Barney's 2011 Holiday by Deborah Lippmann: Dark Fantasy, The Future Is Yours and Money Now Sleep Later

 Late. Again. I'm truly sorry for having stayed up late for yet another Grey's Anatomy marathon. I just can't help it and I don't believe I will stop until I finish all available episodes on Hulu. At least these polishes are totally worth the wait. Believe me. These are some really unique duochromes, well unique in my stash. These are no longer available on Barneys.com, but you can call your local Barney stores to see if they still have them in stock. That's what I did and was able to pick up all three. So, let's get started because it's a loooong post!

Dark Fantasy is the one that I wanted the least, but figured I would pick it up anyways since I don't have any red duos. I actually wouldn't call it red now, though. It's more of a burgundy with a bit of a gold flash. I only used two coats for this one with no topcoat and it had a very smooth application with hardly any brush strokes visible.

Ah... this was the one I was most interested in getting. The Future Is Yours is a light blue, shimmer duochrome. I love this one very, very much. It's got a really nice subtle and feminine feel to it even though it's blue. This was one had the thinnest formula of all. I used four coats, but my free edge is still visible. I recommend layering this one over darker colors to prevent using so many coats.

Now I know I said I loved The Future Is Yours, but there aren't enough words to express my feelings on Money Now Sleep Later. This is an aqua/teal duochrome with a slight purple-looking flash. I used three coats for this one, but the third coat had to be applied with care to prevent it from having too many brushstrokes. This one looks really good without undies, but you can mimize usage by layering it. The day I got this polish I used it over Orly Stone Cold and the glittery finish in Stone Cold made it look amazing! I'll have to redo that mani so that I can post a pic of it later on.

 I am officially a Deborah Lippmann junkie, and I am really looking forward to her upcoming Spring 2012 collection. ^_^

Deborah Lippmann I Want Candy and Boom Boom Pow

 I'm late with today's post because I stayed up late last night watching Grey's Anatomy! I started watching it awhile ago, and now I'm on season 7. I tried to stop after two episodes, but it was like potato chips! I couldn't have just one and ended up staying pretty late. So, here I am writing this post and still watching Grey's.

On to polish though, I have an older Deborah Lippmann polish that came out in 2007. It's called I Want Candy and it's a sheer red jelly. I know all jelly's are technically sheer, but this one is incredibly sheer and goes on pink with the first two coats. On the third coat, however, it starts looking a bit more like a red jelly. The next three pictures all have three coats with no topcoat.

It takes four coats of I Want Candy to really look like the red jelly it is, but before I added that fourth coat I thought I would go ahead and make a jelly sandwich! So, I used one coat of Boom Boom Pow. Um, I might have gotten a bit camera happy with these two polishes.

Here's the mani with the fourth coat of I Want Candy added. I love the way it turned out. It's red, but this polish is so sheer that the gold still peeks through.

See, this is me being camera happy. I went ahead and swatched Boom Boom Pow just to show you how it looks on it's own. I used three coats with topcoat. I'm quite fond of this polish, but I really don't like the way it looks on it's own.

 I know it was a lot of pictures, but you can expect twice as much tomorrow! So consider this your warning because tomorrow I have all three polishes from Barney's 2011 Holiday collection. ^_^

Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues and Across the Universe

 People always ask if Lady Sings the Blues and Across the Universe are unique enough that it warrants having both polishes. I thought I would put them together in a post so you can see for yourself how amazing both of these polishes are in their own way.

Lady Sings the Blues is a navy blue jelly base with silver hex glitter and small silver glitter as well. I used two coats with a coat of Seche Vite to make it nice and smooth.

Across the Universe on the other hand has a bright blue jelly base with green, silver glitter and small silver glitter in there as well. I love this polish as much for the name as I do for the contents in the polish. This polish had a thinner formula than LStB, so I had to use three coats with a coat of Seche Vite.

 The really neat thing about both of these polishes is that you have an instant jelly sandwich without having to do any layering. So, it's practically a jelly sandwich in a bottle! ^_^

Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven

  I think, no I know that I have been amassing more polishes than I have time to swatch or wear, but it's so difficult to refrain from buying polishes with so many collections coming out. Especially when they are marked as limited edition. I have decided to give up on trying to go on no buys, low buys etc., and just buy what I want when I want. I'm sure one day my addiction will diminish and I'll then be able to enjoy my polishes a bit more. However, if it wasn't for my addiction and my random hauls I wouldn't have so many pretties to look at, or wear. Stairway to Heaven was part of a retail therapy haul I did a few months back, but hadn't gotten around to wearing it. I was curious to see how it would look over a few colors, so I swatched it over three different polishes.

This is Stairway to Heaven on it's own. I used three coats and I wouldn't ever actually wear it like this because you can see a yellow tinge at the tips where my nails are stained. I also don't really like the look of random glitter without a base color. What is really unique about this polish is that it also has square glitter in addition to the hexagonal iridescent glitter in a milky base.

Here is one coat of Stairway to Heaven with a topcoat of Seche Vite over Waking Up In Vegas.

Also one coat of Stairway to Heaven with a coat of Seche Vite over Naked.

This was my favorite combination. I used one coat of Stairway to Heaven over two coats of Edge of Glory base color with a coat of Seche Vite on top. I was a bit iffy to try Stairway to Heaven over a darker color because I was scared that the milky base would mess with the integrity of the base color. My initial thoughts were right, but it actually wasn't too bad and I loved the combo the more I looked at it. I liked how the dark polish brought out all the different colors in the iridescent glitter a lot more than a neutral polish did.

 The next time I try out this polish will be with a shimmery, midnight blue polish, because I think it would be nice to see all these colors mixed in with a shimmery base. I believe this polish was $18.00 and is still available at http://lippmanncollection.stores.yahoo.net/allproducts.html. I would suggest you sign up for her newsletter on her website, because she does offer deals and specials quite often. They are not all awesome deals, but they are decent and she even offers free full size bottles of polish from time to time with purchase. ^_^