Hello darlings,
This is the first Deborah Lippmann polish I'm reviewing. Can you believe I'm reviewing a Deborah Lippmann polish? No, I didn't suddenly realize my great expectations and come into a large inheritance. They were having a sale on Deborah Lippmann polishes on beautybrands.com and I caved and bought three of them. Yeah, I'm still cheap. Deal with it. I did own another Deborah Lippmann polish before this, Across the Universe, but I've never really used it so this is my first chance to really evaluate the Deborah Lippmann formula. It typically gets raves in the nail blogging community and it better for the price. What did I think of my first Deborah Lippmann polish? Well...
Color: Glamorous Life is a gold frost polish. Before purchasing this polish, I'd read on a blog about how this was Deborah Lippmann's attempt at a rose gold polish. In my opinion, that attempt wasn't successful. I was expecting more of the pink or coppery tones that are associated with rose gold but this is a fairly ordinary gold polish that only occasionally takes on a bit more warmth. Even then, I would not call this color rose gold.
Formula: This is a thicker polish.
Packaging: I just wanted to talk about the packaging for a second as this is the first Deborah Lippmann polish I'm reviewing. God, have I said that enough in this post? You could turn it into a drinking game. Anyway, I find the bottle to be a little bulky which is a bit irritating when it comes to storage (I really need to come up with something more sophisticated than cardboard boxes.) but I like how distinct the design is. It's not the craziest bottle shape I've ever seen but you can definitely pick a Deborah Lippmann polish out of a crowd. The shape of the cap is also a little unnecessarily bulky but it wasn't hard to manage during application.
Application: Application of the first coat was very smooth though the brushstrokes were very apparent because of the frost finish. Though the polish has a thicker formula, I was able to apply a nice thin layer of polish for the first coat. The second coat also applied smoothly though there was a bit of dragging on one nail (which was resolved by using more polish) and I had a bit of a tough time evening out the polish on two other nails. I wouldn't call this polish gloopy but it wasn't a dream to apply like some of my favorite polishes. I also found that the brushstrokes became more pronounced as I added more coats of polish. At two coats, this polish still failed a light test so I added a third. The third coat of polish also allowed me to adjust the look of the polish and smooth out any issues. The third coat of polish glided over the nail smoothly though again, the brushstrokes were very apparent and I had to work at evening out the polish to create a single even layer. At three coats the polish was opaque though I was able to see one or two spots at the tips of my nails where there wasn't full coverage. Applying this polish with my nondominant hand, it also went on smoothly but the brushstrokes were even more apparent and I had a bit of damage at the tips of a few of my nails. I think there was a drying issue.
Wear: This polish doesn't dry matte but it also doesn't dry to a super shiny, glossy finish. I'm not sure if it's intended to be a satin polish or if it simply isn't a high shine polish but it's something to note if you don't use top coat or if you don't use a high shine top coat.
CONCLUSION: I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this polish. It's pretty enough and application is manageable but it's not such a beautiful or unique polish that it's worth the price of a Deborah Lippmann polish. Putting aside my disappointment that this wasn't a true rose gold polish, you still have the very apparent brushstrokes. There are plenty of cheap gold polishes like Confetti Debutante and rose gold/copper metallics like Essie Penny Talk to give Deborah Lippmann Glamorous Life a run for its money.
SWATCHES
This is the first Deborah Lippmann polish I'm reviewing. Can you believe I'm reviewing a Deborah Lippmann polish? No, I didn't suddenly realize my great expectations and come into a large inheritance. They were having a sale on Deborah Lippmann polishes on beautybrands.com and I caved and bought three of them. Yeah, I'm still cheap. Deal with it. I did own another Deborah Lippmann polish before this, Across the Universe, but I've never really used it so this is my first chance to really evaluate the Deborah Lippmann formula. It typically gets raves in the nail blogging community and it better for the price. What did I think of my first Deborah Lippmann polish? Well...
Color: Glamorous Life is a gold frost polish. Before purchasing this polish, I'd read on a blog about how this was Deborah Lippmann's attempt at a rose gold polish. In my opinion, that attempt wasn't successful. I was expecting more of the pink or coppery tones that are associated with rose gold but this is a fairly ordinary gold polish that only occasionally takes on a bit more warmth. Even then, I would not call this color rose gold.
Formula: This is a thicker polish.
Packaging: I just wanted to talk about the packaging for a second as this is the first Deborah Lippmann polish I'm reviewing. God, have I said that enough in this post? You could turn it into a drinking game. Anyway, I find the bottle to be a little bulky which is a bit irritating when it comes to storage (I really need to come up with something more sophisticated than cardboard boxes.) but I like how distinct the design is. It's not the craziest bottle shape I've ever seen but you can definitely pick a Deborah Lippmann polish out of a crowd. The shape of the cap is also a little unnecessarily bulky but it wasn't hard to manage during application.
Application: Application of the first coat was very smooth though the brushstrokes were very apparent because of the frost finish. Though the polish has a thicker formula, I was able to apply a nice thin layer of polish for the first coat. The second coat also applied smoothly though there was a bit of dragging on one nail (which was resolved by using more polish) and I had a bit of a tough time evening out the polish on two other nails. I wouldn't call this polish gloopy but it wasn't a dream to apply like some of my favorite polishes. I also found that the brushstrokes became more pronounced as I added more coats of polish. At two coats, this polish still failed a light test so I added a third. The third coat of polish also allowed me to adjust the look of the polish and smooth out any issues. The third coat of polish glided over the nail smoothly though again, the brushstrokes were very apparent and I had to work at evening out the polish to create a single even layer. At three coats the polish was opaque though I was able to see one or two spots at the tips of my nails where there wasn't full coverage. Applying this polish with my nondominant hand, it also went on smoothly but the brushstrokes were even more apparent and I had a bit of damage at the tips of a few of my nails. I think there was a drying issue.
Wear: This polish doesn't dry matte but it also doesn't dry to a super shiny, glossy finish. I'm not sure if it's intended to be a satin polish or if it simply isn't a high shine polish but it's something to note if you don't use top coat or if you don't use a high shine top coat.
CONCLUSION: I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this polish. It's pretty enough and application is manageable but it's not such a beautiful or unique polish that it's worth the price of a Deborah Lippmann polish. Putting aside my disappointment that this wasn't a true rose gold polish, you still have the very apparent brushstrokes. There are plenty of cheap gold polishes like Confetti Debutante and rose gold/copper metallics like Essie Penny Talk to give Deborah Lippmann Glamorous Life a run for its money.
The polish didn't really appear even this rose gold (which still isn't rose gold) in person but I wanted to include these first two photos because they do the best job of showing you how apparent the brushstrokes were. They were more pronounced on my other hand.
This is how the polish appeared the majority of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment