Polish Hound: September 2013

September 29, 2013

Butter London- Pistol Pink [Swatch]

Butter London- Pistol Pink is another polish from the recent Rock Your Color collection.

Pistol Pink is a deep berry purple-pink with tiny silver flakie shimmer. There also appears to be smaller, pink shimmer mixed in. This shade is perfect for Fall!

Artificial light, two coats:

Window-filtered daylight:

Once it dries, the shimmer does seem to sink into the base a little, but it's certainly still visible.

Outside, shade:

Sun:

Up close:

Formula: It's got a medium-thick consistency (actually pretty thick for a BL), and is very saturated. It goes on easily, and self-levels decently. If you go over an area too many times or underload the brush, you get slight pulling, but it mostly self-levels to fix those issues. You'll probably need two coats to eliminate streakier areas. Fairly nice, overall.

September 28, 2013

Color Club- Sugar Rays [Swatch]

Color Club- Sugar Rays is from the Winter 2013 Harlem Lights collection.

Sugar Rays caught my eye because I don't think I've ever seen anything exactly like it before! It's sort of a nude, green-tinged (dingy?) champagne color shot through with a lot of light pink shimmer.

Artificial light, two coats over Zoya- Purity:

Okay, so it is definitely not the most flattering shade for my skintone, but it is unique, I think.

At first, I tried to get it opaque on its own, but it took four thick coats:

Window-filtered daylight:

Sort of a strange color, if I may say so. I'm sure some people will love it, but I just didn't like it against my skin- the lobster hands strikes again!

Outside, shade:

Formula: Medium-to-thin consistency, and also definitely on the sheer side. It goes on very smoothly, but you do have to be careful to paint in straight-ish lines to minimize brushstrokes. It also doesn't want to wrap around the nail tips very well either, as you may have noticed.

On my first application, I got a lot of little bubbling from using so many layers, so I scrapped it and started over.

For my second application, I used Zoya- Purity underneath; the first coat of Sugar Rays is still quite streaky over the white. I was able to get away with just two coats over white, although a third might have been a little more polished. This shade might look interesting layered over black or a dark color.

TLDR: I struggled with this formula a bit; I'd recommend underwear with this one because three coats was not perfectly opaque. Since the color is sort of beige-like, you really don't want to wear it sheer since it makes the visible nail look quite yellow underneath. Not cute.

September 27, 2013

Butter London- Brown Sugar [Swatch]

Butter London- Brown Sugar is from the recent Rock Your Color collection.

It's a complex, strongly red-toned brown. It can look coppery with a bronze sheen in some lights. The finish is foily, with a couple sizes of hex glitter thrown into the mix.

Artificial light, two coats:

Window-filtered daylight:

It's super reflective, especially in person. The yellowy- gold glitter really picks up the light, and there is also a matrix of smaller pinkish shimmer that is pretty glassflecky. Overall, it has a bit of a duochrome effect (although I don't think it's a true duochrome), sometimes looking more mauve-y-brown, and sometimes looking more pinkish-red.

Outside, shade:

Sun:

Up close!

You can see the finish is a little complex!

Formula: Medium-thin viscosity, and also a little bit sheer. However, it applies easily, and the first coat is sheer without being streaky. Builds nicely, though, and two coats gave good enough coverage for me! I'm not always a fan of Butter London formulas, but am happy to report that this one was quite nice!

September 26, 2013

Mail-time: Butter London from Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty Sale

A while back, Ulta had Butter London polish on sale for $10 instead of the regular $15 as part of their 21 Days of Beauty sale!

Here is my resulting bounty:

Stop looking so sad during mail-time, dog:

Inside:

Underneath are some free samples and the Ulta mailer:

This is how Ulta packed the polishes!

Yes they are in bubble wrap, but they're loosely bundled and there was no bubble wrap in between the actual polishes themselves. I'm surprised they made it intact!

Samples:

Polishes!

Butter London- Brown Sugar, Butter London- Pistol Pink, Butter London- Yummy Mummy

Pistol Pink and Brown Sugar are two from the new Rock Your Color collection.

I'll definitely be swatching Brown Sugar...and possibly Pistol Pink if there is interest!

September 25, 2013

Zoya Zenith Winter 2013 pt. 2 [Swatch] & [Review]

Here is the second, and probably most exciting, half of Zoya's Zenith collection for Winter/ Holiday 2013! (Here's the first half if you missed it!)

First up is Zoya- Dream:

Dream is a medium blue jelly base with scattered holographic chunky shimmer.

Artificial light, two coats:

Window-filtered daylight:

The holo glitter in this is chunkier than what's in Payton, and it's also less rainbow overall. However, it's more light-catching that Payton's.

Even in indirect lighting, the finish is gorgeous- it just looks like a flecked blue that you can dive into...or a blue galaxy!

Outside, shade:

Sun!

It's beautiful. What else can I say?

Formula: Medium jelly consistency (thinner than Payton) which flows over the nail nicely. Non-streaky and opaque in two coats!
--

Next, and my favorite, Zoya-Payton:

Payton is a very deep, plummy purple jelly packed with scattered, chunky holographic shimmer. The base is sort of a purple-burgundy, and really gorgeous!

The holographic particles in this are a bit finer than what Dream contains, and these more easily produce the rainbow effect in direct light!

Artificial light, two coats:

Window-filtered daylight:

Outside, shade:

Sun!

It's really quite glorious! Win.

Formula: Thick and pigmented; the consistency is slightly less jellyish than Dream, but still syrupy, flowing over nail nicely. Opaque in two coats, and deepens in color quite a lot in between the first and second coats.

It can be worn at one coat if you're careful and want a color slightly less murky.
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Last, Zoya-Mosheen:

Mosheen is a glittery holographic topcoat meant for layering over other polishes.

(What is up with that name? Some light Googling revealed that Kate Beckinsale's daughter is named Lily Mo Sheen, and the only other Mosheen I can find is a racehorse!)

Anyway, Mosheen is composed of tiny holographic bar glitter as well as a matrix of holographic shimmer/ microglitter. The bar glitter flashes from greenish-aqua to sort of an intense, bright cobalt blue. Some of the tiny round glitter flashes yellow-orange. All of it is suspended in a lightly tinted blue base.

Artificial light:

(also welcome to my uneven smile lines! My nail beds are all quite different lengths as you can see.)

You can see that this really is meant for layering. It can probably be built up to full opacity on its own, but I got up to four coats and there was still nail line visible.

The density is just right for a layering glitter, though. One coat gives you adequate interest without obscuring your base color too much.

Sun:

Let's take a look at it over some of the other polishes. One coat over Zoya- Cassedy:

One coat over Zoya- Seraphina:

And, my favorite option, one coat over Zoya- Belinda:

Formula: The base is a good consistency- neither too thick nor thin. It carries the glitter easily. It feels a little gummy when you wrap the tips of your nails, and some of the bar glitter has a tendency to stick out, but nothing too bothersome. Very good formula, I think. Also dries very quickly.
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What do you think?

Disclosure: these polishes were provided to me for honest review, and all opinions are my own.

Pages

September 29, 2013

Butter London- Pistol Pink [Swatch]

September 28, 2013

Color Club- Sugar Rays [Swatch]

September 27, 2013

Butter London- Brown Sugar [Swatch]

September 26, 2013

Mail-time: Butter London from Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty Sale

September 25, 2013

Zoya Zenith Winter 2013 pt. 2 [Swatch] & [Review]