Butter London Marrow

Fall is in full swing for me, I mean take a look at my front yard:


It was fully green just 2 days ago!

I spent an entire evening packing away all my summer shades and pulling out everything I want to wear for fall and lining up all 40 bottles on the top shelf of my desk. So much to choose from! I'm loving teals, vampies, taupes and anything that's really greyed out. I wore BL Marrow a few days ago and it was awesome. I love the hidden shimmer to it, it makes the polish feel a bit like a Chanel, and adds a wonderful depth to a great shade of purple. This wore really well for me, I had 3 full days with no chips!

Goodbye, Summer!

Summer is over and so are summer mani's, but I'm so ready to move on to fall! These were the last things I wore in August:

Butter London Victoriana, just as amazing as it looks! I think this is seriously a must have.

China Glaze Strawberry Fields, which I got tons of compliments on. I liked it but I'm still not a huge fan of pink on my fingeres.

Essie Turquoise and Caicos. My dear Essie... Why do you make it so hard to love you? I've come to terms with the skinny brush, we're good, we're cool.... but why do you need 3 coats and then take FOREVER to dry?! I don't like having a dented mani. Love the color though.

Essie Lapis of Luxury. Same problems as the above, though this time I scheduled my mani with some downtime so I wasn't using my hands for an HOUR after my mani.... still got dents. Which really sucks, because this color is amazing.

I'm already in to my fall color stash and it keeps growing a little bit every week. I can't get enough of fall colors, but need to use them quick because as soon as OPI Burlesque comes out it's glitters all the way!

New Butter London's

Butter LONDON announced their new shades last week and I could not wait to buy Marrow. I've been hyped about it since it was shown during fashion week. I have an extreme passion for dark purple! So I ordered that and, oops, the other 3 new shades jumped in my cart too! I'm so excited to do full mani's with these, but I needed a small taste of them today so I did a quick skittles. They clash with the other 6 fingers still being pastel blue, but it's okay to have an ugly-eccentric nail day every once in a while!

From left to right is Marrow, Victoriana, All Hail McQueen and Bumster. Marrow is a deep purple with a whisper of shimmer. You have to know it's there to even see it, and even then it really doesn't show, but it does add a certain depth to the color. Victoriana is, color-wise, dupey to RBL 360, except this baby is loaded up with silver shimmer, it's so pretty! All Hail McQueen is the total star of this collection. It's a holographic neutral, something that I normal wouldn't even look twice at. It's not that I'm not a huge holo or neutral fan, I just never really go for them. But together they make the cutest little taupy-holo baby! I'm so glad I did with this one, I think it looks great with my skin tone! Lastly is Bumster, which confuses me so much. It is gold. I wish I could just leave it right there. But without a shimmer it doesn't really seem gold, it seems like a caramel color. But it really is gold! Not sure if it goes with my skin tone too well but I'm still going to rock it because the color is so interesting to me.

It was cloudy today so I didn't get the best pictures to show off the holo. When I do a full mani with it I'll pick a sunny day! But for now, here it is with super flash:

And no flash:

China Glaze Orange Marmalade

I know orange really isn't the most flattering color on me, but I can't help but love it. Especially when it looks like this. I wish China Glaze would come with a glass flecked collection once a year so that I could get this formula in every color imaginable! Orange Marmalade just glows... I love it. This was with 3 coats and there's still a bit of a VNL, which I can forgive, and you really need 2 coats of TC to make the shimmer sing, but I can also forgive that.

Color accurate picture:

Glass flecked sparkle awesomeness:

OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue

Seriously, you do! I don't even have words for it. It's bottled blue shimmery perfection!

For only the second time in a year, I cheated on Seche Vite, but this time it was with the notorious Poshe. And wow... I might be a convert. It's less thick than SV so I didn't get any bubbles (though I rarely got them from SV I was still always paranoid), and I'm on day 4 of this mani and it still looks exactly like day 1, not even a bit of tip wear! The only downside to Poshe was that it wasn't as shiny as SV when I first used it, but what really makes it better is that it hasn't lost any shine like SV does and it hasn't scratched up from normal day to day abuse. It still looks exactly like I just put it on. Poshe, I do believe this could be a forever kind of relationship! I need a few more trials runs before I dump SV though.

I also have Russian Navy, and considering how much I love this one was thinking about tracking down Ink. Thoughts? Is it worth it if I already have the other 2?

Chanel Paradoxal

I was really unsure about why I dropped so much cash on this polish. Chanel is hyped up and I'm never sure if I should buy in to the hype or not. This time around though, I'm really happy I did. Paradoxal was worth it! I love the smoked out feel to it and the light shimmer. Sadly I hate the application. Since I'm paying top dollar, would it kill Chanel to design a better brush? And maybe add a little more shine to the polish? I'll forgive you once, Chanel, since this color is so pretty! I don't think I'll be wearing this much in the summer though, it's definitely a fall color.

Other stuff I've been wearing

So I realize there was a huge gap in between blogs, and it was all due to a really bad break I had on my photographed hand. I still took pictures, but they're only with 2 fingers. I still like to show what I've been wearing, even if I didn't follow through with clean up and it's only half a hand!

RBL Coral was huge on my lemming list for the longest time, but after putting it on I was disappointed. Yes, it is the most true coral shade I've come across, but it's so freakin' bright on my fingers! I have a couple other shades in my stash (OPI My Chihuahua bites and something from Forever 21) that are close to dupes and only a fraction of the price, so this really isn't a must have. I kind of regret dropping the cash on such a not-unique color. And it didn't even hold up, I had chipping within 18 hours.

Much like Coral, Butter LONDON Artful Dodger was has been on my lemming list a long time. A looooong time! I put in an order as a belated b-day present for myself, along with a few other shades. Unlike Coral, however, this one far exceeded my hopes. I fell in love with this the instant I put it on. It's the most perfect turquoise cream ever. It applied beautifully and wore like iron for 4 days.

I took a quick bottle comparison picture just to show the color. Artful Dodger is bluer than China Glaze Flyin High but greener than Essie Shelter Island.

Butter LONDON Fash Pack was the only BL shade I waivered on. There weren't a lot of swatches around for me to check out, and I couldn't tell if it would look good or terrible on me. At the last second I added it too my order and I'm SO glad I did. As if the perfect greigy color wasn't enough, there's a hidden pure gold shimmer to it that adds amazing depth. This also applied perfectly and wore like iron for 4 entire days before I removed it.


The gold shimmer:

Butter LONDON doesn't seem to get a whole lot of love on the NP blogs, but it's really highly ranked for me. They put out amazingly unique shades with cute names and they recently changed their formula. The change includes a bigger bottle and change to the brush. You can now easily remove the top square cap to reveal a round top to grab.


Let's compare the new Tramp Stamp to the old bottle of Portabello Pink.

The new bottle has a sticker telling you that the top portion is removable, the old bottle is pretty much impossible to remove (unless you get all Hulk on it, which I was unable to do...)



Overall, I do think that Butter LONDON is worth the money, but I recommend ordering from beauty.com. I did so, and I received a free bottle of Portabello Pink, free shipping and $10 off my entire order. Even though the free NP isn't my type, I can use the bottle for a franken and I still got a much better deal compared to the Butter LONDON website.

Catching up on NOTD's

I know I've totally been slacking with posting the NOTD's, but I'm still (mostly) keeping up with them between homework. So here's what I was wearing this past week:

The Summer Days collection continues to impress me! I totally love Raspberry Festival. At first I thought it was too red, but it's a perfect raspberry color so I really can't complain. I loved the shimmer in it! This was with 2 coats though I probably should have done 3.



For my birthday last Wednesday I pulled out Essie Greenport, which I was saving in my untrieds for a special occasion. And it made me feel so awesome on by birthday! The color completely lived up to all the hype that surrounded it and totally lived up to how awesome I had built it up in my head. I'm really glad I was able to get the Essie, but I've heard L'oreal came out with a collection of 3 exact dupes for the North Fork collection. I'm still hunting them down to have back ups! This was with 3 curse-filled coats (how much do you hate that teeny tiny F^%@ing brush?!) to cover the initial streakiness. I didn't like the overall look of 3 coats, it always looks to thick on my nails.



And finally the NOTD that I'm on day #4 of, OPI Lunch at the Delhi. I adore this. On my super pale cool toned skin, depending on the light I see red to sometimes orange, but most of the day in normal light It's a perfect dusty warm toned coral. This was 2 coats but I probably should have done 3 here also. I hate how white my nail line is!


Also don't forget to enter my Great Barrier Reef giveaway! You can come back every day for an extra chance to win :D

Greens #10, 9 & 8

I was trying to save my most anticipated greens for next week, but caved and put on OPI Jade is the New Black today. I was hoping it would live up to the hype, and it totally did! I can tell I'm going to be wearing this one a lot, it's the perfect dusty cream green. It applied flawlessly and was perfect in 2 coats. Also I filed down my nails yesterday, it seems like every 3 weeks my classes all pile up big papers and projects and I do a lot of typing. It's so much easier to do the work with nubbins!

It's raining out today (OMG rain! I've missed you!) so I took pictures under an Ott light. I've never done it before but this picture is completely accurate!


I swatched China Glaze Paper Chasing yesterday. I adore this color, so much so that I wore it for 4 days straight last August. But when I took it off I had terrible stains, so this is another one I'd steer clear of. If that doesn't deter you, it took 3 coats to get this and it chips easily. I was sad about this one, it was one of my most anticipated from the Kicks collection. And green #8 was butter LONDON Thames. I like it, but it's similar to the Essence I wore a few days ago, and I like the Essence much more because it's less blue. I'm swapping it away; I won't miss the color but I will miss the little square bottle... so cute!




Also MAC's Liberty of London collection came out yesterday, YAY! If you're interested in the Blue India NP you can use the code LIBERTY and get free shipping with no minimum amount. My awesome mom placed an order for me last night, along with a bunch of lipsticks I've been lemming. I'm pretty excited!

Greens #5, 6 &7

I just put on my 7th green and I'm loving this theme month. I've been saving my greens for so long and pulling them out now is so much fun! Yesterday I put on one of the Sally Hansen HD's, Hi-Def. These came out last summer and this green was actually the start of my collection. And it was a big sad disappointment. Streaky, sheer, and so many bubbles! Also since this was the first nail polish I had worn in 8+ years, my family teased me about my "Kermit fingers". They've gotten used to my love of greens now though so it's all good. But even though I didn't like the formula on this HD, I bought another 5 colors, mostly because I didn't know where to buy other nail polish in my tiny town and I still hadn't heard about Transdesign (discovering that was like the best. day. evar.), and partly because the rainbow of 8 colors looked so cute together. Anyways, I pulled it out again yesterday to see if my feelings had changed about it.... Nope. Still hate it. This was with 4 sloppy coats.



I only wore Hi-Def for about 45 minutes before pulling out one of my new Sally Hansens, Going Green. I've never tried Xtreme Wear, but I loved it! Check out this green! I thought it was a cream and was a little disappointed when I brought it out in the sunlight at home and saw shimmer, but after wearing it I was really happy with it. This is with 2 coats. I liked the application with this, the brush was pretty wide but super manageable; this picture was taken with no cleanup! I'm such a klutz and I've never been able to stay in the lines but this polish made it easy.



I've been stalking my Walgreens and even Walmart for 10 days trying to get the new Maybelline Minty. A wonderful NBer read about my plight and offered to swap me her extra, which arrived yesterday. I just put this one on for green #7, and wow. Wow. Wow!! This is my new favorite mint! The application was maybe not as smooth as my all-time favorite, RGB Minty, but it was a lot better than 90% of my other mints. The first coat was streaky, the second evened it out a bit, but the third coat was flawless perfection. I need to go back to stalking the drugstore so I can get a back up!




I also did a quick comparison swatch but I didn't take the time to clean up as acetone is drying out my skin terribly, so please excuse the mess. Left to right is China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, Maybelline Minty, RGB Minty and Essie Mint Candy Apple. MCA doesn't really have anything to do with Minty, but it seems like everyone has MCA so it's a good one for comparison.



I'd also like to let you all know that in addition to being a klutz with nail polish, I'm totally forgetful. Wonderful reader Isa asked me who the winner of my Who Loves Purple? giveway was and I realized I completely forgot to post the wrap up! Reader Caitlin, who is new to nail polish, won 3 awesome purples to expand her collection. Congrats, Caitlin!

I'm planning on doing another giveway sometime in April and was planning on doing a theme of my newest obsession, coral. But since YOU guys are the one winning polish, I'll let you decide! Vote in the poll on the sidebar for which color family you'd like to win! I'm also accepting write-in votes, leave a comment on this post with your suggestion.

Green #4

No one told me that the China Glaze Summer Days was so completely awesome. I kept thinking they were a shimmer, but according to ALU they are glass flecked. And awesome. These are AWESOME. I tracked down Watermelon Rind to wear for March and it came in the mail yesterday. I'm completely in love with it and am working on tracking down the other 5 from the collection (anyone wanna swap? lol). I used 3 very thin coats of this, I think I could have gotten away with 2 slightly thicker coats but the polish was a little runny at first. Even with 3 coats it dried really fast, I did laundry just 10 minutes after applying Seche Vite and didn't get a single dent (even when my fingers got caught in the little holes of the laundry basket... don't ask how that happened)!

Green #3

Today I'm wearing Rimmel Camouflage. The entire Rimmel brand has always been hit or miss for me, and this one is pretty good. The brush is a little weird to use, probably since I've been spoiled lately from using so much OPI, but after my first nail I got the hang of it and each nail only took 1 coat! I'm surprised this lived up to it's 60 second promise! I also really love the color on this, it's a perfect true green loaded with green and gold shimmer. I only own one other bottle of the old Rimmels, it's one of the purple ones, and it did NOT hold up well... granted I decided to take it camping last summer since I needed a quick mani in a tent. But I can't BELIEVE a $2 NP wouldn't hold up to the abuse of fire starting, fishing, rock hunting and swimming... okay, in retrospect I was pretty hard on it lol.


In non-np news, I've been back to my regular work out routine for the last week and a half now and I'm feeling great! At the beginning of Decemeber I pulled a muscle in my foot that took until the end of January to heal, and then at the beginning of February I started up again with too much agression and got shin splints. But I've been easing back in to my routine and am now pushing myself every day to my goals. My problem is I haven't updated my workout playlist in about 3 months and I have NO idea what to pick for music now. I'd love to hear some suggestions! I usually listen to upbeat stuff, pop music and some alt rock, sometimes a little metal (if it's not screamy) to get through tough parts. What music do you work out to?

Greens #1&2

I'm planning on doing greens for the first 17 days of March! A new one every day, most of them untried, right through St. Patrick's day. Yesterday I swatched Mint Mojito but was reluctant to leave it on because I heard it stained. I liked the color, but not enough to risk it, so I took pics and changed to Essence All Access. Mint Mojito is a 2 coater and Essence only took 1. I had great sunlight today so the shimmer really shows on All Access!


What greens are you most excited to wear for March? I'm saving my most anticipated, OPI Jade is the New Black, NYS Amaranth and RBL Recycle, for closer to the 17th!

Here Today... Arago(r)n Tomorrow

I know this is the Espana collection, not the Lord of the Rings collection, but I still add the 'r' every time I say the name. A girl can dream, right? I put this on Saturday, took pictures, and took it off just this morning, the entire 48 swearing up and down that it was a green cream. Much to my surprise, my camera, which can't pick up an orange and adds too much blue to purple, found the hidden shimmer! Love!

Application was OPI standard, but I was very disappointed that it took 3 coats to be opaque. I'm one of those habitual 2 coaters and adding the extra 90 seconds it takes to coat all 10 fingers just ticks me off, especially from an OPI cream. And then I got chips the next day. What's the deal, man? I put in all that extra time for CHIPS?! Hellz no.



Don't forget to enter my Who Loves Purple? giveaway!

Rockin' It!

Before the Superbowl on Sunday I'm going to a Guitar Hero pre-party, and since I've hardly played since the semester started, I've been brushing up on my skillz. I'm pretty awesome lol. Since it's purple week at MUA and I had the perfect untried purple with the perfect name, I tried it out! I'm wearing Essence Rock It, Baby! and it is divine. The color is a true purple, deeper than what my pictures show, and the shimmer in it is a little blue and a little red, which comes out in bright lights, but in dimmer lights they mix together so it just looks purple. Love it! For an accent I wore Rock n Roll, another perfect name for my theme! It has teeny silver glitter mixed with slightly bigger pieces, so pretty! The purple Essence is from their Color and Go collection and it comes in a smaller bottle. I'm always leery of these things, because our American versions of quick dry (Sally Hansen Insta Dri) really SUCK! I only bought one, and while I like some of the new colors, I'm reluctant to buy them... but this little Essence is amazing. It has a wide brush, but it's more like OPI's Pro-Wide, and while it did dry REALLY fast on my nails, there was still plenty of time for me to swipe it on evenly. And it was really easy to work with on top of all that! I wish I could get these nearby!

Who says a $2 polish can't be awesome?

Okay, so I'm a little bit of a NP snob. Just barely though. I won't touch Maybelline, and I have 2 Rimmels that I like but don't wear just in case someone says, "OMG I love your polish! Wear did you get it?" and then I have to say "uhm... the drugstore...". And I think Sally Hansen is becoming a huge rip off! What's with her price increase? I can get 3 China Glazes from Transdesign for the price of 1 new Sally Hansen! But I have a soft spot for Sinful polishes. The glitters, oh, the glitters they have... I love them. I usually wait for a sale, but these were on a special display case so I grabbed them, though I do think they are a part of the regular line. Someone on MUA made a comment that Mint Apple and Soul Mate could be dupes for Jade and Jade Rose. So I ran to grab them! But sorry, they're not even close.

But happily, Mint Apple is awesome. This alone made the trip worth it. It's a dusty green with a gold shimmer, and it applied beautifully. Look at the color! I am in love! You definitely get a bang for your 2 bucks.



With flash to show the gold shimmer:



And I took some comparisons with Essie Greenport on my thumb and Misa Dirty Sexy Money on my pinkie. Here you can really appreciate the dustiness. I badly smudged my middle finger so I just covered it with my thumb :)



Soul Mate was the supposed Jade Rose dupe. It's a creamy dusty pink. I'm not really feelin' this one. I don't think it's a very "me" color, though I do like the dustiness. It applied kind of goopy, though it wasn't as bad as the China Glaze's I compared them to.



Between China Glaze Sugar High on my index and Peachy Keen on my ring finger.



And the last new Sinful I grabbed, named Rise and Shine. This one I very much like. I did a quick swatch but took dozens of pictures, none of which came out accurate. It is VERY close to Four Leaf Clover, which is on my ring finger, only Rise and Shine has an added subtle shimmer and it dries neon matte. You cans see the original finish on my pinkie, and I added Seche Vite to my index and middle for the shine. This also brings out the fine shimmer in it. I think this is just too perfect for Spring!



My Walgreens display is ALWAYS half empty! Either they never get new shipments, or they do and someone comes in and picks it over before I get there! So I never get to see what all the Sinfuls look like. What are your favorite Sinful polishes? If I can find them I'd love to check them out!