butter LONDON Love at First Brush

It was hard to decide which butter LONDON polish to buy first but I managed to choose Wallis because a) I was looking for a gold polish and b) it looked absolutely lovely on all the swatches I found online.

Named for Wallis Simpson, the woman who so beguiled a king he abdicated, is a mature shade which, in my opinion, is pretty work appropriate especially on shorter nails.  It feels like a dark brown/black that's been washed with an almost matte gold layer of shine, not so much shimmer.  Its an absolutely gorgeous color and has sort of got me jonesing for the rest of the line.

Judge for yourself:

The most wonderful thing about this polish is that it only took two coats for me to be happy with it opacity wise.  Lately I've been on a "two coat policy," in which, a polish passes or fails solely based on if I can get it opaque in two coats.  Clearly, Wallis doesn't disappoint. 

I'm always curious to see how shades like this come across on Asian skintones.  For example, I look terrible in most green polishes so I've pretty much decided to give up on them.  The interesting thing about Wallis is that its not a bright gold by any stretch.  Its more of a patina-ed gold that gives it a very interesting olive tone to it.  This actually brings out the red in my skin even though you can't really tell in the pictures.

In the beginning, I wasn't sure if I'd like this polish.  But, in the week or so I've had it, I've worn it three times.  I think that's saying a lot.  I'm not sure about tip wear yet so in terms of longevity, its still yet to be tested, but when it comes to my overall first impression, butter LONDON's Wallis is as equally charming as the Duchess of Windsor herself.

Pop A Cork In It

So I finally succumbed and picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper for myself after picking up a bottle for a friend in Brazil I'm swapping polishes with.  Its a flakie, not very iridescent -- very much like glass.

Anyways, I was originally only going to repaint my nails Because You're Worth It, but after I was done I thought, "hey I wonder what this would look like with Rock Candy on it," and decided to paint Orly Rock Candy, a pretty, definitely iridescent polish that's fairly transparent and makes for great layering.  It looked nice.  It "silvered" it up a lot and cast a frost on it without making it look 80s (everybody who remembers frost nail polish from the 80s knows what I mean!)  Anyways, trying to get creative, I decided to try Glass Slipper.

Here's how it turned out:

It dented my polish a little and made it look like it had wet spots.  But it also did remind me a little of champagne and those little bubbles that form from carbonation.

But I'm still not really sure how I feel about Glass Slipper.  >_<

Walgreens Haul

I don't normally buy a lot of things at Walgreens because I found them to be historically more expensive than other stores.  However, I was in search of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper and they happened to be on sale there so I thought, why not?

I'm glad I went.  I'm also glad I went to a Walgreens I don't normally go to because as it turns out, the girl in the beauty department was a nail enthusiast like me and was more than happy to help.

As you can see, I didn't get SH Glass Slipper but I did end up with a lot more...for a the price of two bottles of polish and a protein bar.

I managed to get my hands on the LAST bottle of clearanced out Seche Vite at that location (I now plan on scouring every other local Walgreens that has it in stock) for $4.79(!) and I got a bottle of Loreal nail polish because the girl swore by it.  I figured it has something to do with the Essie relationship and picked up a pretty bottle of gold that was not only $1 off, but another WG employee ahead of me in line gave me her Loreal coupon for another $1 off.

Here's the polish I bought:

 L'Oreal - Because You're Worth It

For some reason, the middle finger was really streaky and applied poorly.  I had to remove it and re-apply it to get it to look like the other nails.

This was a weird gold.  I've been wanting to try one and purchase Wallis earlier in the week on Ebay but this is a shade that I hated when I first applied it and have slowly grown to really love it.  Its a strong metallic shade that has a really cool tone to it, which really surprised me.  It almost feels like having a light gold foil on my fingers.

Application was streaky but 3 coats sufficiently cleared up the streakiness and opacity.  I have light tan skin with yellow-to-olive undertones so gold normally looks really nice on me but I honestly believe this might be better suited for cooler toned gals.   Either way, I loved the overall shininess of it all and I didn't regret buying it like a few of the other polishes I've bought in the past.

Retail price on the first display I found it on said $6.49 but it was on another display listing it for $5.99 with another $1 off from the Walgreens coupon.  Another Walgreens employee hooked me up with her personal L'Oreal coupon so ended up paying $3.99 for it.

All in all the nail polish WAS worth it -- meaning I'd probably buy another bottle once I ran out -- and of course you can't go wrong with 14 bottles of nail polish remover and Seche Vite for less than $5.