Swatch Series: Butter London nail polish in Tramp Stamp

Butter London polishes are a pain to find in Singapore. It's not available in retail stores locally, nor can we spree for them, because Butter London does not ship to Singapore. But to my surprise, I did find a reliable site selling just 5 bottles of Butter London polishes, and I decided to hop on to test out the formula and application of the polish.

Butter London polishes are 3-free (no Formaldehyde, no Toluene, and no DBP), according to their website. However, All Lacquered Up has also pointed out that they're actually 4-free (no Formaldehyde Resin). Packaging-wise, Butter London polishes are housed in a rectangle bottle, with a detachable rectangular cap. After removing the rectangular cap, what you have is a ribbed round cap which feels comfortable to hold, while allowing you to maintain a proper grip on the brush. The brush is flexible, although personally, I prefer a brush that is just slightly less flexible.

The polish I chose is Tramp Stamp. Described by Butter London as "The colour of dark chocolate. Delicious and forbidden, but not particularly sweet, like teenage English boys", it is a chocolate-purple, rich, vampy, and very suitable for Fall.

The application is smooth, requiring 2 medium coats for full opacity. While it's highly raved by many nail fanatics, I feel that Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes have superior formula. Something worth mentioning is that the polish does dry fairly quickly, so it's best to avoid trying to go over a spot too many times. Just trust that the next coat will even out the bumps, and level out into a smooth glossy texture.

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2 coats of Tramp Stamp, with no base coat or top coat. Taken under artificial light.

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Overall, for its retail price of USD14.00, I say Butter London is a fairly expensive treat. The formula and application is thankfully good, which makes the price tag easier to swallow. I found a good deal, paying only SGD11.00 for this polish. The packaging makes for easy storage, which is always a plus point. Tramp Stamp is not a very unique color, but it is so glossy, so smooth, and so rich, that I think it's worth paying for it. But if you have a similar color, skip this, because I feel that normal brands (aka OPI, Essie, China Glaze, Zoya etc) have more than decent formula, and there's pretty much no need to splurge on Butter London polishes.

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And because this is a swatch, I decided to layer OPI I Juggle... Men over it. Rather interestingly, I didn't notice any clouding of the original base color, unlike the previous attempt. Instead, the blue sparkles dominate and added luminousity to the original base color, definitely making it more unique. Could this be the result of different chemicals reacting differently? Well, I definitely need to spend 1 day experimenting with my new OPI Top Coat. And, a point to note is that my polish didn't peel or crack or chip overnight. Hmm...

The pictures were taken under natural light, and yes, I know my hands look lobster-ish, but I wanted the bottle and nail swatches to be accurate. It is really accurate now that I adjusted the hue, especially the first picture.

As for the wonders of I Juggle... Men, please click on the photos to enlarge them! I couldn't even capture the purplish sparkles, and only a bit of the blue comes true.

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This manicure is definitely something I will re-do someday. But for now, I have the urge to swatch other nail polishes, and do some nail art, so poof, off goes Tramp Stamp!