butter LONDON - Union Jack Black

butter LONDON does great colors. Trendy, edgy...and also lots of colors that are classic and stable. Pinks, roses, fuschias, reds...and BLACK. Union Jack Black is the butter Black offering and it's a good one.

Before I show you! If you've been reading this blog at all consistently, you may have noticed that butters have a very interesting characteristic. Several polishes do it but none as pronounced as butter. As a point of interest, since I may tell you that a polish does this it may not make sense. It occurred to me I would be interested to see what the process looks like for each polish. Not the base coat, strengthener process, unless it's something interesting, but the color itself. Let's face it, I can't show you anything revolutionary about clear nail strengthener. butter LONDON Nail Foundation, Orly Nail Armor, or Seche Rebuild...you might be interested. Clear? Not so much. However...when I say that butters go on a streaky hot mess on the first coat but completely even out on the second and third coats? You may be interested, if for no other reason than to not give up on a polish color that you love in the bottle, but the first coat is so thin and nasty that you think you've wasted your money and you take it off. Don't do that! I'm going to try to show you the first coat then second coat and if necessary, third coats as I swatch so you can see the process of the color. Interesting? If you think not, please comment and tell me to stop, but I think it's interesting.

So, with no further babble, Union Jack Black, one hot mess coat:

Jeebus. Awful, isn't it? GAH! If I didn't know this brand I might have thrown this out!

Here's a no flash version. I was clearly playing around with the camera on this day.

Still nasty, but not as bad. In case you had any doubts about how black this polish is, can you see where the lid begins and the bottle ends? Didn't think so. This is BLACK. It's blacker than tar. But you can't tell that from these two pics, can you?

Let's try another one!

Slightly blurry, but note the shine. Note the two coat difference! See how it evens out and gets all lovely on the second coat. This is highly pigmented, believe it or not, and two coats of that hot mess gave this level of opacity. Amazing, huh? While most polishes need at least a second coat, they don't normally transform to this extent. It's a butter quirk.
I was trying to show you the removable cap. butter does details wonderfully, so fun. Check out the top of the actual lid:

That's the little butter LONDON royal raven. HEE HEE! This kind of stuff just brings joy to my world. Silly? How can you condemn a fun thing of joy like that. It's the little things, after all.

Label shot. Note the shine again! No top coat here, that's all butter.

This almost appears to have a touch of red in it, but I think it's the lighting. It doesn't get much blacker than this polish. Also, my tell-tale story on formula - the cuticles! Really clean. This was easy to control and went on smoothly. At least after the first terrible coat. That probably would not have happened with butter's Nail Foundation, which seems to grab the color. If you're into butter, you owe it to yourself to splurge on the Foundation. Quite frankly, it's a great product and the polish will apply better and wear longer with it. butter is just one of those products that needs it's fam around it to really reach it's potential.

Parting shot! The shine is amazing. That's so clear you can see the trees outside the window! This was primarily natural light in these last few so you're seeing the real deal.

Now...looking at how black this is, and I'm currently sporting the Lady Gaga Barney's exclusive Edge of Darkness set. It's gorge, but...I'm wondering you couldn't do something similar with Union Jack Black and maybe Pearlie Queen or their newer Tart With a Heart? (Swatches of Tart are done, those will be coming along later). I may have to do some experimentin'!

If you're looking for a good solid black, this will do the trick. I like it as well as the other blacks I have. I certainly love it's gloss.

Happy Talons!