Butter London Trustafarian

   Continuing my Butter London theme this week, today I have a polish from their Fall 2012 collection.

   Trustafarian is a celery, or sage, green scattered holo.  The formula was good and I got a smooth application over my regular Finger Paints base coat.  Some holos are very streaky without a special base coat.  Luckily this is not one of those.  Trustafarian is a bit sheer and I needed 3 coats for full opacity.  Be careful with the coats though, as brushstrokes will show.  Especially inside and in low light.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   Trustafarian is not a strong holo.  But you can definitely see the holo in the sun.  So far, I've been impressed with all the Butter London polishes I've tried.  If you haven't tried any yet, I would recommend the brand.  If you can find it on a good sale.

Butter London Victoriana vs Zoya Skylar

   After yesterday's post, some of you might be thinking that Victoriana looks a lot like Zoya Skylar from the True collection for Spring 2012.  When I first received Skylar I was really hoping it would kill my lemming for Victoriana.  Mostly because Butter London doesn't go on sale very often and I don't like paying $15 for one bottle of polish.  Here are the bottles side by side.

   You can see right away that these are not dupes.  The Zoya is bluer and has more grey in it.  Also, while both have silver shimmer, the Zoya also has pink shimmer.  Formula wise, I found Skylar to be a little thinner, but application was approximately the same for both polishes.  I used 2 coats for each polish over Finger Paints base coat and no top coat.  Skylar is on my ring and index fingers while Victoriana is on my pinky and middle fingers and thumb.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   The similarities are much more obvious on the nail.  The general feel of the polishes is the same.  Both are dusty feeling with an obvious silver shimmer.  I like both polishes a lot.  I think they are different enough to own both, but I can see where they might be too similar for some.  If I had to pick only one of them, I would probably go with Victoriana just because of the way it leans teal.

Disclaimer: Some of the product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company for consideration.

Butter London Victoriana

   Hello again Monday.  I haven't really missed you.  I'm sorry if that makes you a little blue.  Speaking of blue, I have a lovely one from Butter London to show you lovelies today.

   Victoriana is a dusty blue with a silver shimmer.  There's just a hint of green in the polish so that it leans towards teal.  The formula is nice and application is generally good.  I did experience some cuticle drag, so I'd recommend waiting a few extra minutes between coats.  2 coats of polish gave me complete coverage.  I used Finger Paints base coat and no top coat in these photos.

Direct Sun

Indoor Natural Light

Indoor with Flash

   Victoriana came out for Fall 2010.  It's been a lemming of mine for a while and I finally picked it up at Ulta several months ago during a 1 day only B1G1 sale.  I am definitely glad I did.  What do you ladies think of this color?  How many of you already have it?  Let me know in the comments.

Butter London All Hail The Queen

   For months now, I've been hearing lots of talk about Butter London polishes.  The majority of which has been extremely positive so I was curious to try the brand, but didn't want to order online.  Then, a little over a month ago Ulta started carrying BL in their stores as well as online so I decided to splurge a little and pick up a bottle.  

   There are MANY lovely shades to chose from, but for my first purchase I decided to try All Hail The Queen (AHTQ).  There was a bit of controversy around this polish when it first came out.  The original name was All Hail McQueen, but was changed for legal reasons.  I don't know all the details, but I'm sure they can be found with a little google-fu.  

   AHTQ is a beige holo.  Yes, I said holo and beige in the same sentence.  The holo is very subtle even in direct sun, but the shimmer that shows indoors gives interest to what could otherwise just be another beige polish.  

   One of the most consistent things I've read about BL is how incredible the formula is and how it seems like the polish almost applies itself.  I don't know about any of the other colors, but that is definitely the case with AHTQ.  My only complaint is the size of the brush handle.  Not that it's too big, but because it feels too small to me.  You see, the rectangular top you see above comes off to reveal a smaller round brush top that's about the length from the tip of my thumb to the first joint.

   If the cap was just a little wider or taller I would like it better.  At the size it is, the brush feels just a little awkward in my hand, like I'm about to drop it.  

   Opacity was good, I only needed 2 coats for coverage.  For my base coat I used Seche Restore and Barielle Manicure Extender as my top coat.  Now I'll stop teasing and get to the on nail pictures.

Indoor

   In this lighting AHTQ looks like a beige with a bit of silver shimmer.  You can pick up just a hint of the holo under my CFL lightbulbs, but most bulbs won't bring this out.

Shade

   Pretty boring in the shade.

Direct Sun

   As I said above, this is a subtle holo and a scattered one.  But I think anything stronger would have been too much for the color.

   I was very impressed with this polish.  I even like the color.  It's nice for when you want something simple but with a little extra to it.  Based on AHTQ, I plan to buy more BL polishes in the future to try.  I already have a wishlist going in my head.

   The other downside to BL is the price.  The polishes retail for $14.00 each on the website and at Ulta.  Now depending on your Ulta, or the SA you check out with, you can sometimes use coupons on these.  I say sometimes because while I was able to use a $5 off a $10 purchase coupon on this one, other people have run into issues trying to use them.  It seems to depend on if your Ulta or SA considers BL a Prestige brand or not.  But either way, I think the BL polishes are worth a try at least once.