Day 5: Butter London Victoriana

Two of my favorite colors today: blue-green and silver.

Victoriana is a dusty teal with silver microglitter. Just about every other review I’ve seen for this polish calls it blue, but it definitely leans more green on me. Victoriana just screams winter – the silver flecks remind me of ice crystals around the edge of a window. I want to curl up in my favorite chair with a book and some chai when I wear it.

The microglitter is very understated; it’s really more of a sheen than it is sparkly. And there's enough gray in the teal that it doesn’t scream “Look at my hands!” Elegant, but with an edge. Interesting, but not too in your face. I would totally wear this to work (and have, many times).

Indoors - fluorescent

Shade

Sun

Sun

Formula is perfect – very opaque. I used three thin coats but you could definitely get away with two if they're on the thicker side. I guess if I have one complaint about this polish it's that the brush is just a little bit too long for my liking. I had to do more cuticle clean-up than usual because the brush was a little hard to control.

Butter London is a new-ish brand that in my opinion doesn’t get enough love. I think a lot of people wrote them off in the beginning because of design problems with their bottles (which have been fixed) and pretty but not especially unique colors. They seemed to turn a corner with their Fall 2010 collection, which in addition to Victoriana contained All Hail McQueen and Marrow, two other Butter London classics.

Day 3: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

This is hands down my favorite polish from 2010. Is this not the most beautiful polish ever? It’s like a festival of awesomeness on my fingers. Yes, I am a nearly 37-year-old mother of three who loves glitter nail polish. Go ahead and judge.

I bought Across the Universe last summer as a reward for finishing a particularly nasty article for work. Best. Reward. EVER. I wore it for six days straight, which is unheard of for me.

Across the Universe is a navy blue jelly base with large blue and green hex sequins and smaller blue glitter. The jelly base gives it incredible depth and makes it look like there are lighter and darker shades of glitter. The colors vary a lot in my photos, but the indoor and shade photos are the most color-accurate.

Indoors - fluorescent

Shade

Sun

Sun

I used three coats, plus my usual top coat combo for hungry glitters: a thick coat of Gelous topped with Seche Vite. Application is a little trickier than usual but not bad at all. The large glitter sequins have a tendency to drag, so you need to allow a little more drying time between coats. Also, make sure to wrap the tips well. Like all jellies, this one shows tip wear pretty quickly.

Lippmanns fall somewhere between mid-range and high-end on the price spectrum. They retail for $16 – higher than most salon brands, but not as much as Chanel or Dior. Like many of the polishes in this line, Across the Universe was released as a Nordstrom exclusive but was later added to the Lippmann core collection and is now widely available.

The thought of taking this off tonight makes me sad. I may have to break my no-repeat rule for this one.

I just realized – I only have one bottle of this. How is it possible that I haven’t gotten a backup yet? I must take care of that immediately.

Matte

EDIT: I had to try this before I took it off. There’s been talk on the Nail Board that “mattifying” glitter polishes can make them look like a completely different polish. I used one coat of ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe. Veerrrry interesting. I like it but don’t love it. I prefer my universe shiny.

(P.S.: Remember what I said about tip wear? I wasn’t kidding, huh?)