All Buttered Up: Butter London's Makeup Range

butter LONDON is a label renowned for its incredible nail polishes, and justly so. However, exciting news came to us last year that the brand was expanding to include butter LONDON makeup.

And, as it went with the nail polishes, the makeup is just beautiful; carefully selected and long-lasting, including a vibrant range of colours to choose from while at the same time not overloading the market with every colour under the sun. You can immediately see by the quality of the makeup that this brand will graduate quickly to become classic go-tos in many a makeup bag from herein out.

My first experience of this exciting range was the the selection in the photo above, which gave me a great taste of what the range as a whole was like and I can already say that some are firm favourites I will be using to the quick and re-buying.

An immediate love was Cheeky Cream Blush in Pistol Pink which packs a punch and was particularly exciting to me because I have tried and tested so many blushes and it's surprisingly hard to find one that lasted as long as this without fading! Another bonus of this particular vibrant gem is that it can be used on your lips too if the mood takes you, to complement your rosy cheeks; something I've already tried and loved. To look at the blush for the first time the pink looks almost neon but once applied it smoothes into your cheeks easily for a more subtle pinky glow. Extra bonus points must go towards the packaging and sleek design of the blush itself, which has an impressive mirror too for glowing on the go.

Although, up to recently, butter LONDON has been lauded primarily for its nail range, I have a feeling the brand has really set itself in line to be renowned for its eye makeup too, particularly its eye pencils. Not only has the brand produced a range of extremely vibrant colours, the lasting power of these pencils is exceptional.

I'm on a constant, very high maintenance journey for the perfect, long-lasting, non-smudging liner-mascara combo so I tried Wink Colour Mascara in Union Jack Black along with Wink Eye Pencil in Inky Six; a navy blue shade which, for someone like me with green and brown eyes, is a colour I had never tried but was excited to do so to see whether it complemented my particular eye colour or not; and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I used the mascara and eye pencil for the first time at a friend's wedding. I was wearing all black and wanted to go vibrant with my makeup but wearing blue eyeliner was a first for me! And I'm so glad I did so.

Eyeliners and eye shadows in various vibrant shades have different affects on different eye colours, from shade to shade, and can enhance tones in your eyes that may usually be very subtle. Inky Six is one of the range's beautifully bright shades and lasted the entire day of the wedding! I couldn't believe it! And I can't wait to get the black Wink Eye Pencil, Union Jack Black, to end my long-running search for the ultimate stay all day black eyeliner. In butter LONDON we now trust... As you can see from this photo of my test run, Inky Six is such a high pigmented eye liner it creates a statement and glides on so smoothly it's hard to mess up the application!

With Wink Colour Mascara in Union Jack Black you also have a very, very black mascara that lasts all day without smudging or slipping. Though, it must be said,  this mascara is more of an eyelash enhancer and lengthener rather than a volumiser, which I was slightly disappointed about since I love a big dramatic look for lashes. However, the quality was so good - it doesn't budge! It's a perfect wear-all-day mascara that can be made more dramatic when the sun goes down with an extra application of layers.

Next up, the beautiful lipstick. Lippy Tinted Balm in Axis Kiss is such a natural but very complementing shade for all day wear but with the added bonus of a balm that soothes your lips and doesn't dry out or crack like many lipsticks can. It isn't highly pigmented like the eyeliner and blush but the colour is very natural, as you can see from the above photo, and is a very pretty pink colour would suit most skin tones. This one was a surprising winner for me. I'd highly recommend carrying this in your bag for the ultimate all day lip colour.

Finally, my pick from butter LONDON's newest range of their celebrated nail polishes, The Boho Rock Collection, Lucy in the Sky, which is a wonderfully glittery number with a pink hue. When it comes to glittery nail polishes I've often found they work best over a base colour but it was only when I tried this colour, over a vibrant red, I realised the glitter took over completely! I'd found a glittery number that could be worn alone. The pink hue really does it for me with this one, though I can't wait to try some of the block colours soon too.

The butter LONDON collection of nail colours and its new makeup range are available from Avoca stores nationwide.

Prices for the nail collection starts at €15

Prices for the makeup collection range from €18 to €20