crazy and it was difficult to get the quality photos that I did.

What do you all think of this mani?  As always I welcome any and all questions, comments and feedback.

Also, I'm starting up manicures at home again, only during the weeks that my husband is home from work though so he can man the children while I deal with nails.  He is away for two weeks and then home for two weeks so there is a two week window that I can make manicure appointments.  So if you are interested in cheap but quality manicures or nail art and you live in the Edmonton area, please contact me to make an appointment! :)

OPI Liquid Sand Stay the Night and The Impossible

Today I bring you a mani I did a while back and just have not had time to put together a blog post of, until now.  About mid January I got together with my bestie for a lady date and belated Christmas gift exchange as we had not been able to see one another over the holidays.  She spoiled me rotten (thank you AGAIN!) and one of my gifts was the mini set of OPI's Mariah Carey Liquid Sand polishes.  I had not yet tried textured polishes and am not normally a fan of matte finish polishes, but I could not wait to try out a couple of these as two colours really stuck out to me just while staring at the box.  All four were gorgeous at first glance but the two that I could not resist and couldn't wait to try were Stay the Night and The Impossible.

Stay the Night is a jelly black base with red glitter in it.  Obviously this is a textured and matte finish as it is part of the Liquid Sand collection.  I wasn't into the look of it on it's own which I wasn't surprised about as I had seen several swatches of this collection and wasn't keen on the textured look and I certainly wasn't keen on the feel of it in person.  But I put a good coat of Seche Vite over top and I was in love!  I used 3 thin coats for full opacity.

I did one accent nail in The Impossible as I thought it was a great match for Stay The Night and highlighted the red glitter in Stay The Night.  The Impossible is a bright red/fuchsia jelly with red and hex glitters.  The description on the box says it has star glitter too and I've seen swatches with the stars but I didn't come across any and don't see any by just looking at my bottle.  Again, I used 3 thin coats for full opacity and used a good coat of Seche Vite to give it some shine and smoothness.  And I actually did the opposite effect on my right hand where I used mainly The Impossible and then one accent nail in Stay The Night.

The formula on both of these was great.  Easy to apply and good coverage.  Again, I didn't care for the matte and textured look but that's just my personal taste.  I did find thought that these polishes wore extremely well.  No matter what I did (and I have small children so I'm always doing things that wreck manicures) I didn't get any tip wear or chipping for days and days.  When I finally did have to change my polish I still hadn't had any tip wear but rather a couple tiny chips on the corners of some of the nails.  But the chips were barely noticeable and I think it was almost a week by the time that happened.

So what do you all think of this mani and the colour combo?  I am in awe of this colour combo but I love black and red for almost anything!

And what are your own thoughts and experiences with the Liquid Sand line?  Do you prefer the matte and textured look?  Or are you like me and like the shiny and smooth look?

Pretty & Polished News

Good afternoon!  I am excited to bring you all some more new polish news.  This time from Pretty & Polished.

Pretty & Polished just recently launched their Valentine's Day products and their Save the Dauphine Collection. Both of these collections will be available until the beginning of February or until the last batch sells out. There are limited quantities of all of these polishes.

Pretty & Polished has also released a few new polishes including some holographic ones. There is Periwinkle Twinkle which is a softly pigmented periwinkle holo and Enchanted Tranquility which is a medium purple shade and is holographic as well. They are also re-released the Amazing Technicolor Topcoat which is a clear base glitter top coat with many different shades, shapes, and sizes of glitter. Each bottle of the Amazing Technicolor Topcoat and batch is different. There is also Galax-E, one of Pretty & Polished's very first polishes, back in stock along with Private School.

If you have not seen them yet Pretty & Polished also released new color changing polishes. They include Cuttlefish, Pretty Chameleon, Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit, Tomboyish, and Mirror Mirror.

Right now you can also find the newest Zodiac polish, The Age of Aquarius in stock for the Aquarius sign.

In case you haven't heard yet, Pretty & Polished has also started a Birthday club.  Here are the details:

The perks

• You will receive a free mini nail polish and a Pretty & Polished Nail File in your order
• You will get a Happy Birthday "Shout Out" from Chels Marie during your birthday month  

How to sign up for the Birthday Club

• Like Pretty & Polished on Facebook 
• Place an order the month of your birthday
• Make sure to leave a note in your order about your interest in the Birthday Club and Pretty & Polished will throw in your free mini birthday nail polish and nail file

You can order directly through their website OR through Etsy. The Birthday Club is available to US and International customers!

The Birthday Club polish will change at the beginning of every year and will NEVER be sold by Pretty & Polished!

 

And now on to the fine print lol: 

*One free birthday polish per customer. No exchanges. Orders must be placed by person with birthday in that month.

  

On FEBRUARY 8, 2013 Pretty & Polished will be releasing a very small Marilyn Monroe Collection called Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This collection will consist of 3 polishes called Marilyn, Perfection in White, and A Girls Best Friend.  It will be a small release and they will be keeping these polishes in stock and adding to them over time.

On MARCH 1, 2013 Pretty & Polished will be releasing their Spring Collection called Spring Sonata along with some other springtime goodies. The Spring Sonata Collection consists of 4 base colors and a pastel glitter top coat that you can purchase unscented or "Secret Garden" scented. Of course you should not be sniffing your polish before it is dry as polish fumes are toxic! (I am sure you are all aware of this).  Here is a quick sneak peek at the Spring Sonata collection available March 1, 2013.

L to R: Candy Carnation, Lady Lavender, Victorian Viburnum, Delightful Daisy, Bashful Bouquet

For spring Pretty & Polished will also be releasing 2 new color changing polishes and RE-releasing the following shades (in limited quantities and only for spring) Clouds in my Coffee, Cheer Camp, and Tart.

 

So there you have it.  Yet more reasons to say goodbye to all your money this spring ;) LOL