butter LONDON Spring/Summer 2012 Swatches: Knackered

As you probably know, I use my very own hard-earned money to pay for everything I show on this blog. So you know if I feature an entire collection of something on this blog, I must love it a whole lot because I paid for it! Well, that's exactly what happened with the Spring/Summer collection from butter LONDON. I saw promo pics of it, and I knew that I was going to end up buying the whole thing. I just love every. single. color!

Which is precisely why I'm going to show swatches of this collection in separate posts. I can't wait to show you guys my first collection swatches, but I want to take my time and enjoy wearing them before I take them off to swatch the next one. So for the next 10-15 days or so, enjoy these swatches of the amazing spring/summer collection from butter LONDON! First up, Knackered, a sheer teal-gray/lavender duochrome with tiny holographic glitter! (I just shivered a little from writing that.)

This photo pretty accurately shows the color-shift of the duochrome.

On the first coat of this polish, I thought there was no way it would build up to opacity. It's very sheer. It would work well as a layering polish, although I personally don't think I would like the way that would look. It becomes pretty opaque at three coats - VNL is still slightly visible but not noticeable. It applies a bit brushstroke-y, and you must wait for each coat to dry before applying the next one or it will drag and create strange "ripples" in the polish - you can kind of see this effect on my middle finger, where I attempted to fill in a bald spot and messed it up.

Blurred to show the holographic glitter

This is such a unique polish, and while I'm still on the fence whether I love it or not, I'm very glad to have it in my collection!

Stay tuned for the remaining four colors from butter LONDON's Spring/Summer collection!

FOTD: Elementary, My Dear Watson

On my trip to Ulta today, I saw NYX was having a buy-one-get-one half off sale. I immediately grabbed their matte bronzer in Medium because I was looking for a nice big pan of bronzer with NO shimmer in it for contouring. The second thing I grabbed was their cream blush in Orange. I'm a big fan of this product in Glow, and I love coral and orange blushes on me, so this was a no brainer.

When I got home, I wanted to put a face together using the cream blush. So I was going through my eyeshadows, thinking about combinations that would go with an orange blush. I landed on my Bare Minerals Ready Eyeshadow Quad in the Elements. I've done a look with this quad before, but I didn't use the blue shade in that look. I think this eyeshadow quad is wonderful, and quite "elementary" to apply!

I started off the same way I always do - I prepped my eyelid with Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original. I swept Earth, a matte greenish grey, onto the eyelid, then blended Fire, a matte rusty orange, into the crease. I blended Air, a champagne beige shimmer, into the browbone and inner corner. I lined my waterline with NYX Slide On Waterproof Eyeliner in Tropical Green, then used a flat liner brush to line my lower lashline with Water, a tealish blue shimmer. (Sidenote: I also tightlined my upper lashline with black eyeliner, but I don't think I'll do that ever again because it kept rubbing off on my contacts all day long and irritating my eyes! Any tips on how to tightline for contact wearers?) Lastly, I swept my eyelashes with Lancome Definicils Mascara in Black.

 To finish the face, I contoured my cheeks with NYX Matte Bronzer in Medium and highlighted my cheekbones with Benefit Girl Meets Pearl in Golden Pink. (I also got this at Ulta today - a mini sample size to see if I liked it - and I do!) I blended NYX Cream Blush in Orange into the apples of my cheeks using my fingertips. On my lips, to go with the orange theme, I applied Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti.




What do you think of this look? I definitely think it's more of a summer look, but honestly, who cares what season it is when you look this good? ;)

I think I'll take photos of myself in my car every day! This lighting makes me look awesome!

NOTD: Another Hefesto masterpiece!

Gorgeous!

I've been dreaming up different layering combinations I could do with Speciallita Hefesto - a sheer holographic top coat - ever since I got it last week. On my first post about it, commenter Monica suggested I try it over a black or grey polish, and I thought that was a GREAT idea! I had never seen a true grey holo before. To bling it out even more, I decided to go with OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous, a shimmery charcoal grey with hints of green and purple shimmer. With one coat of Hefesto over it, I couldn't stop staring at my nails! The sun even peeked out while I was driving, and I kept stretching my fingers out on the steering wheel so I could sneak glances at the rainbow goodness.

I love Hefesto for layering over a tired creme, but layering it over another glitter/shimmer polish is just out-of-this-world amazing. Great suggestion, Monica!! Any other ideas, folks?

China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters promo pics

Just saw on Facebook that China Glaze is putting out a new collection of glitters this year. They put up some promo pics so I'll share them with you here.

I already can't wait for Polarized!!!
Follow China Glaze on Facebook for more information.

FOTD - Golds and Greens

I put this look on in an effort to motivate me to get out of the house and get a few errands done today. We have yet to see if that will actually happen.

For the eyes, I used two shadows from theBalm The Balm and the Beautiful palette, which contains the exact same shades from the Muppets palette from the same brand, just in different packaging and with different names. I started by blending theBalm The Supermodel, a shimmery warm gold (a dupe for Urban Decay Baked) all over the lid and on the middle of the lower lashline. I then blended the Balm The Step Brother, a medium olivey green shimmer, into the crease and bringing it down along the outer third of the lower lashline I lined the waterline and upper lashline with Stila Smudgestick Waterproof Eye Liner in Moray, an olive green with gold sparkle. I highlighted the browbone and inner corner with the matte white shade from the Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral palette. To finish, I swept my lashes with Lancome Definicils mascara in Black. (I have a sample tube of this mascara. I didn't like it at first, but now I really like the separation it gives!)

To finish the face, I used NYX Cream Blush in Glow, a medium rosy pink shade, on the apples of my cheeks. I've been looking to add to my cream blush collection, because powder blushes look too dry on my skin in the winter. This is a great addition, and for such a reasonable price I will definitely purchase more colors. I applied Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Sweet Tart on my lips.

OK, so I look hot, now let's see if I can actually motivate myself to get out of the house today and get stuff done!

NOTD - Choose-your-own-holo!

By now everyone knows about the amazing Speciallita Hits no Olimpo collection. I REALLY wanted to get the whole collection, but that was just not feasible with shipping charges from Brazil :) To satisfy my craving, I decided to just spring for Hefesto, which I was able to find on Ebay for a pretty reasonable price. Hefesto is a sheer holographic topcoat, which enables you to turn any color your heart desires into a holo!

I really wanted to try Hefesto on top of a color that I've never seen as a holo before. I decided to try it out on top of American Apparel Dynasty, which is a medium red-toned lavender creme. This is an untried polish for me. The reason I haven't gotten around to wearing it is because it was the third polish in a 3 for $15 sale they were having on their polish a few months ago, and while I was able to choose the first two immediately, none of the other colors jumped out at me and it took me a while to decide what my third one was going to be, so I just wasn't excited to wear it. It was a great choice to wear under Hefesto! It makes for a really unique combination. It's a good winter-to-spring transitional mani, I think.

What do you think of this combination? What color should I wear under Hefesto next?

NOTD - Coral and Gold

We had some weird weather in Chicago this weekend. On Friday, we had our first major snowfall this winter. I think it was about 8 inches by the end of the night. Then, last night, we had a rain and thunderstorm. Whaaaa? This morning, almost all the snow was melted, leaving huge gross muddy puddles, and the sky was gray and misty. Gloom and doom all the way. I needed something to remind me that we are on the other side of the winter solstice and spring WILL be here soon, darn it!

Flash - It's not really this pink

I thought that OPI I Eat Mainely Lobster, a bright coral with subtle gold shimmer, would look gorgeous layered with Essie As Gold as it Gets, a gold flaky topcoat. I was slightly disappointed the first time I ever wore Lobster because the gold shimmer didn't really translate onto the nail, but with a coat of As Gold as it Gets over the top, it becomes everything I ever wanted it to be!

I had a hard time photographing this polish! Under the flash, it came out looking pure pink, and you couldn't really see the gold flakies. In artificial light, it looks closer to its true color, although it's brighter than it looks in the photo. I'll have to try it outside tomorrow, if we have any sun. Pleeeease let there be sun tomorrow!!

On a side note, I just realized that twice in the past few days, I've layered an Essie luxe effect over an OPI polish. I guess they make a good team :)

Artificial light - This is more true to color