Share the database between vmware guest and host
You have to comment out the single line in the `my.cnf:

 bind_address = 127.0.0.1


By default mysql server listen only on the localhost for security reason. When that line is commented, mysql server become listening on the all available interfaces because default value is bind_address = *. Now you can connect to the mysql from the host OS by IP-address of the VM.

To restrict guest access to the single database/schema you have to perform the next query:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database.* 
   TO 'guestuser'@'1.2.3.4' 
   IDENTIFIED BY 'somepassword';


where 1.2.3.4 is an IP-address of your host OS. 

If you have dynamically assigned IPs on your LAN then you have to allow connections from the whole subnet your IPs are belongs to:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database.* 
   TO 'guestuser'@'192.168.%' 
   IDENTIFIED BY 'somepassword';


where 192.168.% means 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255