Jasper - the other something different from butterLondon

The other less classic pastel in this collection, and the last I have to show you, is Jasper. It's a really pretty pale yellow pastel. And a sweetened version of the actual stone I would guess it's named after.

Here is the stone: International Colored Gem Institute Jasper
Or at least one example of it, but you can see the pretty yellows in there.

Here is the polish:

This is one coat, streaky but not unmanageable.

You can see at two coats it levels out and looks really creamy and pretty. Yellow is not my color and it not even a color I personally care for but for some reason I like it as a nail polish. Despite the fact that any color nail polish is acceptable these days, and there is a huge variety of them to be found, yellow still seems unexpected. This looks like the hard candy coating on maybe an M&M. But it still manages to look like a yellow marshmallow. This collection is so interesting that way.

It doesn't make me all red, either. Surprising. It's not exactly the best thing on my skin tone, but I have told you that already! I think this swatch just really helps demonstrate that really well...

Last one. This shows a little of the chalkiness characteristic of pastels and these are no exception, but there is a quality to these that makes them look so soft. While looking like a hard candy coating or an Easter Egg. It's really intriguing.

I like this one, too.

That's the end of this collection, what did you think? Planning to pick up any of these?

Happy Talons!

butterLondon - Kerfuffle It's a peach!

Kerfuffle is a pastel peach shade. It's really pretty but it's not going to change the world of nail polish or anything. You may have something similar in your stash.

Very powdery pinky peach. This is one coat. If you were careful and did one thick coat you might be able to manage it. However, just for the sake of color intensity I recommend at least two. I know some bloggers won't stop until three just on principal. I say go with what looks best to you.

You can see the chalky feel to this here. That's not bad, it's just a pastel quality that should disseminate with another coat and a top coat.

Here's two. It's...I don't know if you guys ever danced ballet or were interested, but this is about the color of "European Pink" pointe shoes. Peachy but pink. It's pretty...I'm just not as in love with it for some reason. How do we ever know why?

It also reminds me of Barbie, though...it's really not Barbie pink. I guess this color confuses me!

Maybe  third coat wouldn't hurt this. You can see the two middle fingers have some levelling issues, while the index and pinky are full and thick. There has a nearly jelly quality to it, in that it looks almost squishy but it's really not even remotely a jelly. Maybe it's more a marshmallow finish! :)

Erp, I misses up the index finger there...easy to do when swatching because you're fiddling with a camera and the bottles and arranging the photo spot and whatnot.

Because of the general thickness of this collection it's pretty easy to control. As I look at these I'm liking this better, it's growing on me. Still not Fiver...but it's pretty. I'll probably actually wear this.

Thoughts?

Happy Talons!

The Royal Mail hates us

You may be aware that Great Britain has changed it's postal policy and is now considering nail polish to be a hazardous material. Not sure what the argument was, but I had orders with ModelsOwn, a brand I really love, for a LOT of polish and it's all sitting in their warehouse because they can't ship Royal Mail. The emails I had told me that my original orders had in fact been destroyed by the Royal Mail for not conforming to their regulations. Ouch. This is impacting A-England, who has found a temporary work around, presumably until the stock runs out at places like Llarowe. After that they're in trouble. ModelsOwn is still searching for a solution. I can't believe the British Parliament will allow their businesses to suffer the loss of these sales and hopefully they will come up with a viable solution soon. Illamasqua has distribution out of Belgium, apparently, which is how I got my latest order from them.I don't know how long that will last, either. I am hoping they will come to their senses and allow the commerce to flow freely. This is a global economy now, thanks to the interwebs, and we want our sparklies!

Unfortunately I'm flat not informed enough to give you more information, but just know if you're outside Great Britain some of those brands we've grown to love are not so easy to get just now. I don't know if they will switch to more expensive UPS or Fed Ex or even if they're permitted to do that, either. I would think that would be the first place you'd go as an alternative. I also don't know what else is impacted, if it's all cosmetics or just polish...any British readers out there who can offer more info? Would be really interested to know.

As a result, I am already looking into some native to this country manufacturers of some unique stuff, like Cirque, to try to replace some of the brands I might not be able to get any longer. As much as I'd love to jet off to London for each new collection release I live in the real world with a job that I have trouble getting my comp time for and that pays crap. So...I hope a solution is at hand. In the meantime I might be showing you some brands new to me, and exploring other US options I haven't tried for now. As much as I love the independents and think they're doing some really great stuff, I find I am not quick enough on the draw to get those colors everyone wants to see from them. I end up with that odd applegreenyellow thing that no one bought that was marked down. So I don't bother because honestly, I don't usually want those colors, either. I'm also looking more into Chanel because like I said, they are rumored to be cruelty free though they rarely deign to answer that question. They have the hot colors. Until I know for sure they're not cruelty free I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because I have been told they are. I hope it's true.

I hope this doesn't have long term repercussions for my beloved Illamasqua. Most of my color is Illamasqua from my lips to my eyes and that would really piss me off. To be blunt. ModelsOwn upsets me as well because they do some gorgeous stuff. A-England...oh please don't let this mean I can't get those any longer. I have every single one at this time. I want to continue to have! Come on, Britain! These three are the brands I'm upset about. There are many others, I'm sure.

Unhappy Talons right now!!

butterLondon - Fiver. And now for something completely different!

Between the Deborah Lippmann Girls collection and these other pinks and purples, you have to be about pink and purpled out. I know I am. So now on to something completely different. And one of my favorites from this collection, which is odd, honestly, because greens aren't my favorites. I love them in nature and I'm definitely craving some green after the drought last Summer and then a grey Winter. I need me some green. Outside.

However Fiver is such a fun mint color. It instantly cheers you up!

This is one streaky chalky coat. Not a one coater. You can see it has a bit of a powdery feel to it and I was a little messy applying it. It straightens right up on coat number 2.

OK, now we're talking. Isn't this pretty? I don't know how a pastel can look so lit from within, but somehow this pulls it off. It glows. I love it. There is a lot of white here, which might have something to do with it, and you can tell in the first swatch that they didn't skimp on the pigments.

Here's another shot of the label. This gives me a little lobster-ness, but I don't mind if I like the color. It's just so cheerful!

See, not terrible lobster-ness. If you check the index finger in particular you can see that this is really a rather thick polish. That's not bad, I find at the right thickness a polish can be so easily to manipulated.  Still, you can see where I had a little issue at the cuticle level. Nothing bad and probably had I been a tad more careful they'd look better.

Last one. I just love this. I love the kind of ethereal glow of this. I wonder what a blue from this collection would have been like. This has a lot of blue in it and you could probably argue it was a very bright but muted robin's egg...but I think it's more green. And I love it.

Happy Talons!

butterLondon - Molly-Coddled

The next sweetie on the table is Molly-Coddled. I really love this color. This is a sweet but sassy bluish lavender. I swear I don't love it because I have a sweet puppy named Molly. Nope. That's not it.

I can see where you might be thinking "But Tricks...that's really...well, it's kinda pink!" Yessss, it kinda is. But it's also very purple.

It's so sweet but...not. Something about it is hard as nails and I love that. I hope you can discern my meaning because I'm pretty sure I can't explain myself.

This is without flash, which brings the blue out more.

Gorge. It's not as blue as the Deborah Lippmann from Girls. It's more pink, the two are really very distinct, I can't lie. I tried it and I think I have some snaps to prove it. If you like them, I recommend picking them both up because these two colors have very unique voices. I do have it, I just saw it. Coming up. Wait for it!

While this did go on rather chalky and thick, there is a lot of pigment there, it dries to this really nice sheen. Of course you want a top coat, but it does give you this nice shine. Odd in a pastel. MDAMO says "It really reminds me of those Easter candies". It does.

The hard candy shell. :)

So...ummm...just in case you were wondering...yeah, NOTHING alike. NOTHING. See how the Lippmann is softer? I don't know. Maybe it's me. These were with flash, incidentally, in case you didn't figure that out by the washed out appearance. **facepalm**

I really like this one. It's not going to work with every skin tone, I can't see an olive tone really rocking this...I don't know. Maybe. But I don't think so. Do the bottle test on the back of your hand to be sure you're going to like it. I love it. And all it's hard candy coating feel.

Happy Talons!

butterLONDON - Fruit Machine

Next up in the Sweeties collection is Fruit Machine. I don't know what that means. I speak some Brit, I used to work for one, but this term I'm not that familiar with. And I'm feeling too lazy and too over on internet usage to go look it up. Pathetic isn't it? Eh, cut me some slack, it's Sunday at the time of writing. I kinda just want to crash and watch movies or read. I have a book on DaVinci I've been wanting to get into. Anyone else hit the sale on NatGeo.com? They had a huge book sale a couple weeks ago.

Anyway. I digress. Again. I do that a lot. I'm told it's part of my charm.

I'd add a "What I'm currently reading" section but Ji Baek does that already on her blog and as much as I read and usually not what she's reading, I'd not want to steal her idea. Currently reading a really good one about the Muslim's attack of Constantinople in 1453, it was a Friday Freebie for my nook. I can't remember the name, something something Armageddon.

To come back to the point, Fruit Machine is a part of the pastels collection butter has put out for Spring and it's really kind of fun. MDAMO has declared it "Not their best effort" but then rescinded that partially when he saw a swatch that showed the really nice shine they were able to get out of this, though he did also remark on the chalkiness. I told him that is a characteristic of pastels and he said yeah well, it's still chalky. So. There you go.

And you can see, it is. And like I noted on that Lippmann last week, this also picks up every flaw in my nails. Base coat, base coat, base coat. This again, is one coat, though. Like Cuppa, it's very opaque.

And very pink.

Now we have some evening out on the second coat. Two is all you really need. This is a lovely pink with a touch of lavender in it. It's also a candy pink, the collection was well named. This has a lot of blue in it, which is hardly a downside.

It's a pretty Easter Egg kind of color. I like it. It's also very bright, it reminds me of the frosting on a birthday cake or something of that ilk.
This is the swatch, incidentally, that made MDAMO remark on the finish, but that it was still chalky. While I'd love to refute it...how can I really? It is.

However, it's partly the high pigmentation of this that gives it some of that quality so who's to complain? If you put a nice strong top coat on this, you'll never know the difference. It will still have the chalky feel because that's how pastels go, but it'll give it a shine and make it less noticeable than the shine you get on it's own. Which is very nice. Still a top coat helps it wear so I recommend it.

What do you think?

Are you wondering if it's close to Lippmann's Groove is in the Heart? So was I. So I was kind enough to compare it for you!

Oh yeah, no! LOL Not even close. Remember how I said Fruit Machine had a lot of blue in it? Yeah...believe me now? LOL it looks lavender in comparison to the uber pink Groove. So yeah, if you like them both, you're gonna have to splurge on both.

Happy Talons!

butterLONDON - Cuppa

For Spring butter, and a lot of other companies, actually, put out a line of pastels. Pastels aren't my favorites. They tend to be chalky and if they don't have something a little edgy I find them trite. Pastels? Meh.
However, I'm a fan and butter does edgy well so I took a leap of faith. The results were uneven, but worth it overall, I'd say.

Cuppa was one I found really interesting in the pictures and was looking forward to seeing up close and personal. It was one of the Meh ones for me.

Streaky and with drag, you can see that easily. However. This is one coat. One. Um. Wow. If you were careful, you could do this in one coat, the whole collection was very pigmented and opaque, which is definitely a plus.

Cuppa, if you understand Brit, is a cup of tea. Get it? Cup-a? Cup-a-tea? Yeah, you get it.

This is a tea with milk colored polish. It's really neutral. And blah. If you work in an uber conservative office, this might be the gem for you because it's about as neutral as it gets. It has the chalky feel of a pastel, which I believe is just the way those pigments work, and it has nothing else happening. It's a straight up beige cream. But it's not the every day beige, it has a mocha kind of flare which gives it the edge it's looking for, but not much of one. Butter knife edge, pun honestly not intended.

 OK, now we're at two coats. Much better and the color is nicer here. These are true to color swatches, I had a good day with sunlight and I got some really good pics. I was pleased with that whole day of swatches. It's pretty enough. It's wearable. I feel like it needs some glitter or something. Maybe a little scattered micro shimmer would have helped, but then...I don't know, the blandness is kind of it's thing.

Maybe the whole point is that like it or hate it, love it or dump it, it's not a color you don't ponder. It's kind of silly putty colored. Maybe putty is the descriptor we're looking for here. I mean...it's neutral but I don't think you can be neutral about it.

I'm very emotionally driven about color and this one confuses me, to be perfectly frank. It also gives me slight lobster paws and ages my hands. I think this isn't for me complexion, really.

I don't know.
If I were to sum up this post it would be "I don't know".

How about you guys? Any thoughts?

Ambivalent Talons?