Because there can never be enough cerulean blue glitters in the world. Enjoy.
Butter London Scallywag is priced at £11.95, and available to buy online from powderrooms.com
Butter London Fairy Cake
On February - 11 - 2013
I am quite fussy about glitter, and this one’s on my shit list. Which is quite surprising considering that I thought I’d love this and hate Gobsmacked (reviewed last week). My tastes have swapped places – what’s going on?!
So what is it that I don’t like about Fairy Cake?
Well… it’s mind-numbingly un-unique when it could have been great. Described as a “full coverage, silvery, multi-colour iridescent glitter suspended in a light grey base”, I wanted it to embrace that grey base with fervour and imprint an alternative take on a holo-explosion. And it’s just another “opaque in a couple of coats” glitter. The holo isn’t even that spectacular. It’s a bit too sandy, a bit too chunky. There’s no “edge” to it. And “edge” is precisely what I love Butter London for delivering.
Butter London Fairy Cake is available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95
* press sample
Butter London Gobsmacked
On February - 7 - 2013
When I first saw swatches of this nail polish appear on the web, my nose wrinkled with disdain.
“Ugh. Lumpy.”
You see, I’m a simple girl (shut up) and I like simple nail polishes. I like shiny cremes, holos, and duochromes. And that’s it. I rarely bother with nail art, which is just aswell, because I’m not very good at it, and I just can’t be faffed with other embellishments.
I decided that, in the case of Gobsmacked, I’d probably like it with a thick coat of Gelous but that without, it could do one. But then I applied it…
… and I really liked it.
It is lumpy, but in a way that somehow just misses setting my teeth on edge. It applies nicely in three smooth coats and gave me no drying issues.
Which means that I probably owe a silent apology to all brands that have since followed suit with texture-based collections. I have quietly vomited in my mouth when perusing swatches of concrete, leather, and velvet. Perhaps I’ve been wrong all along but the thing is, each time I look again…. I still want to rip my nails off in protest.
Butter London Gobsmacked is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from www.powderrooms.com
* press sample
Butter London Lovely Jubbly NOTD
On January - 9 - 2013
Tired of all the glitz and sparkle that Christmas brought with it? No, me neither (come back Christmas!)
Seeing as we have a whole year to get through before we can once again feel the warm glow induced by too many mince pies,Twiglets, and glasses of Baileys – let us all take a moment instead to bask in the glory that is this beast of a glitter polish from Butter London.
Lovely Jubbly is indeed, rather lovely with a party-on-your-nails mixup of glitters. I spy blue, magenta, red, gold… and you know the best of it? Opaque in two coats… three if you’re being pernickity. Of course, it’s an absolute arse to remove and needs a full layer of thick top coat to get rid of the gritty feeling. Some of you may not mind the rough, glitter finish but it makes me want to take an industrial sander to my nail beds. Don’t do that.
Butter London Lovely Jubbly is available to buy online at www.powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95
Butter London Shag NOTD
On December - 14 - 2012
I’m starting to wonder if and when Butter London are gonna run out of these cutesy “British” slang terms… I reckon that when inspiration is at its lowest ebb, someone in the office sticks an episode of Only Fools and Horses on the DVD player. “Alright me old china?” <— Butter London Spring 2016 name right there. Naturally, the polish would be an off-white cream, somewhat like a glaze. Can I make money doing this? Hands up if you’d give up EVERYTHING to name nail polishes for a living.
Butter London Shag from their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection is a clear nod to the season’s hues. Reminiscent of fallen Autumn leaves (before they’ve turned mouldy), with a dazzling metallic finish that glimmers beautifully in the late afternoon light. Well, what little we have of it.
The formula on this one was a dream and the above photo shows two coats – the polish applied smoothly and dried to a shiny finish, the above photo shows no top coat. If you had the opportunity to conceive a Butter London polish, what would you call it and what would it look like?
Butter London Shag is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at www.thepowderrooms.com
Butter London Lippy – The Swatches…
On December - 6 - 2012
..at the risk of this being the most photo-heavy post in the history of the internet, I haven’t done the nail/lippy comparisons but totally can if anyone’s interested. I ran out of light toward the end and now my lips are sore.
I talked about the formula of these lipglosses from Butter London a few days ago, if you need reminding – the post is here. Overall, I’m quite torn on them… I’m not a lipgloss fan, so we’re off to a bad start but I can’t deny their longevity is decent and the pigmentation on some of them, impressive.
Now that I’ve worn them all, I can safely say that the scent is pretty cloying on some of the shades and a few of them (particularly the pale ones) apply more like pva glue than gloss. I’m pleased that the range has recently been reformulated into more of a liquid lipstick style – I think that the potential for Butter London to release nail/lip combos is massive. For me, this release ultimately just misses the mark but I’ve asterisked the ones that I did really enjoy wearing.
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Butter London Lippy’s are available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £13.95 each.
Have you tried any of Butter London’s Lippys? From the swatches, are any of them catching your eye?
* press sample
Butter London Scuppered NOTD
On December - 4 - 2012
The moment I saw this Butter London beauty in the bottle, I was smitten. I love copper polishes, I love smooth glitters, I love my polish with just a hint of eccentricity. Meet Butter London Scuppered, a polish that simply ticks all the right boxes.
Whoever thought to throw a scattering of green micro-glitter into the mix of what is otherwise, a rather sensible (albeit beautiful) polish, is a diabolical mastermind. In amongst all this coppery-green madness, there’s another component – a shift of pink and a lighter gold that gives this shade an almost duochrome feel in the right light.
The formula is also wonderful, the above shows three coats – each of which applied smoothly, dried quickly and behaved impeccably. I think you could probably get away with two coats, but don’t quote me on that.
It’s Autumnal, it’s Christmassy, it’s fun – what’s not to like?
Butter London Scuppered is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com
* press sample
Just a little teaser… Butter London gets Lippy
On December - 3 - 2012
Never have I cursed Winter as much as I have this past week. I got my hands on these samples almost two weeks ago and haven’t been able to do face swatches because of the poor light. That’s not to say I haven’t worn them, I’m usually meticulous about not breaking into samples before the photos.. but c’mon, you’d have to have nerves of steel to resist these babies.
The formula is consistent throughout the line, and as much as I wanted them to feel like liquid lipsticks, they are indeed lipglosses. They’re not light-textured on the lips and are quite strongly-scented but they’re long-lasting (for gloss) and match almost perfectly with their namesake polishes from Butter London’s regular line.
As for pigment, depending on the shade, these glosses have it by the bucketload but in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kinda way – you cannot build the pigment, not unless you wanna walk around with jizz lips and gloss strings galore. Similarly you can’t really sheer these out without them looking patchy although you’ll be pleased to hear that they fade kindly.
Butter London Lippy lipglosses are priced at £13.95 each and available to buy online from powderrooms.com (swatches coming soon)
* press sample
Butter London Jack The Lad NOTD
On November - 23 - 2012
Is it ever too early to start wearing holiday nail polishes? The correct answer would be no. Jack The Lad is from Butter London’s Holiday 2012 collection which features a range of pretty glitters. Sitting in a forest-green base, suspended with a myriad of brighter sparkles that flash turquoise, gold and bright green, it’s a real stunner.
The swatch shot above shows three coats but you could get away with two if you’re in a hurry. The finish is smooth to the touch but the shine is worth amping up with a top coat because it really brings out the Christmassy foil effect. Super pretty.
Butter London’s Jack The Lad is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at www.powderrooms.com
* press sample
Zoya Kendal NOTD
On June - 11 - 2012
You can keep your Andrex puppies and their loo roll-pulling antics because Zoya Kendal has super-softness in the bag. This beautiful polish from the American brand is simply perfect. A gorgeous greyed-lavender creme that incites visions of mist-swirled candyfloss.
The formula is also divine, reaching full opacity in two fuss-free, streak-free coats. You may be able to tell that this is my favourite polish of the year so far…. making me want to retrospectively check out the rest of the Zoya Feel Collection from last winter (thank heavens for eBay).
If you’re finding Zoya Kendal a little too simplistic or cold for your tastes, these kind of muted pastels are my absolute favourite for enhancing with a little glitter. In this case, Butter London’s Tart with a Heart did the honours…
Ethereal, delicate, beautiful and blinging to the max!
Zoya Kendal is available to buy online from beauty4nails-body.co.uk, priced at £7.99
Butter London Fairy Lights NOTD
On May - 29 - 2012
Staring cross-eyed at Fairy Lights is one of my favourite Christmas past-times, staring cross-eyed at this nail polish makes it only marginally more appealing than looking at it with 20-20 vision.
Butter London’s Fairy Lights is a pink metallic with a high-shine chrome finish that accentuates every single flaw on the nail bed, despite the use of a base coat. The tiniest ridge will turn into the Grand Canyon and heaven forbid if you have a peeling nail like me…
It applied streakily, coming good on the third coat and is frankly, utterly dupable. You should check out the MyFace Lil Bling Nail Chromes for similar finishes (they do a pink one too). Longevity was average on my hardy nails, with tip wear becoming apparent from the third day onwards.
Butter London’s Fairy Lights is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from PowderRooms.
Butter London Knackered NOTD
On May - 28 - 2012
Shapeshifting. Good or bad? Would you like to be able to transform yourself from one thing to the next in the blink of an eye? I remember watching An American Werewolf in London (from behind the sofa) when I was about 8 or 9, that bit where David turns from hairy man into even hairier beast? Horrifying. It still gives me the heebies to think of it now.
Butter London’s Knackered is an altogether prettier shapeshifter. It morphs from green to purple in the most delightful of ways, proving itself to be a very worthy duochrome. As if that weren’t enough loveliness to contend with, the shade is flecked with holographic micro-glitter. In fact, it’s almost too much prettiness to contend with, basically the kind of polish I’d create if I ever had me a chance: “Oh, let’s just put EVERYTHING in it!”
Butter London Knackered is priced at £11.95 and available online from PowderRooms.com
