Butter London Knackered

Hola chicas! Hoy les traigo el último de los Butter London que recibí a finales de Enero (ufff!!). Butter London es una marca de esmaltes proveniente de USA, B3F y cruelty-free. Knackered es un color tornasol verde-violeta con partículas holográficas y una base ligeramente tintada, pero que no es opaco por sí mismo (por lo que use Victoriana, de la misma marca, como base). Actualmente estos esmaltes no es posible conseguirlos en Chile -hasta donde yo sé-, pero en USA lo venden en tiendas como ULTA, Sephora y Nordstrom.

Hello girls! Today I bring the last of the Butter Londons I received way back in January. Knackered is a green-violet duochrome with holographic glitters in a sheer, tinted base. Or in Butter London's words (from their site): "A sheer, twinkling oyster shade flecked with micro glitter particles. This duochrome nail lacquer is sure to please"

I took so much in taking pics of this polish because I really had a hard time finding the perfect base for it. I tried black, indigo blue, silver, dark grey, medium and dark teal, etc. While all those combinations were really pretty, none satisfied my wish for it to look on my nails like it did in the bottle. In my frustration I asked Makeup Up Alley's Nail Board for suggestions and someone recommended Victoriana. And behold, it's perfect!

For this pictures I used one coat of Knackered over two coats of Victoriana along with my regular favorites: Essence Studio Nails 24/7 Nail Base and Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer.

This polish reminded me a lot of Ascalon in the sense that it's never boring. While in the shade/indoors the duochrome is very eye-catching and visible and then, when you're outside in the sun, the holo sparkles and the violet shift catch you by surprise so it's never boring. Also both are violet-to-green duochromes with holographic sparkles, but Ascalon's base is much more gray and opaque and the holographic effect is a little more linear.

The holographic sparkle was a bit shy on my pictures because we barely had any sunshine the day I took these, but is very visible under direct daylight.

Blurry shot to show sparkle -sorta

Anyway I hope you liked this combination and give Knackered a second chance if it's frustrating you as much as it did to me.

What's the polish you've had more trouble with but you were determined to make work?

I have a surprise for my next post, so stay tuned. Hint: it's not about nail polish! Until then, take care and thanks for reading~

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Hello girls! How have you been? Is summer in full swing where you live or are you taking the coats out for winter like myself? From what I've read on Twitter some of you are having winter weather still well into spring. I hope that, wherever you are, you're making the most of it by wearing pretty nail polish ;)

Today I want to share with you another of my Butter London beauties (I kinda fell off the face of the Earth doing these, huh?). This is the beautiful Two Fingered Salute. I saw it blogged from A Polish Addict and fell in love. So. Hard.

Butter London in unavailable where I live (which by now you probably think it's Siberia because of our crappy nail polish selection) but I got this one thanks to a kind penpal/nailmail buddy. But enough rambling, on to the polish!

Two Fingered Salute is a dusty, kinda like a seafoam, green base with tiny shimmer that shines copper, pink and gold. It's truly outstanding.

Here I think you're seeing two coats over my regular basecoat (Essence 24/7) and topcoat (Essence Better than Gel Nails Top Sealer). Sorry, it's been a while since I took these pictures heh.

I do remember that the formula was really easy to work with, like with all the butter London polishes I've tried so far. I love how it looks like some sort of subtle speckled effect, the color shifting of the shimmer adds so much to it too. Next, in the macro, you can kinda see all the sparkly colors the shimmer turns.

Butter London retails for $14 in the US, for 15ml bottles, at places like Ulta and Nordstrom. They're also cruelty-free, yay!

I hope you enjoyed this simple mani/review. Next one will be a totally different thing, as I kinda fell off the Butter London bandwagon, but I do want to finish up this series of reviews at some point, so stay tuned.

Butter London Victoriana

Hi guys! I'm back again to share another Butter London, as suggested by Kumiko who wanted to see Victoriana next from my Butter London Haul.

Victoriana is a muted/dusky teal filled with tiny silver microglitter. It's probably my favorite of the ones I've used so far, having worn it twice in the few weeks.

For my mani I used two coats of Victoriana over a base of Essence's 24/7 basecoat and topped it with Better Than Gel Nails Top Sealer from the same brand. Formula-wise it was good, a bit draggy on the first coat but it evened out nicely, and totally opaque, on the second

The base color is tricky, not quite blue and not quite green, and I love these kind of colors. The silver microglitter adds such a nice depth and "oomph" to the look. Just check out the macro:

BAM! This one is a winner in my book and total Top 20 material.

Thanks for reading and see in the next Butter London review :)

Nail Mail: Butter London & Fiddlesticks Review

Hi girls! Long time, no see, sorry about the hiatus, between summer vacation, a road trip and a couple more things I did felt much like taking and editing pics of my manis (though I still kept painting my nails regularly).

Anyway, today I want to share with you the first of 5 Butter London nail polishes that I recently got thanks to a couple of lovely ladies that got them for me in the US and sent them my way.

The shades I picked were: Fiddlesticks, Knackered, Disco Biscuit, Victoriana and Two Fingered Salute. I've already worn and loved Victoriana and Disco Bicuit, but I didn't take pics. I did take some of today's mani, which is Fiddlesticks.

Butter London Fiddlesticks was released in the 2012 Holiday collection ands is  a magenta jelly base filled with tiny pink glitter.

It applies really well and is opaque in 2 coats, for this mani I used the Essence Peel Off Basecoat (will come back to let you know how did that go) and 1 coat of Gelous and one coat of Essence Better than Gel Nails Top Sealer (new favorite top coat!) to top it off and leave it smooth as glass.

So, to be my first Butter Londons, I'm extremely happy with this new brand. The formulas on the ones I've tried so far are excellent and Fiddlesticks was no exception. A little hungry, like most glitters, but not bad.

Which one would you like to see next?

Thanks for reading and keeping up with me :)