Bee’s Knees Lacquer House of Flame and Shadow

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Hi friends!

This collection launches on Friday March 15th on the Bee’s Knees Lacquer website. Also launching at the time of this collection are mystery bags and a Brain Tumor Awareness charity polish. As always, I will have more sale information at the end of the post.

Live Swatch Video

Better Than Expected

Description: a bright pink, almost coral Doomicorn sibling with the same green to blue shimmer

Better Than Expected seeing a color as bright as this one made me very happy, I love bright AF colors! While the brand doesn’t describe this as a neon, it glows under blacklight and is oh-so-bright so in my opinion, it’s a neon.

This had a fantastic formula, thanks to the neon-y goodness it was incredibly difficult to get a color accurate shot. This is a bright pink that leans very orangey/coral.

Much like it’s Doomicorn siblings, the shimmer is super strong! This is a little bit more opaque than the OG Doomicorn but the shimmer is the same.

My photos show Better Than Expected in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. I had originally thought this was ok in two coats but it seems to dry down slightly more sheer than it initially seemed. I’ll call it a 2-3 coater but in two coats you won’t have the same depth of color as in three.

Choose Life

Description: a sheer black with green shimmer, a scattering of silver light reflective glitter, and a vibrant magnetic red multichrome

Choose Life in the bottle, I thought this looked kinda meh but once it got on my nails I was very impressed! This is one of those polishes that has so much going on in the shimmer department, that you would never have known it had a black base.

This is starts off pretty sheer so you do need to build it up to get opacity going. This is one of those polishes that will get a bit more sheer once you magnetize it. It’s opaque in two unmagnetized but I would recommend three coats if you want to magnetize the polish.

I used a ring magnet for my swatches here and this magnetized so beautifully for me. Between the shimmer and the reflective glitter, Choose Life has a TON of sparkle action. The glitter does dry down textured but I found one coat of my top smoothed it out nicely.

My photos show Choose Life in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. Do NOT scrub this polish off, use the soak off method or a peel off base coat.

I’m Your Motherf*cking Executioner

Description: a soft grayed out purple with glowy blue shimmer

I’m Your Motherf*cking Executioner is one of the sheerest polishes in this release. You will have very obvious VNL with it. To get the most out of both the shimmer and the base color, you will want to build this up.

Other than being super sheer, this had a great formula. It’s sheer enough in one coat that this can certainly be used as a topper or a blurring base coat.

My photos show I’m Your Motherf*cking Executioner in 3 coats plus glossy top coat.

Make Your Brother Proud

Description: a soft blue with glowy blue shimmer

Make Your Brother Proud is the blue version of I’m Your Motherf*cking Executioner. So like that polish, this is very sheer and you will be able to see your nail line and any imperfections on the nail place.

While this polish doesn’t speak to me personally, the shimmer is pretty dang beautiful! It doesn’t show any brush strokes and is super glowy.

My photos show Make Your Brother Proud in 3 coats plus glossy top coat.

Master of Spinning Bullshit

Description: a pale green with strong blue shimmer and loaded with holo flakes (technically a Lion cousin)

Master of Spinning Bullshit I am clearly still on a green polish kick because this is one of the polishes that I was most excited for from this release. It looked so gorgeous in the bottle and didn’t disappoint on the nail either!

The formula on Master of Spinning Bullshit was fantastic. It starts sheer but builds up very nicely and applies very smoothly. While technically this does actually stay sheer, the addition of the holo flakes gives the illusion of opacity. I wouldn’t call this a full coverage polish but the intensity of the holographic does distract from your nail line.

This polish manges to look both springy and frosty at the same time.

My photos show Master of Spinning Bullshit in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. The holo flakes do not dry down textured but they will make removal very messy.

Queen of the Valbaran Fae

Description: a sheer black with blue shimmer, a scattering of silver light reflective glitter, and a magnetic silver to pink shimmer

Queen of the Valbaran Fae much like the other magnetic polish in this release, there is so much going on with the shimmer that you barely even notice that this polish has a tinted base.

I found this magnetized very easily for me. I used a ring magnet for my swatch photos and a wand style magnet for my live swatch video. You can reach full opacity with this polish in two coats however if you opted to magnetize it, I would recommend going in for three coats.

Unmagnetized, this looks like an icy blue toned silver. Once you magnetize it, you’ll see the strong blue shimmer much easier. The reflective glitter does dry down with texture.

My photos show Queen of the Valbaran Fae in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. Once again, do not scrub this polish off, use the soak off method or a peel off base coat.

Reaper

Description: a light olive green with strong green to blue shimmer

Reaper is for my prugly polish lovers! Although the shimmer does seem to make this feel a little less ugly but I will still call this a prugly.

I found Reaper to still be very sheer even after three coats. So you will have obvious VNL with it as well as being able to see the nail plate through the polish. The base color does give your nail a slight yellowy tone which I feel like also adds to the ugly factor.

Once again, we have a fantastic formula that was easy to apply.

My photos show Reaper in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. I didn’t personally experience any staining with this polish but colors like this tend to be stainers.

She Was Enough

Description: a pale purple with strong green to blue shimmer, holo flakes, and matte black flakes

She Was Enough I don’t know why black flakies do something to my brain but they get me every single time. I LOVED the extra oomph they gave this polish.

She Was Enough had a wonderful formula but shocker, is another sheer polish that needs to be built up. Similar to Master of Spinning Bullshit, because of the addition of flakies this comes across as more opaque because your eyes have a harder time focusing past the holographic sparkle.

My photos show She Was Enough in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. This will be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. The flakies do not dry down textured but will make removal pretty messy.

Through Love, All Is Possible

Description: a sheer neutral peach with glowy aqua to blue shimmer

Through Love, All Is Possible is another of the super sheer polishes in this release. Where the previous sheer shimmers I wasn’t a big fan of, I did like this one a lot. I am guessing that’s due to the shimmer being color shifty.

The formula on Through Love, All Is Possible was fantastic. The shimmer does show brush strokes when wet but they disappear as the polish dries down.

My photos show Through Love, All Is Possible in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. I didn’t notice a huge jump in opacity or shimmer strength between two coats and three but I’ll still call this a 2-3 coater depending on preference.

Wyrd

Description: a charcoal polish with strong blue shimmer and loaded with holo flakes (technically a Lion cousin)

Wyrd had a fantastic formula but much like the others in this release, it starts sheer so it needs to be built up. This is able to be built up to reach full opacity.

I preferred how this looked in three coats. I found with two coats the base looked a little bit uneven. The shimmer and flakies really pop nicely from the dark base when you build this one up.

My photos show Wyrd in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. Nothing in here will dry down textured but removal will be fairly messy from the flakies.

Final Thoughts

Overall I thought this was a fun release. I really appreciated the variety of finishes! I haven’t read the book that this series was inspired by so I can’t speak on the inspiration.

My top picks are going to be Reaper, She Was Enough and Queen of the Valbaran Fae.

Bee’s Knees Lacquer
15ml, 5+ Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
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Sale Information

The Hose Of Flame and Shadow collection will be available starting on March 15th at 7PM Eastern time for a week long pre-order. Each polish is priced between $14 and $14.50 each for 15ml bottles. There are no limits on purchasing polishes.

Also launching with this release are mystery bags and a Brain Tumor Awareness charity polish. There will also be overpours from the Throne of the Fallen as well as the Fall of the House of Usher freebies at the time of the launch.

Bee’s Knees Lacquer ships internationally from the US. They also have a few different stockist pages. This collection will also be available for pre-order as well as their intentional stockist pages, Gracie Jay and Co (Canada), Hypnotic Polish (EU),  Femme Fatale (Australia), and Rainbow Connection (EU).