Butter London - The Black Knight

The Black Knight is a black jelly base with tiny multicolored gliter (mostly magenta, blue, and either gold or silver).

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)

Color:  Butter London The Black Knight (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Excuse the rough-looking fingers and cuticles - I'm almost midway through knitting a large blanket from super chunky 100% wool.

Let me start with the good, no - the great.  The base is perfect.  It is opaque enough to cover, and sheer enough that you don't lose any of the glitter, even at three coats - the glitter is way obvious even in inside light.

Now for the not so good:  Application was AWFUL.  Easily one of the worst polishes I've ever worn.  I don't know if it's the consistency of the polish (thick and a bit gritty), or the long-bristled brush (that I normally adore), but I could not control this, at ALL.  I really had to glop it on to make sure I got coverage where I needed it.  Maybe it's the combination of the brush and the consistency.  I don't know.  Needless to say, this went everywhere, and while the base color cleaned up easily I am still picking glitter off (I'm writing this before I take photos). 

I actually looked through my stash and ruled out some Nubar glitters because I didn't want to deal with the layers of topcoat.  I figured Black Knight wouldn't have this issue, but surprise - it so did.  It was so gritty after just one coat that I knew I'd have to pull out the Gelous. 

I think I will try this again, but over black.  I'll try not to get my hopes up.

Butter London - Bluey

Bluey is a medium blue-green with tons of shimmer.  When I first saw swatches of Bluey it was love at first sight, and then when I actually got it I was "meh" on it.  When I was applying it I was in love again, but once it was all done I'm still undecided.

Basecoat:  Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)

Color:  Butter London Bluey (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Sally Hansen Insta Dri (1 coat)

Pardon my heinous tipwear and the chip on my index nail - amazingly, we've had two days in a row of overcast, cloudy skies, so these photos are from the third day of wear.

Bluey had the typical Butter London application - that is, it's damn near flawless.  Cleanup wasn't too bad even for as dark a polish as this is.  I saw a recent swatch of this polish last night (I'm way too far behind on my nail blog reading) - and that post said there was a gold shimmer to Bluey, but I could not see it or capture it at all.  I do get tons of teal from it, though.

The thing is, even though Bluey is undeniably pretty I just can't convince myself that this polish is all that unique - I have an untried Nina Ultra Pro (called Un-Teal You or something like that), that I think would look pretty similar to Bluey.  Still, the application is a huge win, so even if it turns out to be a complete dupe, I'm keeping this one.

Butter London - British Racing Green

British Racing Green is a dark green with green shimmer. It's pretty similar to Ulta Urban Jungle, but British Racing Green has a more evident shimmer.
I actually wore Victoriana and FORGOT to take photos! However, British Racing Green had excellent application, just like Victoriana did.

Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (2 coats)
Color: Butter London British Racing Green (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I used three coats here but with better application it could have been two. Victoriana was a two coater for me also. British Racing Green is very pigmented, so cleanup was kind of a biatch. I actually have a little bit of tip wear in these photos because I purposely waited until the next day to take photos. Everywhere I got it on my skin it stained a little. However, this is a really lovely polish and I'll definitely be wearing it again.