Butter London - Posh Bird

Smoky lilac foil shimmer  

Posh Bird is a lovely polish but somewhat tricky to describe.

There's purple there and some grey and maybe a bit of taupe/mushroom.  And it's packed with foily shimmer which mostly looks silver but sometimes duochrome goldish as you can see in my bottle shots.

Either way, it's gorgeous - easy to apply and very opaque.  Swatches shown are two coats with no top coat.

Posh Bird was first released as an exclusive in the US for NY Fashion Week back in 2012.   Unfortunately it's no longer available from Butter London and doesn't seem to pop up very often on eBay in the UK.

Any dupe suggestions for anyone who's fallen in love with this one?

And as for that name?  Ha, I am so far from being a Posh Bird!

Butter London - Lady Muck

Soft blue grey with flakie shimmer  

Lady Muck is a soft blue/grey  creme with visible fine silver flakie shimmer.

Butter London describe this as periwinkle blue but I really don't agree, periwinkle to me is a violet toned blue and this is blue/grey - hey ho!

Application was good, formula is a little sheer and these swatches are 3 coats with no top coat.

I picked this colour to match our weather here in the UK, it's very cloudy but also fairly warm and humid!

Butter London - Poole

Robin's Egg Blue creme

Butter London call this a Robin's Egg Blue creme and it's definitely in that arena but I'd say it's on the green side of that colour range.

Application was great, swatches shown with 2 coats with no top coat

Poole is a seaside town in southern England, to me known for its harbour and Navy connections and for being the home of Lush, the cosmetics company.  Lush's previous incarnation was a company called Cosmetics to Go and I visited their shop in Poole nearly 20 years ago!

Butter London - Stroppy

Purple Foil  

Oooh I do love a good purple.  When I was in my 20's I was obsessed with purple and red clothing (and flowers).  But now I'm older and have had my colours 'done' I can't really wear this kind of true, royal purple and I've managed to train myself out of beelining for this shade in the shops.

Stroppy is a purple foil which I thought had a touch of duochrome, but I think it's just packed with pink and blue foil shimmer.

Application was fine, it's a little thin and these swatches are 3 coats, no top coat.  Not ideal but for this colour it's worth it to me.

Stunning!

Stroppy was from Butter London's Summer 2014 Collection, called Lolly Brights.  I picked it up cheap from an online sale site - I think it was £4 or £5.

Butter London - Bramble

Royal Purple creme  

Bramble is a stunning royal purple creme.

Application was great and swatches are shown with two coats, no top coat.

I picked this up from TK Maxx for £4 which given Butter London retail for £12 here in the UK that's my kinda bargain!

TK Maxx seemed to have had loads more single polishes available over the past year and I've found lots of great deals.

Butter London - Muggins

Pale mauve creme  

Muggins is a pale lilac/mauve with a hint of grey in the mix.

Swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and application was fine for me, although I noticed several other swatchers needed 3 coats and found it a bit tricky.

This was another TK Maxx purchase for just £4....

Butter London - Brick Lane

Burnt orange shimmer

Sorry for the lack of post readers, I've been away on holiday - two weeks in Iceland which was brilliant, such amazing landscapes and natural beauty and masses of fun activities!

Anyhow back to the swatches...

Hmmm, bottle shot is kinda soft focus!

Brick Lane is a gorgeous rich burnt orange shimmer.  The shimmer is golden and complements the orange nicely.

Swatches shown are two coats, no top coat.

Brick Lane is also the name of the six piece mini collection - my first BL mini's and they're good, same format bottle just a little smaller and brush was still very workable.

Butter London - Trustafarian

Light sage green/gold holo  

Butter London Trustafarian is a pretty but sheer fine holo.

The colour out of full sun does have a hint of sage/grey green but in the sunlight it's a warmer olive green and more gold leaning.  The holo is scattered and fine.

It's also fairly sheer, this swatch is 3 coats and I still have some VNL, definitely one that would be better layered.

The formula is thin and somewhat runny, go careful with the application.

Trustafarian is from the Autumn 2012 collection.

Butter London - Perfect Prezzie

Deep burgundy red shimmer   

Another Butter London with some slightly elusive shimmer.

You can see masses of of fine golden shimmer in the bottle - look, swathes of it!

That doesn't transfer to the nail, don't get me wrong, you can certainly see the shimmer on the nail but it's nowhere near as visible as in the bottle - ah well, the joys of nail polish eh?!

Application was great, the formula, brush and application were all fab.

And it's pretty much opaque in one coat, the second (shown in the swatch pics) just adds depth

Butter London - Fash Pack

Grey toned brown creme  

Some more Butter London swatches from the Picasa archive!

Here is Butter London's Fash Pack

It's a deep/dark greige I suppose, but definitely more brown leaning than some and without a purple tinge.  I'd describe it as a slightly grey toned brown creme with some very secret gold shimmer that really isn't very visible at all - can you spot it?

Application was great and the swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

I do like it, just wish the shimmer was a little more front and centre....

Butter London - Dosh

Green sparkly shimmer  

This is the last in this run of Butter London swatches - Dosh

Dosh is yellow toned apple green with fine foily shimmer.  The shimmer is predominately gold but I also detected some some silver and green shimmer.

Although I don't usually have trouble photographing  greens I'd say this polish is a smidge  more yellowy/olive toned IRL than it shows in my pics.  Click the pics to see them in close up.

Swatch show is with 3 coats and no top coat.  Application was great.

Dosh is British slang for money and our £1 banknotes used to be green (now we just have coins for £1) and of course I saved a load of dosh buying these BL's on a sale site!

Don't you love a nail polish bargain!

Butter London - Snog

Raspberry pink jelly/creme

Another pink jelly/creme from Butter London, this one is called Snog and it's not the same, I promise.  Similar but not the same!

Snog is an intense pink, leaning towards a pinky red.  I'd call is a raspberry pink, more raspberry sauce than the colour of actual raspberries (mine are often much darker in colour)...

The finish is again a jellyish creme, primarily a creme but with mild jelly qualities i.e. it's super shiny with mild VNL but not to much in the way of squishiness.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no topcoat.  Application was a breeze.

For me, this just edges it over yesterday's Primrose Hill Picnic, I find the colour is more flattering on me although they are both pretty.

Butter London - Primrose Hill Picnic

Bright pink creme

Next in my bargain Butter London's is Primrose Hill Picnic...

Primrose Hill Picnic is a bright, almost fuchsia jelly-creme.


Swatch shown is 2 coats, due to the hint of jelly I still some VNL at 2 coats, but nothing too terrible.  And it is gorgeously shiny with no topcoat.

Butter London - Jaffa

Bright orange jelly/creme

After my holiday break let's get back to the Butter London's on my longer nails...

Here's Jaffa, something bright for the start of the new month but also apt for Halloween.

Jaffa is a bright, red/coral leaning Orange that's also slightly soft looking.

I'd say it was a jelly-creme there is definitely some squishiness there and it's not super opaque.

This swatch is 3 coats and you can see I still have a hint of VNL.  No top coat and it is super shiny.

Overall a win for me, orange doesn't usually play well with my skintone but this colour works pretty well.

Butter London - Artful Dodger

Teal creme

A few months ago Brand Alley, one of those designer sale sites, had a sale on Butter London.  They had sets of three polishes for £18.50 which seemed like a pretty good deal to me.  I may have gone a little crazy and spent over £100 on Butter London polishes!!

My willpower goes all to pot when confronted with pretty polish for a bargain price.  I bought 20 in the end and they averaged out at just over £6 each which didn't seem too bad as I think the RRP for BL is £12

Unfortunately I only swatched some of them at the time and now my nails are all stubby so you'll get to see some now and the rest later....

First up is Artful Dodger

Butter London describe this as a 'true teal' and I think I'd agree. It's a mid to light toned teal and there's a little hint of dustiness there too.  I'd say it was significantly lighter than the clutch of teal polishes that came out a few years ago - check out my comparison review of the time

Overall it's gorgeous and so shiny.

It did take 3 coats but I forgive it....

Totally missing my nails at this length - I should use this picture as a reminder to do my treatment regime to try to get them back to here....

Any tips on growing them back?  At the moment they're all short and seem to break very easily, crumbly rather than brittle if that makes sense?

I'm taking Biotin and general B-vitamins, applying Nailtiques 2 and Barielle Growth Activator for Natural Nails and attempting to remember to do Solar Oil and Revlon Nail Builders Intense Therapy on my cuticles and general hand/nail cream - phew!  That little lot's gotta work, right?!