Never Without Polish: Stash Swatch Initiative: Butter London Knackered

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Stash Swatch Initiative: Butter London Knackered

Hello again!!

Butter London Knackered. Indoors, artificial light, with flash.

Today I've got the second of the three Butter Londons in my stash to show you. This is Knackered.

Butter London Knackered over China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Knackered is a finicky, complex polish. In the bottle, it has a strong duochrome finish changing from a light, silvery blue to a subtle purple with gorgeous holographic particles swimming through it all. It is really sheer by itself, so the first time I attempted to swatch this, I tried to build it up. That didn't work out so well. Three coats in, and it was quite hideous. It was frosty, showed every imperfection on my nails, and I had brush strokes upon brush strokes. I next tried it over black, but that was equally as terrible. For a while, I was a bit stumped as to what to do with this baby. I set it aside disappointed--it's so pretty in the bottle! The other day I came across China Glaze's Secret Peri-wink-le in my stash. I swatched it for you here, and then had a revelation! Perhaps this was the underwear Knackered needed! The color seemed to match Knackered, so I tried a very careful coat of Knackered over the two coats plus topcoat of Secret Peri-wink-le from yesterday.

Butter London Knackered over China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. Outdoors, sunlight, no flash.

Voila! This works! You get a hint of the duochrome shimmer, and the frostiness is kept to a minimum.

Butter London Knackered over China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. Outdoors, sunlight, no flash.

I tried to capture the color shift. It's best seen in the bottle. The left side picture shows how purple it can look, and the right side shows the blue. I love how well you can see the bend in color at the edge of the bottle.