Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Independence Day Mani Idea: Orly Star Spangled

This is Orly's Star Spangled. A red jelly-like base with tons of sparkling red glitter. It's from the Orly Stars and Stripes collection, which is not really a "new" collection, but a set of three polishes, two are repromotes (Star of Bombay and White Out) and one is new (Star Spangled).

Even though I bought this polish just for the name, I still love the color. I can never resist a red glitter. There's just something about red glitters that makes me excited. They're so rich and sparkly, I can't take my eyes off of them.

I haven't decided exactly what my 4th of July manicure will be yet, but this might be part of a cool, festive fireworks manicure.

On a totally unrelated note, I thought I should let you know that I am still *way* behind on everything- posting reviews, responding to emails and comments and completing requests. I am absolutely buried in requests and I'm starting to feel like I'll never be able to finish. I know that lots of you are waiting for me to post your requests, and I apologize. Lately my schedule just hasn't allowed me to complete them. And if you've sent me an email that I haven't responded to, I'm not ignoring you! I promise! There's just a lot going on for me right now. I'm sure you can relate to that. Thank you for your support, I really do appreciate every one of you!

And on a happier note, I hope to have the rest of the Obsessive Compulsive polish line posted this week, and some polishes that have travelled halfway around the world to reach me, including Illamasqua, Barry M and Bloom!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Celebrate: The Lippmann Collection 10th Anniversary Set

I did a sneak preview of this set a while ago, and now it's finally here! It appears to be a Nordstrom exclusive set, but I didn't know that when I first posted. Though, a lot of times "Nordstrom Exclusive" means Nordstrom has it first for a little while (remember the Nordstrom Exclusive Essies?)

Superstar. Golden copper glitter in a brown jelly base. This is my picture of the original-release Superstar. The new one is exactly the same, so I saved time on swatching. This is unique in more ways than one- I've never seen a glitter shade like this one, and also, this polish has square glitter instead of round. It's totally awesome, it was really cool of Lippmann to bring this one back because everyone asked for it!


Ruby Red Slippers. Black creme base with two sizes of ruby red glitter. I adore this. This is one awesome polish. I wore it all weekend and everyone commented on how cool it was! The combination of the large, hexagonal shaped glitter and the small round glitter gives this polish a serious punch. It's flashy and sexy and glamorous all at the same time. It's like China Glaze Lubu Heels but a million times better. The glitter in this polish is very obvious. It looks like little ruby gems on your nails.



Funky Chunky. Black with large black glitter. You guys know I am a Lippmann lover, but this polish makes me sad. I have to be honest with you; This is the polish I was looking forward to most from this set, but it's the one I like the least. I hate to say it because it was such a cool concept, but this polish just doesn't work. It's very difficult to apply evenly because of the thickness of the polish. You can't really see the glitter in this unless you hold your hand up close to your face. This polish just looks chunky and bad. It looks like you don't know how to apply polish, or maybe like you punched a beehive with wet nails. I wanted this one to work so bad... And in my opinion, it would have worked if the black base was sheer and let the glitter particles show through. This black is very opaque (think Lippmann Fade To Black) and the glitter particles all clump together and look chunky and weird. Lumpy. Looks like sludge, but not in a good way. Very sad. (This picture is with two coats of Nubar Diamont topcoat)

I'm going to try adding a lot of thinner or clear polish to my Funky Chunky to see if I can make the base a little more sheer so that the glitter looks like glitter and not like chunky polish.

The formula on these seems average for a glitter polish. Funky Chunky was the thickest and hardest to work with, but Superstar and Ruby Red Slippers seemed thin and even. Opacity on these is really good. They're opaque and dense in two coats. The only downside to this gorgeous glitter polish is that it's insanely hard to remove. I used my jar that I use for removing fake nails, and it couldn't get the glitter off. Felt worked okay but it made a mess. I resorted to extremely wet cotton balls and that got the glitter off with minimal headache.

Overall, I think the set is still worth getting for Ruby Red Slippers alone, and if you don't have Superstar then it's definitely worth having.

All I can do is keep on telling you- I want you, I need you... But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you, Funky Chunky... No don't be sad... Cause two out of three ain't bad...

Lippmann Collection Celebrate is available at Nordstrom.com, but I have a feeling it might show up on Lippmann's website eventually.
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