Perfectly Polished Tips 187 - Nail of the Day Monday

The next couple of NOTD Monday's are kind of a cheat. They are past manicures that I have not yet shared on the blog. I am in the middle of a move and am unable to do a new mani in time for Monday. It's currently 11:57PM on Sunday and my nails have the chipped remains of last week's Visions of Sugar Plums! Lucky for me I had a few glittery polish photos stashed away.

Lippmann Superstar was the polish I was hoping to kick off the glittery month of December with. It is a beautiful coppery/brown chunky glitter polish. As I have said before I am not big on glitter, I think it's the tough removal. I've only worn this color on my tips twice. Both times were 2 coats over a brown creme. It's a gorgeous polish and I'm glad I own it!

Perfectly Polished Tops 103 - My Top 20 Part II

Here is the other half of my top twenty, in no special order.

Essie Ballet Slippers - my favorite neutral, it's just clean and neat

OPI You Don't Know Jacques - another weird one..honestly I love it purely because it's a creme

SpaRitual Solitude - unique dusty purple and it's a creme

OPI Hollywood & Wine - another classic red

Zoya Yasmeen - this glows..it's such a gorgeous color

OPI Don't Know Beets Me - my go to pedicure color

Zoya Nina - looks like chocolate!

CND Blue Blood - only polish I "needed" a back up of

Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot - bold but still wearable

butter London Henley Regatta - this is a pedicure only polish and I usually layer with Color Club Bizerk Turq

Well there you go, a complete list of the polishes I'm currently loving. Anyone else want to share their top picks?

Perfectly Polished Tips 102 - My Top 20 Part I

So some people have 1 favorite polish or maybe 5. I however have 20 "must haves" that I would like to share with you. Some are my all time favorite, some are from newer collections. These are the ones I am loving at the moment. Although when I think about it this list isn't really fair, as I haven't worn all the polishes I own. Yet. I will admit that I have an unreasonable amount of untrieds but we'll save that for another day! Here is the first half of my top twenty list. In no special order.

China Glaze White Kwik Silvr - reminds me of winter and the glitter is amazing

Nicole Pinkerbell - soft, girly and Tinkerbell is my favorite

Sephora by OPI Metro Chic - unique but chic..it's a fun color

OPI Got the Blues for Red - my HG red creme, it's classic

Zoya Kalista - one of the few glitter polishes, it's so pretty

L'Oreal Emerpor - my newest obsession..dark blurple (more purple) creme

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway - perfect blue creme

butter London Portobello Pink - fun summer color..usually I use it on my toes

Lippmann Collection Fade to Black - 1 coater, great for layering

OPI Designer Series Glamour - looks awesome layered over OPI Dating a Royal

Perfectly Polished Tips 82 - Pink Creme Pic Spam

I love my pinks, and being that it is still BCA month I figured I would pull them out and share. As I was doing that I discovered; A) I have waaaayyyyy too many pinks and B) most of them are the same exact color. So this is a pic spam and dupe alert post. I have another too but they are pinks with glitter and shimmer, that post will follow shortly.

Essie Steppin' Out and OPI Pink of Hearts (07 version). These polishes are very close in color, the Essie is more opaque though.

Lippmann Collection Constant Craving and Color Club Yachty Yadda. The Lippmann is slightly more purple in real life, but they are very close.

OPI You're A Pisa Work and OPI Koala Bear-y, very similar KB is slightly darker.

OPI Strawberry Margarita, Orly Butterflies, OPI Elephatasic Pink, Color Club Lady Like. Strawberry Margarita is a hair darker than the rest and Butterflies is a jelly.

China Glaze Rose Among Thorns and Color Club Electric Coral. The Color Club is a bit lighter and brighter.

OPI My Throne for a Cranberry Scone and CND Regal Revenge. RR is pinker however being that My Throne can be hard to find I would say it's a good alternative.


OPI All That Razz-berry, OPI My Throne for a Cranberry Scone, and CND Regal Revenge. ATR is more well raspberry colored, however I just wanted to picture it here.

OPI I'm India Mood for Love, OPI Don't Know Beets Me, China Glaze Make an Entrance. The China Glaze is darker in real life but the other two are basically the same.

CND Hot Pop Pink and Orly Basket Case. The CND may be a little brighter but these two are very close.

Color Club Fast Paced and OPI Elephantasic Pink - basically dupes.

OPI Charged Up Cherry and Nocti Kiss & Tell. The Nocti is a smidge brighter and little more orange.

If you would like anything swatched please feel free to ask. I would have loved to swatch all of these but it would have taken forever. I do plan on swatching my entire stash eventually just not tonight. ;)

Perfectly Polished Tips 67 - Lippmann Collection Base Coat & Cuticle Remover

This is Lippmann's Cuticle Remover, it contains lanolin oils to help soften your cuticles while the chemicals do
the removing. I like to use this weekly after I scrub with Sally Hansen Cuticle & Nail Refiner. The SH scrub loosens everything and then this stuff gives it the last push to detach from my nail beds. It has a brush like the nail colors but it also comes with a dropper. You can either brush it on, drop it on, or put a few drops in warm water and soak your nails. I've done all except the last. It's not messy at all and it has no smell. I think it's pretty moisturizing. My cuticles definitely do benefit from it.

This guy over here is Lippmann's Rehydrating Base Coat. It contains aloe to help nails stay well hydrated. I know their nail colors have bitotin in them but I could not find anything that said if this did or not. I've been using this as a base for all my manicures for about 3 weeks now. My nails are definitely stronger (except for the one I jammed and it now has a tear very low down) and they aren't at all stained from all the dark shades I've been wearing. I always see a "Do not get on skin" caution on nail polish and I never understood why. Well now I do, this is super drying to my cuticles and the skin around them. I have to be very careful to make sure I leave a gap or else I am plauged with dried out yucky looking skin for a couple of days. The upside to that though is that I remember to use my CND Cuticle Eraser and LUSH Lemony Flutter.

I would reccomend both of these products. I am sure that there are cheaper alternatives to them though. For cuticle removers I really like Orly Cutique and a lot of ladies over at MUA rave about a Sally Hansen one in a blue bottle. I haven't tried that one. As for the base coat, Sally Hansen makes a hydrating base coat call Nail Quencher, I actually picked it up at Wal Mart for $2 the other day. These two products are worth it for me but since everyone is different you really have to try different things to see what works for you.

Perfectly Polished Tips 56 - Lippmann red Comparison

Lippmann I Want Candy is from last fall if I remember correctly, and Stop and Stare is from this fall's collection. My first thought when I opened Stop and Stare was wow this looks similar to the other jelly red that I'm not crazy about. In the bottle they are very similar but on the nail IWC is very sheer. Stop and Stare can be mostly opaque in 3 coats.

On the nail the difference is very apparent. I'm not crazy about I Want Candy mostly because I don't like having a visible polish line. I love Lippmann polishes though so I will keep it and maybe one day I will love it.

Perfectly Polished Tips 55 - Last Day to Enter

Today is the last day to enter my Lippmann Give Away! So be sure to enter!

Perfectly Polished Tips 45 - More White Manicures

Shortly after I made my post about the icy white manicures someone suggested we do a dare week on the MUA Nail Board. My dare was white and some one suggested China Glaze White Kwik Silvr specifically. It wouldn't have been fair of me to recycle the picture so I did the mani and took another. I did three manicures in total for dare week. The rules were you only had to wear it long enough to take a picture. Since I have two SpaRituals on their way to me and SOPI Metro Chic next to me I did my dares as quickly as possible!

I started out with a white out mani - Essie Below the Belt. Surprisingly enough I liked this on me. I never thought I could pull off a stark white mani but apparently I can.

Next I added 1 coat of China Glaze White Kwik Silvr over top. I think the China Glaze it prettier on her own, even if you have to do 3 coats.

For my last dar mani I chose Lippmann Rhapsody in White. I told you all I would come back to this once the blue stains were gone and I had better lighting. I also wanted to try out a tip I had read a while back on AllLacqueredup.com. Michelle's tip was to use a quick drying top coat as a base coat to help prevent or cut back on brush stroke marks. I used INM Out the Door and it didn't really help much. I'm going to have to try out the other quick dry top coats I have to see if it makes a difference.

Before this I had only used the Lippmann on my toes and I hated it but I really like it on my fingers. I think I'll be revisiting these white polishes sooner than I thought.

Don't forget to enter my give away! It's open for 1 week! Good Luck!

Perfectly Polished Tips 41 - Lippmann Collection Pump Up the Jam

Okay, so I know I already posted a swatch picture of this but I wore it (again) and decided to attempt to get a better picture. This is the best I could do today. It's a blackened purple but unfortunately the black takes over completely in all other lighting. If you catch it in the bright sun it's a gorgeous color. It's straight up purple, you can't really see the brown tones like it has in this picture. I've worn this color twice in hopes of falling in love with it. I just can't seem to do so though. Personally I love Lippmann polishes so all other aspects of this polish were great. This is two coats but you can get away with one, I think two coats makes it look slightly better though. It dries pretty quickly and gets amazing wear. I already removed this one to participate in dare week over on the MUA Nail Board but with another Lippmann polish I got 8 full days of wear. No chips or tip ware. Despite looking black this is one of my favorites for fall.

Perfectly Polished Tips 37 - Lippmann Collection Winter 2008

Just when you thought you were done being hit by new collections Lippmann has released their Winter 2008 line up. We have:

Man Eater: Luscious bittersweet chocolate (creme)
Super Star: Show-stopping copper flecked fudge (glitter!!!)
Holiday: Candy Apple (shimmer) This one is a limited edition
Icing On the Cake: Beauty queen pearly pink (frost)

I'm not usually a brown fan but Super Star might have to come home with me. Lippmann Collection polishes can be found at LippmannCollection.com.

Perfectly Polished Tips 31 - Lippmann Collection for Fall

Before I start I just want to apologize for the messiness of these swatches. From wearing so many vampies I have a stain on my middle finger which is very apparent in these. I was rushing because I had a couple of free minutes, but then my two year old joined in. So it was a race to get the polish on & photographed before he could get his fingers in. I will take better pictures of these soon, I just wanted to share them.

(l-r) Rhapsody in White, Stop & Stare, Pump Up the Jam, Fade to Black

from Lippmann- "The quick drying formulas contain Green Tea Extracts and Protein Building Biotin, which work together to give you strong, healthy nails."

I had no idea what the polishes contained but honestly these polishes are my favorite. I wish they had a few funkier colors. Maybe more shimmery blues, purples, and greens. I am still dying to get my hands on last spring's collection. One day! On to the pictures, each is two coats with no base or top coat.

Rhapsody in White

A frost white that pays tribute to the 60's with it's retro look. Named for Love Unlimited Orchestra's classic song, Rhapsody in White is truly a far out color.

This is a pretty color, I don't like the visible brush strokes though. I believe if you put a coat of quick dry top coat on as a base coat it is suppose to cure that. I have yet to try it though. The picture is pretty true to life, it's a white with a little bit of silver.

Stop and Stare
A strikingly vibrant red inspired by the rich colors seen on the runways. Named for OneRepublic's chart-topping tune, the gorgeous hue will become your fall staple.

This picture sucks and again I apologize. This polish is much more pink my camera kind of made it have an orange undertone. This is two coats and I still have a VPL, since it's a jelly I think the VPL will be there no matter what. This reminds me of Lippmann's I Want Candy, I'm going to have to compare the two.

Fade to Black
The perfect little black polis that made its runway debut at the Zac Posen fall show. The lacquered shine makes this nail color stand apart from the rest and is named for the Dire Straits tune that Deborah Lippmann covered on her Vinyl album.

This is my favorite color from the collection. I know you are probably saying it's just black. That it may be but wearing it just made me feel chic and sexy. It's a one coater which I always love and is so glossy even before applying a top coat. I have had other black cremes but I always shyed away from wearing them in fear of being "goth". I didn't feel goth at all when wearing this polish. I love that these fall collections are really making me branch out.

Pump Up the Jam
A shimmery version of fall's hottest hue, purple, named for the difinitive party hit.

This picture is pretty bad too, it is more purple in real life. It's very blackened with a hint of brown which makes it difficult to even see that it is purple. I was lemming this all summer but when I finally got it and put it on I was dissapointed. I'm not too sure what I expected but this was not it. Maybe I can tweak it a bit. This polish too was a one coater and it does contain some awesome shimmer.

Lippmann Collection retail for $15 and can be found at Barney's New York, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bath and Body Works Flagship stores, or online at www.lippmanncollection.com.

special thanks to Lippmann Collection

Perfectly Polished Tips 12 - Recent NOTD Photos

I'm a little rusty with my photo taking skills. Here are my 3 most recent nail of the days. All are two coats as well as a base coat and top coat.

Lippmann Collection Hit Me With Your Best Shot - indoor lighting.

CND Blue Blood - Sunlight

Butter London Bezzie Mate - Sunlight

Trying out yet another water mark. I know photo stealing goes on but it's such a pain to have to edit all the pictures. I have more neons to post and I got some polishes from the new fall collections. Swatches will be up soon, I have to be a good girl and register for college courses tomorrow so as soon as that is done I will swatch!