Nail MADNESS - Butter London "Wallis"

Here is Butter London's "Wallis".  I run out of good things to say about Butter London, I really do, but this one is particularly gorgeous.  My roommate says it's mostly gold, I say it's mostly green with gold shimmer, and the camera says we're both stupid and it's kind of greenygoldeytaupey.  It's pretty much impossible to take a photo that captures every aspect of this, but I certainly tried.

As always Orly Bonder basecoat, two layers of polish, Seche Vite topcoat.  This is after four days of wear.

Nail MADNESS - Butter London "All Hail the Queen"

Here are some proper pictures of All Hail the Queen.  It's a really pretty griegey taupey color and absolutely perfect for work.  I wore this to an interview and was totally comfortable with it.  All of these were taken in indoor light with flash.

 This is after five days of wear and they're holding on strong!  I used a coat of Orly Bonder with two ty topacoats of the polish (though it was pretty opaque after one coat, I like to do two because I suck at getting things perfect on one coat) followed by one coat of Seche Vite.

Nail MADNESS - Butter London Haul

I was lucky enough to get in on an amazing deal for the launch of Coterie, a site that's a bit like a Haute Look or Gilt - but just for beauty.  Skin care, makeup, nail care - it's all there.  For the launch, they offered a code that gave people 25.00 off their first order.  I got a pack of three Butter London polishes and a matte top coat for eleven bucks USD.  Considering these polishes sell for 16.00 USD each at my local Ulta, I was stoked.  Here's what I got!

From L t R: All Hail The Queen, West End Wonderland, Wallis, Matte Topcoat

Yes, I'm wearing All Hail The Queen in those pictures, but I'll have a proper review of it up on Monday for you guys.

Nail MADNESS - Butter London Lazy Day Mani

I am so deeply sorry, my loves, that I have not posted in a while.  Loads happened - I had surgery, I got a cold (those two are unrelated but happened pretty close to each other), and I ended up having to ditch one cell phone carrier in favor of another (I used to get my celly service for free because of a family hookup, but said hookup was lost and I now pay for it like a normal American).  That meant that my camera was gone.  Yes, Virginia, I use my cell phone camera to take my blog photos.  In the spirit of all things ghetto fantastic, I refuse to spend 500 bucks I don't have on a camera just to take photos of makeup and my cats.  Ye olde cellphone works just fine.  And now on with the pretties!

Everyone I know who's into polish, who hates leaving the house with naked nails has a go to "I'm too lazy to be arsed to be creative and awesome today" mani.  This is mine.  (THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT - okay, sorry, Full Metal Jacket moment there.)  What I do when I can't be arsed to come up with cute color combos or whip out the Konad plates is this: I put on Butter London's Hen Party, then top it with Tart With a Heart.  I know what you're thinking - that sounds boring, even for layering.  But really, it's prettier than you think!

So, these are the girls in their bottles (photos from Butter London's website).  They look kind of boring in the bottle, and separately, yeah, they are kinda boring.  These ladies were meant to be layered.  They can be layered over other polishes sure, but I really fancy them together - they look just like champagne bubbles.



With flash



with flash

Not bad for something I did while half asleep in ten minutes, yeah?  Especially since I type for a living, I just do not always have the time during my four or so polish changes a week for brilliance.  This mani makes it easy for me to look down at my nails and smile.  What's your go-to lazy day mani?

Nail MADNESS - Knackered Techno

Man, I like me some nail polish.  It's just such an easy way to cheer yourself up for (usually) under twenty bucks.  Butter London's Spring/Summer collection wasn't really that exciting for me, if only because I don't do a lot of teals or pinks.  But Knackered has loads of microglitter in it, which just makes it shiny and lovely in the bottle, so I couldn't resist.

Curse you, Butter London.  Here's my 14.00 USD, now leave me the hell alone.  ... for now.  ... for now.


Here's how she looks swatched:

Now, I'll interject here quickly - as soon as I got this home, I thought "hold up, she looks a lot like Not Like the Movies by OPI".  Remember that one, from the Katy Perry collection a while ago?

Yes, they do look familiar.  They're both sort of like oil spills - you know when you see oil on pavement and it does this pretty opalescent thing?  These both do that.  But while they're similar, I don't think they're exactly the same at all.

Not Like the Movies ends up being kind of a mossy green where Knackered ends up more of a sky blue.  They both have loads of glitter and shine, but the base color is in and of itself different.  They're not dupes of each other, nope!

Now, Knackered is super pretty on her own, but I tend to get confused when I just wear one color by itself.  So I went ahead and upped the ante and put some glitter on top.  I'd just gotten China Glaze's Techno from their Electropop collection that just came out, and put that on there.

I actually really love how they look together - the microglitter and hex glitter in Techno enhance the glitter that's already in Knackered.  And I even thought to take pictures in natural light!

And here you've got nothin' but shine, shine, shine.  Three coats of Knackered here on top of China Glaze adhesion basecoat, two coats of Techno, then one coat of Seche Vite.  And yes, that was three days after application, leave me alone.  YOU'RE NOT MY MOM.

Nail of the Moment - Butter London and YSL Mashup

So, when I'm bored, I do my nails.  It's not a thing I schedule - I don't have a grandiose "mani day" like I see some bloggers do.  It's more of a 'welp, my nails are kinda jacked up, so I'mma redo them while I watch this terrible Investigation Discovery show' thing.  And I usually do them in the 10PM to 11PM period where I'm off work and fed and vaguely relaxed.  So it never turns out super awesome, but hell, it makes me happy.  This is the point of doing anything, in my humble opinion.  Much like this blog!  (See that segway there?  That segway was fantastic.)

For Christmas, I got the Butter London Dressing Table set, which makes me totally late to the party, I know, but if you're like me and even later, I think you can still snag it at Ulta or Amazon.  It's got two really pretty glitters in it.  Tart With a Heart is the lighter champagne one with some silver and gold shimmer in it, but if you know me, you know that I'm a dark girl who loves her black polishes.  So I wanted The Black Knight like burning.  The sad thing was, when I got it, I wasn't floored.  It was more like a black jelly with glitter innit.  Now, I love the colors they chose for the glitter - there's some purple and teal and hot pink, which are my other favorite colors - but at the same time, I was expecting more of a black creme as the base.  I can't be too mad at them for the fact that it applies like goop.  What glitter polish that is super dense with glitter doesn't?  (I normally hate glitter, which I think I've said here before, and will likely say again.)

Well, I wasn't mad about the polish, and I had some Scotch tape and a big ol' plastic tub filled with my other polish, so what did I do?  I put some tape on the bottom of my stubby little nails and did me some ghetto tips.  I used YSL polish (which I don't use too often as I find it has the shortest wear time of any polish I own) in what I think is 35 but will double check on when I get home.  Here are the results, three days after I did 'em:

For something I halfassed, and for someone with super short nails, I think it turned out hella cute.  (And no, there's no way I can grow my nails out - I'm a gamer, and a girl who types over 100 words a minute at work every day.  I kind of need my fingers.)  At the very least, I think the tips add some interest and some texture, which I always like in my manicures.  And it's giving me something to do with that damn YSL polish.