Rainbow Honey - October 2014 Mystery Bag

Well hi!

I picked up Rainbow Honey's mystery bag this month because *mysteries* but also because I haven't gotten one in a while and I missed it. I went with the $10 mini version because *broke* and still made out like a dang bandit.

Included in this month's mini mystery bag:

Cafe Con Leche 5mL - Basically couldn't have been named anything more appropriate. Super creamy nude with gold and silver shimmer: the perfect polish for my skin tone for mannequin hands! Smooth, easy formula. 2 coats + topcoat under OttLite.

Zi 5mL - Purple jelly packed with blue, gold, magenta and silver micro glitter. It almost looks like a glass fleck, but like, a micro glass fleck, if that makes sense. A bit on the thin side color-wise, this guy built to opacity in 3 coats. The first picture is under OttLite, the second is under crappy kitchen light to show more accurate color/shimmer (both swatches are with topcoat).

All Your Base base coat 15mL - Full size! Yeah girl! I, uhhhh, very rarely wear base coat (scoff!) because of how often I change my polish, but this one apparently has pretty good reviews. I actually got the mini size of All Your Base a few months ago and HAVE used it, thank you.

L'orange Ganache nourishing lip balm .15oz - I can never have enough lip balm during the winter. This one smells like chocolate with maybe a hint of orange, but I mostly just get chocolate. And it tastes kind of sweet, which is nice, because nothing is more disappointing than a yummy smelling lip balm that tastes like nothing. :( I have it on right now, and it feels, you know, nice. My lips are happy.

Sweet November Eu de Parfum Rollerball 4mL & Shimmer Soap .5oz - I loooove sweet scents, so this couple is perfect for me. I'm glad RH includes an info card detailing the products or I would have described this scent as 'Um... sweet... there's like, vanilla and maybe, like, some caramel notes..?' Officially, Sweet November is "a warm sweet musk with notes of coconut and vanilla sugar". It makes me want to wrap up in a big, warm blanket and lay in front of a fire surrounded by Christmas lights.

Like, I HATE winter, mind, but I really love feeling cozy. This smell makes me feel very cozy.

So heck yeah, right? I'm never disappointed with these bags, especially for the price. I love how much of a variety of products are included, too. It's nice to see an October mystery thing that isn't specifically Halloween-related.

PinkDipsyBulle Franken Polish - Queen Conch, Golden Apple, Nebula and Lady of the Lake Swatches & Reviews

GUYS HEY!

I'm 23 weeks pregnant yesterday and I can no longer bend over without grunting. So, anyway...

I actually have some swatches for you today! That is your reward for still subscribing to my junk... you get to see some stuff sometimes. Quality blogging, right there!

*Hallelujah Chorus interlude*

It's no secret that I'm a total PinkDipsyBulle fangirl, and I could not have been more excited to review some polish at the request of The Shimmer Wizard herself (which I'm going to call her from now on... sorry). If you'll recall, my first favorite indie polish ever was Indian Ocean and it continues to reign as champion of my heart; it's also the only polish in my entire (kind of pathetic, comparatively) 300-ish bottle collection that I have a backup of. That being said, my fanatic raving is completely genuine and honest.

First up is Queen Conch, a cool-toned bubblegum pink with electric blue flash. Good formula on this guy; the brushstrokes are much less apparent in person than the OttLite picture would have you believe, so don't let that deter you. The blue flash is also more flash-tastic in real life, of course.

Shown below is three thin coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Sunlight

Next stop: Golden Apple, a soft mint green with bright golden flash that seriously glows on the nail. The way this dude looks in the bottle makes me want to eat it... it looks as though maybe it would taste like the best, like, magic taffy in the universe. Can we just pretend there's any amount of sense in that? Thanks. So, uh, yeah... I've always wanted a shade like this but none that I've found that were similar (mint base/golden flash) had enough oomph, you know? Another good formula, also less brushstroke-y in reality.

Shown below is three coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Sunlight

OttLite

Now we're at Nebula, one of three recently released multichrome toppers. This guy shifts between violet to blue to teal, and has gold to green shifting glitters. Pretty much bottled divinity, if you wanted to know how I really felt.
A bit on the thicker side but not in an unreasonable way, which made for an easier application as I only needed one steady coat to achieve righteousness. If this polish doesn't make your extremities tingle even a tiny bit then I don't even know if we can be friends anymore.

Shown below is one coat with topcoat over black.

Sunlight... kinda

OttLite

OttLite

Shade

Shade

OttLite

And lastly, we have Lady of the Lake, a grape-violet jelly base with bright blue shimmer. Reminds me of Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie, except with a cooler, jelly-er base. A bit less opaque than the first two, I was still able to build to opacity in three coats. Lady of the Lake is a limited edition polish (read: she's only going to make a handful so I suggest jumping all over that noise if you want it). The blue shimmer in this is effing glorious -- it almost reads as a duochrome in some lights, and it has this sparkle that is just so yes.

Shown below is three coats with topcoat.

Sunlight

Sunlight

OttLite

Shade

Sunlight

Sunlight

So, right? And she has a whole shop full of polishes like these -- here! Each goes for $6 for 10 mL and they're 3-free. She's also releasing two other limited edition polishes along with Lady of the Lake and they're also gorgeous, and that's all you get to know.

On a side note: my pinky nail snapped in half the day after I was asked to swatch these, so I kept the nail in order to glue it back on for swatch purposes, but then I lost the damned nail. So I'm wearing a false nail for the photos which is why it looks kind of bizarre compared to the rest of my nails, in case you noticed that. Poor little freak-nail. 

Well maybe I'll see you around soon, you know? I'm still buying crap-tons of polish, just not swatching them so much these days. I've been workin' from home, with two endlessly energized children and the third in my belly, making not taking naps pretty much not an option if I get the opportunity. 

Oh, by the way, he's a boy. A little boy without a name yet and he's currently kicking me just to the right of my belly button. THERE IS A SMALL HUMAN BEING LIVING INSIDE OF MY BODY. It seriously doesn't get any less freaky the second time around. Pregnancy is SO WEIRRRRDD.

I used to seriously get gaggy thinking about just having organs. A HUMAN. Anyway. Hope you're all well. I miss you. XOXOX

Orly - Just Peachy Swatch

Don't go getting used to this two-days-in-a-row crap. Der Boyfreuden is working late tonight, the kids are asleep and I only have like 20 more minutes of the finale of Top Chef Season 10 so I was all like, "Oh I know, I'll swatch this polish that I've had for-ehhh-ver".

I put up a DISO* post in a nail polish facebook group I'm part of, basically begging for Orly - Just Peachy. Remember that whole thing, like six months ago or whatever? A darling babe actually sold it to me, under the conditions that I would neither 1. resell it for any sort of profit and 2. not love it. Cool man, right?

Just Peachy is kind of a tricky polish in that it was never a part of any collection by Orly but rather manufactured without hitting the market and instead sent to discount retailers like TJ Maxx (or possibly only to TJ Maxx... I don't know that I've heard Just Peachy being spotted anywhere besides) which is d to the umb because it's freaking DANG. You've got this bright, warm pink base packed to heck with gold shimmer, right? And it's a texture polish too, which you and I both know that I am ALL about, girlfriend.

Shown below is two coats with topcoat under OttLite. I added topcoat because it brings out the color of the shimmer in photos.

Ughhh. I can't wait to use my regular watermark font again, side note. Pretty fabulous though, right? And I'm starting to really love the shape of my nails, now. Plus they're super good for scratchin'. Super happy I got my grabby-hands on this little friend without having to cut off my foot or whatever bizarre sacrifice I was willing to provide to the giver-of-the-polish.


*Desperately In Search Of, ya donk.

Funky Fingers - 220 Volts, Let The Beat Drop and BPM Swatchs & Reviews

Hey!

Here's part two of my non-designated-as-such Funky Fingers Neon Shimmers (mostly) Extravaganza 2k14. This is what I was telling you about yesterday!!!!!

The odd one out of these three is 220 Volts, which is a straight neon, no shimmer. In fact, he doesn't really even belong with the other five, I wouldn't say, but he's what I bought so I'm just gonna make it wor----

HOLY SHHHH. Lightning just struck about 2 inches from my house just now. It was so close I heard the crackle before the thunderclap. I'm gonna go ahead and put my heart back into my body real fast.

Fun Fact: Brandy + Thunderstorms = Panic Attack Citaaaay

Ehem, so anyway, work. These are all over Funky Fingers - Gesso under OttLite.

220 Volts is about as neon blue as you can get. The formula was a bit thin so I ended up needing three coats instead of two. I'm not in love with this polish... it's blue, and that's about all it has going for it. I think I'm just spoiled by the shimmer. This one was color corrected slightly for brightness matching purposes.

The one that I figured would be my favorite but ended up not being is this one: Let The Beat Drop. Kind of a neon-ish cornflower blue with pink shimmer. I ended up needing three coats to even it out. It's not really neon, but it's oddly brighter on the nail than you'd think it'd be from the bottle. Possibly because of the bright-ass white underneath? We may never know.

And finally my favorite of the three: BPM, which I'm pretty sure stands for Brandy, Polish Maniac. This reminds me of Formula X For Sephora - Hyped which I also adore. It's neon magenta with I don't even know, purple? Blue? shimmer. There's a lot more depth and saturation in this polish than my camera was able to capture. It's also rad even in lower lighting!

So there it is. I'm not dead by lightning either!
Like I said, there were a few more sans-shimmer neon Funky Fingers but I might pass on them if they're like 220 Volts. I don't wear neons enough to justify buying polish just for the sake of having it.

Wait... no, I justify it pretty regularly actually. Especially when it's what??
[crowd response] SUPER CHEAP! [clapping, cheering]

Funky Fingers - All The Rave, Drop The Bass and Glowstick Swatches & Reviews

Okay! No more blog hiatus (holy sh what an awful word combo).

Today I have three neon shimmers from !!! Five Below again. I knoooooooooooow. They're just so cheap. How could I not? Three for five bones, if you didn't somehow know. And these, especially, are AWESOME. Cheap polish, as a generalization, is a gamble when it comes to quality.  However, I am absolutely in LOVE with these. What sets these guys apart from your standard highlighter brights is that they have shimmer. Oooo. Aaahh.

Little Bottles of Love [Actually!]

So I don't have to say the same dang thing over and over again, the formula on these three are all the same, and are all great: opaque in 2 easy coats. They dried with a touch of matte so I used topcoat. They're also swatched over Funky Fingers - Gesso (pronounced jess-oh... thanks art school) which is a decent opaque white. Oh my godddd these were somucheasiertoswatchthantheeffingessiesuuuuggggg.

Also they're all taken under OttLite cuz direct sunlight gave my camera seizures. :(

...

First up is All the Rave (are raves still a thing? God, I'm so sheltered. I used to wear about a million chunky neon plastic bracelets when I was 15 and that was the extent of my rave phase, ha ha. I was really into band is the kind of girl I was, so) which is a cool-toned neon pink with yellow shimmer. My camera tried to make this one like, some kind of weird coral shade so I had to color correct it some, though it's still kind of sucktastic. Imagine the nails being more what's-in-the-bottle colored with the yellow shimmer being closer and more contained to around the highlights... does that help? No?

Next is Drop The Bass which is safety vest orange also with yellow shimmer. This is the first neon orange that I've ever actually really liked. Also color corrected but the color is way more accurate than pink-guy up there. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you to enlarge the photos for your viewing pleasure. The shimmer is more apparent when they're big.

And finally we have Glowstick which is the very color of a lightning bug's hindquarters. This is my favorite of the three. It's literally yellow highlighter with (shock! awe!) yellow shimmer. I know you're not going to believe it but I color correct this MFer too. But this is freaking what it looks like. uLtImAtE sWoOn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, these bishes are tree for fie doll hairs at your local Five Below. Bargain of the dang century, if you were to ask for my thoughts on the subject. You need Glowstick in your life, I'm telling you right now. Take my word for it. Please, take it. You're welcome. I love you.

Oh, hey, tomorrow I'll have three more of these bad boys for you (although one of them doesn't have shimmer, and there were actually quite a lot of other neons at 5 B-lo that I didn't pick up which didn't have shimmer but still intrigue me and also one of the ones I'm showing you tomorrow isn't really a neon but it has a rave name so Iunno). Get pumped, y'all!

Bath & Body Works Color Drops - Sour Grapes

Hey.

Bath & Body Works should start carrying nail polish again, IMO. Not only were the bottles adorable, but they all came with a little charm on the cap and smelled like things. Plus the colors (that I remember) were actually pretty cool. I used to have a few more of these guys, but heck only knows where they disappeared to over the years.

Sour Grapes is a warm-toned grape purple (nooo, really?) with greenish shimmer (not entirely unlike Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie from what I've seen by swatches online). It used to smell like regular grapes when it dried! I kind of forgot to smell it before slapping on topcoat so I can't testify to whether or not it's managed to hang onto its scent. Sorrryyyyy.

The shimmer translates a bit differently onto the nail in a less saturated way. It's still pretty, and beyond its time, and all of that. The first picture below shows three coats with topcoat in direct sunlight, while the second was taken under OttLite.

I owned this polish for at least 15 years and didn't use it for 14 of those, so I gifted it to an absolute angel of a human being who I know will appreciate it more than me. It's just not a color I'd wear all that often, you know? And with 300 other choices, what's the point in hanging onto a polish just for sentimental value? I AM NOT A HOARDER, GUYS. SEE?

...

Any vintage polish collectors out there?

ORLY - Pink Crystal Swatch & Review

1. I found out from this blog post that ORLY sends polish colors that didn't quite make it to market to discount retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshalls (except, apparently, to the ones in all of flipping northeast Ohio) to be scooped up by fancy polish connoisseurs.

2. I couldn't find it around me (see above) but one popped up on Storenvy! Scoop!

3. I guess go ahead and google another one of these kinds of ORLY rejects called Just Peachy if you want to quietly sob while gently stroking your computer monitor. I love Pink Crystal, don't get me wrong, but I would seriously consider cutting off one of my toes for Just Peachy. A toe, guys. If you think an actual human toe is a fair trade for a bottle of nail polish, please get a hold of me immediately. We can hash out the deets lates.

ORLY - Pink Crystal is a super-sparkly cool-toned berry pink texture polish with gold shimmer. The shimmer was much more apparent in real life, of course. The formula was great and super easy to work with and the little texture chunks dispersed evenly.

Shown below is two coats in direct sunlight.

With topcoat (under OttLite, which for some reason brought the gold out more than sunlight):

Uh, yeah, right? And this for some reason didn't make the cut? What the heck, ORLY?  Even mind-blowinglier was that Just Peachy didn't make it. What doofus looked at those two polishes and was like "no, you know... I just don't think there's a market for these".

ORLY! I AM YOUR MARKET FOR THESE! HI, I'M BRANDY!

So you pretty things, keep your eyes peeled for awesome little treasures like this floating around at your local TJ Maxx and Marshalls. If you find Just Peachy, don't even tell me unless you plan on having one of my toes.