butter LONDON: Tee Total and Trustafarian swatches & review

butter LONDON is a perennial favorite here at  L O Z L O Z A, and for darn good reason:  We can always count on this brand to give us consistently smooth application and WOWZA color palettes!  Today, we've a BL two-for in store....

Tee Total and Trustafarian, both from the brand's Autumn 2012 collection!

Tee Total is a rich mocha brown, smoky purple-leaning creme, as only butter LONDON can do it. We're talking the kind of neutral that works for all occasions, AND when paired with a polish like Trustafarian ( a holographic sage green), that neutral is zapped into another fab new dimension.

Shall we?

Two coats and 'yer done!

Have I mentioned the consistently smooth application?

But wait - what if we were to jazz things up with a little something out of the ordinary?

Yeah.  Let's have at those accent fingers....

DOT those puppies!  NOTE:  We're still at home in the boardroom, but this time, it's with a dash of special

And here we have the goodies....Tee Total and Trustafarian!

There's a reason we're big fans of butter LONDON: Consistent outstanding formula, paired with forward-thinking color palettes.  It doesn't get much better in the world of lacquer!  Plus, their customer service is top notch.

And just cause we love ya, here's a money-saving butter LONDON tip for you:  Follow them on Facebook or Twitter, and get instantly updated when these folks have of one of their super duper sales!  That's how we at  L O Z L O S A  regularly score lotsa new BL polishes for a fraction of the regular retail price!

So spill the beans, girlfriends:  Are you (like us) seriously into butter LONDON, or a newbie on the fringe?  Are there any polishes you're pining for? 

Blue-On-Blue Chevron Manicure!

In the aftermath of the 31 Day Challenge, I found myself chopping off as much nail as possible. I wasn't maintaining a healthy regimen, and my nails were brittle and sad. So, so sad. I've been trying to move forward, and blue felt right - especially with the introduction of the blue polishes in the new China Glaze Cirque Du Soleil collection.

Three coats of Hanging In The Balance were necessary for a perfect base. Usually I prefer to have a maximum of two coats of any polish, but this color is lovely enough to warrant the extra work. Once it dried, I used tape to create the crisp edges for the chevron pattern. Water You Waiting For is such a gorgeous glitter - mostly blue with hints of purple and green thrown in.

 

I fell in love, and I highly recommend these polishes. Keep your eyes peeled, you might be seeing 

Water Your Waiting For again on Lozlosa some time later this week. 

Hint!

COLOR CLUB HALO HUES: Swatches and Review

While in Buffalo last month, I scored all six of the polishes that comprise the Color Club Halo Hues collection.  I'm a recent Color Club fan since learning about their tres chic In True Fashion/Rule the Runway 2012 collection, this past summer.  Since then, I've haunted the local beauty supply shops, in search of more and more Color Club.  Drool!

The formulas are first-rate, and the colors?  Well, let's just say Color Club is ALL about color!  These folks are obsessed with capturing the essence of the Paris, Rome, London and New York runway palettes, and their collections prove it.  They are also all about providing women with wearable choices, apart from and beyond the runway.

Today is the first opportunity I've had to swatch these babies, and unfortunately, most of my images don't adequately capture the beauty of these holos, all positively lovely and worthy of a place in any serious lacquer lover's collection.

UPDATE: Here are a couple of somewhat better outdoor-shots, evidencing the holo effect of these six colors...

From top, down:  Harp on It, Angel Kiss, Holo-Graphic

From bottom left on up:  Cherubic, Blue Heaven, Cloud Nine

And now for an indoor-shot composite pic of the collection...

Clockwise from upper left:  Harp On It (silver); Halo-Graphic (pink); Angel Kiss (green); Cherubic (gold); Blue Heaven; and Cloud Nine (lavender)

 Hold onto your socks, ladies, 'cause I've got lots more pics after the jump...

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 31 - Re-Create Your Favorite Challenge!

Inasmuch as Lozlosa is a "team" blog, Liz and I  each took a turn at recreating our favorite manis from this challenge.  First up...

Liz

It was difficult for me to pick a "favorite" challenge look, but I decided to do something with sparkle, class, and a little flair. I now present my attempt at re-creating Diana's post from day 14 of this challenge... Flowers! 

Smooth... just like me. ::wink, wink::

The polishes I used were: Essie - Beyond Cozy, Borghese - Angelica Blush, Essie - Eternal Optimist, Nars - Ratin Jot, China Glaze - Holly-Day, Orly - Lucky Duck. I ended up skipping the gold-flake accent nails because I didn't have anything in my collection that would have recreated the effect.

I have always wanted to try the vintage flower look, but I never got around to doing it. Until now! The mix of soft, creamy flowers flanked by sexy glitter is a winner in my book. I remember Diana not being thrilled with the manicure when she did it, but I thought that it was lovely, and I hope that I've done it justice.

Check out the glitter on those babies. Yeah!

It's so hard to say goodbye... ::sniffle:: Today's post marks the last entry for Lozlosa's first nail challenge. It's been such a fun experience, and I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to get to know some of the lovely ladies who participated. The amount of talent and hard work that everyone else demonstrated only raised the bar higher, and the support that was extended was fantastic. Thank you all for participating - it's been AWESOME!

________________________________________________________

Lisa

Last night, I poured a glass of Barefoot merlot (inexpensive but excellent), and spent a couple of hours reviewing the nail art posted by our co-challengers.  Geez, there's a lot of good stuff out there!  It was really neat being able to Go Back In Time and see again what we'd all done.

In the end, I  decided upon Kimber's truly lovely 31st day post: Inspired by a Tutorial!  Like Kimber, it was the first time I'd used a fan brush to effect "stripes", and lemme tell you:  this is one tres cool technique!

For my color palette, I pulled a trio of much-loved lacquers from the burgeoning stash....

L to R:  Nubar Faded Jeans, China Glaze Life Preserver, and Nubar Dark Wash Jeans

I began with two coats of Nubar Faded Jeans, a shimmery pastel blue, over my very favorite base coat:  Palladio Moisture Surge.  Once dry, I fanned impressionist-like stripes of China Glaze Life Preserver, a creamy rich coral, across each nail.  Next, I used the same technique to apply a layer of Faded Jeans stripes, and then  fanned a layer of Nubar Dark Wash Jeans.  I repeated those steps until I ended up with something I rather like (be forwarned:  lots of pix coming up)....

The polishes went on smooth, and other than some cuticle flooding (that I worked hard to rectify), the process was an enjoyable romp.  I look forward to trying it again (and again) with different formulas and shades!


And now... for the hard part (I wonder if all neophyte nail bloggers go through this, at the end of their first challenge) ....

I've had a wonderful time participating in this Challenge, learning new techniques, and improving my meager skills.  Along the way, the stars managed to align themselves and I discovered some super blogs and bloggers, from near and far, and all around the world.  I'm grateful to each and every one of you who took the time to visit our little blog and encourage us, along the way.  You've taught me much, and I look forward to keeping in touch!   

Finally, how's about a big hand and a  huge "thank you" to Kimberly Newman for her talent, generosity of spirit, and for taking the time to coordinate this fun event?  Kimber, you rock something serious!  Thank you so much!

Because I'm getting all thirty shades of weepy at the prospect of finalizing this post (NOTE:  Ladies, you TOO will one day go through menopause.  Wink.), I'm going to grab myself a hanky and encourage you to check out the splendid final offerings of our delightful co-challengers....

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 30 - inspired by a tutorial!

Howdy, folks! We've reached the second to last entry for this 31 Day Challenge. Can you believe it?! :-D
Today's task was to come up with a manicure inspired by a tutorial. I apologize in advance, but I don't have a specific blogger or link to refer to - I've really gleaned information from multiple sources, and I'm afraid that I would end up leaving people out if I had to list... I have the memory of a forgetful goldfish.

 I decided that the whole point of using a tutorial was to learn new things. Using that logic, I decided to create a "fish-egg" manicure. After slapping on two coats of OPI - DS Classic (my ALL TIME favorite neutral) I pulled out some top coat, some green and teal beads, and a detailing brush. I couldn't bear to cover up my base color completely, so I used the brush to apply top coat in a wavy diagonal across the nail. Next, I poured on the beads (one color at a time - I'm not that skilled) and sealed the whole thing with a healthy coat of Seche Vite.

 This isn't my favorite manicure ever, but it was fun to do some arts'n crafts. What do you think about the color combo? I could have picked a base color more in keeping with the beads, but I wanted the beads to pop against the base. Have you done something similar with the "fish-egg" style, where you allowed the base to show through?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that you'll follow my lead, I'm off to check out the other 31 Day Challengers.

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 29 - inspired by the supernatural

We are winding our way towards the end of this 31 day challenge, and let me tell you... I am pooped! I don't even know why, perhaps it's the change in the weather, but lately I have been blanking in the inspiration department. For example, today's supernatural inspired manicure.

This is one of the challenges that I was looking forward to since the beginning, but I found myself unable to come up with an interesting idea. Nothing inspired me. Nothing... except for Pacman. Let me take a moment to walk you through the thought process that lead to this post.

Ghosts are supernatural, right? Weren't there colorful ghosts in Pacman? Were they ghosts? I'm not sure, I've never played Pacman. Let me Google it. Alright, close enough. I'm sure that Pacman ghosts are supernatural-ish. That works. Awesome.

For this manicure I started off with Cult Nails - Nevermore. For the ghosts, I used: essie - mezmerised, Milani - Yellow Whiz, OPI - Strawberry Margarita, Julep - Alicia, essence - let's get lost, essence - fame fatal, OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Aside from the eyes (for which I used a dotting tool), I free-handed the manicure this time. With that in mind, I don't think it came out too shabby.

I hope that you'll join me now in heading over to the other challenge blogs to check out their supernatural nails! Thanks for stopping by!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 28 - inspired by a flag

FYI:  Earlier this week, while watching the latest episode of Dexter, I inadvertently filed one of my nails, nearly back to the quick. It was one of those deals where I was so engrossed in the bloody (literally) storyline, that I lost track of what I was doing.  Duh.  The upshot is that I ended up evening out the rest of my nails to the same toddler-like length.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled challenge...

INSPIRED BY A FLAG

Instead of national flags, or the insignia of some political cause, I today looked to the deep blue global seas, and was inspired by the signal flags used for international maritime communications; the ones where each flag represents a different letter of the alphabet.  These flags sport colors from a very limited palette: white, blue, black, red and yellow..

For purely aesthetic purposes, and beginning with my thumb, I went with the letters A through E (my attempt to "signal" out a cool word or message, ended up with fingers that looked strikingly alike).

Here's my finished product....

Starting with the thumb: A, B, C, D, and E!  All I need is F & G for the beginning of the Alphabet Song!

Products used:  NYC French White Long Wearing Enamel, OPI Dating a Royal (blue), Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Orly Haute Red, Palladio moisture surge base; and Seche Vite top coat

So, what do you think?  Pass or fail?  I'm not quite sure myself.

Tell you what...while you're pondering that question, I'm going to head off and check out what kind of flags my challenger buddies have come up with.  I hope you'll later join me!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish


Thanks so much for stopping by!!!!!

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 27 - inspired by artwork

Recently, midway through a 6-hour ass-numbing drive to Buffalo, NY, John and I made a pit stop at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, in Utica. 

It was our first visit to this small regional museum.  Frankly, I didn't expect much more than an hours' respite from driving.

Turns out, the Munson-Williams-Proctor is an absolute gem.  Its impressive permanent collection of 19th and 20th century art features important examples from the works of Thomas Cole, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O'Keefe, Mark Rothko, and so very many more.  We were in awe.

With that visit in mind, today's manicure has been inspired by...

ABSTRACT ART

Joan Miró, thumb; Jackson Pollack, index finger, Mark Rothko, middle finger; Edward R. Bush, ring finger; and Morris Louis, pinky

In preparation for this challenge, I began with clean filed nails, and then applied a layer of my current fave base coat:  Palladio's Moisture Surge.  It's not easy to find, but this treatment has done wonders for the split and peeling nails I'd been experiencing this past summer.  Strongly recommended if you've similar problems.

Ordinarily, with nail challenges, I work on all five fingers simultaneously, first painting a base color across the hand, and then going back to each nail, for each subsequent technique.

Not this time.

This time, I decided to focus on every nail, individually finishing the job before polishing it off with Seche Vite top coat, and moving on to the next finger.  See below for all the macro shots...

The thumb nail art was inspired by Joan Miró's, The Gold of the Azure (1967).

For a base color, I went with  two coats of NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in Taxi Yellow, and then returned to the nail (while it was still tacky) for some freehand sponging, painting and striping.  For those techniques, I used NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 134 French Tip White (dot), Nails Inc. in Baker Street (blue dot), Orly in Haute Red (dot), FingerPaints black striping polish (dot, star, and "figure").

It was Jackson Pollack's abstract drip action painting, One: Number 31 (1950) that inspired the sponged and splattered nail art on my index finger, above.

Against a white background (NYC French Tip White), I straw-splattered Orly's Black Vinyl, and OPI's Did You Ear About Van Gogh, a khaki-beige creme, and then sponged the whole deal up a bit.

For my middle finger...

I looked to the color-field works of my favorite abstract expressionist, Mark Rothko, and reached for Orly's Haute Red (base color), NYC Long Wearing Nail Color, 114, Taxi Yellow, Zoya's Shelby, and Orly's Black Vinyl. 

Moving one digit to the left, we've next got the ring finger... 

Here, I was inspired by Edward Revenir Bush's Moon Beam.

For this nail, I went with Orly Black Vinyl for my base color, and then dotted a blob of Julep's Lisa, a khaki-green creme and a tiny smidgen of NYC French Tip White, in the center, taking time to sponge the results around, until it boasted some texture.

Next up at bat:  the pinky finger...

My final nail was a nod to Morris Louis and his colorful stripes.  Here's how it went down....

Against a neutral beige base of OPI's Did You Ear About Van Gogh, I used a long striping brush and laid out vertical lines of Nails Inc.'s Baker Street, FingerPaints' Black Striper, China Glaze's Desert Sun, Color Club's In the Limelight,  FingerPaints' White Striper, and Orly's Haute Red.

Well, that's all she wrote, folks!  I really enjoyed the freedom of this challenge, and dearly hope two things:  

1. that you got a kick out of it, too; and 
2. that the artists who inspired this post are not rolling in their graves.  

With that said, please join me in checking out the art-inspired goings-on with our challenger friends....

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 26 - inspired by a pattern!

Oh man. I'll admit it. I was completely stumped as to what I would do for today's challenge. Inspired by a pattern? There are so many ways to interpret the challenge, and so many different patterns that I lack the talent to create. After hours of indecision, I decided that I would try something new today.

Colors used: butter LONDON - Sprog, essie - Butler Please, Cult Nails - Time Traveler

Today's offering is a blue on blue on blue spin on the popular "fishtail braid" manicure. This is the first time that I have ever tried this style, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Because this is my first time, please don't judge me too hard. It's very uneven, and I could have done a better job with getting all the layers opaque... but I still really like how this came out. It's blue. What's not to love?!

 

What do you think about the whole "fishtail braid" look? Is this something you would wear out on the town? I'm afraid that my left hand doesn't look nearly as nice as my right. If only I was ambidextrous! Curse my limited nature!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that you'll follow my lead and check out what the other participants are up to! :)

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Mari at Nailista
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance 
-Me, Myself, and Polish

31 DAY CHALLENGE, DAY 25 - inspired by fashion!

Hello my fellow internet users! I apologize that this post is a bit late, I lost track of time what with the hurricane (no worries, mom and I are fine!).

For today's challenge, I had to create a manicure inspired by fashion... When I think of fashion (which isn't very often) I think back to the Project Runway Season 8 NYFW show by Mondo Guerra. Don't know who he is? Check out this link for a nice summary of the designer, what went down in the season finale, some Tim Gunn, and a picture of the outfits that inspired this manicure.

It's about to get a little pic-heavy. Hold on to your hat!!!