Tag Archives: glitter

Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Rockin’ Robin nail polish review

Posted on May 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

deborah lippmann rockin robin nail polish

I’ve gone dotty!

Well, the ‘gone’ bit might be questionable (some might argue it’s more a case of ‘always has been’) but I’m totally seeing spots at the moment – and of course, it’s all because of nail polish! Hot on the heels of the blue strawberry slushie that was pa AA162, I finally managed to get my mitts on Deborah Lippmann’s Rockin’ Robin to continue my dotty delirium.

deborah lippmann rockin robin

Rockin’ Robin is part of Lippmann’s cutely named Staccato Collection (look up the musical notation for the term ‘staccato’ in case you don’t know what I mean!) – three ice cream pastels studded with yummy black spots of glitter. Of course, my obsession with all things vaguely turquoise meant that it was the creamy pale aqua base of Rockin’ Robin that was the first to catch my eye, and it ended up being my colour of choice to a gorgeous spring wedding I was invited to back in the UK.

deborah lippmann rockin robin swatch 1

I’ll be honest – I didn’t end up loving Rockin’ Robin nearly as much as I thought I would. Although the base colour reminded me of Essie’s Mint Candy Apple (an all-time fave), I found it a little disappointingly chalky and white leaning. Meanwhile, the layered coats of glitter did result in a slightly bumpy appearance, which is very apparent in my photos even if it wasn’t really that noticeable in real life. That being said, I received a LOT of compliments on this shade – although that might just be because I led a slightly more sociable week than normal (usually, all my nail polish gets shared only with my weary boyfriend and my camera!). One of my friends compared it winningly to a duck egg, and I definitely received a few more ‘cool’s than usual!

deborah lippmann rockin robin swatch

Application was fine; Rockin’ Robin is easily opaque with two thick coats, although I did find that three thinner coats resulted in a slightly smoother appearance (that actually wore longer too). The glitter comes onto the nail easily, although you may find it tends to pool towards certain areas depending on your brush stroke action! So be prepared to work with it quickly whilst it’s still wet to move the glitter around and achieve a nice spread (seriously… nail polish really is an art, right?!).

As usual, Deborah Lippmann impresses with her use of colour and glitter. The pastel/black glitter combo is a clever one – for me, it’s a neat way of playing with the glitter trend, but in a way that’s more palatable and accessible than the all-out glitterbomb. For those of you who aren’t quite ready to go frolicking in the fountain of sparkly just yet, this is a cute way to get in on the fun, with a colour combo that’s a proven winner – as evidenced most deliciously by mint choc chip ice cream! Just wait for the mainstream copies to come flooding in…

deborah lippmann rockin robin 1

Although I wasn’t totally convinced by the slightly chalky base, what I did love was the effect of the black glitter peeking through the layers of turquoise. It was just right – eye-catching matte black staring straight and strong at you on top, with hints of teeny tiny grey circles swimming dreamily beneath the surfaces. Nail polish addicts are big fans of the ‘jelly sandwich’ effect of layering glitters, but since the base of Rockin’ Robin definitely ain’t no jelly, I can only pronounce it an ‘ice cream sandwich’ – and hell, who doesn’t love those?!

Looks good with: ice cream sundaes, confetti and cupcakes, spring weddings
Drying time: 5-8 mins
Coats: 2-3
Chips: 1-3 days

Deborah Lippmann Rockin’ Robin, Spring 2013 Staccato Collection, $210, JOYCE

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Beauty Spot: Nails Inc Sugar House Lane nail polish review

Posted on March 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

nails inc sugar house lane

Nails Inc’s Sprinkles Collection of polishes continues to raid the kitchen pantry for delicious inspiration – if Sweets Way was the hundreds and thousands on top of a cupcake, then Sugar House Lane is cookies n’ cream in a chocolate sundae!

Sugar House Lane is a lip-smacking combination of black and silver glitter in a creamy milk coffee brown base – think an Oreo milkshake and you’re pretty much there (and now you’ve got me thinking about Oreo milkshakes… mmm)!

nails inc sugar house lane nail polish

nails inc sugar house lane close-up

The formula here is good, but not as perfect as Sweets Way. The glitter in Sugar House Lane is really densely packed, meaning there’s not quite as much base to produce that yummy glitter sandwich effect – meaning it dries a little more textured and gritty-looking than Sweets Way. However, in terms of consistency, dry time and ease of use, there’s no doubt that Sugar House Lane is still one of the most fuss-free but complex glitter polishes you’ll come across.

And the combination of the colours is truly great, almost an indie take on cutesy cupcake glitter. Who would have bet on blacks and beiges being in a collection inspired by fairy cakes?! I felt Sugar House Lane might have been even cooler if matte white glitter had been added instead of silver… but hey, I’ve just been thinking about Oreos too much!

nails inc sugar house lane swatch

In addition to looking seriously gorgeous, these Nails Inc Sprinkles polishes make me very hungry. If you have more will power than me (guiltily wandering off to 7-11 to find a Hershey’s Cookies N’ Cream bar as we speak), Sugar House Lane is cuteness without the calories – drool-worthy in more ways than one!

Lord help me, I still have another two Sprinkles polishes to review – who knows what other sweet treats I’ll find myself craving after those!

Looks good with: Oreo milkshakes, 50s-style diners, getting a dime for the jukebox
Drying time: 2 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 3 days

Nails Inc Sugar House Lane, 2012 Sprinkles Collection

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Beauty Spot: Nails Inc Sweets Way nail polish review

Posted on February 18, 2013 | 2 Comments

nails inc sweets way

Sugar and spice and all things nice… that’s what Nails Inc Sweets Way is made of!

Sweets Way is part of Nails Inc’s awesome Sprinkles Collection of nail polishes. As soon as I saw these swoon-worthy sweeties online, I knew I had to have them – and since Nails Inc isn’t sold in Hong Kong, the lovely Jenn sent them to me! And I am so SO happy she did, because I am even more in love with them in real life!

nails inc sweets way swatch 1

nails inc sweets way swatch close-up

All the polishes in the Sprinkles Collection are made up of pretty multi-coloured pastel glitters that are supposed to look like cupcake toppings – and Sweets Way may just be the best of them all! It’s like hundreds and thousands but in nail polish and I can easily imagine these colours in fairy cake form… totally irresistibly adorable.

Sweets Way has a very milky pale pink base with blue, pink and silvery-white glitter pieces inside. Many glitter nail polishes are straight up glitterbombs but what I love about Sweets Way (and in fact, most of the Sprinkles Collection) is that the glitter has been slightly mattified, meaning you don’t get blinding bling but instead, a cute hundreds-and-thousands style sprinkle effect. It’s GORGEOUS. [You'll have to excuse the amount of near identical pictures... I was basically obsessed with it!]

nails inc sweets way swatch

nails inc sweets way swatch macro

Similarly, real thought has gone into picking the selection of colours – the perfect blend of pretty pastels, like something out of a fairy-tale sweet shop. The milky base tones down the glitter beautifully, leaving you with an astonishingly wearable but amazingly complex pastel, rather than the poppers o’ clock discoballs that glitter nail polish usually translates to. Nails Inc’s inspiration might have been cupcakes, but anything adorable fits the bill – one look at Sweets Way conjures up candy-coated images of sugared almonds, old-fashioned Easter eggs, floral crockery with lace doilies, and Alice In Wonderland afternoon teas.

Given the amount of glitter in here, I was expecting Sweets Way to be a bit of a nightmare. But clearly, its sunny disposition managed to rub off onto the fantastic formula too; it flowed from the brush to the nail easily, with an even spread of glitter that didn’t pool into unexpected clumps or require me to carefully ‘place’ it. It built to opacity in two fuss-free coats, dried quickly and layered nicely, without feeling gritty, thick, gloopy or gluey. This was my first time using a Nails Inc polish (the brush is on the short side but of medium thickness and easy to control), and I was mightily impressed.

nails inc sweets way 3

Sweets Way is easily one of my favourite nail polishes ever. It’s pastel perfection – unusual but highly wearable, wow-worthy without being OTT. I don’t think it could get any cuter unless the nail polish bottle actually curtsied. Cupcakes all round!

Looks good with: fairy cakes with rainbow icing, Cath Kidston crockery with lace doilies, pick n’ mix sweeties
Drying time: 2 minutes
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 3 days

Nails Inc Sweets Way nail polish, Sprinkles Collection

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Beauty Spot: Zoya FeiFei nail polish review

Posted on February 4, 2013 | 3 Comments

zoya feifei

Zoya FeiFei is absolutely one of my favourite polishes of last year.  It’s blue, it’s silver, it’s black, it’s gold… ugh, screw it, it’s just awesome!

FeiFei is such an amazingly multi-faceted colour – like a sexy sparkling chameleon. It’s even good enough to make me overlook the fact that its name sounds like Canto for fat; in fact, “Fei Fei” literally was the nickname given to a chubby Hong Kong TV personality of yore, Lydia Shum… and I’m pretty sure my auntie has been know to call me it a few times too!

zoya feifei swatch

But back onto Zoya’s FeiFei, which is definitely more phat than fat anyway. Sometimes, I’m sure it’s a steely metallic blue. Other times, I’m certain it must be a sparkly graphite colour. When I took a picture on Twitter, everyone reckoned it was silver. One time, I even caught it pretending to be a shimmering seaweed green. It’s like the nail polish equivalent of Jon Culshaw, the prettiest example of Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome.

zoya feifei 1

Regular readers will notice this is another interpretation of my favourite kind of metallic/shimmer/foil finish – and yet another chance for me to name check Chanel Graphite, Butter London Wallis and OPI Warm & Fozzie. But unlike all of those, FeiFei has a definite hit of genuine glitter, meaning it really does sparkle up your peepers. The glitter flecks in it dazzle with different insanely stunning nuances of gold, blue, navy and mermaid green. Meanwhile, the base swerves somewhere between a metallic midnight blue, silver or even charcoal. It’s a whole cosmos full of awesome.

zoya fei fei

The formula was spot on too. It’s been a while since I was this in love with a Zoya polish, but FeiFei reminded me why I initially fell for the brand – easy flowing application, a just right consistency and a smooth even finish.

FeiFei is what happens when nail polish companies just get. It. Right. It’s stunning, sophisticated, unusual and hella good. What’s more, it’s not one of those batshit crazy colours that us bloggers go wild for but that doesn’t actually work for real life – it’s dark enough to be super versatile and actually goes well with most things. It’s total full-fat deliciousness.

zoya feifei nail polish

FeiFei – craycray… but in the best possible way!

Looks good with: anything and everything
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 3-5 days

Zoya FeiFei, Fall 2012 Diva Collection, $80, Cher2

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Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Just Dance nail polish review

Posted on August 31, 2012 | 1 Comment

Cometh summer, cometh turquoise. I’m actually obsessed with turquoise all of the time anyway (see here for proof), yet as soon as the sun starts shining, my world turns totally aqua – so Deborah Lippmann’s Just Dance, part of her Holiday 2011 Dance Music mini trio set, seemed perfect for my turquoise turn!

A mixture of small round teal glitter and larger cyan blue glitter in a very sheer blue jelly base (I think there will be quite a lot of searching for synonyms for the word turquoise in this post!), for me, this is one of the less special Lippmann polishes. There’s no doubting the sheer dazzling intensity of this much teal set at sparkles o’ clock, but the fact that there isn’t much difference in colour between the glitters makes it less interesting than your typical Lippmann glitter (which often contract the base shade with the glitters, or use a mix of different glitter colours).

I found Just Dance quite glue-y and not great to work with… and of course, it’s hell to clean off (do I need to even point that out in glitter polish reviews any more?!).

The end result is a solid multi-faceted wall of teal glitter that sparkles, spangles and shimmers from every angle – like an old-school Hollywood sequin sheath dress, just on the nail. It’s a bright bedazzling blingy mermaid’s tail but, in the main scheme of Lippmann polishes, falls that little bit short for me. But it’s turquoise, and for that reason, I still find it kind of irresistible!

Looks good with: party dresses, cocktail dresses, summer dresses… all dresses really!
Drying time: <1 min
Coats required: 3
Chips: 2-3 days

Deborah Lippmann, Just Dance, Holiday 2011 Dance Music Mini Trio, Joyce Beauty

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Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream nail polish review

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 4 Comments

Over time, you may have learnt a couple of my nail polish weaknesses on this blog. Turquoise. Deborah Lippmann. Glitter. So imagine what would happen if all three got rolled into one… well, it did. Helloooo Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream!

Even from bottle shots, I knew this was going to be one of my favourite polishes ever. Mermaid tail nails has been a long-held obsession of mine and, well, this one even had it in the name. Mermaid in the name and mermaid in the bottle – it was always going to be a winner in my book!

Mermaid’s Dream is an enchantingly intoxicating mix of very very fine aqua, seafoam, silver and gold glitter in a clear base, with larger round pieces of ocean teal-blue glitter mixed in. It’s like the crest of a wave in fairy tales and it is all-out GORGEOUS.

It’s also not your typical Lippmann glitter. Usually, Lippmann glitters are big blingy pieces of glitter mixed with smaller ones in a coloured jelly base; Mermaid’s Dream is made up of this much finer fairy dust in a clear base, but with a stunning super-shimmery iridescent quality too. It is, needless to say, utterly unique.

The very fine dense glitter makes this rather easier to work with than your average Lippmann too, as it means you don’t get big flakes of glitter lodging themselves halfway off the tip of your nail, halfway onto your cuticle or settling at weird angles. The thin consistency of the polish also means it’s easy to apply neatly and flatly, and you get opaque coverage in a quick two coats.

The downside is that this is HELLISH to clean off. I think I was still picking off bits of it around a month later. The foil method (where you soak pieces of cotton in polish remover, wrap them round your nail, then wrap foil around them and wait for the varnish… and half of your skin… to dissolve) is the only solution; honestly, I wouldn’t even bother with any other attempts at scrubbing or rubbing this off, as it would require more elbow grease than a thousand Cinderellas and you’re probably more likely to draw blood before actually removing much.

But it is so SO worth it. This colour is absolute pure mermaid through and through. The gleaming gold glimmer really comes through in real-life, giving the whole thing a fairy-tale shimmer. The careful blend of glitters mixed together to create Mermaid’s Dream is truly mesmerising and just utterly irresistibly perfect. And the bigger pieces of blue glitter floating above it all are just the icing on the (fairy) cake.

It’s a long time since a nail polish this special came into my life and Mermaid’s Dream truly is a treasure from the deep, with a definite sprinkling of that Lippmann magic. If mermaid’s tails were really this beautiful, I find it impossible to believe that Ariel would ever have wanted to grow legs!

Looks good with: beaches, believing in magic, not wanting to grow legs
Drying time required: <2mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 3-5 days

Deborah Lippmann, Mermaid’s Dream, Spring 2012 Collection, $190, JOYCE Beauty

This nail polish was provided for me to review for my day job at Sassy!

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Beauty Spot: Nicole By OPI Nicole’s Nickel nail polish review

Posted on April 13, 2012 | 2 Comments

In the States, Nicole by OPI is apparently easier to get hold of than OPI itself. Not the case in Hong Kong! Its sole point of distribution here is Sasa – and even then, it’s a case of a limited number of colours in a limited number of Sasas… and as for new collections, forget it!

However, from these slim pickings, I spotted what looked like a pretty awesome glitter amongst the multitude of boring pinks and reds – Nicole by OPI Nicole’s Nickel, a Target exclusive in the States (whatever that means!). Call it the needle in the haystack, the wheat amongst the chaff or whatever other convoluted idiom you choose to come up with, Nicole’s Nickel is a winner.

Nicole’s Nickel is a super-dense glitter, definitely far too dense for layering as a top coat if you’re that way inclined. It consists of a dark charcoal base with tonnes of silver micro glitter and bigger round silver pieces, packed in tight like glittery sardines. The effect of the dark base piled thick with so much differently sized shiny silver awesomeness gives a stunning depth and texture to the polish, like chunky chainmail for the nails. Meanwhile, the colour becomes an antique pewter gunmetal that sparkles at you even in the blackest of midnights – it’s gorgeous.

Good job too, as it’s not much fun getting there. I have tried a Nicole By OPI polish before (the beautiful turquoise Diva Into The Pool) and not had any problems, but they’ve since changed their brush… to an utter monstrosity! The new brush is actually supposed to be easier to use since it’s tapered, but I found it short, squat and nothing short of a nightmare. Impossible to manoeuvre to make a nice neat line or to get stuck into the nooks and crannies of my nails, I guess my nails just aren’t tapered the right way!

Similarly, the formula isn’t great. Make sure you shake this up extremely well, as the base and glitter separate over time, and neither the glitter without the dark base nor the watery base without the glitter is a great look! [You need that base to create that fantastic depth of colour, and to make overall opacity a little bit easier.] And, like many-a-glitter, the formula is thick and it chips like a mother. I suppose a top coat would remedy that, but then you’d lose that awesome textured chainmail finish, which would be a shame.

But the overall awesomeness of Nicole’s Nickel just about makes up for its shortcomings. I love that it’s not such an obvious discoballs at dawn glitter, but rather something a bit darker, edgier, punkier and cool… which for something from Sasa (slogan: everyone’s pinking about us *balk*) is no small achievement.

So forget the small change, and hit the jackpot with Nicole’s Nickel instead!

Looks good with: black, bling, a touch of the night
Drying time: <3 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 1 day

Nicole by OPI Nicole’s Nickel, Spring 2011 Collection, Sasa, $68

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Beauty Spot: China Glaze Lorelei’s Tiara nail polish review

Posted on March 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

Over Christmas, my make-up inevitably turns to bling. Oh, who am I kidding, it turns to bling nearly all the time! And, of course, where else to start with the sparkles than the nails?!

My manicure over Christmas fell into the silvery sparkly hands of China Glaze’s Lorelei’s Tiara, part of their Eye Candy 3D Glitters Collection. You know you’re onto something special once China Glaze busts out those silver caps – as seen on their Kaleidoscope and OMG collections of holographic polishes, need I say more!

Those of you who know me personally will know that for as long as I can remember, Marilyn Monroe has been my idol. Of all the old Hollywood stars (and I am interested in nearly every one of them), she has fascinated, enthralled and enchanted me the most and the longest, for all time. No one else has ever come close… and I doubt they ever will. I will save the Marilyn essay for another day, but the reason I brought up the goddess in the first place is she is the namesake for the entire Eye Candy collection. So, as if my magpie-like attraction to pretty sparkly things wasn’t enough, there was the Marilyn connection too. Result: China Glaze is laughing all the way to the bank.

Lorelei is the character played by Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, one of her finest hours, and the diamond brilliance of this polish goes hand in hand with the film’s signature song and all-time anthem to bling, Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend. It’s packed hot and heavy with super-sparkly super-silver micro-glitter, with the odd glittering jewel of larger pale blue glitter whirled into the mix. It is, in short, gorgeous.

It was also perfect for winter. That frosty-fabulous combination of bright light silver and searing pale blue is absolutely the stuff that winter is made of – a more classy Christmas style, of which I thoroughly approve. The typical red and green holiday combo makes me retch and I would never be seen dead in it, let alone sport it on my nails, so Lorelei’s Tiara is a delightful alternative.

For a polish this packed with glitter, it was actually surprisingly easy to apply. I’ve always enjoyed reasonable success with China Glaze’s brushes, whilst the formula on this was pleasantly runny and non-clumpy. It didn’t dry gritty, rough, bumpy or dull – a bit of a coup for glitter polishes in my book! Instead, it was have-your-eye-out shiny, even without top coat, and with a nice flat even finish to boot.

My only wish for Lorelei’s Tiara was that it would have had a few more of the blue jewels thrown in there; from far away, it looked like a straight-up silver, though admittedly a very sparkly one. (By the way, the reason some bits are looking black in the pictures is simply because they are THAT shiny and were reflecting light any which way!) A little more blue would have truly turned this beautiful polish into an outright stunner.

That aside, Lorelei’s Tiara is all manners of wintry wonderful that my photos don’t really do justice to. It’s a dazzling bejewelled beauty that, in truth, will look spectacular on your nails at any time of year. Get that ice or else no dice!

Looks good with: Grown-up glamour, not wanting to look like Santa
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 5 days

China Glaze Lorelei’s Tiara, Winter 2011 Eye Candy 3D Glitters Collection, $70, Cher2

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Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Today Was A Fairytale nail polish review

Posted on October 8, 2011 | 3 Comments

Here’s a polish to appeal to everyone’s inner magpies – Deborah Lippmann’s Today Was A Fairytale.

Today Was A Fairytale is an absolutely breathtaking silver glitter that leaves all other silver glitters in the dust. Featuring tonnes and tonnes of small silver glitter and larger hexagonal silver glitter suspended in a transparent base, this polish has ‘Virgin Diamond Powder’ amongst its ingredients (how that differs from non-virgin diamond powder, I’m not sure!). I don’t think things could get much sparklier unless this used actual whole diamonds, right?!

One thing’s for sure – Ms Lippmann certainly knows her way around glitter! Across The Universe was nothing short of spectacular and this is every bit as amazing. It’s so beautifully blingy, so sensationally sparkly, that it just looks like you’ve dipped your fingers into a bowl of crystals. It’s just jewel-drippingly gorgeous.

Today Was A Fairytale is also entirely befitting of the name (a Taylor Swift song, since you ask) as it does have an exquisite fairytale charm to it. Even though it’s such a show-stoppingly glamorous polish, it’s still pretty rather than overpowering, ethereal rather than overblown; the perfect polish for princesses, fairies and other magical beings. It’s also not just a silver glitter – from some angles, the silver takes on an enchanted steely blue cast that’s totally bewitching.

What’s great about Today Was A Fairytale is that you get lots of bling for your buck. Unlike many other glitter polishes, the sparkles here are plentiful so you can get opaque coverage pretty easily (and the consistency of the varnish itself is pretty thick), although it could be easily used a layering polish too. The nature of the glitter pieces means that you’re better off with thick coats, so that the glitter sits and swims nicely in the transparent base as opposed to sticking out all over the place.

The difficulties with chunky glitters such as these are always the same however. They’re uneven, rough to the touch and chip and flake off easily without a top coat, which I never use! And they’re absolute hell to remove scrub off – although you will definitely want to keep this stunner on for as long as possible!

Despite this, Today Was A Fairytale did perform better than expected. Many glitter polishes seem to gobble up their base liquid, meaning they look sort of dull and flat without a glossy top coat. But, if you can cope with quick tip-wear and snagging bits of glitter on your tights occasionally, Today Was A Fairytale does look absolutely divine just on its own, which is how it’s shown in all my photos.

Gorgeous enough for ten nail polishes, romantic enough for twenty and dazzling enough for at least fifty, Today Was A Fairytale looks like someone distilled a magic spell into a bottle. Like all the best fairytales, it’s a certain case of love at sight. As for a happy ending? Well, with a polish this beautiful, that was never in doubt!

Blurry for mega-watt sparkliness!

Looks good with: tiaras, magic wands, princess dresses
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2 (thick)
Chips: 2 days

Deborah Lippmann, Today Was a Fairytale, Holiday 2010 Collection, Joyce Beauty

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Beauty Spot: Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe nail polish review

Posted on September 25, 2011 | 6 Comments

I’ve kept photos of this sparkling sensation hidden away for far too long… and now she’s just screaming to get out and show you all her stunning self! Yes, it can only be Deborah Lippman’s Across The Universe.

All the rumours you’ve heard about this polish are true. It IS the most awesome thing I’ve ever set eyes on, without there even being a hint of holo magic in sight!

Across The Universe is a truly AMAZING polish – a dark blue jelly base that has tiny specks of blue glitter, plus bigger hexagonal pieces of green, aqua and blue glitter, floating in it.

The results are truly breathtaking and however many pictures you take of it will never be enough; I was receiving compliments about this polish all week long! It’s supremely strikingly sparkly, yet somehow without being too garish or OTT. Layering up the translucent navy base with all those glimmering sparks suspended in it results in a gorgeous glittering depth – so it really does resemble a beautiful night sky, far off in some cosmic star-strewn galaxy… or a glistening magical paradise deep in the depths of some enchanted ocean.

For a polish with such big pieces of glitter in, I found it extremely easy to work with. The glitter didn’t settle in clumps or at the bottom of the bottle – instead, it spread evenly around the nail and there was a nice random assortment of sparkle applied with each sweep. The jelly base is just the right thickness to allow the glitter to shine through wonderfully yet build into that dazzling depth I spoke of earlier. The drying time was fairly quick and the surface didn’t feel bumpy, rough or uneven – instead, the finish was smooth and glossy, another rarity with heavy glitter lacquers. I achieved a really neat nail with barely any need to clean up afterwards, so I guess the Lippmann brush must be pretty good too! It’s basically polish perfection.

I absolutely love the thought that has gone into Across The Universe. The cool blue, aqua, cyan and green shades of glitter are absolutely gorgeous in their own right yet fit oh-so-perfectly with each other… and entirely complement the whole package, right down to the polish’s entirely fitting name! I also love the swirl of different sizes and colours of sparkle you get with each stroke, which just builds in awesomeness with each coat. It looks great as an accent to black, to jazz up a casual outfit or to just totally up your glitz factor yet it’s dark and somehow subtle enough not to totally take over a look. Ugh, seriously, I wish I could cover everything in life with a coat or two Across The Universe – it would be a much more beautiful place!

What’s more, I didn’t even find it that difficult to clean off either! [I think the smooth jelly base helps a little with removal.] I know varnish aficionados will recoil in horror but with chunky glitters like this, I always wait and chip off as much as possible – the strength of my Nail Tek II base coat means, for me at least, that chipping is a less painful process for my nails than rubbing acetone for ages on dry fingers.

Incidentally, this was my first Deborah Lippmann. It was very expensive and there’s no way I’d pay that sort of money for one of her crème polishes, but Across The Universe is unique enough, beautiful enough and performs brilliantly enough all-round to make it worth the purchase. The chunky bevelled bottle totally adds to the overall deluxe feeling.

You might think I’ve gone a bit over the top for a nail polish (in which case, have you read this blog?! What are you doing still here?!) but Across The Universe really is a show-stopper. It’s almost poetic in its perfection. The best nail polish I own. And that is all there is to it.

Looks good with: awesomeness
Drying time: 3-5 mins
Coats required: 3
Chips: 2-3 days

Deborah Lippmann, Across The Universe, Fall 2010 Collection, Joyce Beauty

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