A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

You know how you can get those mugs with the how-much-milk scale on the side of them?  From “builders brew” at the top end of the scale right down to “gnats piss” at the bottom?

Well, Butter London’s Cuppa is definitely in gnats piss territory.  Infact, if someone actually brought me a cup of tea and it was this colour.  I’d tell them that their parents had clearly dragged, rather than brought them up.  After which, I’d send them back to the kitchen for a second attempt and remind them not to forget the biscuits this time.

So, clearly I prefer a strong brew… on the nails, however, Cuppa is a real stunner.

Until now, I’d majorly-lemmed for a super-pale beige but I hadn’t found one that managed to look creamy rather than chalky.  Cuppa hits the spot, the tones are just right, the neutrality is perfect, and it applies smoothly without any issues.

My only grumble is that it takes three coats to eliminate all streakiness… many super-pale pastels suffer from baldy spots here and there but beyond that, I adore this shade.

Butter London Cuppa is priced at £11.95 and is available to buy online from powderrooms.com

Seeing as it’s blatantly not Summer anymore – the rain hammering at my windows is testament to this – I thought I’d show you a real Summery shade.  Just because I’m obtuse like that.  I said obtuse, not obsese, bitches.

Butter London’s Fiver is a very, very pale pastel.  Not quite a green, not quite an aqua… it sits somewhere between the two.  There’s a definite amount of blue in there to prevent it from looking full-on minty, making it a slightly more unusual shade than most.

Application was a little streaky, after two coats it was *nearly* there but for me, needs a full three coats to make it presentable and completely streak free.  The formula was fine… easy to spread and dried rapidly.

It’s not at all right for the season is it, do you wear out of season shades whenever the mood takes you?

Butter London Fiver is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

Hmmm, I only know two Jaspers. One Carrot and one Conran, and I’m pretty sure neither were in mind when Butter London named this polish. The birthstone maybe? But I always thought that was green!

Regardless of where it derives its name from, Jasper is certainly the type of colour I’d usually shy away from… infact, it’s only adorning my fingertips due to the fact that I’ve shop-swatched it for Powder Rooms. I’m not a yellow nail polish kinda girl… perhaps I need a tan to appreicate the effect?!

Butter London’s Jasper is a creamy yellow with a non-too-bright base making it suitable for fingers and toes without looking too… fungal. You could say that it’s a somewhat pastelly number, reminiscent of sun-shades, ice-creams, and all those other lovely things soon to be packed away for the foreseeable future.

Application-wise, it’s on par with most yellows I’ve tried over the years. Patchy at first, developing a full opacity only after 3/4 coats depending on thickness. They’re not the greatest of colours to wear if you’re pernickity about the formula of your polish but this one smoothes out nicely after a wee while.

Butter London Jasper is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at powderrooms.com

There are more silver holos on the market than there are old-enough-to-know-better 1D fans on twitter but Dodgy Barnett is different.  This particular holo-infused polish blurs the lines between silver and grey, leaning more to the understated sophistication of a cool-toned grey than the usual bling of a silver holo.

As you can see, it’s a pretty unassuming polish when worn indoors and in the shade but as with many holos, its true beauty comes alive when you get outside and find a patch of sunlight…

Dodgy Barnett sparkles a multitude of rainbow colours but ultimately keeps that wispy, pastelly grey thing going on… perfect if you’re looking for something sophisticated but with a little something different to show off about!

Butter London’s Dodgy Barnett is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at PowderRooms.com who are offering 25% off all Butter London products with the code “butter”.  But hurry, today’s the last day to take advantage of the promotion.

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fid·dle·stick

exclamation /ˈfidlˌstik/ 

Nonsense

Who knew such a bunch of "nonsense" could look so pretty?

Butter London Fiddlesticks is a deep magenta glitter suspended in a raspberry base.  It was released as part of their Holiday 2012 collection and thus, horribly inappropriate to be wearing in June.  Whatever.  It's pretty and I like it… so I'm gonna wear it.

The coverage is pretty full-on and the above photo shows it worn with 3-coats, which as you can see, delivers full and complete opacity.

Removal is a minor bitch… what with it being glitter and all.  You could layer this one over something like Butter London Blowing Raspberries and I'm sure that a single coat would have much the same effect with less irritation during the removal process.

Butter London Fiddlesticks is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from PowderRooms.com

Why are some nail polishes so damn hard to capture on screen? In real life, they can be as pretty as a flower… but through my camera lens? We be talking cauliflower.

Powder Rooms sent me this polish to photograph for their site late last year, back in the murky depths of dark nights and well, even darker days.  It made for a frustrating assignment.  Butter London’s Trustafarian basically only sings in the sun, it needs strong daylight like I need intravenously feeding Pepsi Max.

Check it out.

indoors

outdoors

Ahhh, you beauty. You pain in the arse beauty.

It applies with three smooth coats and dries quickly enough not to give me any major application issues. You can see that the holographic effect, although fairly subtle, is still super-pretty in a pixie-esque, twinkly kind of way.

Do you need this in your life? Possibly, particularly if you live in a country whose weather patterns consist of more than just perma-drizzle.

Butter London Trustafarian holographic nail polish is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

Because there can never be enough cerulean blue glitters in the world. Enjoy.

Butter London Scallywag is priced at £11.95, and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

I am quite fussy about glitter, and this one’s on my shit list. Which is quite surprising considering that I thought I’d love this and hate Gobsmacked (reviewed last week). My tastes have swapped places – what’s going on?!

So what is it that I don’t like about Fairy Cake?

Well… it’s mind-numbingly un-unique when it could have been great. Described as a “full coverage, silvery, multi-colour iridescent glitter suspended in a light grey base”, I wanted it to embrace that grey base with fervour and imprint an alternative take on a holo-explosion. And it’s just another “opaque in a couple of coats” glitter. The holo isn’t even that spectacular. It’s a bit too sandy, a bit too chunky. There’s no “edge” to it. And “edge” is precisely what I love Butter London for delivering.

Butter London Fairy Cake is available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95

* press sample

When I first saw swatches of this nail polish appear on the web, my nose wrinkled with disdain.

“Ugh. Lumpy.”

You see, I’m a simple girl (shut up) and I like simple nail polishes. I like shiny cremes, holos, and duochromes. And that’s it. I rarely bother with nail art, which is just aswell, because I’m not very good at it, and I just can’t be faffed with other embellishments.

I decided that, in the case of Gobsmacked, I’d probably like it with a thick coat of Gelous but that without, it could do one.  But then I applied it…

… and I really liked it.

It is lumpy, but in a way that somehow just misses setting my teeth on edge.  It applies nicely in three smooth coats and gave me no drying issues.

Which means that I probably owe a silent apology to all brands that have since followed suit with texture-based collections. I have quietly vomited in my mouth when perusing swatches of concrete, leather, and velvet.  Perhaps I’ve been wrong all along but the thing is, each time I look again…. I still want to rip my nails off in protest.

Butter London Gobsmacked is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from www.powderrooms.com

* press sample

Tired of all the glitz and sparkle that Christmas brought with it?  No, me neither (come back Christmas!)

Seeing as we have a whole year to get through before we can once again feel the warm glow induced by too many mince pies,Twiglets, and glasses of Baileys – let us all take a moment instead to bask in the glory that is this beast of a glitter polish from Butter London.

Lovely Jubbly is indeed, rather lovely with a party-on-your-nails mixup of glitters.  I spy blue, magenta, red, gold… and you know the best of it?  Opaque in two coats… three if you’re being pernickity.  Of course, it’s an absolute arse to remove and needs a full layer of thick top coat to get rid of the gritty feeling.  Some of you may not mind the rough, glitter finish but it makes me want to take an industrial sander to my nail beds.  Don’t do that.

Butter London Lovely Jubbly is available to buy online at www.powderrooms.com, priced at £11.95

I’m starting to wonder if and when Butter London are gonna run out of these cutesy “British” slang terms… I reckon that when inspiration is at its lowest ebb, someone in the office sticks an episode of Only Fools and Horses on the DVD player.  “Alright me old china?” <— Butter London Spring 2016 name right there.  Naturally, the polish would be an off-white cream, somewhat like a glaze.  Can I make money doing this?  Hands up if you’d give up EVERYTHING to name nail polishes for a living.

Butter London Shag from their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection is a clear nod to the season’s hues.  Reminiscent of fallen Autumn leaves (before they’ve turned mouldy), with a dazzling metallic finish that glimmers beautifully in the late afternoon light.  Well, what little we have of it.

The formula on this one was a dream and the above photo shows two coats – the polish applied smoothly and dried to a shiny finish, the above photo shows no top coat.  If you had the opportunity to conceive a Butter London polish, what would you call it and what would it look like?

Butter London Shag is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at www.thepowderrooms.com

..at the risk of this being the most photo-heavy post in the history of the internet, I haven’t done the nail/lippy comparisons but totally can if anyone’s interested.  I ran out of light toward the end and now my lips are sore.

I talked about the formula of these lipglosses from Butter London a few days ago, if you need reminding – the post is here. Overall, I’m quite torn on them… I’m not a lipgloss fan, so we’re off to a bad start but I can’t deny their longevity is decent and the pigmentation on some of them, impressive.

Now that I’ve worn them all, I can safely say that the scent is pretty cloying on some of the shades and a few of them (particularly the pale ones) apply more like pva glue than gloss. I’m pleased that the range has recently been reformulated into more of a liquid lipstick style – I think that the potential for Butter London to release nail/lip combos is massive.  For me, this release ultimately just misses the mark but I’ve asterisked the ones that I did really enjoy wearing.

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Butter London Lippy’s are available to buy online from powderrooms.com, priced at £13.95 each.

Have you tried any of Butter London’s Lippys?  From the swatches, are any of them catching your eye?

* press sample