So I missed a day due to vacation and lazy! Yeep! I’ll have to do something extra next week. The mani I left with (Chanel Peridot) didn’t last four days, so I bought some cheap-but-surprisingly-decent polishes at H&M and Claire’s, so I should use those. One of them is a truly hilarious glitter that changes color in sunlight. Hopefully we’ll get some proper sun again so I can take some photos.
Today, however, I have a mani I did before I left — a-england Lady of the Lake and OPI DS Diamond with a bit of China Glaze Ink. It was my first attempt using scotch tape, and it went …acceptably well?
Both of these are scattered holos–Diamond is the lavender-pink, and Lady of the Lake is the violet. Ink is approximately the color of blue ink, and comes with a super-thin nail art brush.
I did this in a slightly silly way (as I said, it was my first attempt) — first, I painted a single layer of DS Diamond and let it dry, then I cut a triangular shape out of tape, slapped that on my nails, and painted Lady of the Lake around it.
Naturally, the edges came out a bit ragged, so I added psuedo-detailing with Ink.
This actually looked a great deal nicer in person than it does in macro. I got several compliments on it, and really enjoyed wearing it.
I bought DS Diamond at a salon (just a random one I happened to stop in because they had a lot of older OPI on display), Lady of the Lake directly from a-england, and Ink was part of the mad stash liberation/redistribution by the Superlatively Coiffed and Always Well-Dressed U. ;)
May I present Butter London Trustafarian. People, PLEASE.
Look at this holo — look at this shiny, shiny color. This is a part of the Butter London Fall 2012 collection, one of two holos. There are a couple of other colors from this collection that may come home with me later. True to form, I immediately started wishing I had a pink holo to pair it with, because I am apparently really not over pink and green.
Yeah, it’s somewhat the color of cash, indicative of the financial backing of the Trustafarian lifestyle. But whatever, you don’t have to get into the meaning of a name to describe a polish (especially when dealing with Butter London or OPI.) I’m just used to fragrance reviews. ;) I prefer to think of it as a pistachio-sage-limeskin kind of color. It’s greenish and goldish in certain lights and I really think it’s beautiful.
I’m quite impressed at their efforts into this soon-to-be-very-crowded field. The formula is a little thin, but really pretty on par with most holos. Two coats were reasonably opaque, though a third was optimal for getting it to the color it looks in the bottle. It looks much more yellow with one or two. My only complaint is that the drying time is long compared to what I’m used to from other holo polishes. On the other hand, it has quite an impressive shine and sparkle.
It was tough to take this off — after three days (with Butter London base and topcoats), no chipping, no tipwear, it looked perfect. But I just got in some polishes I’ve been really looking forward to, so off it goes. I’ll be wearing it again, and maybe next time I’ll have something to pair with it. Brown might be nice, or a yellow-toned pink or maybe darker green or even a dark red. I’ll think about it.
This and the third photo were in full sunlight. The others were taken all indoors under a bright light.
I bought this at Nordstrom’s, but you can get Butter London polishes from their website, or at many other department stores and boutiques. I’d say that B-L is probably the company I’m most likely to see at gift shops, nurseries (plant-type, not babies) and salons/spas. Their displays lend themselves well to those environments.
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.
Again with the boring titles. Pshaw. WHATEVER, this polish is amazing. Meet Enchanted Nails Across the Universe. :D
I am a Beatles fan, and have been since I was a tot, so when I learned that there was a company making Beatles-named polishes, and that some of them were duo/multichrome, and that they were holographics, I may have flipped my lid ever so politely. Three great things that, in my opinion, come together beautifully.
The base is blue, though the exact shade is a little difficult to pin down, as it shifts depending on the lighting. Sometimes it’s close to navy, and others it appears more peacock. This photo was taken in bright sunlight. Kindly observe the rainbow gleam on the bottle. In the wild, this polish — eh?
More towards the purple/red-violet side of the spectrum here but still with a beautiful quasi-linear holo gleam. You’ve probably noticed by now that I have a penchant for purple/blue duochromes. My two favorite colors, and they are so delicious together. Mmm.
It’s painfully difficult to photograph the rosy-copper gleam that Across the Universe displays, but you can begin to see it on my index finger. All of these photos were two coats of Across the Universe, no top coat. The application was stellar and required minimal cleanup.
Navy! Rainbows! AAAAGHHH AMAZING. …sorry. :)
I bought this gorgeous fellow at Llarowe, though it and its cousins Hey Jude & Octopus’s Garden are currently out of stock. They’ll be back, though. Most of Enchanted’s polishes are being discontinued soon, but those guys are considered semi-permanent collection. Thankfully.
Vanitas Rex 