Butter London Pistol Pink!

Yesterday was a day of amazingness when a box of goodies arrived on my doorstep from my FAVORITE polish brand: Butter London! The kind folks at BL were kind enough to send me a box of their new line to test out, including a brand new polish, Pistol Pink! Unfortunately, my bottle got cracked somehow in transit. Talk about a polish EMERGENCY! When I opened the bottle, the jar collapsed. Luckily, I had an empty polish jar from Man Glaze and dumped the contents of Pistol Pink in there.

Anyway, shall we talk about how beautiful Pistol Pink is? Wow, this color is SO beautiful and it is VERY richly pigmented. It is definitely more pigmented than their other polishes. It is a deep pink raspberry with silver shimmer running throughout. The formula is smooth and glides onto the nail which is no surprise. This can be a one coater depending on how thick you apply your nail polish. I have been staring at my nails constantly since applying this. Don’t you love when that happens? I can’t wait to apply this again when my ridiculously short and broken middle nail grows back. *TEARS*

Way up close!

The new Butter London line also includes makeup as part of their “Rock Your Colour” collection and will be available August 1st at retailers like Ulta. I can’t wait to see some other colors in the line!

One more thing: does anyone remember the movie The Pistol? It’s a basketball movie about Peter “Pistol Pete” Maravich. I couldn’t help but think of that when I read the name “Pistol Pink.” 🙂

*This product was provided for consideration by Butter London. All opinions are my own.

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

So last week, I had a HORRIBLE week at work. I am so glad it’s over. Since I was in a terrible mood, I wanted to paint my nails something….dark. And yes, my middle finger is broken big time and looks terrible, but I’m not going to let that stop me. 🙂

Ruby Red Slippers is a beautiful black jelly base packed full of red glitter. It achieves decent density in two coats, but I prefer it with three. The glitter doesn’t catch and the finish is smooth. The glitter just GLOWS in this polish and it is gorgeous! Also, if you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know I am a Wizard of Oz fanatic and just had to have this color. I can’t wait to wear it when my nails are looking a little less haggard! 😉

Butter London Pimms

Pimms is “an opaque, sunflower yellow creme” named after a gin drink. This color is so bright, cheerful, and perfect for summer! I think this is a great color for fall as well! I don’t know if they are dupes, but this color sort of reminds me of Zoya’s Pippa. My polish had the worst formula ever; so bad that I had to throw it out. It was a thick, goopy mess. Pimms is definitely not like that!

Like most yellows, this is slightly streaky on the first coat, but it doesn’t take any work for this polish to reach opacity. It levels out perfectly, and you’re left with bright, sunny yellow gorgeousness!

What do you think of Pimms? What are your favorite yellows?

OPI Suzi’s Hungary Again!

Meet one of my new favorite pinks: Suzi’s Hungary Again! from the OPI Euro Centrale collection. I recently went out of town and needed a polish that would last for awhile. I picked up this polish at a hair salon, which is the best place to find OPI. I can’t tell you how many times I have found OPI polish buy one, get two free at random hair salons! Anyway, I was really impressed with this polish.

The formula is very thin and a little watery, but opaque in three coats. This polish also lasts a long time! I wore this for four days and had a little tip wear, but zero chips.

The color itself is gorgeous: a nice, bright, creamy pink! What’s not to love?

Periwinkle Comparisons

After a reader comment wondering about how Sail la Vie compared to China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, I decided to do a quick comparison post about some polishes in the periwinkle family. Despite the fact that I don’t like purple, I do like periwinkle. It reminds me of lilacs and springtime!

Sail La Vie is a lot more blue than Secret Periwinkle; it’s also quite a bit brighter. These are all quite different from each other even though the swatches may seem similar. MAC Bleu Velvet has a lot more gray than the photo appears to have. OPI You’re Such a Budapest is definitely lavender over periwinkle.

As you can see, Secret Periwinkle is the darkest of the bunch. My favorite periwinkle shades are Bikini So Teeny, Cameo, and Sail La Vie, which all lean toward the blue side of the spectrum.

I hope this post is helpful to you! What is your favorite periwinkle shade?

Essie Fiji

Essie is known for their pastels, and Fiji is definitely one of those classic shades! This is a chalky, white-based light pink color. I added American Apparel Meteor Shower on the ring finger for a little accent, which is a shredded gold polish that I love!

The formula of Fiji is a little tricky. In three coats is is opaque, but the first two coats are quite streaky. The formula definitely doesn’t just glide on the nail, but it is not the worst formula I ever used by any means!

I love this color and how clean and crisp it looks on the nails! Definitely an Essie must have. 🙂

Less than $2: Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream Dupe

Hey Everyone! I found something at the drugstore (well, Wal-Mart) that I thought was worth sharing: a Deborah Lippmann dupe for under $2! Wal-Mart has a new display from the brand Fing’rs that has nail stickers, polish, and other embellishments for nail art. The “Heart 2 Art” polishes look like nail art brush type bottles, but they come with regular, wide polish brushes.

I completely forgot to check what the name of this one is, but as you can see it looks very similar to Mermaid’s Dream, AND it is only $1.68. These polishes are made in the USA; however, I do recommend looking at the brushes to make sure that you don’t get one that has splayed bristles.

While I didn’t purchase this polish since I already have Mermaid’s Dream, I thought it was worth mentioning if this is a shade that you like but don’t want to spend much on.

Shopping With My Mom Polish Haul!

Phew! It is HOT outside! Personally, I’m not a fan of anything above 70, so this 90+ business is pure misery. Anyway, my parents are in town so my mother and I went out to a few stores. Now is the time to shop for makeup and nail polish! Summer and spring collections are on major clearance to make way for fall collections. Here’s what I picked up!

These two Orly polishes were Marshall’s finds. First up is Lollipop, a nice cool-toned pink lavender shade, and then Pink Chocolate, which is a brown-toned creamy pink. I think I’m going to use Lollipop first!

The next three are Rite Aid finds. They have tons of nail polish on clearance right now! Also, Revlon is 40% off, so I finally bought Celestial FX, which was recommended to me by a friend. Gogo Girl is a vibrant red jelly from Sinful Colors, and 18K Gold is a mix of gold glitters from Wet ‘n’ Wild. I can’t wait to use this one because I was lusting after Deborah Lippmann glitters earlier this morning!

The last one is from L.A. Girl, and it is a royal blue holographic polish. I REALLY wanted the black polish from this collection, but never picked it up, so I decided to get something different and get the blue one. I wasn’t the only one who got polish: she picked up a really pretty teal “mermaid” shade!

Have you tried any of these colors?

My Old Nails! Yikes!

I don’t have much photographic evidence of just how short my nails were before I stopped biting, but I came across a photo that shows just how short they were. Don’t laugh, but it is a photo of me holding my dog’s hand (rest in peace, sweet Wembley!). 🙂 Are you ready to see some scary short nails?

Even when my nails are short now, they aren’t THIS short. This actually looks painful to me now, especially my ring finger. You can see why I didn’t give a thought to nail polish! I know my nails still have a long way to go, but this picture really shows me just how far my nails have come! If you stop biting, I highly recommend taking a photo of your hands to keep track of your progress!

Butter London Torch

Good morning! I am so happy it’s Saturday! My sister is visiting for the weekend, and we always have fun together. Since I wanted a polish to last me through the weekend, I broke out this limited edition Nordstrom exclusive shade from Butter London’s summer collection: Torch. It is an orange coral with gold shimmer.

Due to the lighting outside, I had a hard time capturing the true beauty of this shade. It is definitely pulling red in these pictures, and the gold shimmer doesn’t shine through. It is definitely visible in person, especially when the sunlight hits it! Also in person, it has a “softer” effect to it; it’s definitely coral leaning.

I love this shade and it definitely says “SUMMER!” It reminds me of some of the amazing sunsets we get out in farm country. 🙂

Also, Butter London is having a sale until July 14 (tomorrow). With the code FLASH13 you can get free shipping and 20% off from their website!