I recently discovered the most beautifully coloured nail polish, thanks to Madison magazine. Butter London‘s Trout Pout was a free giveaway on their November edition. I’m such a sucker for magazine freebies! This one was an absolute stunner. I loved the colour so much that I grandly announced I wanted a lipstick in the exact same shade. My twitter friends came surging to my rescue with loads of helpful suggestions of brands and shades to try.

But first, let’s talk about the wonder that is Butter London Trout Pout.

What they say:
By transforming catwalk trends to custom nail colour palettes, butter LONDON has developed a passionate following. butter LONDON is the cult phenomenon of the nail industry and is fast becoming famous for our high fashion, 3 Free (non-toxic) nail lacquers and revolutionary waterless nail services. butter LONDON products are formulated without the use of the harmful ingredients like Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP or Parabens. butter LONDON was the first company to sell non-toxic nail lacquer in the United States.

Trout Pout: An opaque shade of cantaloupe, pale and retro.

What I say:
Butter London Trout Pout is part of the new Spring/Summer 2012 collection. This is the most fabulous bright pinkish coral I have ever encountered. It’s almost impossible to capture the true colour, depth and zing of this lacquer in a photograph. It’s got a hint of hotness to it, I would describe it as almost a fluro coral-pink.

The bottles are gorgeous little rectangular creations, with black caps that line up with the bottle perfectly. They remind me of neat little Surry Hills townhouses. The first time I used a Butter London polish I tried to unscrew the entire cap. This works, on occasion, but I’ve found it easier to simply pop the cap off and unscrew the smaller, notched lid underneath.

This polish goes on beautifully with a base coat underneath, but if you put it straight onto your nails, the first coat goes a bit wonky and uneven. But don’t fret, the second coat levels it out perfectly and it dries to a high shine finish.

 It looks solid and feels dry to the touch after about a minute, but you’ll leave fingerprints if you touch it any time up until about the 8 minute mark. It stops taking fingerprints at around 8 minutes after application, but will still dent and ding up until around 18-19 minutes. And will, if you’re unfortunate enough to hit it hard, still take little marks until about 35 minutes after application, when it completely sets. However, it is completely worth it. Take half an hour, give yourself a mani/pedi (this is a great summer pedi polish) and have a glass of champagne while you wait for it to dry. As long as you don’t knock it, you’re set.

The Adventure:
I fell so head-over-heels in love with this shade that I twitpicced a photograph of my nails with the grand declaration “This is the perfect coral pink, I want trout pout for my lips!” I was met with so many wonderful suggestions and products to try. (And the absurdity of actually wanting to have a “trout pout” wasn’t lost on me.) The lovely Sarah from Hip & Haute even instagrammed me a pic of some swatches of potential applicants, with the caption… “Here are some contenders I have on hand!” *giggles uncontrollably*

The contenders were (from top to bottom): Ciccone Cosmetics in Oceanus, YSL Rouge Volupté in #30, Inglot Slim Gel Lipstick in #40.

I loved the extra little bit of pink and the hint of brightness in the bottom swatch, the Inglot. But I wondered, since it’s almost impossible to capture the true colour of this lacquer in a photograph, how is it possible to match a lipstick the same way?

But I trusted Sarah’s amazing style and experience with pink and coral lipsticks, as well as my own instincts and immediately jumped onto Inglot’s website to purchase the beautiful pinkish-coral delight. And the result? It’s a close to a perfect match as I could possibly hope for. I adore my new Inglot lippie!

Here are the swatches side by side in natural light, with a flash.

And here they are in natural light, without a flash.

I am so thrilled with both these products. If you’re a pink fan, or a coral fan, or you’re looking for a fun summer shade, go out and “trout pout” your fingers and your lips!

Butter London is available in Australia from Adore Beauty and HoneyHoney.

Have you ever had an adventure searching for a product? Have your twitter friends helped you to find something wonderful? Let me know. Leave me a note, stop by Facebook or tweet me!

Rosemary xox

Both these products were purchased with my own finances (well, the original nail polish was a freebie with Madison magazine, but I explained that already.)