Barielle Blackened Bleu

Blackened Bleu was released in 2009 as part of Barielle's All Lacquered Up collection in collaboration with Michelle Mismas of the fantastic polish blog All Lacquered Up. It is a dark shimmer polish that has a translucent charcoal/black jelly base swimming with abundant bright capri blue shimmers. In low light, Blackened Bleu comes off as almost a dark navy or very blackened teal. Direct bright light summons up an explosion of brilliant sparkling capri blue shimmers across the point of impact, which look especially stunning against the darkened edges of this polish. Kinda like "lit from within 2.0" or something.

Application was not the nightmare I was expecting. On the contrary, Blackened Bleu is an extremely well-behaved polish. It has a liquid but thick, almost oily consistency, glides easily onto the nail and is immediately self-leveling. I experienced neither patch pulling nor bounce back. Opacity, as you'd expect from a polish with a translucent base, is buildable with the first coat being terrifyingly sheer. Coverage totally blooms from coat two onwards. I opted for three coats for maximum opacity, depth and richness of color. Blackened Bleu dries in very good time to a beautiful glossy finish. I added fast dry topcoat only to accelerate the drying process and protect against smudging.

Photos were taken in the kitchen under the halogens and show three coats of Blackened Bleu over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

Barielle Blackened Bleu

As much as I like this polish, I did experience tip pull on several nails. I made sure to carefully wrap my tips with both the polish and topcoat, so I think the tip pull may intrinsic. The jelly base of Blackened Bleu just has that kind of feel to it, that it would shrink as it dries, and being as sheer as it is any shrinkage is going to show. With a dark polish like this, that would exaggerate the inevitable tipwear that naturally occurs with use over time. I'm inclined to call this a dealbreaker. It greatly diminishes the joy of spending time and care on a well-manicured look to see those hateful little light stripes across the tips of your nails in a matter of hours.

Granted, the tip pull is more apparent to me than to someone else looking at my manicure, but really that's beside the point because I don't do my nails for other people, I do them for myself. I'm going to give Blackened Bleu another chance because it's a pretty polish and I don't have many blackened polishes in my collection... yet. But you know I'll be on the look out now!

love,
Aunt Liz

Butter London Pitter Patter

So you're putting on a polish on that you initially harbor doubts about as to whether you'll like it, or whether it's really you. You have a lovely application experience but the polish on the nail still doesn't clear away those initial doubts. You wear it, for a couple of hours or a day or two days. And then suddenly you realize that you LOVE THIS POLISH. You understand it, the intent behind its creation, how it works and most importantly, why it works for you. At that moment, in an exquisite little burst of joy, you can literally feel your aesthetic blossoming out to incorporate new territory.

I've had just such an epiphanic moment with today's polish, Butter London's Pitter Patter. Pitter Patter was released last spring in anticipation of Will and Kate's royal baby. It's a well-pigmented dark aubergine creme with very fine, light-responsive purple, blue and red shimmers. In most lights, it appears as a dark purple creme, but get it into direct light and the shimmer blooms in the most lovely, subtle, and sophisticated of ways.

Photos show two coats of Pitter Patter over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite followed later by a topcoat of Poshe to cover some small scratches that occurred in the interval.

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Butter London Pitter Patter

Heretofore, I haven't considered myself the ablest of dark polish appreciators. By dark I mean polishes where the actual color takes a back seat to darkness, blackened colors and colors that appear black in low light. So as I was applying Pitter Patter I immediately began to feel the weight of disappointment... "it's SO DARK." And even the delight that was the Pitter Patter application process, creamy smooth self-leveling controlled flow over each nail, did nothing to lift that weight. Because, well, it was just SO DARK.

Not only that, or perhaps because of it, the shimmer eluded my eye completely. What is this shimmer you speak of, eh? Course it didn't help that I applied this polish as the sun was going down. And then later on at some point between pushing a stick into the ground out in the pen to mark the dog's evening deposit for later pick up and the complex logistics of feeding the new little kitteh his well-mounded smelly science diet wet food, I somehow completely destroyed the still vulnerable manicure on my right thumb nail. Just ravaged it.

Speaking for myself, having a manicure thus marred, even if it's only one nail, interferes in a big way with the weighing of merits and other such contemplative avenues of scrutiny that occur when I'm evaluating a new polish. Man, when I saw the mess I'd made of my right thumb nail, I was like, well that's all she wrote for this puppy do I want to take it all off right now or wait til morning etc. I ended up just removing the wrecked thumb nail polish and let decisions about the other digits and the ultimate fate of the manicure wait.

I went to sleep. I woke up. I looked at what remained of my Pitter Patter manicure and realized that I LOVE THIS POLISH. Yesterday, it was just a dark polish. Today, it's a sleek creamy dark purple with hints of smoky veiling that is full of chic-smart sophistication and sense of purpose. And I don't know where that shimmer was hiding yesterday because today I could see it bloom in the beads of Poshe as I was topping out a few teeny topcoat scratches before taking photos.

Just cut my legs and call me shorty, go ahead. 

I'm feeling little electric pulses of excitement about further explorations of dark polishes I've previously passed over or avoided. Like right now I'm all about wanting to go look at reviews and pics of polishes from a england's Gothic Beauties collection. And wouldn't you know it, a piece of nail mail came yesterday delivering a bottle of Barielle Blackened Bleu to my door. 

Epiphanies are that way, you know. Not only are they delicious in the moment, they have an equally delectable aftertaste that lingers on the palate. Yum!

love,
Aunt Liz

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London introduced Two Fingered Salute along with two other polishes, Billy No Mates and Stag Do, in 2012 as Nordstrom exclusive shades but all three have since been added to their core line. Two Fingered Salute is a wonderful light soft sagey green that pulls blue in some lights, speckled with bright metallic coppery microflakes. It has the look of verdigris with a twist, a patina of brownish copper flecks that occasionally flash a new penny pink, all in all unexpected, unique, charming and immediately attractive.

This is a beautifully formulated lacquer. The consistency is creamy and liquid but easily controlled and just slips onto the nail like nobody's business. Throughout this manicure I only used my cleanup brush one time and that was on the last nail. I was a little giddy with the unprecented success of my application skills and just got a leetle bit ahead of myself at the last possible second. Honestly, Two Fingered Salute was a delight to apply and coverage was completely opaque with two thin coats. This polish dries naturally in good time to an unusually attractive smooth shiny finish that in combination with the creamy green color almost looks like polished stone. 

Photos show two coats of Two Fingered Salute over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Butter London Two Fingered Salute

Just a lovely high quality polish in an unusual colorway with a deliciously modern and chic look on the nail and a feel that is as comfy and full of character as your favorite fall jacket. Two Fingered Salute has the endearing quality of reflecting brilliantly on your aesthetic and taste without calling huge attention to itself. I'm not generally all that fond of hypotheticals because I think they're a poor use of personal resources but this is one of those polishes that if I were to be stranded on the hypothetical desert island and could only have x number of polishes, it would be one of them for sure.

An ideal addition to anyone's collection. I'm delighted to have it in mine.

love,
Aunt Liz