Butter London Fishwife

Fishwife is a pale, silvered sage linear holographic polish.  It hit bottle color in three coats, and the formula was surprisingly easy for a holo--smooth, no dragging, no bald spots, slightly thin but not awful, shiny without top coat, drying quickly and really really holographic, even in indoor light (although it's best in sunshine, of course!)

In the sun:

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Fishwife is US only, but I'm not sure where it's being sold other than the Butter London website, where it's $14 plus shipping.

Orly on HauteLook

Right now, and they have color-changing polishes I haven't seen before!  Click here (that's my referral link).

Dino Palmieri grand opening

Monday was quite horrible at work.  It's always bad when the boss is out of town, but it was really bad on Monday.  When I got home and sat down at my computer to check my e-mail, my mood went to the stratosphere immediately, because of an invitation from the lovely Erin at Zoya.  On Tuesday night, Zoya and  One were sponsoring a grand opening of a new Dino Palmieri salon at Eton Square in Woodmere, Ohio.

After work on Tuesday, which was thankfully less awful than Monday, I ran home, fed the dogs and headed out to Woodmere.  I laughed when I downloaded the directions, because Google Maps optimistically assured me that it took only 24 minutes to get from my house to Eton Square, travelling on Route 8 N and 271 N.  Hahahahaha.  Both are main arteries that fill up in both directions, and rush hour basically lasts from about 4 to about 7.  I allowed about 50 minutes, and got there about five minutes late.  When I arrived, I was greeted by Jayne from One, and then introduced to a woman from the salon whose name I forgot (I'm so sorry!) and then introduced to Jamie, who took my coat, got me a bottle of water (my choice, there was a full bar on offer) and then took me back to the blow-dry bar.

I hadn't heard of a blow-dry bar and had no idea that experiencing one was on the menu, but I loved, loved, loved it!  Dino Palmieri has massaging chairs at the shampoo bowls, and Jamie was charming and very good at his work.  I had a lovely shampoo and conditioning sitting in the massaging chair, and then Jamie and I talked the whole time he did my blowout.  We chatted about tech toys (he just got his first tablet) and hair products (I got in a plug for Skindecent's conditioner) and he praised my haircut, so I told him the story of how Amber and I met when I asked her to chop off 15 inches of my hair.

During:

After:

(that's Michelle of All Lacquered Up taking the pic)

Afterwards, there was a goodie bag so heavy I felt as if I was leaning to the left, a lovely spread of nibbles including little kabobs that were basically caprese salad on a stick, which I will have to do myself and a chance to meet other area bloggers and lots of wonderful Zoya folks.  I had the chance to tell Erin how she improved my Monday; got to meet Sarah, who is in charge of Zoya's Facebook presence; Rebecca, who comes up with the phenomenal Zoya colors; Michael; Leo and Zoya herself.  I was so excited by the chance to talk to all of these amazing folks that I totally forgot until I got home that Valerie Mayen from Season 8 of Project Runway was there somewhere and that there was a drawing for a huge goodie bag worth $1,500!  Absolutely worth it, though, to meet everyone and have such a wonderful experience.  My only down moment came when I had to leave early to come home and give Mouse his arthritis pill, but doggie health takes precedence over feeling like a princess.

If you'd like to see all of the pictures taken by the pro photographer, they are here: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/26652222_jh6hsV#!i=2229353155&k=7wzTVxV

Thank you again to One, Dino Palmieri and Zoya for an amazing evening!

More pictures after the jump!

Zoya Dream Boxes--sale & free shipping!

Zoya Dream Boxes make color dreams a reality! Choose from 6 fashionably perfect pre-packs OR build your own* Dream Box as a holiday gift for friends, family, office parties or a personal treat - hey, you deserve it!

SPECIAL THANKSGIVING WEEKEND OFFER**
Zoya Dream Box Gift Sets - $20 (Reg. $24)

Offer includes free expedited shipping to make sure your gifts are delivered in time for the holidays!

use code: DREAM 

Valid NOW through 11/26/2012, 11:59 PM EST. 

*Excludes Zoya Gilty 
  

**Valid only on www.zoya.com. Continental US only. Not valid in conjunction with other coupons, codes or promotions. Available while supplies last. Consumer orders only. Returns or exchanges of promotional items not permitted. Art of Beauty is not responsible for incorrect addresses or credit card entry errors. Offer expires 11/26/12, 11:59 PM EST.

Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!

And just a little tease of what's to come:

My Butter London haul!

Scouse, Fishwife, Shambolic, Jack the Lad, Bluey, Shag, and  Scuppered.

Color Club Port-folio

The only color I wanted from the In True Fashion collection was Port-folio, and it really was a dream come true.  The formula is flawless, opaque in two coats, shiny before top coat, neither too thick nor too thin and very easy to work with.  Plus, the color!  Deep purple shimmer with a strong lime green flash.  Let's just say I'm in love and move on to the pictures!  All swatches are two coats without top coat.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Color Club polishes are available at etailers and some brick and mortar stores.

Blue Cross candy shop scented nail polish set

When I saw G's post about the light-up bottles of nail polish from Blue Cross, I squeaked like a happy otter and made a resolution to grab at least one for myself.  Sadly, by the time I made it to a Rite Aid, the display was empty of everything but the conventional glitters.  All was not lost, however, because next to the sadly picked-over display was a display of pretty little scented mini polishes, 5 for $5.99!  I grabbed the one that was almost entirely milky jellies with glitter, and I'm really pleased that I did.

Here's the whole set:

Cute as a bunch of buttons, aren't they?

From left to right, blueberry swirl, chocolate cupcake, lollipop, strawberry and vanilla frosting

Indoors with flash, in the same order:

Indoors without flash, in the same order:

 In the sun, in the same order:

All swatches are three coats, which were needed to cover a few bald spots.

blueberry swirl is a milky turquoise jelly with multicolored diamond-shaped glitter.  The scent is just a generic sweet scent, not particularly strong and fairly unoffensive.  

chocolate cupcake is a milky lavender jelly with multicolored, irregularly shaped glitter.  This has the same generic sweet smell, which is a bummer if you're looking for chocolate-scented nails, but good for me because I can't stand artificial chocolate scents.

lollipop is a milky bubble-gum pink jelly with multicolored, irregularly shaped glitter with the same sweet scent.

strawberry is a milky neon pink with multicolored, irregular shapes.  This one smells like strawberry candy, with both sweet and tart berry notes.  This was the first one where I thought the scent really matched the name, and I love it.

vanilla frosting is a clear jelly with super-fine silver holographic micro-glitter.  The holo is really strong, and the scent smells exactly like buttercream frosting.  I adore this one!

One coat of vanilla frosting over Sensationail Purple Orchid, in the sun:

If you can find these at a Rite Aid, this is a cute set, and the polishes were perfectly well-behaved--no dripping, no pooling, only a bit of glitter-pushing needed (and none with vanilla frosting).  You can get this for yourself or as a gift, and the price is right.  Oh, and it's made in the USA, too! :)