Rainbow Honey: The Yokai

I'm so excited to share this collection with you!!  It's a Halloween collection that is very original and different from what you have been seeing in the past few weeks.  The Yokai was publicly announced on October 5th and will be available for sale on October 13th.  You can purchase the limited collection at the Rainbow Honey online store and keep up with news regarding this and other collection on the Rainbow Honey Facebook page.  
After consulting Wikipedia I found out Yokai means: ghost, phantom, strange apparition, a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese Folklore.  The Yokai consists of 3 monsters: Kawako - the mischievous child, Kitsune - the magical white fox and Oni - the malevolent wild demon.  Let's just delve in to pictures shall we?

Up first is Kawako - the mischievous river child.  Kawako is a midnight blue base with silver glitter and purple flakies.  It absolutely evokes thoughts of a deep, dark, rushing river.  I used 2 coats of Kawako for complete coverage.  I found Kawako to slightly thick but not unmanageable.  I used a coat of Gelous to smooth out the glittery texture and was very happy to see how glossy and smooth this mani turned out.  

Nest, Kistune - the magical white fox.  Kitsune is a very unique polish.  I have nothing even remotely resembling it in my collection (or anything that I have seen online for that matter).  Kitsune is a beige based polish with gold, holo and red-orange small hex glitters.  There are also gold micro glitters in there.  At times Kitsune appears more yellow, others it appears to be peachy.  Again, I used 2 coats to get full coverage.  I found Kitsune quite thick - even more so than Kawako.  This is topped off with a coat of Gelous to smooth out the glitter.  **I accidentally nudged my middle finger nail near the cuticle and didn't notice until I began this post.  This is all user error and nothing to do with the polish**

And finally, Oni - the malevolent wild demon.  This was my absolute favorite of The Yokai collection. Oni is a black based nail polish with antique gold, bronze, silver and a smattering of purple micro-glitter.  The colors work so wonderfully together to create a deep sooty looking polish that really glows in the sun.  Perhaps the dark color is the reference to the demon here?  I used 2 coats for full coverage.  Application on Oni was by far the easiest and best in my opinion.  It wasn't thick or glitter-gritty looking like Kitsune or Kawako were prior to an application of Gelous.  I still used Gelous though to show all the polishes done with the same application method.  I really think Gelous gave Oni a glassy appearance.  

Chain Reaction

Quick post of a new Deborah Lippmann from the Rock This Town trio.  This set is litimted edition collection for the holdays.  All the colors are gorgeous and described as "glimmer."  I'm guessing that glimmer is a mix between glitter and shimmer, makes sense to me.
Today I'm showing you Chain Reaction, the golden brown toned polish in the set.  But to my eye it seem to be a very deep, almost antique gold with green undertones.  It's packed full of dense micro glitters in golden, bronze, and a scattering of pink.  The colors really work well together and make a perfect Fall colored nail polish.  I used 2 coats to get full coverage and had no application problems.  I finished off with a layer of topcoat to get a smooth finish.
The Rock This Town trio is available at Nordstrom.

Shadow

My love affair with Dior nail polish continues.  Today I will show you Shadow.  It came out in the early Summer and was a Nordstrom exclusive (it was previouisly only released in the Europe and slowly made it's way to the US).  Shadow along with it's counterparts from the Les Violets Hypnotiques collection; Orchid and Poison, are all very plummy and vampy.  I chose Shadow as the one I couldn't live without and am happy to report that my decision was a good one.  Shadow jumped up to thr top of my favorites ladder in a single bound.  
Shadow is a deep plum colored polish with an abolsutley stunning red and gold (and purple?) shimmer.  The shimmer is actually pretty large, possible tiny flakes?  Shadow went on so wonderfully…smooth, level, shiny.  I used 2 coats for complete coverage.  Then I topped it off with a coat of Poshe topcoat.  Glossy and gorgeous.  
Perfect!  

Poison Ivy + Here Lies Robert

Time for a little something sinister…how about some Poison Ivy on a grave?  Teasing, I'm only talking polish here people!  I'm continuing the trend with 2 more Halloween colors.  One put out by a drugstore brand and the other is an indie.  

Drugstore brand first - Wet n Wild Poison Ivy from the Pick Your Poison collection, a deep forest green with green shimmer.  In most lighting the shimmer is not noticeable, in the sunlight it is.  I really liked the formula of this polish, it was so close to being a one-coater, but I did use 2 just to be sure I had everything opaque.  Application was smooth and almost perfect if it weren't for the brush.  Holy cow!  WnW seems to be making a wider brush with each collection they release!  It was literally wider than my pinky nails.  So be warned - it takes a cautious hand to get this one on without painting your skin.  

Indie next - I accented my thumb and ring finger nails with Sonoma Nail Art Here Lies Robert.  HLR is one of the 4 set that Sonoma Nail Art released for Halloween.  I reviewed Halloween In the Vines here.  I didn't think I liked HLR and figured I'd trade or sell it.  Alas I was wrong and my wallet continues to weep silently.  Robert Ripley lived and is burried in Santa Rosa, CA - so there's your connection.  HLR is a glitter polish different than any I have in my collection.  It's light green, black and silver hexs, bright apple green bars, and gole and green micro glitter.  Wonderful combination for a Halloween polish.  HLR went on smoothly and easily - no fishing for glitter.  I was happy with the variety of glitter that made it on my accent nails with the 2 coats I used.  I slathered Gelous on my glitter fingers and topcoat on the rest.  

Have you spotted the WnW Pick Your Poison collection yet?  Which is your favorite?  Are you one of the lucky ones who has snagged any of the Sonoma Nail Art Halloween polishes?  Sonoma Nail Art links: Facebook, blog, etsy.

Y'All Come Back Ya Hear + Cauldron Drippings

It's Lynn-sanity up in here!  I have seriously posted so many glitter polishes by her recently.  I've gone on a binge, but hopefully you aren't sick of them yet...because I have more muahahaha!  Cauldron Drippings has been in my stash since FEBRUARY!!!!  And I'm only now wearing it.  I know, shameful.  But when it arrived I had a vision and it centered around October/Halloween so I tucked it away.  Now I finally get to unveil my idea.

Jelly sandwich time..wooooot!  I love a good glitter jelly sandwich and I feel this one came out wonderfully.  I started with 2 coats of OPI Y'All Come Back Ya Hear, which is from the Texas Collection 2011.  YCBYH is one of the 6 sorbets (jellies) of the collection.  Man that's a long name/abbreviation.  It seems all the names from this particular collection were long.  But I digress.  YCBYH is a great tangerine orange color and so squishy and shiny like a good jelly should be.  2 coats left my nail line visible, which you should expect if using a jelly.  

I then used 2 coats of Lynnderella Cauldron Drippings.  CD is one of those "kitchen sink" polishes…pretty much all the glitter left overs end up in the bottle.  Each batch/bottle of CD is supposedly different, which I actually believe as I compared bottle shots with 2 of my friends.  Different indeed.  The glitter came out easily and plentiful.  No problems with application, no fishing.

I added another coat of YCBYH to make it a jelly sandwich and viola…done!  

Thoughts?  Do you love the jelly sandwich too?  What is your favorite combination of polish to use for this method?  You can still find polish from the OPI Texas collection in the beauty supply stores and as I've said before, Lynnderella is available on eBay.