Butter London Marrow

In my last post I mentioned how I layered Butter London No More Waity Katie over Marrow.  In fact, the only reason I bought Marrow was to use as "underwear" for No More Waity Katie.  Usually when I do layering combinations, I like to throw in a photo or two of the base polish just for fun.  It's like a two-for-one!   Well, I was just so smitten with Butter London Marrow, that I just had to do a full post on it. So, as promised, here goes!

Marrow was released with Butter London's Fall 2010 Collection (The same AMAZING collection that included Victoriana, Bumster, and All Hail McQueen/the Queen) and was custom mixed for the Vena Cava designers for Fashion Week.  Butter London says it was named after "the dark purple, rusty center of a bone."  First, I didn't really realize that bone marrow was actually purple.  For some reason I always thought it was maybe a deep red, like blod.  Second...ew?  Not sure why anyone would want to name a polish after bone marrow.  I guess there's supposed to be a connection between bone marrow and vena cava, the major vein to the heart?  Kind of strange, if you ask me, but I suppose I'll try not to question the thought process that gave us such a lovely polish.

Marrow's color is just described of its namesake, a red-leaning purple that falls somewhere between mid to deep toned with very fine silver shimmer.  Unfortunately, the shimmer isn't as apparent on the nail as it is in the bottle.  Reminds of the shimmer in Essie Sew Psyched.  From time to time in the right light at the right angle, you can see the secret shimmer, but you can pretty much think of Marrow as a creme.  Application was amazingly smooth, and what you see here is only one coat!  ONE...COAT!  I die!  Since Marrow is a purple, it was of course impossible to accurately photograph.  I color-corrected these photos a bit to get it as close as I could to the correct color.

(click to enlarge)

The photo below was taken without my Ott-Lite, in just the natural lighting of my dining room, and is very color-accurate:

Don't be fooled - even though this is definitely a "rusty" purple, it's still somehow vibrant.  It's not a blackened purple or a greyed purple.  Here's a photo of Marrow compared to Revlon Perplex (dupe of Chanel Paradoxal):

(L) Butter London Marrow, (R) Revlon Perplex

See how much more vibrant it is?  It's so much more purple, and almost makes Perplex look brown!  I definitely don't have a dupe for Marrow in my stash.  It's completely unique for me!  I was so surprised with how much I loved it!  We all remember my love affair with Illamasqua Baptiste, and while Marrow didn't knock it from being my #1 Purple, it's definitely my #2!

I'd say if you love purples, Marrow is a MUST have!  I'm so happy that every Ulta will now be carrying the Butter London line!  So much more accessible!  To be honest, I'm not sure if Marrow is part of Butter London's core line.  It appears to be, as it is available at http://www.ulta.com/ and http://www.butterlondon.com/, but I'm not 100% sure. Either way, I highly recommend picking this one up!  Even at the mid-level $14 price, Marrow is unique in color and with an unbelievably smooth one-coat application, it's totally worth it!