Butter London Slapper

Slapper was released by Butter London as part of the Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Tell you what, Butter London certainly shows no scruples when it comes to giving their polishes bawdy names. This one is downright prurient. According to Butter London, "slapper" is British street slang for a woman of loose morals. Not much left to the imagination there!

This is a medium vivid blue green, kind of a cross between Bondi blue and teal, a little difficult to describe properly.  It's a color I associate with women's summer suits, graphic design, cruise ships and vacation resorts. It's bright but not overly so, and has a lot of body to it. There's a little dirtiness to the green in Slapper that reminds me some of Misa Dirty Sexy Money, but Slapper is brighter and bluer. Seasonally speaking, it's a great color for the end of summer transitioning into fall, the sort of color you'd wear when you're just not ready to let go of your summer brights but want something with a bit of substance to it.

I must add that Slapper morphs into a completely new polish after dark. It's true! In most artificial lighting situations (can't speak for daylight bulbs, however) it appears as a light emerald green, or a jade. It retains a bit of the blue, but it looks far more green than it does in natural light. Kewl!

I read quite a few reviews of this polish with complaints about the formula, that it was thick but runny, streaked and pulled patches, stained nails and skin and didn't want to self-level. My bottle, fortunately, delivered a very nice application. The consistency is fluid and on the thin side, but I definitely wouldn't call it runny. It's got a bit of translucence to it and goes on with some sheerness on the first coat but builds quickly to complete opacity after two coats. The formula had a nice smooth slip over the nail and self-leveled well, to my great relief. Polishes that don't self-level give me application anxiety! Cleanup with Slapper was quick and easy, and I did not find that left any trace staining although the cleanup I did was very minimal. I doubled up on my basecoat for this polish in anticipation of some nail staining, and if I find that it did stain my nails I'll add a postscript to that effect. Slapper dries naturally in average time to a nice glossy finish. 

Photos show two coats of Slapper over Seche Rebuild treatment and a double coat of Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Yet again there are bubbles in my topcoat. 

A note about the color in these photos: Slapper's color is notoriously hard to capture with a digital camera. By and large, it photographs as a lightish turquoise blue, when it is actually greener and closer to a teal than that. My camera was no different, so I have tweaked the color in these pics to lean a tad green. Even so, it was not enough to provide a truly accurate representation of what the polish is like in person. There is more green to it than what you see here, but the depth and saturation of the color depicted is about right.

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Butter London Slapper

Slapper isn't really a me color. I love teals when they have a cerulean soul to them, but this is more of a teal green even if it doesn't look like it in my photos. I have seen unmolested turquoise gemstones this color, but not often. Kingman Mine turquoise comes close. Slapper is a skosh darker and more saturated, but it comes close.

Kingman turquoise (source)

How those gemstone folks get their turquoises to look right for digital media is a mystery in this world. Anyway, there's fresh, energetic sort of vacationy feel to Slapper that is quite flattering on the nail, and it has bit of translucence to it that really catches and holds the light. If you like teal greens, this is a fabulous take on that color family. It's a great polish for someone out there, just not me.

love,
Liz

ps. Initial trace staining on my nails after removal was easily washed away with soap and water and a thorough scrub with my nail brush.