Nails of the Week: Butter London and Deborah Lippmann

This week's nail of the week is more like a nail-of-the-three-days. The Butter London polishes I picked up are all very pretty and come in colors that Zoya doesn't have but are only lasting about three days on me, no matter what  do. So this week, I have two manicures to share this week.

First up: Butter London's Fairy Lights with the accent nail having a two-coat topper of Knackered

Butter London Fairy Lights and Knackered

Butter London describes Fairy Lights as a "rose gold" - but much like Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette, I'm not seeing the gold qualities. The rosy pink is too cool-toned to be "rose gold," in my opinion, but that's certainly not a complaint! It is on last orders at Butter London's own website but Nordstrom and Beauty.com have it in regular stock still. Knackered on its own is kind of a sheer metallic blue with a bit of sparkle, which made for a nice lavender here that worked well with Fairy Lights. 

On Monday that was so ragged that it really needed to be redone so of course I waited an extra day to do anything about it. That brought me to Deborah Lippman's Private Dancer, which Beauty.com is currently doing as a gift-with-beauty purchase (ending 4/4 - go! They're stackable, too, so get as many as you can!) For the accent, I settled on Zoya's Mimi

"Outdoors" natural light

Indoors, no flash

I feel like the chrome on this one isn't very, well, chromed. It's a very pretty color and seems to ride the line between duochrome and just chrome. We'll see how it wears! 

Nail of the Week: Butter London Petrol

After my recent post on Zoya polish being the only polish I use, a friend begged me to give Butter London another chance. Given that my application and routine have improved since the last time I gave it a try, I was considering it. Then I stopped in at Nordstrom's Beauty Trend event and they had the Backstage Basics kit just sitting there. So I picked it up with Petrol.

Butter London Petrol

I've been wearing this for three days so far and, I'm sorry to say, I've got major tip wear and what looks like a french manicure from the polish wearing away on my right hand. (I'm trying to let it go a full week so I can take photos then.) What you see above is Nail Foundation, three coats of Petrol (it's very sheer as it is intended to be used as a top coat in addition to being a stand-alone,) and a coat of Hardwear.

Petrol is very aptly named - it has the very pretty sheen of gasoline or an oil slick. No photo I could manage did it justice.

I do like the feel of both the base coat - Nail Foundation - and Hardwear, the top coat, better than Zoya's. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be doing the job as well. I wish Zoya could do something to be as quick-drying and lightweight as the Butter feels without sacrificing the quality and wear time. I do use Zoya's quick-dry drops but they leave my fingertips greasy until I'm comfortable washing my hands. Butter London's top coat dries quickly with no fuss. 

I think for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking with Zoya and will only be picking up Butter London polishes on sale in shades that Zoya doesn't have (yet.) Admittedly, Zoya is not always up on trend colors, even if they are usually on the frontlines of runway color.

Butter London polishes clock in at $15 per bottle, base and top coat at $19 a bottle - available from Ulta, Sephora, Nordstrom, many Whole Foods stores, and Butter London's website directly. 

Nail of the Week: Pinta and Chloe

As I've mentioned before, I use almost entirely Zoya polish because it holds well for over a week and keeps my nails strong. In last week's madness, I didn't get a chance to shape or paint my nails which lead to some breakage. When that happens, I tend to cut them short and even and go for a glittery or dark (or both, in this case) color.

I had some trouble capturing the holographic glitter that is Chloe's main characteristic. I'm not seeing Chloe on Zoya's US website but I am seeing it on their Australian website (lucky Aussies!) Any pink-toned holographic flake nail polish should have the same general effect, I haven't found them to be all that different from one another and there are quite a few out there - Milani, Color Club, Chanel, and a lot of indie brands have all made holographic flake polishes.

Chloe here is layered over Pinta, which is a deep royal purple cream. The end effect is something like a speckled egg and works well as a transition-to-spring color, as well as a transition-to-fall color.

Here you can really see the base color of Pinta but the fleck isn't showing up that well.

And here you can see the fleck of Chloe but the base color isn't showing up that well. 

I find that I like darker colors better for shorter nails than bright colors but that is perhaps a product of remembering the '90s well and the admonitions to not wear black polish on long nails (which I do anyhow.) Do you keep your short nails bright, light, or dark? 

Nail of the Week: Zoya Kotori

This week's nail-of-the-week was determined by this week's forecast - Seattle's specific kind of light-sky, smoky-gray, light rain all week long. Some of my favorite weather! 

Zoya Kotori, 2 coats with 1 coat of Zoya's Armor

Kotori is, at two coats, semi-sheer blue glitter over a smoky gray base. At three coats it becomes mostly glitter, enough so that even with a single layer of top coat it feels slightly textured. This makes it really versatile because it can be transitional-season smoky or mid-summer blue glitter. Just the thing for a late February manicure.

Not a Polish Blogger, Clearly

Clearly, I'm not a polish blogger. You'll see in a second that my polish application skills are mediocre, at best, and my hands are not really what you'd call dainty or photogenic. (I have big hands, okay?)

However! I see a question asked so frequently and feel a duty to answer it to the world and internet:

What's the longest lasting polish you've used?

For me the answer, hands down, is Zoya. I use the full color-lock system: Remove+, Anchor, Polish, Armor, and Hurry Up. I even have a bottle of Renew in my cabinet. (Is anyone interested in "what's in my collection" photos?) 

For example: Here's a manicure I did last week, late Wednesday (the 12th) night while I watched the Amell brothers sulk up the CW: 

Zoya's Dakota - two coats and a single layer of top coat

Yes, I'm holding the polish bottle. My hands were not made for those dainty poses.

Here's that same manicure, no fussing, no fixing, no daily top-coating (do people have time for that?) to protect the polish after a week (photo taken in the wee hours of the 20th) chasing my sick preschooler, doing dishes with the steaming hot water from my sink (no gloves - I've never seen a latex-free dish glove,) washing my hands and face a lot, typing, and generally not being dainty. 

Hey you can actually see my nail growth.

Here's another view: 

The best part of this? The only thing I need to keep these weekly manicures looking this way is a cuticle pusher (but I don't use oil or anything - the Remove+ actually is pretty nice to my cuticles. I lotion my hands after I wash them when they're dry,) nail clippers, and a four-sided buffing block. No fussing with cuticle removers or softeners, no nail hardening routine (and mine were paper-thin and prone to splitting before I started using Zoya polishes,) no fancy routine. Just remove, shape, polish, and go. The quick-dry drops make it so that I can get back to typing and touching stuff within about fifteen minutes (I'm clumsy, so I give myself some extra time) and I can go to bed without sheet marks in about an hour. 

The usual suspects. 

Don't worry, I refill that Remove+ from a giant salon-sized bottle I keep under a cabinet.

Here's the bonus round: these are vegan. They're five-free (that means no: toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, DBP (phthalates) and camphor.) They don't smell horrendous and the remover doesn't make me want to pick my brain out with a fork (fumes, man, fumes.) That remover? I'm pretty sure it could take paint off of a car and leave it buffed afterwards - it removes glitter polish in one go but leaves my hands soft and nails refreshed. They usually have a gift-with-purchase or coupon - follow their blog, Zoya Blog, and you'll always know what's coming. You can pick the polishes up at some salons, Ulta stores (but not online,) and Zoya's own website (my preference.)

Have I used other polishes? Boy, have I. I've tried tricks, tips, gone to salons, bought Butter London, Julep, OPI, China Glaze, NARS, Chanel, Seche Vite, Essie, Sally Hansen, RGB, OCC, Deborah Lippman, and I even recently tried Sephora's Formula X. Nothing lasts like Zoya; long live Zoya!