Friday 30 November 2012

The Yokai (妖怪) Collection

Today I have all three polishes from Rainbow Honey's Yokai Collection to show you. First of all, I just want to apologize that it took me so long to swatch these. The Yokai Collection was Rainbow Honey's limited edition Halloween collection, and I really wanted to have swatches up before Halloween, but it wasn't meant to be. Living in Australia I didn't get the polishes until November 1st (a day late, go figure), and then after that I got held up with university exams.

Yokai Collection - photo from Rainbow Honey

The Yokai (妖怪) are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklaw. Naturally since I'm studying Japanese at uni and have an interest in Japanese culture, this collection sparked my interest. I'll introduce you to these three polishes one by one. *Note* this is going to be a long post, I'm sorry! I suggest clicking on the photos to enlarge these polishes for more detail.

ONI () 
The malevolent wild demon 
Depictions of Oni vary widely but usually portray them as hideous, gigantic ogre-like creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns growing from their heads. This is an Oni:

Source

Rainbow Honey's 'Oni' may be wicked and supernatural, but with its myriad of glass flecks and multi-chromatic shimmer it is hard to call it hideous. I'm not entirely sure how to describe this polish. It appears black at first glance, but under some lights it's a distinctively coppery-brown colour. And in the sun - WOW. It throws amazing gold shimmer and purple flecks. This is two coats of 'Oni' with top coat:

Full sunlight - click to enlarge and see those beautiful purple flecks

Bottle shot - full sunlight

I really didn't think I was going to be too fond of this polish because I don't normally wear dark colours, but after seeing it in person in the sun I've completely changed my mind.  Application was lovely and smooth which always gets a thumbs up from me.

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KITSUNE (狐) 
The magical white fox
Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. This can apply to everyday foxes, as well as the supernatural variety. Stories depict them as intelligent beings possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Kitsune have the ability to shapeshift, and while some stories portray them using this ability to trick people, other stories show them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives. Supernatural Kitsune often have 9 tails.

Source
 
Rainbow Honey's 'Kitsune' is a glorious nine-tailed creature: fiery, wise, and absolutely gorgeous. Rainbow Honey describes it as a cream base, however my bottle seems to lean a little more orange than other swatches that I've seen. This polish has plenty of gold flecks and a beautiful gold shimmer, along with small glitters in fiery tones of red and bronze. This is two coats of 'Kitsune' with top coat:

Full sunlight - gold shimmer evident on my pinkie

Bottle shot - full sunlight

This polish is stunning in person, and I desperately wanted to love it, I really did. I'm always attracted to lighter coloured polishes so I thought this would be my favourite of the three, but this one just did nothing for my skin tone (that's not to say it won't work on someone else). Other than the colour, for me there was another deal breaker. I really don't want to say this, because I thought Rainbow Honey could do no wrong, but sadly the application on this polish was the worst I have ever encountered. It was thick and chunky (and I can't work out why because it's not a glitter bomb) and it was a nightmare to get even. I couldn't get a clean line around my cuticle during clean up either. On the upside, top coat did smooth it out and it was very fast drying.  If the colour worked on me I would try adding a little thinner to try and sort out the thickness, but sadly I don't think I'll be wearing this one again :(

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 KAWAKO (河子)
The Mischievous River Child
Kawako (also known as Kappa) are supernatural beings found in bodies of water. They love pranks and are very mischievous. They will look up women’s kimonos, steal crops, steal children, and often pass gas quite loudly (sound like anyone you know?). Children are one of their favourite meals. They are usually portrayed as having a shallow indent on the top of their heads. If a Kawako wants to venture onto the land then it has to keep this ‘bowl’ full of water at all times or it will become unable to move.

Source

Rainbow Honey's 'Kawako' is depicted as everything from a water sprite to a river demon, erring on the gentler side. 'Kawako' is a rich, deep blue filled with silver and blue shimmer, and some elusive blue flakes. This is two coats of 'Kawako' with top coat:

Full sunlight - beautiful bright blue when it catches the light

Bottle shot - full sunlight

Kawako is amazing in direct sunlight, such a beautiful bright shade of blue (it's more evident in my photo of the bottle than my nail photo). I'm really not sure why the polish looks bumpy in my photos, because it is completely smooth in real life. It was easy to apply, my only gripe was the flakes, as they sometimes got stuck on the brush making the polish chunky at times. They're very hard to see on the nail as the polish drowns them, but if you look closely enough they are there even though they don't really catch the light. This one gets my approval simply because of the colour. I'm interested to try this one with some nail art.

So that's it! Unfortunately since this was a limited edition collection they're no longer available. However, Rainbow Honey is now taking pre-orders for her four Christmas polishes - The Holiday Collection. Swatches are starting to appear from some lucky bloggers who were given the polishes for review so if you want to see them I suggest googling because there aren't any swatches on the Rainbow Honey website. They look absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately I'll be giving them a miss. I know from past experience that they won't arrive in Australia in time for Christmas (pre-orders won't start shipping until December 5th) and even though the collection isn't strictly 'Christmassy' in terms of colour I would prefer to order Christmas polishes that I can wear before Christmas. The collection doesn't appear to be a limited edition though so I may order some further down the track, maybe when the next collection is released if they're still available then. After all, some of the shades are rather Wintery and it wont be Winter in Australia until June ;) To pre-order jump over to the Rainbow Honey website.

*If I got any Kanji wrong please correct me, I'm still learning!

15 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. They really are. They surprised me though, the ones I didn't think I'd like I liked and the ones I thought I'd like I wasn't so fond of lol

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  2. Oh hey! I received this collection a little late too, just a day or 2 before Halloween. And I just managed to post a review on the blog.
    I gotta agree with Kitsune. The formula's was not their usual, and it's a pity as it's pretty and unique.

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    1. Oh wow you're swatches look awesome, they're completely different to mine. At least Kawako looks smooth in yours, I'm not sure why my camera decided it was lumpy lol.

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    2. Oh, I do notice a slight bump too with Kawako on my ring finger in the photo...
      And thank you for the kind compliment :)

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  3. I found your blog via your Facebook via the Rainbow Honey Facebook page (that sounds so stalker-ish)and your swatches are great, especially the butterfly wings mani--that is to die for.

    I really love Kitsune. I didn't have too much trouble with it when I wore it the other day; I had more trouble applying Ephemeral.

    When I saw your post on Facebook, I had to write to you to say I feel your disappointment about the late release of the Christmas collection. But for me, even more disappointing than getting the polishes late is that the company doesn't even ship to Australia directly anymore. They're only available outside of USA/Canada via their retailers, and the one retailer currently listing the new range has outrageous shipping costs! It's sad, because I really love Rainbow Honey.

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    1. Really? We can't order from the Rainbow Honey website anymore? I had no idea. That's really disappointing. I saw your comment on the RH FB page too, and I thought it was weird that they just told you to email them when you asked if they still shipped to Australia rather than just answering the question. I don't remember them saying anything about it before, so it clearly wasn't made public knowledge, or at least it wasn't announced anywhere. Who is the retailer who we can buy the new range from?

      And thanks for the kind words ^.^

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    2. I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who didn't know. I couldn't remember receiving an email or seeing blog/FB announcements on their shipping changes, which is definitely a bad business move in my eyes, changing their policies and failing to let their existing customers know. I thought it was weird they didn't just answer me directly on FB too. And the response they did leave is technically false. I did send and email and got a reply saying they feel it's the best way to reach more fans and expand/develop their market. I haven't replied yet as I'm still drafting up the most polite way to express my disappointment.

      There are a couple of retailers (inc. Shoppe Eclecticco), but as of yesterday when I checked, Esther's Nail Center was the only one who had the Christmas collection listed, and for the four polishes, they want to charge me $25 shipping. That's a bit much for me. :(

      You're very welcome. :) I love discovering Aussie (nail) bloggers.

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    3. Expand their market? How? They haven't even told their existing customers where to buy the polishes from now that we can't get them from the website. I wonder if their overseas sales will drop now, surely there must be plenty of others wondering how they're supposed to order the collection since they haven't told us it's available to us at Esther's. A simple mention of it in that email they sent would have sufficed. And I agree, $25 is too much. I thought RH's $16.95 or whatever it was was bad.

      I'm a marketing student, and what I've learnt so far in my studies is clearly a far cry from what their marketing department was taught. To be honest I'm really not sure what to make of the whole thing, I'm feeling a bit disillusioned to say the least. I'm sure they had their reasons for doing what they've done, but I think they probably could have gone about it a bit better. I'd definitely be interested to see what other responses you get from them. I don't want to think badly of them, but I'm definitely disappointed by their lack of communication.

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    4. That's a bad move for sure! I had no idea either. Shoppe Eclecticco is based in my country and I know the seller. She will not be carrying any more RH polishes other than the ones she is clearing.
      The other retailer (also based in Singapore) is Mei Mei's Signatures. She will be stocking the Christmas collection soon (that's the word).

      Shipping cost from Singapore can be pretty high, unfortunately :(

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    5. Good news actually, I just spoke to Annette and she's just placed an order with RH. She had no idea that they were no longer shipping worldwide either until I spoke to her, and she hadn't kept up with ordering from them as she thought they were readily accessible from the RH website. So with some luck we might even have a chance of getting the Holiday Collection before Christmas :)

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    6. Yeah, I told her about it after reading it here. Glad she's decided to continue stocking them, though I don't think I would get the Holiday Collection. Hoping for some cheerful concoctions in later collections :)
      Will look out for your review if you do get them!

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    7. Yeah I wasn't too keen on the Holiday Collection to start with, but I think that was mainly because I was a bit sour that they weren't releasing them in time for us in Australia to receive them before Christmas. But I am interested in the 2 glitters so I'll give them a go, hopefully they're not the same consistency as I found Kitsune to be. I'm not overly interested in the gold and silver ones to be honest. I'm looking forward to future collection too, which was the main reason I asked Annette if she would be continuing to stock them :)

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    8. That's what bothers me most about the whole situation: that their existing customers weren't informed of the change in policy. I don't mind purchasing through a retailer as long as I know that's what I have to do!

      My issue mostly with the situation now that I've had time to process it and calm down is that the retailers are going to hold decent stocks. I wanted to purchase a couple of polishes for my sister for Christmas and couldn't because none of the retailers had the colours I was looking for. Nor have any of them except Esther's listed the Christmas collection. I imagine they may lose several customers if the retailers aren't going to keep up stocks -- hopefully with the change in policy they will. I still haven't replied to the email I received (there needs to be more hours in the day!), but the woman who replied did say if I felt uncomfortable purchasing through a retailer they could 'work something out'. That makes you wonder why they couldn't just keep shipping themselves. When I do reply, I'll certainly keep you updated!

      After seeing swatches I'm not as excited for the Christmas collection as I was when I saw the first pictures, except for maybe the silver and only because of the holo. But I'm certainly excited for future collections because some of their polishes are so different and amazing, and that's what made me a fan in the first place.

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    9. I completely agree with you Kayla, I don't mind purchasing through a retailer as long as I know I'm supposed to! I think it really is the lack of communication here that irked me. I think now that the retailers are realising that we can no longer order from RH they are starting to re-stock, I get the feeling that Esther's were the only ones who knew they should stock the holiday collection because they're in the same city as RH and probably have more direct contact with them than the other retailers. I'm just speculating though. And I agree, their polishes are different, and that's why I became a fan too :)

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