It's also my first Lippmann review in about a year... And these polishes deserve the attention!
Ever since we got those little teaser pictures of the new sequin polishes several months ago, I've been dreaming of these. Deborah Lippmann has apparently seen just how much we all love glitter because there will be three more glitter polishes from her this fall. In fact, I was just reading in the newsletter that Happy Birthday is their top selling polish. That's kind of awesome. I would not have expected that- I'd think it would be Bitches Brew or something like that... But no... Happy Birthday is number one!
According to the press release, Bad Romance is supposed to be a new take on Ruby Red Slippers and Across The Universe is supposed to be all of time and space in a bottle. Have a gander:
Across The Universe. A couple different angles and lights to show the depth and glitter. It's a dark navy sheer base with small aqua-blue glitter and larger aqua-blue and green hexagon sequin glitter pieces. A little bit duochromey looking if you tilt the glitter just right. This polish is seriously gorgeous. The glitter doesn't get eaten by the dark base, and it's really prominent in the polish. The texture of the sequins looks fantastic showing through the sheer jelly-like quality of the blue base. I'd say this is pretty unique, I can't readily think of another polish that looks like this straight out of the bottle.
Bad Romance. Unfortunately, my lighting hasn't been ideal this week so I have to settle for some indoor flash pictures to show the glitter. This is a sheer black base with bright shiny purple-fuchsia glitter. There are mostly small particles and a splash of hexagonal sequins. It does remind me of Ruby Red Slippers but there seems to be less glitter in Bad Romance comparatively. The sheer base does help the glitter to show through instead of looking lumpy and it's not so sheer that you need a million coats. It bears a resemblance to Petites Black Amethyst or Wet n Wild Night Prowl, but Bad Romance has sequin-style glitter added. The formula was good. I had no problems controlling the polish; it was thin but not runny. The only application issue is trying to get the sequins distributed evenly, so I used a few more strokes in application than I normally would. These are somewhat sheer so I did three coats of both and that looks just about perfect to me. The texture of these isn't lumpy or bumpy or gritty, which is a huge bonus, but I still used a very thick topcoat when I wore Bad Romance this weekend. Drying time was average. Removal is not as difficult as I anticipated, either- the big sequins come off pretty easily and the glitter is not very dense.
I think the sheer base of these really helps give these polishes that deep layered look. Sometimes the bases of glitter polishes can be so opaque that it just covers all the glitter and makes a lumpy look instead of letting the glitter show through the layers. So yes, you'll need an extra coat if you hate visible nail line, but I feel the end result is worth that. Three coats isn't bad at all.
I'm sure that some of you franken-geniuses could duplicate these with ease if you had the right shades of glitter, but other than that observation, I'm extremely happy with these. I favor Across The Universe the most of the two shades and I would pay $18 for it. I love big chunky glitter and especially big chunky glitter in dark vampy bases. Hell, I love any kind of glitter... so... naturally a good fit with me.
And just for fun, here's how I was wearing Bad Romance yesterday:
(These were sent to me for review.)
