Saturday, February 1, 2014

Swatches and Reviews: Butter London - Cream Tea

Have you ever used a product or tried a polish that was so good, but there was one fundamental flaw that prevented it from becoming a favorite or a staple?

Meet Cream Tea, a warm white nail polish from Butter London. She's lovely, isn't she?

Oh, Cream Tea, Cream Tea... how I love you and your color. Your beautiful shine. Your smooth surface. Why then, oh why, must you be such a pain to apply?!?




Brand: Butter London
Name: Cream Tea
Product Description: "Barely there and ever-so-sweet. Pale and creamy, this lacquer is an alternative to your standard clear or sheer pink nail lacquer." (credit: product page)
Vintage: 2008?
Collection: N/A
Limited Edition: No (discontinued?)
Size: 11ml/.4 fl oz
Dupes: ?


Cream Tea is a jelly-based polish with a creme-like finish (a crelly) and a delicate, sheer formula. The polish dries to a smooth, glossy finish after several coats, and  has the "squishy" feeling that most jelly polishes have.




What I love most about this polish is the color. This is white, but it's not a stark, bright white. It just barely borders on being an off-white, having a slightly warm tint that I thought worked really nicely with my pale, pink skin tone. The best way to describe the color is a lot like watered-down milk. Well, I guess that's actually just skim milk. Whatever :P



The primary problem with this polish is that if you want a smooth, streak-free finish, you need to apply 3 or 4 coats - which also means this doesn't really work if you want the polish to remain sheer. As with most white polishes that I've tried, streaks abound. Coats one and two were streaky. Coat three evens out the finish. For full opacity and a smooth finish, I needed FOUR coats.




Cream tea takes a LOT of patience and a light touch to apply, but I find the payoff to be worth it. I won't be using it too often as a base - as lovely a base as it is - simply because of the time required to  apply it. I'm sure, though, that I'll cave and use it from time to time, simply because the color was probably one of the best whites that I've found for my skintone.



(note: my primary camera is acting up, so these photos were taken with two different cameras. Any differences in the photo quality and colors are because two different cameras were used in this review).

All Butter London lacquers are "3-free," and the company is proud to "never add Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP, phtalates or parabens to any of (their) products." Butter London polishes can be found in the US in stores that carry high-end cosmetics, such as Sephora, Ulta, Macy's, and Nordstrom, or online at butterlondon.com or various other online retailers. Learn more about Butter London and their polishes here!


Manicures/nail art that use this nail polish:




Disclaimer: I will give my honest opinion on any reviews and swatches that appear on this site, regardless of origin. All products mentioned in this review were purchased by myself <3

2 comments:

  1. this is very good nail polish- I love this branch. Take care :)

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    Replies
    1. They ARE very good. I have a bunch and they're all good quality and good colors

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