Butter London Dahling Nail Polish

There's something wonderfully retro about Dahling, the deep rose polish with a cream finish by Butter London. It ignores every current trend in favor of exuberant femininity; sometimes this is exactly what I want to wear.

It takes two coats for full coverage, three for bottle-perfect opacity. It took me a couple of attempts to learn the right amount of color that prevents a streaky first coat, making my manicure look instantly better. The last month or so I've been back to using Deborah Lippmann's base and top coats and I'm getting excellent results in terms of longevity and shine maintenance.

Dhaling by Butter London ($14) is available from butterlondon.com.

All photos are mine.

Butter London Aston Nail Polish

I'm in the mood for a somewhat neutral nail polish, but with still enough character to look interesting and fall-appropriate. Aston, has a delicate shimmer in a nice toffee (or rich leather interior?) color. It's on the warm despite some pink undertones, and on my hands looks better on gray days like today than when the sun is in full force. Two coats are enough for a perfectly polished look that goes anywhere and everywhere.

I can't find Aston on Butter London website, but other authorized retailers like Nordstrom and b-glowing have it in stock ($14).

All photos are mine.

Butter London Tea With The Queen Nail Polish

Sabrina from The Beauty Look Book and I gravitate towards opposite end of the color rainbow except when it comes to nail polish. I have a feeling the content of our polish drawers are eerily similar and both are heavy on classic nudes. We didn't plan this, but it looks like we went on a Butter London online shopping spree at around the same time last month and obviously bought the same things. Case in point: Tea With The Queen.

Seriously, how can a royalty-obsessed like me resist this color? Tea With The Queen is that prim and proper, but also as pretty as they come. Sabrina's skin color brings out more of the subtle pink undertones while on my olive skin it's more of a warm beige (compared to Yummy Mummy which is cooler). I'm perfectly happy with two coats, considering the more time I spend with wet polish the more chances I get to have cat hair stuck to them. But my little trick when it comes to applying a third coat is to do it the next day. It shortens drying time and prevents possible mishaps.

Bottom Line: Better than clotted cream and scones.

Butter London nail polish ($14) is available from butterlondon.com

All photos are mine, except the one of Queen Elizabeth having tea with UK senior citizens in 2008, finfacts.ie

Butter London All Hail McQueen Nail Polish Fall 2010

The most exciting color on the current nail polish scene is...

beige.

But it's more than just beige, really. All Hail McQueen is part of Butter London fall 2010 collection and is a tribute to the late Alexander McQueen. I love how instead of going with some fad color that would be utterly unwearable in a couple of seasons, Butter London chose the most classic color, made it as pretty as possible and added an incredibly beautiful multicolored micro glitter. It's just glam enough to get noticed but so wearable you will get addicted in no time (speaking from experience here).

Application is smooth and easy, two coats get you the perfect finish and it dries quickly. My only complaint is that it's a typical glitter polish as far as removal goes: It takes a lot of work to get rid of it completely, which gives one another reason to reapply All Hail McQueen again and again.

Bottom Line: I need a backup bottle.

All Hail McQueen ($14) and the rest of the collection are available from butterlondon.com

All photos are mine.

Butter London Nail Polish Yummy Mummy

My initial introduction to Butter London nail polish wasn't a big success, so I gave up on the brands for a very long time. Then I saw some of Amy's swatches on Cafe Makeup resulting in an online shopping spree. This time I was so thrilled with the outcome I was willing to forgive the annoying cap.

As much as I love my reds and purples, when it comes to nail color the right nudes and neutrals thrill me just as much. I'm on a never ending quest for the classiest, most perfect beige. Butter London's Yummy Mummy might be it, despite the annoying name.

Yummy Mummy is a somewhat cool toned beige with the most subtle shimmery finish. It's wedding appropriate, job interview friendly and very pretty. It works with anything and everything and would be the color I buy again and again. The texture is great: no complaints this time, two coats deliver the pretty and dry quickly.

Bottom Line: Chanel who?

Butter London Nail Polish ($14) can be found on the company's website and from Ricky's stores in NYC, among other places.

All photos are mine.

Butter London Nail Polish

My relationship with my bottle of Butter London nail polish didn't start on the best note.

Actually, I take it back: When I first spotted the bottles and the unusual colors with the quirky British names, I had to use every ounce of self control to keep myself from ordering a dozen of them (seriously, how can one resist something called HRH?). I settled for Teddy Boy, that promised to be a vintage dirty rose. It is definitely accurate , though a bit on the dark side (I'm not complaining).

My issue is with the design of the bottle/cap and the brush.

The rectangular box bottle looks modern and sophisticated, but it's not so easy to open (maybe I'm too used to Chanel caps that don't require much work because underneath the outer cap there's a roundish one, that turns normally), and I ended up with polish on my fingers and on the bottle. Then there's the very short and too thin brush, that is a bit hard to control and doesn't carry much product, so I have to re-dip more than I like to cover each nail (an invitation to messy application).

Despite that, the polish goes on easily enough and doesn't streak even if you need three dips for one nail. It's very pigmented and completely opaque, so one coat can be enough, though it takes two if you want to get the exact color you see in the bottle.

The durability isn't the best ever. Without a top coat I saw chipping after the second day (I didn't do anything more damaging than typing and the mildest housework), though a certain level of shine maintained after three days. With top coat (I use Essie), the polish survived nearly five days.

The best part, other than the color (which I love) is that Butter London is free of the worst 3 toxic chemicals found in most traditional nail polishes and it doesn't stink to high heaven.

All the pictures were taken without top coat in several degrees of natural/artificial light.


Butter London nail polish ($12) is available from Beauty.com
All images: mine. Models: Gracie and Giselle
Bonus pictures of Giselle, just because.