Butter London Nail Polish Reviews

UPDATE:  Well I've had the pleasure of buying and receiving a lot more Butter London polishes since I wrote this post (And thankfully I've gotten better at photographing the polishes!) and the brand continues to grow and improve and has actually become one of my favorites! Check out these posts:

butter LONDON Royal Navy

butter LONDON Blowing Raspberries

butter LONDON Lillibet's Jubilee

butter LONDON Trout Pout, Yummy Mummy and Teddy Girl

butter LONDON Queen Vic

butter LONDON British Racing Green



Some thoughts on Butter London polish.  Overall, it's not a bad brand.  The 3-free, not tested on animals attributes are certainly a plus, as are some of the colors.  My problem with Butter London is the inconsistency of the formulas from one color to the other.  I've noticed bottle imperfections, too, but other than that possibly being an indicator of quality control in general, that doesn't really bother me.

For instance, the cremes generally have decent application while the glitters and other "special" polishes (like Chancer) have such horrible application that I doubt I will ever use them again.  Chancer was extremely gloppy and thick and hard to apply and just got worse with each coat, even when drying completely between coats.

Butter London Chancer

Butter London Chancer 

Not sure if you can tell how gloppy it is in the photos, but it was so bad, I didn't bother doing cleanup, OR the other hand.  In the first photo, I've compared Chancer to China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  They both have the same shimmer, but the Butter London base is a slightly darker red than the China Glaze.  The main difference is the formula and application.  No comparison.

Marrow, on the other hand, has a smooth application.  It is slightly thicker than most, almost making it a one-coater, but it applies well.  It's a deep, vampy purple (or even blurple) creme with a slight hint of silver micro-shimmer, that dried a bit darker than the bottle indicates.

Butter London Marrow

I decided to try the No More Waity Katie with it.  I've seen so many gorgeous photos of it used over Zoya Caitlin and figured it would go well over Marrow.  In theory, it does.  In reality, however, the formula is so gloppy and thick and uneven, it's not really worth it.

Butter London No More Waity Katie

It's really too bad that such a gorgeous color, which would have made a great layering polish or stand-alone polish, is just horrible in application.

To be fair to Butter London, I swatched a few more with NO application or formula problems.

Butter London All Hail the Queen

Butter London All Hail the Queen

All Hail the Queen has a fantastic application and it's really a lovely color.  Some call it a holo, but if it is, it's not a strong holo.  Though I haven't really worn it in full sun.  I'll have to test that out. To me, the shimmer makes it a very interesting, if not truly holographic, color.  This one is a keeper.

Butter London Queen Vic

Queen Vic, a creme, is a deep mulberry/cranberry/raspberry color. It's not what I would call a unique color and while the application isn't as bad as NMWK or Chancer, it is a little on the thick side and slightly difficult to work with.

Butter London Snog

This polish looks to be more of a fuchsia in the bottle but on the nail is a darker, more red-toned pink than fuchsia. I'll definitely need to get more full sun photos of this one as it's a hard color to capture for someone like me who is "photographically challenged."  The formula/application is great on this creme.

Butter London Toff

Toff is one of the new Autumn/Winter 2011 colors. I would describe this as a dark dusty mauve or a darker rose pink with very definite and noticable brown undertones. Color is great. The formula was acceptable, but not great.  There was some cuticle drag and it's a bit on the thick side - again, making it almost a one-coater but without the best application.

Butter London Pearly Queen

Butter London Pearly Queen

Pearly Queen had good application and formula. And the color was actually quite surprising.  I really didn't expect to like the color as much as I did. It's definitely a pearl, but the brush strokes, while definitely there, as with most pearls, weren't the worst I've seen. It's not your 80s pearl, for sure. The surprising part for me was that it was opaque in 2 coats.  I really expected it to be a sheer.  It has good shimmer and the color is a sandy pearl/white with a pale pink flash.  Without natural light, it's almost a pale cement color, but it comes alive in the sun where you can see the pink flash.