butter LONDON 2 Fingered Salute

I wanted to show you all a mani that is...well, not artsy in any way. I bought this polish from nordstrom.com awhile back (before it was sold out, apparently!) and just wore it last week. I LOVE IT. 

All photos are 2 coats with one coat of top coat. It is not gritty polish at all.

I thought it was copper glitter in a seafoam base but it is large shimmer like in RBL Halcyon in a seafoam base. Which is why it isn't gritty.

The shimmer is a rose/copper duochrome, kinda like Orly Space Cadet but in reverse. The copper is the most prominent color with the rose shining at odd angles. 

See, I don't always franken-dupe everything! I also buy a lot of polish!

The base also has a very very subtle shimmer. I am so happy that it is PACKED with large shimmer particles because in a milky/pastel base, you really need a lot of them to make it a real shimmer. I think this is why so many people were frustrated with Halcyon; it is subtle. 2 Fingered Salute is but also is not. O_o

See, it is subtle here.

And takes a very dramatic turn in low light. 

Flash

With the flash photos, you can see the contrast! This is why I had thought it was glitter going by early swatches.

Flash

Low light

Low light

I love the low light photos best. I think the subtle intensity of the polish really shines here. It almost looks as if I used a color changing top coat on it. A true chameleon of a polish.

Review: Rainbow Honey -The Yokai - in Kawako

Rainbow Honey's The Yokai Collection

October 13th it goes on sale at the above link!

Yokai are spirits in Japanese folklore, which is a WONDERFUL theme for a Halloween nail polish collection from your favorite otaku indie, Rainbow Honey! Well, they are my favorite anyhow :D

Each represent a particular kind of Japanese spirit.

This is a limited edition set of GORGEOUS shimmer/glitters in golden brown with golden flakies and pink/purple sparkle (Oni), maize camel with orange glitter (Kitsune), and a deep navy shimmer with intense silver and rainbow sparkle and flakies (Kawako)

LAST ONE!!

Here is KAWAKO! 

From Rainbow Honey's press statement:

"KAWAKO: the mischievous river child"

Of course, this is a GORGEOUS medium blue polish. I wouldn't call it a midnight blue, it seems more of a navy to medium blue. Very gorgeous. It is lighter than Essie Starry Starry Nights and I think it is a lot more complex and sparkly. The shimmer in this polish is traditional small-particle silver shimmer as well as silver micro-glitter and dark blue super micro glitter. 

What makes it really cool are these glass-like shards of indigo, blue, and purple. I would call them flakies but they seem to be made of actual glass! They cause the polish to be chunky. They also give Kawako a really neat reflective quality but are impossible to photograph with my camera!

Here, you can see the blue shimmer easier.

The formula is much like ONI has; it wasn't nearly as chunky as KITSUME but it was still very textured without top coat. I used only one coat of GELOUS though. That is not bad at all. It probably needed another coat of top coat but I did nail art so I left it at one. GELOUS is a thick clear polish (meant to be a base coat) that helps even out glitter nail polish, by the way!

I decided early on to do a little river-creature for this one. I tried to make "stars" out of the shimmery white I used for the moon here but they are hard to see in photos. I used Barielle Blackened Bleu for the water and Zoya Wednesday, China Glaze Exotic Encounters, and OPI Cuckoo for this Color on the creature. I tried to do a subtle black jelly division to keep the same color for the water but it was TOO subtle then it was TOO contrast-y. So hard to do nail art with jellies sometimes!

KAWAKO really does look like a full-moon night sky out away from the city. The kind of sky that has more stars in it than the ocean has fish! KAWAKO is shimmery, sparkly, glittery, and gorgeous. It is like a beefed up, non-jelly version of Sinful Colors Neptune Essie Starry Starry Nights. Stay tuned for a comparison post with some of this collection's stars and other polish!

So, my creature looks like the cactus thing from Yo Gabba Gabba---I think it is cute, hehe! I like the moon part, too, and the reflections on the water. 

Mattified!

Close up. I mixed some Wednesday with EE to get the splotchy texture on the monster!

How would I rate this polish on a scale of 1-10?

Uniqueness: 8

It is unique in that it has the flake-shards in it but the medium blue with silver glitter has been done before. I do like the upgrade on this one, though. I also love the addition of blue microglitter because it helps the blue to become something more than just the base color, especially in the sun. Sometimes silver is overpowering, after all.

Formula: 7

Same as with ONI; clumpy but only takes a few coats of top coat to even out. You don't need GELOUS with this, really. Application was a little clumpy due to the flake-shards.

Payoff: 8

This is my least favorite from the collection but I do think it is a very pretty polish, indeed. I have a couple similar polishes but nothing like it. I may purge those for this one if it came down to it because I do love how this polish looks not only in the light, but with matte over it. The matte doesn't get rid of the shimmer but subdues the intensity of the blue base. Makes it a velvety night sky.

KAWAKO rates a 8 for me by those standards

All 3 polishes were sent to me for my honest review.

Stamping Sunday: Leaves

Yeah....it is not Sunday...But here is my mani for last week's Stamping Sunday theme of Leaves!

Revlon Fig Jam base! The smell is kinda...well, not strong and unoffensive. I like this polish, very pretty.

Well, I kinda went nuts with the leaves here. >_>

This is my right hand. Less cluttered! Wish I had an oak leaf stamp...

Dupe'd: RBL Aqua Lily and Halcyon

Pain in the butt or labor of love? Not sure. I just wanted to see if I could franken dupe these two polishes, limited editions and all. No, you will never franken something with the same formula, the exact same pigment or shimmer. But if you are hankering for the colors, YOU CAN ALWAYS FRANKEN!! Always.

One of my friends sent her RBL polishes to my house so I made frankens based on these.

Materials: Suspension base, LA Colors Atomic, China Glaze Aquadelic, purple shimmer pigment, pinky shimmer pigment

For Aqua Lily (this one is pretty tough compared to Halcyon):

You need to get some eyeshadow or mica that is very fine, just shimmery. No big particles of shimmer (such as in Pure Ice Busted! which I will talk about later). I used L'oreal On The Loose loose pigment in Mystified and a purple MAC pigment to get the shimmer here. 

NOTE: these are not pure shimmer, they have pigment. To make a really good franken, I suggest using shimmer micas from TKB or another mica supplier. I just haven't gotten around to buying any yet.

I started with the shimmer and a teeny bit of glamour base to keep it suspended. Then I added in LA Colors Atomic (there are some in Dollar Tree stores that are DULL, you want to find the BRIGHT one) and China Glaze Aquadelic. There is *way* more Atomic to Aquadelic; I would say 7 parts Atomic to one part Aquadelic. Shake. It should be a noticeable but still kinda secret shimmer. IN THE BOTTLE, RBL Aqua Lily has a lot of shimmer. This is not so true on the nail.

testing as I go

bottle

See how subtle it is? It is pretty ridiculous, haha

Exhausting, yes. It was hard to get enough shimmer pigment without discoloring the polish. Maybe you can get some from TBK or another mica supplier?

For Halcyon:

This is a shimmer bomb. Get either Pure Ice Busted or Sally Hansen Aisle Be There (they are dupes of each other shimmer-wise). You are going to be using most of the bottle. That is how much shimmer is in this polish. For the sage green part...well, really, it is more of a paler army green. It has a lot of yellow in it.

SO...You need to have some fun mixing. I used LA Colors white, WnW Black Creme, Sinful Colors Envy (for the green; it is a dupe of OPI Jade is the New Black), and NYC Lexington Yellow. Use polish with more pigment if you care to; the original polish is kinda thin regardless. Aqua Lily is more opaque hence my choice in using eyeshadow/pigment vs. store-bought polish.

What happened to all my photos of this one?!?!? :(

Anyhow, first you want to mix the black white and green and get the right shade. Then add yellow to effect. I know, these are vague directions. However, you need about 3 parts white, 3 parts green, 1 part black. I also added a little Kleancolor Dark Brown to get it earthier. The yellow, I would say as much yellow as there is black, maybe a little less.

If you have a yellow-tinged army green, use it if you like. But note that if it has microshimmer, that is NOT what Halcyon has! It has big shimmers. See how you can see the particles in that photo? Big.

I would say...fill a 15mL bottle 3/4 full with the shimmer. Then add in the sage-army green a little at a time. You may need even more shimmer than that. There is a lot. It is also a sheer polish and needs built up to about 3 coats on the nail. 

Hope you enjoyed this, I really need to find more Halcyon photos! I can't believe I don't have them!