Butter London Pimms and Lynnderella Connect The Dots

Butter London Pimms

Here's a self indulgent post about some of my favourite things - yellow polish and black and white glitter! My newest yellow polish and my oldest black and white glitter, to be exact. This is Butter London Pimms. It's not a new shade, I think it was from BL's autumn 2013 collection, but when I saw it in my local Boots last week it just seemed so bright and perfect for summer I had to buy it! I don't have a yellow quite like it - I usually go for paler, lemony yellows, greenish yellows, mucky yellows or mustard yellows - avoiding primary yellows because they look kind of 'eggy' and I don't like them on my hands. But this is perfect! The application was fantastic too - this is two coats with Seche Vite topcoat. Much as I love yellow, many yello polishes can be a real pain to apply.

Butter London Pimms

So I wore it on its own for a couple of days then I added black and white glitter. I love black and white glitter, and I have quite a collection of them now - hexagonal ones, mixed shapes, tiny glitters, some with bar glitter, dots, squares, some with highlights of other colours, or background shimmer, or bits of holo - you name it, there's a variant of black and white glitter out there somewhere and chances are I own it, lol! But this is the one that started them all - Lynnderella Connect The Dots. I was amazed when I first saw pictures of this - I'd never seen anything like it before. This was back in the day when Lynnderella sold direct from her blog and people got together for group orders... lot of water under the bridge since then. But this was my first black and white glitter, and my first indie polish in fact! There are other black and white glitters I probably like more now, but this is the original, and I still have a soft spot for it.

Butter London Pimms with Lynnderella Connect The Dots

One coat of Connect The Dots over my existing mani with BL Pimms, with a coat of Gelous to smooth and Seche Vite to finish.

Butter London Pimms with Lynnderella Connect The Dots

All products in this post are from my personal collection and were purchased by me.

Emily de Molly No Love Lost, square nails, some glitter and a bit of stamping for International Nail Art Day!

Emily de Molly No Love Lost

I've cut my nails! No breaks, splits or accidents, there just comes a time when they're *too long* and I'm bored with them. And whilst I like the stiletto shape, after a while I start to find it a bit old fashioned and almost 'witchy' (I have long thin fingers anyway) and I'm craving little square nails again. Over the last few weeks I stopped shaping the stiletto curve right down to my nail bed, and let a bit of straight edge grow out. Now I've got just about enough straight sided nail to make a square shape - so here they are!

The polish is Emily de Molly No Love Lost. It's a red jelly with red and pink glitter of various sizes, and really beautiful. It's also the most difficult polish I've ever tried to photograph! In real life it's a wonderful crimson shade, but cameras want to translate it to a dull brick red. I must have taken over a hundred shots to try to get this colour accurate, using two different cameras and every exposure setting I could think of. I'd say these pictures are 'reasonable' but not perfect. It's richer crimson in real life. I googled images of this shade, and they all look brick-red, so at least I know I'm in good company with other bloggers in my difficulty to photograph this. I suppose it is something to do with the transparency of the polish and how it reflect light. Or something. lol!

 Here's the polish in the bottle:

Another nail shot

And a nail macro

Emily de Molly No Love Lost

I used two coats of Emily de Molly No Love Lost, finished off with a coat of Gelous and a final coat of Seche Vite. Then I added some glitter - Lynnderella Bride of Franken. BoF is one of my favourite Lynnderellas, although I think it has been changed to a different version now. It's been a long time since I bought any Lynnderellas. BoF looks purple in the bottle, but there is actually very little colour in the base once on the nail. It contains holo microglitter and blue flashing iridiscent glitter of various sizes, which show up well against red polishes :D

Emily de Molly No Love Lost with Lynnderella Bride of Franken 

Actually I thought BoF needed a little help this time, so I added a few dabs of Nostalgic Rio (an old indie which is a fairly thin suspension of blue and purple glitter in a clear base) to give it a bit more blue sparkle. The pink and red glitters you can see are all part of No Love Lost.

A couple of nail macros to show off the complexity of the glitter combination! This was awesome in the sunshine!

Emily de Molly No Love Lost with Lynnderella Bride of Franken 

And finally, because the plates just about fit on my nails now, and it is International Nail Art day after all, I added a stamp using Bundle Monster plate 317 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White. I'm British and I love my new little square nails <3

Emily de Molly No Love Lost with Lynnderella Bride of Franken 

I purchased Emily de Molly No Love Lost from Sally Magpies; Llarowe also carries a good range of Emily de Molly polishes and ships internationally. Emily de Molly is a very popular brand at the moment (and rightly so, the polishes I've tried are super) and sell out quickly; if you want these you really need to watch out for restocks.

Bourjois Abricot Ouate with Lynnderella Bride of Franken

Lynnderella Bride of Franken over Bourjois Abricot Ouate

I've had a sort of fascination for light peachy colours for a while now - first Chanel June, then Nails Inc Wellington Square, and most recently, Butter London Kerfuffle. I see the bottles, and I think how pretty they are, and I look at swatches and I think they look great with some skin tones, and not so good with others. Then I pick the bottles up, and hold them against my hand and think 'ugh, that won't suit me' and put them down again. So I've never owned one of these colours.

I was buying a couple of Bourjois shades in Boots recently, and there was a 3-for-2 offer. And there was this peachy polish 'Abricot Ouate'.... so I got it as my 'free' item. And it looks awful on me! I'm just glad I didn't buy a high end polish this colour. But at least I know now! Here it is:

Bourjois Abricot Ouate

Three coats plus Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. Application is fine, and I'm sure it would look good on someone with darker skin. Or different coloured skin. Ouate apparently means cotton wool in French.

So what to do with it? I saw this gorgeous mani by Another Bottle of Polish the other day, which reminded me of a fruit dessert with vanilla seeds in it; I thought I'd like to try something with the tiniest of glitter, and a bit of a shimmery highlight in a complementary colour. First of all, I put a bit of Nubar Black Polka Dot onto a saucer so I could push all the bigger glitters to the edge with my brush before dabbing on a little of the polish containing just the tiny black microglitter. Then I added a coat of Lynnderella Bride of Franken. Bride of Franken is one of my favourite Lynnderellas - it's one of her very first ones. It's a mix of bluish iridiscent (or 'disco') glitter with a some holographic microglitter in a slightly lavender-blue tinged base. Even though it looks quite colourful in the bottle, the tint in the base is so light you can wear it over just about any polish without it changing the colour of the base.

Lynnderella Bride of Franken over Bourjois Abricot Ouate

I added a coat of Gelous and another coat of SV to smooth this out - end result is a delicate, pretty spring mani.  The iridescent glitters in Bride of Franken catch the light wonderfully!

Lynnderella Bride of Franken over Bourjois Abricot Ouate

If Bourjois Abricot Ouate was *orange* and Lynnderella Bride of Franken was *blue* (and they are, near enough) they would be complementary colours, which is why they look good together. Once I'd done the mani, the colours reminded me of a limited edition polish Lynn made called 'Habeas Coral' which sold for hundreds of dollars on ebay. Lynn clearly knows her colour theory! Here's a pretty swatch of Habeas Coral by PeachyPolish.

I purchased Bourjois Abricot Ouate from my local Boots and Nubar Black Polka Dot from Beauty Bay. Beauty Bay's prices include worldwide shipping. I received Lynnderella Bride of Franken in a swap a long time ago;I believe this particular shade is now discontinued and has been replaced by 'The Bride Turned Blue' which looks very similar, except the base is rather more blue tinged. In the USA you can buy Lynnderella polishes from her store on ebay; Norway Nails stocks Lynnderella polishes and ships within Europe.

Nails Inc Baker Street with Lynnderella Forget You Not

Nails Inc Baker Street with Lynnderella Forget You Not

I'm wearing blue on my nails today to mark the start of Autism Awareness month. Nails Inc Baker Street is one of my favourite mid blues. It's a perfect cobalt shade, and really easy to apply. The pictures below are just two coats plus Seche Vite quick dry top coat.

Look how bright and bold this polish is!

Nails Inc Baker Street

and a few shots at different angles

Nails Inc Baker Street

If you don't already have Baker Street, you should!

After a day wearing Baker Street, I added a light blue glitter; Lynnderella Forget You Not.

Nails Inc Baker Street with Lynnderella Forget You Not

Forget You Not is a mix of silvery-periwinkle blue Glitters in various sizes, in a slightly shimmery base. The shimmer in the base is very light, so it doesn't change the colour of the base at all. This is just one coat of Forget You Not over the existing Baker Street Mani, with a coat of Gelous and a further coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out.

Nails Inc Baker Street with Lynnderella Forget You Not

Nails Inc Baker Street is in the core range of colours and is readily available at retailers and directly from Nails Inc website; although Nails Inc only ship within the UK there is a list of retailers worldwide on their website. I bought my bottle of Baker Street in in my local Boots when it was released last year and I've worn it a few times since!

Lynnderella polishes are available from Lynnderella on her Ebay store if you are in the US. Norway Nails has just started selling Lynnderella polishes, and ships within Europe - although these are at Scandinavian prices and therefore seem expensive to me, sadly.

Elevation Polish The Arches with Lynnderella Thank Blue and Lacquistry Autumn Flurries

Elevation Polish The Arches with Lynnderella Thank Blue

I was in a colour-nerdy mood today, so I picked a favourite polish as a base then used my colour wheel to find something interesting to layer over it.

Elevation Polish The Arches is a lovely rusty red *crelly* sort of a polish. I don't know if crelly is a real word, but the polish is somewhere between a cream and a jelly, so there you go. This was the first Elevation Polish I bought and I've been hooked ever since. I chose the complimentary colour of The Arches to pair it with - blue-green. I was considering using NailVenturous Floam, but then Thank Blue caught my eye and just seemed a perfect companion. I wanted to create a bit of extra depth and texture in the finished mani so I included a layer of Lacquistry Autumn Flurries. Autumn Flurries is a polish I want to love, but I can't. I think I have some sort of a problem with red glitter, I'm never happy with them, whatever I do. But well down in the mix like this, Autumn Flurries adds a bit of interest.

I didn't take stage by stage pictures of this mani as, to be honest, none of the stages looked particularly attractive until I put on the Gelous, and then it all came together as a whole. I did one coat of The Arches - at one coat this is thin and streaky - and put a coat of Autumn Flurries over that. Autumn Flurries is a lot of reddish microglitter in a tinted red base with a few larger light coppery glitters. Then a coat of Thank Blue, quite thick as I wanted to get plenty of blue glitter onto my nails, followed by a further coat of The Arches. The Arches is sheer enough to let the blue glitters show through, but tones the colour of the glitters down quite a lot, so some of them look shades of darker blue and even green. Even though Autumn Flurries is two coats down, the microglitters twinkle through. To finish off the colours, I dabbed just a few of the glitters from Thank Blue on each nail, taking care not to get anywhere near full coverage. I wanted these last glitters to highlight, rather than drown, what I'd already done. Then I added a coat of Gelous and a coat of SV to make it all smooth and shiny.

More pictures........ first of all in bright light, near a window:

Elevation Polish The Arches with Lynnderella Thank Blue

These show the squishiness of Elevation Polish The Arches and the colours of the glitter quite true to life. You can also see the microglitter from Autumn Flurries twinkling away in the background.

Some of the glitter in Lynnderella Thank Blue is holographic, which adds the range of colour reflections. I've tried to capture this in this picture in rather softer light.

Elevation Polish The Arches with Lynnderella Thank Blue

I purchased Elevation Polish The Arches direct from the creator, Lulu, at her Elevation Polish Shop. The Arches is not currently in stock, but Lulu keeps a list of polishes and their availability on her website. I purchased Lynnderella Thank Blue about a year ago, when the process for buying Lynnderella polishes was different to what it is now. If you are in the US, you can buy from Lynn on e-bay. I understand that Norway Nails are now the exclusive retailer of Lynnderella Polishes in Europe.  Lynn's blog has swatches of all her collections (Thank Blue is from the Funny Money collection) over various bases and more information about purchasing. I got my bottle of Lacquistry Autumn Flurries in a swap a while ago - Lacquistry has an Etsy Shop but this was one of her earliest polishes and I don't think is still being made.

OPI My Vampire Is Buff (with glitter layering)

This polish is from OPI's new Euro Centrale Collection. I love pale, creamy shades and this one really caught my eye. It didn't disappoint - the formula is great; I applied two coats, then one coat of SV to smooth things out a bit  before the final coat (a trick I often use with pale creams to avoid streaking).

If you've looked at my earlier posts, which were my manis from the last few days, you'll notice a change in nail shape. I'm quite fickle with shape, and often change..... my nails seem to have a seasonal cycle through short squares to long squares, which become just too awkward so I shape them into almonds. Then I let the almonds grow to stilettos and ultimately get bored and go back to little square nubbins. Yesterday's reshape was pre-empted by breaking off the corner of my thumb nail on the quickly retracting cable of my vaccum cleaner :(

OPI My Vampire Is Buff

Today I added some glitter to MViB - Lynnderella A Neutral Party. I don't want to go into all the saga about Lynnderella polishes - let's suffice to say she makes some nice glitters and if you are in the USA you can buy her products on e-bay. It used to be easier to get them outside of the USA, but now it's tricky.

OPI My Vampire Is Buff with Lynnderella A Neutral Party

This made me think a bit of a bird's egg; except the glitter was a bit too blingy...........so I toned it down by adding a coat of a sheer polish a similar colour to my base over the top. A sort of glitter sandwich!

OPI My Vampire Is Buff with Lynnderella A Neutral Party and  sheer cream

This is an old L'Oreal Resist & Shine (Shade 100) which I've had around ten years. If anybody tells you nail polish goes off, it's a lie. This one applies as good as new. I've many bottles that are older than this and are perfectly usable. Here's another shot from a different angle to show the massive hex glitter on my index finger - for those who like glitters, Lynnderella polishes really are the best if you can get them.

OPI My Vampire Is Buff with Lynnderella A Neutral Party and  sheer cream

And finally, to finish the bird's egg theme, I added a matte top coat. I use Mavala Color-Matt top coat - it dries nice and smooth and is easily available on line and in department stores in the UK.

OPI My Vampire Is Buff with Lynnderella A Neutral Party, sheer cream and matte topcoat

I purchased my OPI polish from a seller on Amazon Marketplace, Lynnderella A Neutral Party came from a swap last year and the L'Oreal I've had forever!