Makeup Review: Button Masher Lacquer – Be Excellent to Each Other

I am not much of a nail polish girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sparkle and pretty color. However, I am awful at keeping up with it, so I usually stick to basics and keep layering over the chips. But my friend and owner of PHLL Nail Polish, Esther Fox, has been posting photo after photo of fun indie nail polish colors. The more she posts, the more tempted I am to try some of these indie creations.  When I saw “Be Excellent to Each Other” from Geek Chic Cosmetics new Button Masher Lacquer line, I knew I had to give it a try.

The Color

Geek Chic Cosmetics describes “Be Excellent to Each Other” as “A deep purple jelly base with large purple holo dots, iridescent hex glitter, mixed shape & size purple glitters, and purple micro flakies.”  When I got the bottle in the mail my first thought was “oooh, pretty!” There’s certainly no shortness of glitter in the bottle. I promptly took it to tabletop night so I could try it with Claire and our friend Madisen.

Be Excellent to Each Other

The Application

We sat around the D&D table layering up on color, about three coats each, trying to get the sparkle from the bottle to translate to our nails. No luck. The polish just got thicker and darker on our nails. So I messaged Esther for help. She explained that with “jelly” polishes the more you use the less glitter you see because the base will get darker. She recommended using a base color and then using a layer of “Be Excellent to Each Other” on top. Huzzah! Now I was getting somewhere.

One, Two, Three and Four coats, respectively.

I first tried putting “Be Excellent to Each Other” over Essie’s “Dive Bar.” The photographs don’t do it justice. It was beautiful. “Dive Bar” is a black and teal shimmery color. Since some of the “Be Excellent to Each Other” glitter has a blue tint to it, in the sun it really popped. This will be my go-to combination for this color.

Applied over Essie Dive Bar.

To get a more true to bottle color, I next tried putting “Be Excellent to Each Other” over Sally Hansen’s “Purple Potion.” It looked exactly like the bottle.

Staying Power

On its own, “Be Excellent to Each Other” does not stay on very well. It chips off in one giant piece. It almost looks like fake nails falling off.  Definitely use this with a base coat. When I put it over the other two colors it stayed on very well. I didn’t use a top coat and it lasted for two to three days without chipping. I usually have to start touching up on day two, so this was very good for me.

The winning combination side by side.

You can get “Be Excellent to Each Other” from GeekChicCosmetics.com for $6.99.

Disclaimer: I bought this nail polish with my own money for review.