butter LONDON Nail Lacquers

Bluey

 My sister, who lives in Manhattan, came up for a visit this past weekend and brought with her the butter LONDON nail lacquers that the nice people at Coterie gave me.

In case you've missed my previous posts about it, Coterie is a flash sale site that offers high-end beauty products at drugstore prices. To promote its recent launch, the company gave three butter LONDON polishes, plus a bottle of Matte Finish Shine Free Topcoat, to several lucky beauty bloggers, including me.

Unfortunately, Coterie doesn't ship to Canada yet so I had to send my goodies to my sister, who then brought them up to me.

So was it worth the wait? For the most part, yes. While my sister did forgot (sure) to bring over one of the polishes, she did deliver Wallis and Bluey, two vibrant, metallic shades that go on like a dream (I haven’t had a chance yet to test out the topcoat and so I’ll review it separately).

While you do have to apply several coats in order to reach maximum colour potency, each layer goes on smoothly and evenly, creating an end result that looks extremely professional and very eye-catching.

I think that part of the reason why this lacquer goes on so wonderfully is because butter polishes use a shorter-than-usual brush. While the brush end is normal-sized, the “stem” is clearly smaller. Personally, I found that this shorter brush allowed me to have more control and be more precise.

I suspect that another reason why this product goes on so easily is because of its high-end formula. Butter LONDON’s angle is selling what it calls “3 Free” nail lacquers, meaning nail polishes that are free of formaldehyde, toluene, DBP or parabens (it’s the first company to sell non-toxic nail lacquer in the US, which is rather disturbing considering that butter LONDON only launched in 2005). So not only does this product look great, it’s also as healthy as nail polishes get.

Unfortunately, this product does have a down side. Okay, it sort of has two downsides. The “sorta” downside is that this lacquer isn't cheap, running about $17 a bottle (I know, you get what you pay for but still, $17 is a lot for a bottle of nail polish).

The other, more legit downside is that this polish lacks staying power. I didn't have it on for even 24 hours and it started to chip. But, it’s so pretty, and touch-up is so easy, that I'm willing to overlook this flaw (plus next time I apply this product I’ll be sure to pair it with a protective top coat).

Will I buy this product: Probably. While it’s not cheap, it is a great nail polish that’s available in some fantastic colours (I'm really like the one called Posh Bird).

Should you buy it: Do you love high quality nail polishes? If so, butter LONDON polishes are for you.