Acetone Files: Untried Polish Challenge #10: Most Expensive / BL Aston / Fingerpaints Asylum etc
Acetone Files
Untried Polish Challenge #11: Most Expensive
MOST EXPENSIVE MANICURE EVAH. This is a mishmash of my most expensive untrieds all together, and I have to say, it's freaking gorgeous! Worth the price? Maybe. You be the judge, I guess!
My base rusty orange is Butter London Aston. This is my only untried Butter London, and those things usually set me back at least $15, if not $20, so they are easily my most expensive brand so far. Over that I put Fingerpaints Asylum. Fingerpaints released this flakies topcoat line a while back and people went NUTS for it. It's hard to find, usually you have to bid on them on Ebay. I nearly had to pay $30 just for this one, but a seller popped up at the last minute hawking it for $18 plus shipping. Believe it or not, that's low for these babies. I just had to have Asylum for the bright orange and deep blue duochromy flakies - you could say I was crazy for it.
I liked the sheen I got in diffuse light, so I topped it off with another pricy topcoat, Essie Matte about You, to mattify it and really bring out the iridescence. It was $8 on Ebay, which is good because that's the normal price of Essies in store (but Matte about You has been discontinued so you can't find it there anyway), but Essies are still on the pricy side for me.
I love that the duochrome really comes out in diffuse light! Asylum is primarily tinted orange and deep blue, but it also has a sort of yellow-green duo/iridescence to it, which you can see best in the diffuse shot. Asylum is just that special - it changes and shows off different colors wheverever you turn! This polish also responds really well to florescent, as you can see - it's easier to see all the flakies, and the duochrome comes out a bit at just the right angle there too.
$15.00 Butter London
$20.50 Asylum
+ $7.50 Essie Matte
$43.00 Total Cost of Manicure
Oy! That's one expensive mani. But of course, unlike Kelly Osbourne's $500 mani, I can use all these polishes again in different ways, over top of different things!
Comparison: Butter London Aston vs. Ulta Ginger Peach
The only infuriating thing about this mani was an unintentional dupe: I already had Ulta Ginger Peach from a while back when there was a sale at ButterLondon.com, and the only one on my want list that was on sale ($10 + $5 shipping, so same as you'd get in-store but shipped to you) was Aston. It didn't even occur to me they were the same color until a while after it arrived - turns out the light pearlescent shimmer was ALSO there. Damn.
Dupe Alert: So I finally decided to do the official comparison for this manicure - why not? Butter London's on the first 3 fingers, Ulta on the last two. To my surprise, they weren't exact - Ulta actually applied a bit easier, covering in 2 coats instead of Aston's 3. Plus, Ulta is a little bit lighter, warmer orange than Aston, and Aston has a tad more glitteriness to it. However, they are so close I have to call dupe - the difference in color is there, but too small to really be practical. I actually had trouble getting the Ulta to photograph different from the BL enough to show you, though I could see it at certain times IRL.
Both formulas I have problems: Ulta DOES NOT DRY properly at all, until like 24 hrs later, and Butter London has a little bit "sticky" formula, which means you have to either slap on the coats quickly before it starts to set up, or wait 5 minutes or so til they're completely dry, or you'll get lots of lumps and dragging. And BL also doesn't dry very well, and I always have trouble with what I call "hydroplaning" - the topcoat dries over it but the base color doesn't, so the topcoat slides and wrinkles, or dents really easily. I found the only way to prevent this is paint the Butter London, let it soft-set completely (which takes nearly an hour), THEN apply the topcoat. I have this problem with Ulta too, but only if I use more than 3 coats, so it's thickness rather than weird drying. So basically they come out about even in that respect, so you probably should go for the cheaper Ulta (normal in-store price $7) versus the pricier Butter London ($15-$18).
Reviews: Butter London Aston is a nicer color, IMO, but still has drying issues. B+ Ulta Ginger Peach is a cheaper alternative, and has different but similarly-annoying drying issues. B+ Fingerpaints Asylum tends to get gloopy, because you need at least 2 coats to get a good buildup of the flakies. But what flakies! The color is stunning, and with a topcoat, the globbiness isn't so bad. A-
The other lovely participants:
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors
Isabel at Little Fairy
Raux at Raux Polish
Alison at UKNailRUnner
Untried Polish Challenge #11: Most Expensive
MOST EXPENSIVE MANICURE EVAH. This is a mishmash of my most expensive untrieds all together, and I have to say, it's freaking gorgeous! Worth the price? Maybe. You be the judge, I guess!
My base rusty orange is Butter London Aston. This is my only untried Butter London, and those things usually set me back at least $15, if not $20, so they are easily my most expensive brand so far. Over that I put Fingerpaints Asylum. Fingerpaints released this flakies topcoat line a while back and people went NUTS for it. It's hard to find, usually you have to bid on them on Ebay. I nearly had to pay $30 just for this one, but a seller popped up at the last minute hawking it for $18 plus shipping. Believe it or not, that's low for these babies. I just had to have Asylum for the bright orange and deep blue duochromy flakies - you could say I was crazy for it.
I liked the sheen I got in diffuse light, so I topped it off with another pricy topcoat, Essie Matte about You, to mattify it and really bring out the iridescence. It was $8 on Ebay, which is good because that's the normal price of Essies in store (but Matte about You has been discontinued so you can't find it there anyway), but Essies are still on the pricy side for me.
I love that the duochrome really comes out in diffuse light! Asylum is primarily tinted orange and deep blue, but it also has a sort of yellow-green duo/iridescence to it, which you can see best in the diffuse shot. Asylum is just that special - it changes and shows off different colors wheverever you turn! This polish also responds really well to florescent, as you can see - it's easier to see all the flakies, and the duochrome comes out a bit at just the right angle there too.
$15.00 Butter London
$20.50 Asylum
+ $7.50 Essie Matte
$43.00 Total Cost of Manicure
Oy! That's one expensive mani. But of course, unlike Kelly Osbourne's $500 mani, I can use all these polishes again in different ways, over top of different things!
Comparison: Butter London Aston vs. Ulta Ginger Peach
The only infuriating thing about this mani was an unintentional dupe: I already had Ulta Ginger Peach from a while back when there was a sale at ButterLondon.com, and the only one on my want list that was on sale ($10 + $5 shipping, so same as you'd get in-store but shipped to you) was Aston. It didn't even occur to me they were the same color until a while after it arrived - turns out the light pearlescent shimmer was ALSO there. Damn.
Dupe Alert: So I finally decided to do the official comparison for this manicure - why not? Butter London's on the first 3 fingers, Ulta on the last two. To my surprise, they weren't exact - Ulta actually applied a bit easier, covering in 2 coats instead of Aston's 3. Plus, Ulta is a little bit lighter, warmer orange than Aston, and Aston has a tad more glitteriness to it. However, they are so close I have to call dupe - the difference in color is there, but too small to really be practical. I actually had trouble getting the Ulta to photograph different from the BL enough to show you, though I could see it at certain times IRL.
Both formulas I have problems: Ulta DOES NOT DRY properly at all, until like 24 hrs later, and Butter London has a little bit "sticky" formula, which means you have to either slap on the coats quickly before it starts to set up, or wait 5 minutes or so til they're completely dry, or you'll get lots of lumps and dragging. And BL also doesn't dry very well, and I always have trouble with what I call "hydroplaning" - the topcoat dries over it but the base color doesn't, so the topcoat slides and wrinkles, or dents really easily. I found the only way to prevent this is paint the Butter London, let it soft-set completely (which takes nearly an hour), THEN apply the topcoat. I have this problem with Ulta too, but only if I use more than 3 coats, so it's thickness rather than weird drying. So basically they come out about even in that respect, so you probably should go for the cheaper Ulta (normal in-store price $7) versus the pricier Butter London ($15-$18).
Reviews: Butter London Aston is a nicer color, IMO, but still has drying issues. B+ Ulta Ginger Peach is a cheaper alternative, and has different but similarly-annoying drying issues. B+ Fingerpaints Asylum tends to get gloopy, because you need at least 2 coats to get a good buildup of the flakies. But what flakies! The color is stunning, and with a topcoat, the globbiness isn't so bad. A-
The other lovely participants:
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish
Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors
Isabel at Little Fairy
Raux at Raux Polish
Alison at UKNailRUnner