Tag Archives: Butter London

The Lazy 15 Challenge: Tape Mani

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Just wanted to post to say a) I’m still alive and b) tell you about a new challenge that I’m going to try to do.

I’m appalling I know having not posted for either Polish Us Pink or Holothon lately but work has taken over my life of late plus haven’t been feeling that great. But I am going to tempt fate by committing hot a new nail polish challenge called “The Lazy 15″. Clearly my kind of challenge:).

Now it’s called The Lazy 15 because it’s a challenge for those of us who are completely intimidated by the thought of posting every day for a month like some very talented overachievers in the Lacquerhead world do. I’m actually very excited about it because it will force me to try a number of techniques that I’m fascinated by but terrified of.

Here’s the run down of the manis required as part of the challenge:

 

Now, technically it started on Friday (it’s now Sunday here) so I’m running a bit late but meh. I figure I may not be perfect on timing but the main focus for me is to actually try things that I’ve not tried before.

So with that intent in mind I’m going to post my tape mani now. Now I’ve done a mani with tripping tape previously so for this mani I took a broad interpretation of ‘tape’ and used french manicure tape instead of straight stripping tape. Here’s what I came up with.

 

Butter London Slapper and A England Excalibur

I’d been wanting to try this sort of reverse moon mani for a while. This is Butter London Slapper underneath with a top coat of A England Excalibur. I expect that there are many out there who are skilled enough to free hand the top colour but I’m not, hence using the french manicure tape as a template. Unfortunately the french manicure tape I got was quite wide so the curve wasn’t as curvy as I had in mind.

Butter London Slapper and A England Excalibur

So there you go. Butter London Slapper is the most gorgeous colour by the way. My pics here show it as more blue than it is in person. In person it’s a bit greener. So bright and vibrant. Perfect for summer. And Excalibur made for a lovely one coater although I struggled to reduce the brush marks.

If you would like to join the Lazy 15 Challenge it’s not too late, just hop on board. Below are links to the blogs of the great girls and guy taking part in this challenge.

Orly Androgynie: the lazy lacquerhead’s galaxy nail

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I was after a glittery black polish for a while. I’d toyed with the idea of Butter London’s The Black Night, I’d read the disappointed posts on China Glaze’s Smoke and Ashes and I’d heard underwhelming views about Orly’s Androgynie. So like the enthusiastic lacquerhead that I am, I went ahead and bought all three. Purely for research purposes you understand.

So today I’ve got Orly’s Androgynie.

Orly Androgynie

This is the first time I’ve worn Androgynie. It’s a black jelly with a mix of fine micro and larger hex glitter in a variety of colours. The concept of Androgynie is wonderful. The colour combination of the glitter in the black strikes me as a cheat’s version of a galaxy nail. But then I have very low standards when it comes to such things since I’ve no clue about nail art.

Orly Androgynie

This is three coats of Androgynie with a base coat and then a top coat of Seche Vita. Drying time was fine. The formula of the jelly base is a little thin so you need to watch your application to avoid the polish pooling in your cuticles.

Orly Androgynie

The difficulty with Androgynie is, aside from the fact that the black jelly base is always going to obscure much of the glitter, getting the larger, multicoloured hex glitter onto your brush and then onto the nail. My little finger ended up with basically no visible hex glitter on it by the second coat, so on the third coat I played around a bit in an effort to dab some hex glitter on that nail close to the surface.

I had read somewhere that the trick is to store the polish upside down so that the glitter particles collect at the neck of the bottle but I’d forgotten to store it that way when I was reorganising my stash recently. I’ve turned it upside down now so I will wear this again soon and report back if there’s any improvement.

Overall though, whilst I understand the disappointment many lacquerheads had with Androgynie I’m still actually pretty happy with it. Yes, a wee bit more glitter on the nail without the slightly dirty coating that the black jelly leaves would be nice but is perhaps an impossible ask. I’ve not tried Butter London The Black Night yet, and have only applied China Glaze’s Smoke and Ashes to my niece’s nails. I think Smoke and Ashes is out of the running because what I’m longing for is a black-based multicoloured glitter polish. But again, I’ll report back once I have done further research:).

Orly Androgynie and Lego Crook Man

The last pic is thanks to my partner who was loitering about whilst I was taking these photos and decided to play the joker as usual:)

Have you tried Orly Androgynie yet? If yes, what did you think of it?

Can you recommend a good black-based multicoloured glitter polish?

Tell me about the joker in your life who mucks about in order to make you laugh and smile:)

xx

 

Late April Nail Mail

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I’ve been keeping the postman busy of late. Almost feel like I should leave out some biscuits and a pint of milk:). So I thought’s I’d do a quick post covering the new arrivals but with more pics than words for once!

First cab off the rank was not really nail mail as such, rather an emergency purchase on a recent work trip interstate. I’d been rushing to do my nails before heading to the airport only to wreck the mani beyond repair by the time I’d boarded the plane. So on arrival at Melbourne airport I snapped up some nail polish remover, a Revlon base & top coat and OPI Bogota Blackberry.

I put these on that night in the hotel room whilst I was working away but I didn’t take any shots before I removed OPI BB on my return Monday night. Safe to say it wasn’t my best effort at applying nail polish but it was better than the wreck mani it replaced. Love the colour of OPI BB but am just not patient enough when I don’t have a quick dry top coat handy:(. The Revlon Base+Top Coat is not something I’d normally buy as I’m not overly keen on Revlon polish but it was all that the chemist at the airport had. I have no idea how it fares with other Revlon polishes but the OPI BB reacted strangely to it and split like water from oil when I applied the first coat of OPI. I let it dry and then chanced a second coat. Still a couple of weird gaps where the OPI BB just wouldn’t take to the Revlon BC so I had to add a third and fourth coat. Hence a bit of marking on the mani as even several hours later by the time I finished working and went to bed, it still wasn’t completely dry. I will never both with the Revlon BC+TC. If you like it and want it, let me know. Going free to a good home. OPI BB was one that I’d had in my mind for a while but felt it was too similar to some polish I already have. But of the range available in that particular chemist shop it was the pick.

Ok next are a few Etude House polishes I picked up of eBay to try. EH BL505, Shimmering Blue and Satin Purple. Of these I’ve applied BL505 over an old mani on one hand so far and I’m looking forward to trying it on its own. In the bottle it has a beautiful blurple duochrome sheen but that doesn’t translate to the nail. Still stunningly bright and shiny though.

 

Next is Clarins 230. It was on eBay for what I decided was a moderately reasonable price given what I’ve seen it listed for in the past so I eventually caved and bought it.

Next was a third bottle of Max Factor Mini – Fantasy Fire. I’m loving it so much but those damn bottles are so so tiny that I wanted to make sure I had a reasonable supply.

 

Then Monday my next order of Nfu Oh polishes arrived. Squeee! Think these are what I was most excited to receive. I only got my first two Nfu Ohs (#51 and #40) a few weeks back but was so blown away by #51 that I knew from that point on I was addicted. So below we have #50, #56, #51 (back up bottle!), #52 and #59. IN LOVE!

 

Next are my first Butter London polishes. Left to right we have Chancer, Branwen’s Feather, Marrow and Scoundrel. Am tossing up whether to also get hold of The Black Knight, Lilibet and Knackered.

Sigh. It’s tough for the Butter London’s. Normally I’d be really keen to try them but many of the other nail mail I got this last week and a bit outstrips them rather. Speaking of which, I was very naught and gave into my lust for more duo and multichromes by getting both sets of Mari Moon from Hits Speciallita. Below from left to right are:

 

 

I’m ridiculously keen to try all of these. I love the slightly kitch packets they come in, there’s something slightly retro about the packaging that reminds me of things from my childhood, like my sister’s collection of teen mags she’d keep squirrelled away in a wee suitcase under her bed. We’re talking the Bay City City Rollers, Leaf Garrett and Kirsty McNicol.

But it doesn’t stop there. Last but not least my first ever Cult Nails polishes arrived yesterday. They come in fantastic packaging, some sort of natural fibre paper. I’ve no doubt these wont be the last purchase from Cult Nails. Am very keen to try them.

 

Left to right are Mind Control, Seduction, Time Traveller and Vicious.

Phew so that’s the nail mail. There’ll be some more to come next week but beyond that I’m going to (try) pace myself and just buy one or two polishes every now and again when I see something that I love. I’ve developed a good basic collection over a fairly short period of time so from here on in the pace of polish acquisition should ease up a bit. Should. :)