Rainbow Honey : January Limited Edition "Fallen Snow" & "Icelandia"

Happy weekend, Twinklings!!  I have a very special duo to share with you before this month is complete: Rainbow Honey's January Limited Editions!  If you have been twinkling along with Sprinklepuff and I for a while now, I have already impressed upon you that I love love love snow and ice.  My grandma is a Swedish/Norwegian Minnasotan, and she always says that I'm her winter girl, which she proudly declares that I inherited from her and our Scandinavian roots.  Anyways, you can imagine then how I fell over myself to acquire this month's limited edition set, which includes polish/perfume/scented topcoat all named "Fallen Snow".  And that would be good enough, but there is also a heartstopping glitter topcoat, a crystalline confection crowned none other than "Icelandia".

Iceland.

It is my favorite country that I have yet visited, not only for its mystical beauty, but for the ethereal, otherworldly energy which pervades each fiber of its culture, history, language, and landscape.  The Land of Fire and Ice is, indeed, one of fantastical contrasts, but none so evocative in my opinion as the fascinating synergy between modern and ancient Iceland; how one thousand years of history is so tangibly present, even as Iceland surges forth as one of the most socially and technologically progressive countries on earth.

There is so much to be said for the small island country, the northernmost capital in the world with its frigid Atlantic moat.  (Someday, I will have to tell you about Icelandic elves.)  But that will have to wait for another time, because I have other news: MACRO HAS LANDED.  Not in time to capture these polishes in action, unfortunately, but hopefully these bottle shots will help make sense of the shimmering spectacles I have herethereto attempted in futility to illustrate for you in wholly insufficient words.

"Fallen Snow" & "Icelandia", macro style!!

"Icelandia" over "Fallen Snow"

mountains across the fjord: Eyjafjör∂ur

While sifting through memories, this moment en route to the horse stables just outside of Akureyri, Iceland felt eminently resonant with the crystalline triangles and shimmering aquatic quality of this pair. 

❄ * ♥ * ❄ * ♥ * ❄

Rainbow Honey: January 2015 Mystery Bag!

Hello there, fairy friends!  Long time, no nothing, I know.  It has been a busy and wonderful week, exploring Portland and the Oregon Coast with my darling man, but as he returned to Montana so did I return to reality (including the dwindling window of primary relevance for this post, haha).  I now have both a mystery bag subscription and my change-of-address in order, so next month should be much more timely, Twinklings!!  And so, on that harried note, I present the January Mystery Bag (WHEEE)!!

Candy Lacquer "Cupcake Blizzard"

Happy day, darlings!  It is a happy happy day indeed here in Portland, for my boyfriend flies in this afternoon just in time for our anniversary!!!  In the meantime I have been studio-ing it up (I was surprised to realize I was there for 10 hours yesterday... usually my 12-15 hour days don't start until a few weeks out yet), trying to get schome schtuff done to clear out this week for some adventures in Oregon.  I haven't had a studio since I started this blog, and oy, I forgotten how terrible your nails get after hours in the woodshop and studio, building (and sanding!) models.  Right now I'm building my urban context site model, and I have been learning the hard way that if I want to have any shot at posting a manicure, I'm going to have to snap it before leaving the house because it sure won't be picture pretty once I leave the White Stag (our beautiful historical architecture building, on the same block as the Portland Oregon sign!).

The concept of 'studio' is often confusing to those outside architecture or design fields, so allow me to elaborate: studio is the core course form of the architecture education.  It is the class in which we create our major architecture projects (one building per term, in Oregon), and is worth more credits than a normal lecture class but demands infinitely more hours.  These projects are very personal to us, are the building blocks of our portfolios, and so studio essentially owns your soul until final review.  That's the gist of it, anyway :)

So anyways, nail polish: this is one that I've wanted to share with some of its collection fellows but then I keep forgetting to glitter up the undies I had chosen before I remove a manicure, so argghhh fine here it is anyway.  Candy Lacquer released all manner of fun glitter for this holiday, and this is one that I didn't even need to see to love; I heard the name and was like come to me, you little bottle of perfection.

 

❄ * ♥ * ❄ * ♥ * ❄

Hare Polish "Wonderland Wanderlust"

Hello, darlings!!  I have a very special polish to show you today, and not just because it is a Hare Polish, a rare "vintage" harkening back from the Bohemian Holiday collection in 2013.  No, this is a particular treasure because this very bottle was first swatched and so lovingly described by an extraordinary lady and blogger that I admire so much: Lacquer Slacker Liz!!  The final memory-laden paragraphs of her "Wonderland Wonderlust" review actually made my breath catch; there are few things I love better than concise prose that evokes such insight, such feeling, with a poetic and elegantly understated clarity, as Liz does so well in her exquisite recollections.  There is something about artistic expressions that are so en pointe, so precise, that manage to inspire the greatest emotive response in me with the most minimal explication... these are the things that I find the most enrapturing.  It's something that I love about nail polish, and color in general: it is so simple and unassuming a thing, and yet it speaks volumes, tells stories, weaves images.  In architecture we call it doing the most with the least, and it is a beautiful balance indeed.

This polish strikes this balance and tells its tale with captivating ease.  Wandering in wonderlands, especially in winter, is one of my most favorite pastimes, and Hare Polish mastermind Nikole represents it brilliantly with this woodland tapestry, nearly cognizant with its imagery of red berries and rustling botanicals, of shifting lights through the trees as the sky deepens into heavy dusk.

May & Freyja, cavorting in wonderland

FREYJA CUDDLE CHARGE

OPI: Gwen Stefani Holiday 2014 Collection ["Rollin' in Cashmere" trio, etc]

Hello darlings, and Happy Monday to you!  What with school started up in full force once more (for the last semester of my life!!!) the posts will be fewer and farther between, most unfortunately, and despite a desperate backlog of swatches, holiday and otherwise :(  However, I just had to get this one up for multiple reasons: one, because all of these polishes were popping up for excellent deals immediately after Christmas at TJMaxx, Marshall's, etc, well in advance of when I would normally expect these to appear at discount stores (uh, usually next year!).  But indeed, the Rollin' in Cashmere trio featured here (incorporating "Rollin' in Cashmere", "Comet in the Sky", and "Snow Globetrotter") was snapped up at TJMaxx for *$9.99* by my savvy Auntie Deborah, who very kindly loaned it to me for swatching and news-sharing, before she tried them even.  Thank you oh so much, Auntie!!  You may consider this your bargain-hunting hit list, kittens.

Rainbow Honey "Gingered!"

 Hello there, Twinklings!!  Rainbow Honey's December limited edition polish hasn't made it onto the interwebs much yet, though I can't for the life of me think why.  I mean look at it; it's almost like sitting cozy by the fireside, wherever you are.

 

"Gingered!" is a tiger lily metallic, a molten copper suffused with fierce orange tones and accented with flakie sparks of gold and peony pink.  Effervescent, hot, and sharply sweet, this polish really captures the keen, delicious burn of candied ginger.  Not to mention, it is scented like gingerbread!!!!  The fragrance perseveres through topcoat, so no worries on that count, and for the most part smells delectably like warm, sweetly spiced gingerbread cookies. 

Laquerlicious "Snow Much Love!" & Serum No. 5 "Snow In Love"

Happy King's Day, kittens!  Well, this is it I suppose.  Even I can't stubbornly sustain the holiday season any longer.  Not that I won't probably still be posting "winter celebration" type posts now and then, since I still have some holiday swatches out on my desktop ether... hope y'all don't mind!  Winter break didn't exactly proceed as planned, and now that I am back in Oregon and school is in full march, I haven't had and won't have terribly much time for posting  :(  Until June, my thesis studio owns my soul.  And then it will all be over, mwahaha haha!!!

Well so anyways, yesterday marked the Twelfth Day of Christmas, and today is the official End of All Seasonal Splendor, therefore I am determined to squish in my Christmas Day polish pick, plus my Twelfth Night lacquer look.  Snow and love are two of my very favorite things, so of course I was powerless to resist these charming polishes!!  If these two were not insentient bottles of chemical and color, I would guess that, should they meet, they would be the most bestest of friends.

Lorac : Party Eye Shadow Palette {Ulta Exclusive}

Happy New Year, angels, and a Merry Tenth Day of Christmas, too!  If you're celebrating all the way up to Three King's Day on Tuesday, and are needing to elevate your holiday eye look, I might take a peek at Lorac's new Party Palette (released exclusively at Ulta on December 26). 

Glam Polish "Dancing Through Life"

Happy (belated) Ninth Day of Christmas!  Yes, I know, it is actually the Tenth Day of Christmas currently here on the West Coast, but I've been wanting to post this polish in honor of the *nine ladies dancing* for weeks now, and while I was indeed panic packing yesterday for my move back to Portland today and wasn't able to get this post up at that time, I hope you'll agree that that the occasion is worth revisiting for this stunning showstopper!!

"Dancing Through Life" was released this past November as part of Glam Polish's Broadway Collection.  This awesome little company has been going nuts down there in Australia, debuting new amazing nine-part collections (plus occasional smaller collections) every month for a while now!  I mean, the creative stamina is just astounding to me.  I thought this one was just so perfect as a delicately chic winter polish, even after the holidays have come and gone.