Butter London Haul

Many of you nail bloggers know there is a certain kind rush associated with the discounted purchase of expensive nail polish. The idea that a company can charge $12-$30 for a bottle of nail polish to me is still crazy. Despite my love of nail varnish, at the end of the day I can't justify paying that much for less than 1 oz of liquid ANYTHING. That said,  this post is large one and it's part one (of I don't know how many to follow) featuring Butter London polishes. The past few weeks I took advantage of two sales that were featuring Butter London. Coterie had buy three Butter Londons get a matte top coat for free and as a new member I received half off plus free shipping. Then Ulta had a one day BOGO sale so I stocked up in the store and purchased online that same day while using my points for added discount I paid an average of $5 for each of these when they retail between $14-$18. I would say that's a great deal. So without further adieu here is Aston, the infamous Wallis, and Yummy Mummy. Warning this post contains lots of pics :)

 

Aston is a gorgeous mauve with a silver shimmer. Consistent formula and easy application. One criticism was the brush was not as thick, smooth or full as I would like. The bristles seemed a little cheap on the quality. One plus is how fast the polishes dry.

 

Below we can see the slight silver shimmer in Aston. This is a more conservative color and almost reminded me of something my grandmother would wear but the shimmer made it less dull and added a little something extra special.  

 

 Below is Wallis which has been an IT color this Fall. Heavily pigmented olive green with heavy gold undertones. In the bottle it looks like there is some black too but I can't tell if it's part of the green or gold. This color reminds me of Nina Ultra Pro Mossy Britches which is one of my all time faves.

  

Below we have Yummy Mummy which is a beautiful nude. I was surprised how good it looked on my skin tone. I thought it was going to be too ashen. This is a cousin of Aston because it has the same silver shimmer and consistency.

 

I wanted to try a simple yet sexy design with this nude so I added Milani Black Swift and created this long V design. 

The lines are not as clean as I would like but I'm happy with the effect. I received lots of compliments on them. Some of the  men at my job said they were "Art Deco Wicked" lol. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Zoya Stacy and Bonita Gold Glitter

This is a color that I loved so much I bought it twice without knowing! I normally wait until Ulta has Zoyas on sale to purchase them. I can't stand waiting for polish in the mail, I get too much anxiety lol and I don't like paying for shipping. So Zoya Stacy is a color that I have seen swatched a few times and seeing it in pictures I kept thinking "this color looks very inconsistent". So I finally swatched it and added a little bling with Bonita Gold Glitter on ring finger. Here she is:

 

Look at the huge difference without flash (below) and full sun (above). Talk about two different colors! The application was difficult in the sense that it was not consistent enough. The consistency of the polish is too thin and should be thicker for smoother application. On my pinky you can see slight balding. Overall I would give Stacy a "B" because of the formula. 

Middle finger and pinky showing some baldness :(

Almost broke my pinky nail before this shot, but thank God for gel resin! 

Essence New Look

Hi Ladies!

Sorry I've been gone for a little while, I was finishing up my term and trying to not get distracted with all these polishes I haven't swatched. My nails have gotten pretty long (for me that is) but I'm in love with them. I wish I would have had them in this shape a long time ago. On with the post though! A couple of weeks ago I snagged some of the newly shaped bottles by Essence. For those of you who do not know what the Essence line is, they cater to young girls and their little polish bottles are $1.99. They are full of gorgeous creamy, bright summery, or glittery gems. There is something for everyone. Here is the gorgeous Grey-T to be Here. This was my favorite of the 3 I swatched so far and you can tell by the many pics:

Grey-T to be Here is a beautiful light gray with the slightest (barely visible) pink shimmer. I wish they would have emphasized the pink shimmer more because that would have been awesome. I did receive so many compliments on this. It was a nice change from my normally bold pallet. 

 

Above you can see the slight pink shimmer

 

The other two colors were Gorgeous Bling Bling and Date with the Moonlight (middle finger).

 

I have to be honest the application of Gorgeous Bling Bling was not as creamy as I'm used to for Essence but the color and the small gold shreds made up for that. I love oranges and earth tones and this color is no exception. The Date with the Moonlight was classic Essence formula and was easily a 1 coater. A showstopper for sure and the name is perfect because the blue shimmer was the right touch for this deep navy. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

 

Ruffian to the 3rd Power

Ruffian is the term for the manicure that features 2 colors and the second color starts further down from the cuticle. I haven't seen too many other names for this type of manicure so I'm going with it. lol I recently bought 7 of the OPI Germany collection and was trying to create a look using two of the colors that I thought were pretty funky, when I decided to go crazy with the ruffian. I started out with OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me. A gorgeous light olive creme that went on like a dream. It reminded me of guacamole my absolute fav!

Then I added Suzi and the Seven Dusseldorfs. When I looked at my nails I felt like they were missing something, so I grabbed Milani Silver Stilettos and Black Swift and kept the Ruffian pattern going to the end of the nail. Here's what I got: 

The Suzi and the Seven Dusseldorfs gave be a bit of a problem because it was a little streaky and definitely not  1 coater. However I love the color. For this technique it is best to use 1 coaters so your lines come out crisp the first time around and you don't feel compelled to go over them. 

Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Lush Lacquer Camo Queen

I've been meaning to swatch these Indie Polishes I got from Lush Lacquer weeks ago but I've been distracted and I wanted to wait for the OPI Germany Collection to use it with one of those polishes. First let me say that it took forever to get these polishes, but it was worth the wait. Camo Queen is a beautiful sandy gold glitter base with gold holo hexes and brown hexes. It's like desert bling in a bottle. The consistency was not as thick as  I thought it would be. In the bottle there is little room for movement so I assumed it was going to be really thick but it wasn't. This color can be opaque in two good coats but I wanted to showcase it on OPI Schapps Out of It to create a precious gem affect. The only thing that was a little difficult was getting enough hexes on the brush, but by rolling the brush around a little in the bottle, I was able to capture enough for each nail. Here she is: