Butter London All Hail the Queen

Today I have another favorite nude polish to show you.  This is a lovely nude polish from Butter London called All Hail the Queen.  This taupe has holographic particles dispersed throughout the polish that make it sparkle in the light.  Sadly, my camera doesn't do a good job of picking up the holo.

Pictured here is three coats of Butter London All Hail the Queen.  All Hail the Queen gets compared a lot to Orly Nite Owl, but I feel as though Nite Owl simply has silver microglitter instead of the holographic particles that make up All the Hail the Queen.  You could probably get away with owning one of the two but I still like holding on to both.

Wet n Wild Fergie XoXo

As I was aimlessly wandering through my local Walgreens last week I came across the Wet 'n Wild Fergie 2013 Centerstage collection and there were two polishes that caught my eye.  The first was XoXo, a conglomeration of purple, magenta, and blue microglitter suspended in a clear base.  I didn't buy this polish the first day I saw it because I swore, swore! that it was a dupe for Butter London Lovely Jubbly.  I walked home and tried to find swatches of XoXo but that was a disaster.  Determined to fix this, I marched back to Walgreens and picked up the polish with the sole intent of providing the world with a good swatch and comparison of XoXo.

Shown here is three coats of Wet 'n Wild Fergie XoXo, with two coats of Zoya Caitlin as my base.  There is a lot of clear base in this polish and the glitter doesn't cover very well.  At three coats there are still a lot of little spaces where you can see Caitlin.

When I picked up this polish I thought it could be a dupe for Butter London Lovely Jubbly.  While at a glace it looks similar, it's not.  Lovely Jubbly is a mix of magenta microglitter with some blue, red, and gold microglitter sprinkled in.

Shown on my ring and pointer is three coats of Butter London Lovely Jubbly over two two coats of Zoya Caitlin; the other fingers are XoXo.  This is a very densely packed glitter that covers very well.  Opaque at two coats, it's a whole lot of micro glitter in every stroke of the brush.

In case there was any lingering doubt in your mind as to a dupe, here's a close up:

Not really close at all.  

Week 3: Color Block Manicure

Week 3 Color Block Manicure was a test of my taping ability.  For this challenge I used the following imaged I pinned on Pinterest for inspiration (BTW if you know the original source for this image please let me know!):

Source:  thenailbank.tumblr.com  via Kristen on Pinterest   

Here's my take:

What do you think?  I started with a base of Essie Eternal Optimist, followed by taping off areas to paint Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, Zoya Areej, and Butter London Rosie Lee.  In between each layer I used a coat of Seche Vite so that the tape wouldn't pull off the layers below.  I forgot what an absolute pain in the bottom this type of manicure is half way though it, but thanks to Hulu I finished it.  And its been much too long since I've worn pink on a Wednesday!

Finally, here is a shot of Essie Eternal Optimist on its own.  This is my go to wear to work polish color.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog

Day 18: HALF MOONS

I'm excited for half-moon day, heh. It's Day 18 of the Longest 31 Day Challenge and I'm very excited to share today's look with you.

I've paired Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out with Butter London's No More Waity Katie.  I originally saw this combination on Pinterest, and that led me back to Okay Joy Now's blog post where she did this same design for her day 18.  I love the way this looks!

Day 17: GLITTER

Day 17 of the 31 Day Challenge calls for glitter and this day I went for a very simple glitter: Butter London's Victoriana.  This has been one of my untried polishes since I picked it up in October and I was really irked to find out that there was polish all over the inside of the cap and around the lid of the bottle.  Like someone swatched it in the store.  Seriously guys?  Ugh.  Okay, enough of that, on to the polish!

I love the microglitters suspended in the polish!  Not too much glitter to be in your face but enough to sparkle.  A deep blue, practically teal color that manages to still look very soft.

Day 10: GRADIENT nails

I've known what I wanted to do for Day 10, gradient nails, of the 31 Day Challenge since I visited my parents earlier in October and picked up a couple of Butter London polishes.  A gradient with Rosie Lee :)

I used three coats of China Glaze Innocence as a base then sponged Butter London Rosie Lee on top.  I love this.  I've never done a design like this before and am head over heels with how it looks.  My fingers feel so sparkly I love waving them around, hehe.

For some reason it's really hard for me to see pale polish near my cuticles until after I take photos and enlarge the image so please excuse the mess.

Day 6: VIOLET nails

Another simple design for violet nail day on the 31 Day Nail Challenge.  For this day I used Butter London's HRH, a glorious royal purple with a red base and a hint of metallic shimmer.  I think this is my favorite purple and a great color for fall.

Sadly this polish is really thin on me and it shows every bump and ridge I have.  :(