I do love Butter London's polish quality. I think it is exceptional. The two polishes I have to show you in this post are cases in point. Keks is a creme and Scallywag is a glitter and they are both equally delightful to apply: easy to control, well-pigmented, fast drying. They are also just about the same shade of bright saturated cerulean blue.
Keks is like Carolina blue on steroids. I showed it to Fuzzy and she said, oh that's a little scary. *rofl* Love startling the Fuzz. Keks dries to a soft rubbery-looking finish that has a silky little glow to it. I can see how this finish appeals to folks who are looking for alternatives to glossiness. It makes the color very "present" on the nail. I myself prefer the glossy look for added protection of the surface, adding depth and popping the color. And oh my, Keks really pops. There's so much happy celebratory energy in this color!
My Keks manicure is two easy coats over a basecoat duo of Seche Rebuild and Essie First Base. For your viewing interest, there's a group of pics without topcoat showing the natural finish and then a group showing Keks with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Butter London Keks, natural finish |
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| Butter London Keks, natural finish |
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| Butter London Keks, natural finish |
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| Butter London Keks, natural finish |
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| Butter London Keks, natural finish |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat and air bubble ;-) |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
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| Butter London Keks, with glossy topcoat |
Keks is the sort of polish that wants to go with you to a picnic and a Friday evening concert in the park. Tailgate party? Yes please! It's has a sociable interested-in-what's-going-on feel to it, a kind of light-hearted exuberance that only sharing with others can do proper justice to. I think it's nifty!
I do wonder about wear on the natural finish, though. I didn't have it on long enough to see whether it scratches easily, but that's something I'd worry about. With a glossy topcoat, if you get surface scratches you can always freshen the mani with another layer of topcoat.
Scallywag is an equally bright cerulean blue glitter polish. It's the perfect glitter to add an accent nail or two to a Keks manicure and that's what I had planned to do.
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| Butter London Scallywag and Keks, bottle shot |
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| Butter London Keks with glossy topcoat on the nail, Scallywag in the bottle |
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| ditto |
But my plan went awry. Once I started with this brilliant explosion of bright blue sparkle I just could not stop myself. I did all ten nails. And it was awesome. It IS awesome. Eleanor, you simply MUST try this polish -- it's TDF to the max and would be just fabulous on your little kitten claws!
Scallywag dries naturally to a somewhat gritty-feeling textured finish similar to Zoya's pixie dust polishes. I love this look and feel even though it makes me want to touch it every other minute. Why is that? I don't know. Actually, I find myself constantly feeling the surface of my polished nails regardless of finish. I guess every polish is going to place itself somewhere on the texture spectrum and tolerability is a personal matter. I can tell you that I never get as many comments from strangers on my nail polish as I do when I'm wearing a textured polish. They'll say things like, oh I like your nail polish, or, oh that's so pretty. Between color and texture, I think texture has a more profound effect on whether something is visually interesting. Especially in something like nail polish, where it is more unusual.
Blah blah blah. Back to the twinkly blue goodness that is Scallywag. Whether you leave it textured or smooth it out with several layers of topcoat, it is a total sparklefest and nowhere more so than in direct sunlight. We know how difficult it is to capture the dynamics of sparkle in a still photo. Even if you add your imagination to my photographic efforts, it won't even begin to approximate the impact of this polish in person. It's epic, for sure.
Like I did with Keks, I have photos of Scallywag with its natural finish and photos of it with a glossy finish. For this manicure I simply added one coat of Scallywag to the Keks mani above. Scallywag is a topcoat thirsty polish. It took three layers of Seche Vite to achieve a truly smooth and glassy finish. Next time I'll save a step and apply a coat of Gelous before finishing with the Seche.
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish -- intentionally blurred to show sparkle |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, natural finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
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| Butter London Scallywag, glossy finish |
Scallywag is a wildly ebullient effervescent polish, a fantasy of flashing blue sparkle. The look is unabashedly ostentatious. A peacock makes no apologies and why should it? So it is for Scallywag. Questioning what occasion this polish would be appropriate for is beside the point. It doesn't transcend occasion, it completely blows it out of the water. The appropriate occasion for wearing this polish is whenever you feel like looking at it, is what I think. It is sheer visual mood-elevating joy in a bottle and I adore it.
I'm going to wear it today when John and I go to look at a used car that an elderly couple in Carolina Meadows is selling. I think it will bring us luck, don't you?
love,
Aunt Liz
Hi,
ReplyDeleteEleanor and I here. We like the blue, but it is too blue for us. It is better with the glitter! Way to go Liz.
the next time you come down please try and bring the color.
It is VERY blue. Neonesque, no? I will bring Scallywag with me the next time I visit, Eleanor. I promise!
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