If you pair that ranger with an impolite thief, you get the beginnings of a D&D-inspired slash fic. (Sorry.) (Not really.)
So the most popular search term that people use to find this blog is “butter london sloane ranger”. That’s fine, but the only pictures I have of it are not particularly good. So I took some (hopefully) better ones. I was not particularly in the mood to do a one-color mani, so I paired it with a recent purchase — Illamasqua Faithful, a coppery brown. I’m not 100% convinced my choice was perfect, as Faithful is a little warmer than I think goes well with Sloane, but I enjoyed wearing them together nonetheless.
I’m very pleased; this time I managed to catch the silver shimmer in Sloane Ranger. It contrasted nicely with the golden/coppery shimmer in Faithful. I’ve been itching to buy Faithful since I first saw swatches of it, so when I saw the Naked Strangers display finally up at Sephora, I jumped on that like a kitten on her dinner. I adore that sort of semi-metallic shimmery finish, and the color is lovely. The base is almost caramel in tone.
Sloane Ranger continues to be a very pretty grayish green with a decent formula and a subtle silver shimmer. It hasn’t changed at all since I first posted about it in June, though I’d like to theorize I’ve gotten a little better about my camera work since then. :) I’ve still got quite a long way to go, but I’m working on it!
Observe the sheen! That silver shimmer doesn’t show up at all at a quick glance, or even a second one. You have to really hunt for it when looking at your nails in person.
Faithful looks considerably more copper in the bottle, in fact, it needed to be shaken slightly before using it because it had separated in a really beautiful swirl. This mani was two coats of each color over Butter London Nail Foundation and topped with Butter London P.D. Quick topcoat for shine.
I bought my Sloane Ranger at the Butter London salon in Sea-Tac Airport, but you might more commonly find it at their website, or at Nordstrom, or at any of a number of other possible places. Illamasqua I purchased at Sephora, though many people also buy through their site. They are more expensive that way, due to the exchange rate from the U.K.; however, there are some colors that Sephora doesn’t carry, and you can get things earlier direct. It’s a trade-off. *shrug*
I’ve been a bit of an Anglophile since I was young, a result of reading a lot of British children’s (and not so children’s) books and watching possibly too many Britcoms and dramas on Channel 9, the local PBS station, so I have a long-held weakness for things with British themes. When I saw L’Oreal’s new London Fall collection at a local drugstore, I initially resisted, but after seeing it again at another, gave in and bought the peacock-blue creme, Rainy Piccadilly. I’m still tempted by a couple of the others, but am holding out for now.
It’s a beautiful color, very rich and deep, and it does dry a bit darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle. I’ve found that quirk common with this sort of dark blue, though this one is a bit lighter than the others I own. I decided to pair it with Enchanted Polish Vampire’s Dessert, which is a deep brownish-red holo. It tends to look mostly black in full sunlight, but in bright indoor light, shows off the true color, which is a bit like a freshly dried scab over a wound that bled profusely. It’s quite lovely, and I think looks very nice with the rich blue as a contrast. The holo effect was fairly strong, though not crazy rainbows levels of madness, and it does mostly fade in the shade.
Both of these polishes were fairly opaque at one coat; Rainy Piccadilly was slightly streaky on a couple of nails where my base wasn’t fully dry, but perfect all the others. Two coats are ideal, I think, for depth of color and evenness. I’ve really liked the color and texture of both the L’Oreal polishes I’ve tried, and would definitely consider purchasing them as they release more appealing colors.
Both of these are intensely pigmented, and cleanup was a bit of a horror. Not a full-on-screaming-in-terror-AUGH-WOULD-YOU-JUST-LEAVE-MY-CUTICLES horror, to be certain; they’re a holo and a creme, not serious glitter monsters, but still, if you have the interest, cleanup is easier while they’re still slightly damp, or by the terrible habit of peeling after they’re fully dry.
Vampire’s Dessert is one of the many shades that is being discontinued by Enchanted Polish, at least for the time being. As of last I checked (August 4th) it was still available at Llarowe. L’Oreal is a drugstore polish, and you can probably find it at any of your local shops. I’ve seen them at Walgreen’s and Bartell Drugs for certain, and heard rumors that they may be on sale at Rite-Aid, so check your local equivalents. This one is limited, but you can also probably find a decent dupe for it in other places; it’s a lovely color, but not super-unique.
My current obsession, aside from holos and matte topcoats and indie polish companies, is Essence, and especially their Colour & Go line. They’re ridiculously cheap, rarely fully stocked, and strangely awesome. I have yet to find one that I think has an awful formula, and most of them are quite fantastic. I buy them whenever I find them, in twos and threes and fives (when I find a display that actually has that many colors stocked), and as they’re only 5 ml bottles, they’re economical for space as well as cost. This fascinating charmer is 73 – Princess Prunella, paired with a pretty neutral holo called Flash Mob from an indie company called Piper Polish Co.
Princess Prunella is not only fun to say, but also a very peculiar color, both brown and purple in nearly equal measure. I’m pretty sure that the base polish is a frosty milk chocolate brown, but there’s so much purple shimmer that it overwhelms the base much of the time. They managed to recreate the effect in plastic on the cap, too, which amused me. I love the coordinating caps on these; it makes them really stand out in the sea of black and silver in my polish boxes. The brushes aren’t bad, either.
Flash Mob is a very pretty shade, but it’s almost a non-color. Tan? Taupe? Pale gold? Except it’s grayer than those; it’s like a holo topcoat with a tint and good coverage. It is described as a “bronze metallic”, but I think of bronze as darker than this is. I want to describe it as a “my nails but better”-style of color. This is two coats and in person had zero visible nail line. It had a pretty good formula and dried quickly, though it did like to flood a bit.
Yep, back to my old alternating accents tricks again. This picture really shows the base of Princess Prunella. I used Butter London P.D. Quick topcoat with these to heighten the shine, especially on Prunella, which can get a bit brushstrokey due to the frostiness.
Flash Mob has a nice semi-linear holo. It’s not tremendously strong (it actually photographed stronger than it looked in person), but pretty. This morning I stacked on a Spectraflair topcoat (also from Piper Polish Co., though many companies, indie and major, carry them), which intensified and unified the look considerably as well as looking fantastic on Princess Prunella. However, I didn’t manage to get any photos. Can you see my sad little broken thumbnail peeking through in this photo? All my nails are that length now, as I worked at my old comic shop again today and managed to drop boxes and catch my nails on cases with sliding doors and broke two others. :/ So I’ll have stubs for a little while. Bah, humbug.
I bought the Essence at a Fred Meyers, but you may find them at Ulta, or possibly Target, or other similar places. Flash Mob was purchased from Piper Polish Co., who has a shop on Etsy.
Hoo hoo hoo. I am super stressed out right now, but that does not mean that I have not had time to do my nails. This may be not always be a good thing, as sometimes I come up with some terrible, terrible ideas. This was not so bad, but it was preceded by, well. You’ll see, safely under a cut.
HITS no Olimpo Hermes and Rimmel Night Life — lovely golden linear holo and fascinating brown-taupe-that-looks-purplish-in-certain-lights with a rather gorgeous copper-gold-red shimmer.
I like the way they look together. Observe the shimmer on the bottle. It’s a bit more subtle on the nail, but not that much.
Rrrrrainbow! Also, Night Life displaying a bit more gold. That’s three coats of Hermes and two of Night Life. Next time I wear Hermes, I might consider using a base, as it goes quick. The bottle’s not huge, and if you mung up your mani three times as I did, well, you may draw an unlovely picture from there. The Rimmel was streaky in one coat and good in two.
I’m still really enjoying the double-accent manicure look. I’ll get ’round to something else sooner or later, but there are a lot of things that are currently popular that I just don’t particularly groove on, or, alternately, haven’t got the supplies to attempt.
Please note that I will never attempt ‘caviar nails’, because I think they are terrible. Flocked nails, likewise. I give such things sideways glowers.
Mind you, this does not prevent me from some hilarious things — see beneath the cut for a painfully bad one-hand mani.
Hermes was bought at Llarowe. The Rimmel was another present from the fantabulous U. ;D
It’s hard not to love holos. I don’t have many (yet), but they’re so much fun to wear. This time I picked a couple of scattered holos — OPI DS Illuminate and a-England Dragon.
Illuminate is a coppery-brown with a rather chunky holo effect and a green sheen. Dragon is a lovely scaly green with a golden shimmer and finer holo.
Both are smooth and easy to apply, shown is two coats of each, but Dragon could nearly have gotten away with just one. Like most holos, they remove easily as well.
Indoors, you can see the green on Illuminate a little better.
As well as the gold on Dragon.
The OPI was gifted to me by the U. the Great and Terrible (and rad), and Dragon was bought at Llarowe.
Vanitas Rex 