Rainbow Honey Mystery Bag - August 2014

I'm back with another edition.  Unfortunately, this took a long time to get up.  This was in the mail for a week (the PO dropped the ball on this) and then I ended up seeing pictures of what was in it online and kind of lost interest.  But I've finally got off my butt and got these up.  Here's what's up.

To start, the non polish items.

We yet again received a cuticle balm, this time in Royal Fruits.  I don't mind these, really, but I have SO MANY cuticle creams and balms as it is.  Anyway, this scent is lovely, but I always get the wax note first and foremost.  Will use, but I really don't need another.

The bag also came with a Royal Fruits eau de parfum roller ball.  I don't know what this scent is, but I conjure up images of kiwi, strawberry and mango.  There's also something a little off about it...not sure what, but I still like it.

Last non polish thing is a body spray in Summer Fruit.  I think we've had this scent before in some other iteration.  This is also really fruity, but it has stronger notes of citrus than Royal Juice.  It smells like mango and oranges (lots of oranges).  I usually don't use body spray but I'll have to give it a go.

And now to the real goodies.  This month brought about a scented top coat in Royal Fruits.  I was initially disappointed to receive a top coat, but in the end, I like having it to see if it's my thing.  I don't think this dried especially quickly, but it does have a strong scent.  You can smell it in the air as you paint it on, and when the polish smell goes away, it becomes very noticeable.  I even ended up layering the glitter and Out the Door over it, and can still smell it.  It doesn't bother me, but it's a bit potent.  Shine wise, it was good but I'll have to test it out more to know if it's worth a repurchase.

The first color is 488nm (does anyone know what that means?), a mid toned blue.  I again, was a bit disappointed.  I didn't really expect a straight creme but it turns out I love this.  On the nails, this takes on a real deep teal look.  Formula was...alright.  It needed three coats for proper coverage and it didn't settle well, looking a bit bumpy where I didn't take my time.  This also thickened up a bunch during application.  Be ready for thinning.

The glitter topper of the month is Modern Hearts, a very pink based glitter with white hearts and honey suckle hexes.  This also has a nice iridescence floating in the clear base.  Formula was thinner than past RH toppers, so I was pleased.  I used the dab method and that worked well and gave good enough coverage.  IMO, this does not go with 488nm, so I found it odd they paired these in the same bag, but I've noticed their colors in these bags generally don't pair well.  It would probably look fantastic over a pink, orange or white.

Getting over the initial disappointment, I thought the extra goodies really saved the bag this month.  I'm hoping next month looks better, because I'm getting the "I might need to cancel" bug.

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag Swatches!

You ever have those days, where you just can't do anything anymore?  Yeah, that was me the day I got this bag.  So happy to get it and rip it open, but that was about all that I could do.  Swatches are a bit delayed, but whatcha gonna do?

Lets start with Chemical Plant, a magenta-y pink foil.  This admittedly isn't my color, but it actually looks good on.  Formula was ok, but needed three coats.  It was typically thick but otherwise nothing remarkable about it.  I did immediately thin this upon receiving because my bottle wasn't screwed shut and it did appear to be thick.  That likely helped the formula.

Next, Deep Heart Sea.  I was excited about this one on sight, but it is rather disappointing on the nail.  This is three coats and it's just not right.  It really would probably serve wonderfully as a topper at one coat, over a blue or green, but it's lacking on it's own.  True to its name, it does have hearts (along with squares and hexes of various colors and sizes) but I only managed to get one heart out during swatching.  This also has an amazing purple shimmer in it, which adds something.  Formula wise, this was thick but not bad.  I did immediately thin this upon arrival, because a substantial amount was already evaporated.  This likely helped the formula.

And last is Viridis, a multi glitter mix in a lightly tinted clear green base.  This is meant as a topper, as the green really does nothing for it.  This turned out to be the visual winner of the bunch for me.  This has an amazing mix and looks great on.  There are stars, circles, hexes, as well as an iridescent small glitter.  The problem lies in the formula.  This is...easily...the. worst. formula. I've ever worked with.  I mean, I'm a little appalled they sent this out to their customers.  In it's current state, it's nearly unusable.  Doing my swatch fingers was an exercise.  I have since thinned (unlike the previous two, I left this one alone before using), so I'm hoping it's rescued.  I'm fairly sure I would have thrown this away if I didn't know about polish thinner. Ugh.

I decided to include these last two pictures because I really wanted you to see what I was working with.  I took both of these pictures without worrying if the brush would drip.  I never had to return to the bottle or anything.  It is like someone threw in a ton of glitter into glue and shook it up.  Awful.

That's it for this bag.  I do wanna say that all the Midori items smell great!  Like watermelon candies, yum.  Stay tuned for more Zoyas (I promise they're coming since I've already done them!).

Rainbow Honey - June Mystery Bag polish swatches

I'm on a roll.  Got these done before work but it ate up a lot of spare time.  Oh well,  it was worth it!

Let's start with Ichigo, which is a fuschia jelly with a lot of flakies (I think they're partially shards).  This...is...stunning.  It's incredibly juicy.  At three coats, the opacity was ok, but it was no where near as dark as the bottle color.  This is fine on it's on, but would probably be a pretty good topper.

(note the color difference from the bottle)

This is three coats, with a coat of Gelous and a coat of NYC GCS.

Formula wise, a bit thick, but not bad.  I will need to thin it but got by on this application without doing so.

Next is Rose Macaron, a gorgeous milky pink base with a good amount of different pinkish glitters.  This is amazing on.  A little lumpy, because of all the glitter and the formula, but if you're more careful than I, it shouldn't be much of an issue.

This is three (I think?, gah!) coats.  This is a bit thick and clung to the handle a bunch.  I did manage to get through application by turning it over each time it gummed up too much.  A thinning would not hurt it but I don't think it needs it at this time.  One coat of Gelous and one coat of NYC GCS.  Another winner.

Finally, Pikake, a complex glitter topper.  I decided to layer this over Zoya's Dot, which has a bad formula.  I did two coats of Dot and it was still a streaky mess but I went with it anyway.  One coat of Pikake, dabbed totally saves this color and they look great together.

Formula wasn't bad, but like I mentioned, you need to dab this one on.  There is a lot of glitter in this so it's easy to handle and get good coverage.  The iridescent glitters really make this pop and shimmer.  One coat of Gelous was applied to give it a smoother finish.

I am REALLY loving these this month.  These are all really unique and beautiful.

Gonna try to get more done this afternoon.  We'll see.

Rainbow Honey - June Mystery Bag

I finally got my bag yesterday!  I couldn't wait to rip it open and so I have no pictures of the pretty packaging (sorry)!

I also forgot to photograph the card, but I'll hopefully remember to do that with the forthcoming swatches. And off topic, but I didn't forget about the holo post...I just got side tracked.  Ugh.  It turned into more work than I thought, and I'm going to have to do a second round.

Back to Rainbow Honey.  First the soap (I forgot to include in the group shot).  I could smell this through the wrapper and it's sooooo yummy.  I thought it was chocolate upon smell, and when I saw it I thought surely it was but in fact it's a sugar scrub.  I don't know but it smells good.

Lets finish the non polish items first.  Next is the Nucifera Eau de Parfum rollerball.  This is a perfume in the works.  It's supposed to be reminiscent of the tropics but it smells like peppermint to me.  I'm not sure what's in this but it's a bit odd.  I'll have to try it on and see how it wears on my skin.

Finally, Tea Biscuit cuticle balm.  I need another cuticle balm like I need (another) hole in the head but I ain't complaining.  This is in a typical lip balm applicator, which is unusual.  I only quickly tried it and I had a hard time applying it (only me) so I'm going to have to give this a proper go.  This seems like a great idea for travel.

NOW...the polish!

Pikake is a glitter topper.  Very pink based glitters inside a clear base, it's quite complex.  Can't wait to try it.

Rose Macaron is a milky pink glitter.  I love me some milky colored polish.  So excite.

Lastly, Ichigo is a fuchsia jelly with some flakies.  I have to try it out to see how well it shows.

Final observations.  This is a surprisingly pink month.  I'm hoping formula is a little thinner than last months but if not, I'll proceed to thin them as necessary. They also included orange sticks again and little nail art beads.  Much appreciated. I HOPE to be back tomorrow with swatches, and Tuesday with the Memebox polish swatches.

Rainbow Honey - May Mystery Bag review

Finally.  Sorry it's taken so long to do swatches of these.  I did wear Waves already, but I only did a two coat mani, and it really needed three...not suitable for close ups.  So here we are.

First up in the trio is the aforementioned Waves, a gorgeous turquoise foil.  This was a hard color to capture in my camera.  It turns a bit bluer and loses some of it's shimmering beauty.  This is a beautiful color, worthy of getting a full size.  Formula wise, it was on the difficult side to work with.  The first time I used it, I ended up thinning it substantially but it still needed thinning this time around as well.  But honestly, it's worth it.  I've honestly thought both times that I've used this that I just might need a full size of it.  Ugh.  Show is three coats.

Next up, Neon Blossom. This is a complex mix of glitters, with chunky blossoms and hearts in both a neon (ish) yellow and pink, as well as smaller squares, and much smaller white hexes, and what appears to be shimmer floating in a clear base.  Very pretty.  This was pretty thick, as you might imagine to suspend those big glitters.  It's not too bad, though you may have to go fishing in this.  Show is one coat over Waves.

Finally, Petit Four.  This is a pastel jelly yellow with beautiful minty blue, rose and red (dark pink, magenta maybe) glitter mix.  This has round, squares and hexes, as well as a lovely reddish shimmer running through it.  Formula was ok but I recommend layering this over something similar because I did end up needed three coats to cover the nail well, and it was pretty thick at that point.  This reminded me a little of scrambled eggs before you cook them.  It's actually a really cool color and looks pretty good on.  I layered a thick layer of Gelous on top and it helped to smooth it.

That's it for now.  I'll try to churn some more posts out this week.  I've recently put up a storeenvy to destash and it is seriously the biggest pain.  I feel like it's not even worth my time at this point.  I feel like they could streamline it for us users but oh well.  I'm hoping not to waste too much more time trying to get my pics up so that I can blog more and maybe have time to practice my instrument.  See y'all next time.

Rainbow Honey Monthly Mystery Bag - May

Hey everyone! Sorry for such the long absence. I've no excuse, other than being generally lazy once I get home from work.  I'm never really sure when I'm up to posting, but I've still been painting my nails regularly (on the weekend, at least), so I'm still in the game.  

I digress.  Today I've got something really exciting that I couldn't wait to blog about.  Rainbow Honey now has a regular subscription service available in two sizes.  Both full size and mini size bags are the same contents, just a big size difference. I've never tried Rainbow Honey before so this is a little bit of an adventure for me.  If you DO NOT want to be spoiled on the contents, please stop reading NOW.

I'm glad I decided to try this sub.  SO GLAD.  This is seriously...the coolest package I've received in a little while.  

Here are photos!

Bubble mailer with a cute sticker

Really well wrapped and cute

Bubble wrap with all the contents

So...what we got here?  Beautifulness, that's what we've got.  Farthest left, Waves, a GORGEOUS (I mean, my kind of color) glass fleck teal.  I don't know if a color could be more me.  Next to it, a complex glitter mix (neon pink, green and yellow glitters...blossoms, hearts, hexes, etc) called Neon Blossom.  Last polish is a yellow pastel with various glitters (including some rounds) called Petit Four.  I have not swatched these yet, but I did open them all to see the formula.  I was expecting a thick formula, but nope.  They all seem to be really nice thin formulas.  The brush was able to hold plenty of the glitter despite the thinness.  Very nice.  I will be reviewing these pretty soon so stayed tuned.

Next, a mini Summer Juice soap and Summer Juice parfume.  These smell amazing, very fruity.  I don't know the notes, but there is a bit of sharpness, like orange, coupled with something like mango.  Smells so good, it reminds me of Escada style scents.  There is a bit of alcohol scent that dries away quickly.  

She also included a full sized lip balm in Enter Lime!  It truly smells like lime but also has a hint of herb.  Smells great and seems pretty moisturizing.  Can't wait to start using it more, I LOVE lime.  

Finally, she also threw in a little baggie of mini orange sticks and eye shadow sponges.  This is truly a wonderful bag and the best part is the cost.  

Mini bag is $10 plus shipping, full size is $25 with free US shipping.  I'll continue to get the mini and I actually may upgrade eventually.  I think I'm also going to need a full size of Summer Juice at some point.