Butter London: Fiver & Ciate: Mattnificent

Happpppyyyy Sunday!!

Today I thought I would share with you the beginning of my Butter London story.  On Friday night I took great pleasure in finally receiving my beautiful little package.  I had been patiently waiting, constantly checking my order progress when BOOM, arriving home from work and that little package is waiting for me.  A teeny tiny jiffy bag complete with the 3 Butter London nail polishes I had ordered - check them outta!  If you hover over the names of all the polishes mentioned in this post you will have a direct link to the appropriate website :).

From left to right we have Blagger, Macbeth and Fiver.  These are all available from the Butter London website and are available for £13 a bottle.  They may be pricey, however, if you read my previous post where I used Thames by Butter London I have gone in to detail to explain why the price is so high - they're fantastic nail varnishes in more than one way!

For this post I decided to try out Fiver and was not disappointed in any way, shape or form.  As I mentioned in my pastel post, pastels are in for spring/summer 2013 and this colour, well, it fits the bill 1 million percent!  The bottles are a stunning, simplistic design which fit perfectly in to the palm of your hands.  They feel luxorious and elegant - yes this is before you even apply the varnish to your pretty nails.

Take the lid off the bottle and what are you greeted by a little birdy, just minding your nail varnishes for you. This simplistic touch is one that I adore about these nail varnishes.  (Butter London are quickly pulling me in from these personal touches!)  

Now on to the more exciting part - the painting!  I applied my chosen base coat to my natural nails - A&E by Nails Inc - and waited for this to be 110% dry before applying Fiver.  Sit there, do a finger dance on the tables, sing a little song, do a little jive, you know how the waiting works...!

Next, Fiver emerges and brace yourself for this beautiful burst of minty colour!!  When applying the first coat, streaks appeared (a bit like streaky bacon), it was extremely uneven.  This didn't scare me though, I've discovered in the past that polishes which do this seem to have the best result after a second coat than those who coat your nail in one layer.  The colour from this uneven coat was absolutely delicious though, it reminded me on mint choc chip ice cream in the summer, sitting by the beach - yummy!  I couldn't wait to build up this colour and get my final result!!

Once this had dried I applied my second coat and boom-shake-shake-the-room, I was right, the coverage was insane!!!  No streaks, nothing that was bad, the colour was even, solid and just beautiful!

With this being the finished result after 2 coats and after the second being so streaky you have to give a lot of credit to Butter London.  Their brushes glide across your nails, applying an even coat of Fiver, with each layer building an exceptional colour.  The varnish itself, beautiful, how you can have a colour which coats your nails in such a way to leave them looking minty green and not intense in the green department is something very special.

The gloss on this polish also was stunning, you don't need to add a top coat to add a high gloss, just one to seal the polish to your nail edges!  I think this colour would suit almost every skin tone, I mean I'm as pale as can be and it suits me, and on darker skin tones this would look seriously insane!

I absolutely adore this product, and would really recommend it to all you nail varnish fanatics!  Butter London has quickly become my second favourite nail varnish brand, just one place behind Ciaté.  Everything, from the website, to the colours, to the bottles, the polish application to the nail and the finished result is something which is going to really set them aside from their competitors.

To finish my nail look off, I decided to mattify them - I adore this look at the moment all thanks to Mattnificent from Ciaté, priced at £11 a bottle and is available from the Ciate website.

To achieve the perfect Matte Nail look is simple pimples!  Wait for your nails to be 110% dry and apply one thin coat evenly across each nail.  Sit back and watch your nails transform to a separate and new look altogether!

If you don't fancy apply a matte top coat straight away, why not try wearing your nails glossy for a day and then the next day applying your favourite matte top coat?  Two nail looks with only the addition of a matte top coat :).  I tend to this now ... ssshhhh don't tell anyone!

And there we have it folks, a spring and summer colour which you must treat yourself to.  Really you won't be disappointed at all.  I have had this colour on now for 3 days and there have been no chips at all, no flaking, no nothing.  Butter London polishes really are worth investing in, treat yourself :).  There is something special about these polishes, especially Fiver, go and see for yourself... The perfect addition to your Spring/Summer 2013 nail varnish collection.

I hope you all have a relaxing Sunday, all prepped for the Super Bowl tonight and work tomorrow :)!

Hugs,

Elaine_KS

xo