I Love Vampires – Esmaltes da Kelly

Yes, the name is a bit silly – but the polish is awesome. Textured, shimmery, vampy goodness from Esmaltes de Kelly – here is I Love Vampires:

Two coats, direct sunlight

There is a lot of complexity in this polish. Deep, blood-red jelly base that is packed so heavily with dark micro glitters that it actually darkens the overall look of the polish. And then you have brighter, sparkling micro glitters, and there’s also  very small iridescent bars in the mix.

It sounds like it would make for chaos, but the end affect is vampy and glamorous.

It reaches opacity in two thick coats. Because it’s a jelly base, the dry time is slow. But I would recommend using I Love Vampires on its own before you slap on a top coat.

The first time I used it, I threw HK Girl on top to have it dry faster, and it completely changed the polish. The iridescent glitters disappeared completely. The overall look was more muted and flat. It wasn’t bad, but it was like a completely different polish.

Close up of texture

So put it on, and then watch a movie or something (or a couple episodes of Lost Girl, like I did. It’s like a soap opera, but with fae. So much mystical drama!), and wait for it to dry.

In low-lighting

Esmaltes da Kelly is a Brasilian brand, and I think this is her site. I’m also not certain you can buy her polishes there – I tried to have Chrome translate the page from Portuguese to English to help me figure it all out, but it wasn’t a super informative experience.

However, I know for certain that you can find Esmaltas de Kelly at Llarowe and Color4Nails. I haven’t used Color4Nails before so I can’t vouch for them personally, but they have been around for a little while now and I haven’t heard anything negative yet.

And that’s it for now! Happy Wednesday to you all. 🙂

Lunairetic by Rainbow Honey

How is it already November 25? Thanksgiving is coming up, Christmas stuff is already EVERYWHERE, and Black Friday deals are on every corner. I love the holidays, but for some reason it seems to be overwhelming me a bit this year. So I decided to fight back by putting on the glammest polish I know of – Rainbow Honey’s Lunairetic.

Lunairetic – direct sunlight

Now if I start to get overcome by an onslaught of holiday ads, I can hold up my hands and ward them off with a shining sparkleball of light. Kind of like a glitter form of Hadouken.

Get BACK, ye marketers and commercials!

Lunairetic is from Rainbow Honey’s ‘Chrono Cross’ collection, and it’s an oldie but a good, good, goodie. It can serve as a topper, but it also goes opaque in just two coats. I’m wearing two coats in these photos, so you can see how opaque it gets. It goes on thick, but that is only because it is PACKED with glitter. And it’s an enormously manageable sort of thick – molasses-ey, but spreads easily and quickly.

It does dry rough, so if you want to smooth it out you’ll have to use topcoat. It’s glitter hungry, so the next time I use this polish I will probably put Glitter Food on top and then one coat of Seche Vite. You could  just do 2-3 coats of a regular topcoat though, too. *Edit – One of my readers also suggested Gelous as a glitter feeder, which can be found at Sally’s Beauty Supply. Thank you, Cindy! :)*

I also used Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter A-Peel as a basecoat for this mani so I wouldn’t have to struggle with glitter removal. If you’re the kind of person who likes to paint their nails every few days or who dreads removing glitter polish, Glitter A-Peel is awesome – it peels right off, easy peezy.

Lunairetic in the shade

It had been a while since I broke out any of my Rainbow Honeys, and I forgot how excellent the quality of the polishes are. I had this one sitting under my sink for close to a year now, and when I pulled it out it was as if I’d just bought it. Usually my older indies experience some glitter sinkage or separation, but this baby was in tip-top shape.

It’s a gorgeous blend of colors and glitters. For some reason, it reminds of an old era Venetian Masquerade – I think it’s the harlequin diamond glitters that give it that sort of feel. There is NO fishing, and it spreads evenly.

So if you’re into glitterbombs, I highly recommend Lunairetic. I feel like it’s such an unappreciated beauty – Rainbow Honey polishes gets lots of (deserved) love and praise, but I hardly ever hear about this one.

You can find it in mini and full size at Rainbow Honey’s website. And that’s that! If I don’t post again before Thanksgiving, I hope it’s a wonderful one for all of you who celebrate. 🙂