I adore Nordstrom. Quite possibly it is my ideal store, with the exception of Anthropologie. Now, if they were in the same mall, that would be heaven...
Anywho, sometime before Christmas I had been browsing the Nordie's site when I fell in love with the Deborah Lippman Layer Cake collection:
The colors just popped out to me, especially the dark plum on the end. A few years ago, I had fallen in love with an aubergene polish from Maybelline's now-discontinued Salon Expert line. I wore that polish non-stop for the fall/winter of 2007, and was depressed when I had to part with it when it went bad. I've been looking for a suitable replacement, but really couldn't find one that stood out to me. This polish, called Dark Side of the Moon, called my name out loud and clear. And the shimmering lavender gray on the left hand also called to me. I didn't think anything of the glitter in the middle, but I love glittery polishes so it didn't matter to me.
I sat on buying this set until almost the end of January. It was $25 for the three polishes, which at .30 fl oz aren't very big (I'd say they're a little bit bigger than half a regular Essie bottle). The lavender gray shade, Wicked Game, is very sheer, and took me four coats opaque. After getting it on my nails, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love lavender/purple polishes, but I'm having a hard time warming up to this one. I may try to layer it over some darker colors and see how I like it then.
Dark Side of the Moon turned out more maroon than aubergene (which is a dark shade of purple). Very pretty, but it's such a fall/winter color I might wear it once more this season. The real winner in this collection is the glitter polish I, at first, wrote off. Let me introduce Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday:
The colors as they appear on the screen are pretty close as to how they appear in the bottle and on your nails. Happy Birthday is a glittery topcoat that I can best describe as "awesome," "fun," and "OMGwantmoresparkles!!1!" If you like glitter, get this set, or the full-sized bottle. I probably will, as it takes about 3-4 coats to get the glitter coverage that I like (very sparkly).
Here are some swatches I took wearing it with both the other Layer Cake colors and some others:
This is the Happy Birthday over Butter London's Queen Vic. Please excuse the tip wear on my manicure, I type with my fingernails, which wears my polish quicker that anything else. I only did the first two nails, to give an idea as to how the glitter looks next to a plain, painted nail.
1. Wet 'n Wild Nocturnal (actually a very dark blue) ($2, Drug Emporium)
2. Deborah Lippman's Wicked Game
3. Deborah Lippman's Dark Side of the Moon
4. Pure Ice Kiss Me Here ($3, Walmart)
5. Chanel Black Pearl ($25, chanel.com)
To me, the shimmer polishes (Wicked Game and Black Pearl) don't work well with the chunky glitters, it's as if there's too much going on at once. It looks great against cremes, with my favorite comboniations being the Wet n Wild dark blue and the Pure Ice gray.
Would I buy this set again? I don't know. I love, love, love Happy Birthday, but the other two colors are just okay.
