Nail Polish

Butter London Haul

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?

Butter London Part Deux

Butter London Part Deux, Butter London Part Deux, Alright ladies (and whatever lone gentlemen follow me) I'm cutting to the chase and bringing you four more Butter London beauties. These are a mix from my order online at Coterie (which I'll never order from again because it took forever) and the Ulta BOGO Butter London sale. Next week I will bring you the last part of the BLs I got during the sale. Warning this post contains LOTS of pics.

Up First is Bluey

I have to say I was not impressed with the formula on this one. It was runny, streaky, and too thin for my taste. With a color like this I expected a thicker formula. This is 3 coats without topcoat. The color is beautiful and I almost left it shiny but I was anxious to see it with the BL Matte Topcoat.

This is the best Matte Topcoat I have tried hands down! It is consistent and goes on evenly and leaves no streaks of the shiny polish underneath. In addition to that I was able to apply lotion on my hands and it still did not become shiny. That is not the case for the Hard Candy and Essie Matte Topcoats I've tried in the past.

Next up is Cream Tea

What is there to say about this milky white color? Um it's very classic, but it definitely had the same formula problems that Bluey. Maybe it was just my bottle, but it took me 3 coats for an even appearance. This has a true white base despite the slight pink cast to the color.

Next time I will apply with a ridge filler and see if that makes a difference.

Below is Knackered

Knackered is a topper as we say in the nail polish community. Its a duochrome with a clear base and silver glitter. It looks like the galaxy in the bottle to me. I could have put it over a black or white to showcase it better but I wanted to show the true color. The formula was much better on this one. It spread very evenly and I found the silver glitter to be not too much but just enough.

Next up is No More Waity Katie

I have no idea what the reference is with the name of this polish but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It's a taupe (slightly plum) sheer base with purple glitter. With three coats it built up nicely and like Knackered this polish was even in consistency as well. I didn't add a topcoat because I felt the texture was cool. This is a great conservative color with a slight edge.

Finally we have Trustafarian the reason for the BL haul in the first place

In the picture above you can barely make out the green tinge but I promise you this color is a light sage green. Try as I might, my camera would not photograph the green in the color. Check out the pictures below they are all practically gold. I swooned over this color when I first saw it on a fellow blogger on Pintrest and I had to have it. Trustafarian is a heavily pigmented light sage green with gold undertones and holograph glitter incorporated throughout. This is not your typical holo, but in the right light you can see that holo dancing all over the nail. I freakin' love this color!

Direct natural light (below)

(Here is a shot with the closest representation of the color)

That concludes part deux of the Butter London haul. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Revlon Moon Candy

Revlon Moon Candy, It's been a long time...but I'm here! Still swatching, still buying lots of pretty polish. The next few posts are going to lead up to the long awaited Zoya Gilty 18K Gold topcoat, which has finally arrived. Recently I have had the blessing of running into a few great sales at Target and Walgreens. At Target they had a sale on Loreal Nude shades which I love and also some of the Revlon Duo Nail Art. I have seen the nail art before and there was only one that I would consider purchasing because of the color combination: two ugly colors that together look cool. I didn't think it was worth over $8 so I waited and while shopping at Target one day I found the one I wanted. Here it is: Revlon Moon Candy

The colors are named #1 (below and above) and the formula on #1 is not great. I did a thick second coat to cover lots of balding. It was very streaky on the first coat. I love the color though and for $3.42 I'm not complaining.

This is color #2 which spread very nicely. I was impressed.

Zoya 18K Gold Gilty

Zoya 18K Gold Gilty , FINALLY!! It's here and I couldn't be more excited to share this review with you. I pre-ordered the Zoya 18K gold topcoat Gilty back in September. I waited patiently and the box arrived this past Saturday none too soon. So let me first say that although I ~~like~~ love Zoya products, I chose to buy this gold topcoat because of the care that Zoya took in presentation. They also had people hand pouring the gold into the bottles. Included with the 18K topcoat were Zoya Purity and Raven. All three in the black box for $30!? Can't beat it. So I decided that I would go with Zoya over Sephora and OPI's gold topcoat. Instead of putting it over the entire nail I decided on a gradient. I got SO excited that I even hooked up my toes with some gold too!

I can only say one thing negative about this set and that is with the color Purity (white). The formula became thick pretty quickly during application. It might have just been my bottle. Raven however was beautiful. You can't see it in the picture but it has the slightest hint of silver shimmer, so faint, it's just there for effect. I call it a Tuxedo black because it's so formal.

Loreal Gradient

Loreal Gradient, Your Nail Polish Therapist has been hauling polishes for weeks now but had no time to blog. Work, school and volunteering have be so busy, I have no energy to sit in front of a computer more than I already have to with work and school. So until my school load slows down I've decided to blog once a month and do about 3-4 posts. I appreciate all of you following me and hope you've enjoyed my posts thus far.
This post features my first gradient. No I'm not on the cutting edge and there have been many gradients done but this girl didn't have the right sponge and wanted to make sure it was great before posting. So for this manicure I used Loreal The Queen's Ambition and Sparklicous. These are two beautiful glitters that compliment each other well. For the base of the nail I used Essie True Love. Walgreens was having a sale on Loreal a few weeks ago so I picked up a few beauties. I have to say that I'm impressed with the formula on both of these and the amount of even coverage it provided.

Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Autumn Stripes

Autumn Stripes, I love stripes but I don't have the patience it takes to make them perfectly straight like I prefer so I don't do them often. That is until I got my manicure tape from China. It took about 2 weeks and I got about 10 rolls for just a couple of dollars and no shipping. Pretty good deal if you ask me. So I chose to use Essie True Love again for the base and the following colors: OPI Chopsticking to My Story, China Glaze Trendsetter, Orly Sapphire Silk, and OPI Louvre me Louvre me Not. I wore this manicure for a whole week and that's along time for me lol. I almost added a black stripe over the top of all the stripes to give a framed looked but decided against it. I figured less is more.

Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?

Aphrodite Lacquer

Aphrodite Lacquer, Lately there are few over the counter polishes that get me excited. OPI seems to recycle the same metallic red, blues and purples all year round with a few gems here and there. China Glaze's formula is becoming suspect and Butter London with all their fanciness is getting too expensive for me. Don't get me wrong there are lines like Loreal that have been pretty impressive lately and I appreciate Maybelline's attempt at trying to put out some glitter bombs, but I wanted to support more Indie labels.
So I picked up Aphrodite Lacquer's "Don't Copy Me" because I only had 1 other black and white glitter. Such a simple black and white glitter in a milky pearly base I had to have it! I layered it over Loreal "Tea and Crumpets". I was not so impressed with either formula to be honest. Loreal's Tea and Crumpets was streaky and Aphrodite's Lacquer was hard to apply evenly with the squares being so elusive. I left the bottle upside down and shook it before each application but I could barely get the squares out. Even with all the trouble I still like out how it turned out. I think next time I will use the Aphrodite Lacquer on it's own. Maybe with a little bit of thinner and a balister ball it will mix better.