Friday, October 17, 2014

Milani Bedazzled and Deborah Lippmann New York Marquee

Sorting through my "to be swatched" boxes, I decided that the two colors I chose from Deborah Lippmann's Fall 2014 collection, New York Marquee, coordinated with two of the colors in the trio of Milani Color Statement polishes from the current Bedazzled display. Thus, I swatched them together; there's no reason high end and drugstore brands can't be mixed in one manicure.

Top: Deborah Lippmann Harlem Nocturne and I'll Take Manhattan. Bottom: Milani Enchanted Sapphire, Enchanted Garnet, and Enchanted Emerald.



I knew the Lippmanns were chrome finish, so I departed from my usual swatching practice and put down a base coat before I tried them. I used Salon Sciences Instant Artificials and made sure to let it dry before I started in with the chrome to try and avoid dragging and patchiness. Over the IA, I did one coat of Deborah Lippmann Harlem Nocturne, a blue violet chrome, with one coat of Milani Enchanted Sapphire, an almost black dark navy creme, on my accent nail.



Because both of these were so opaque, I decided some stamping was called for, even though it'd been ages since I attempted any. I pulled out some plates mrsrexy, the Canadian Nail Fanatic, had inspired me to buy, plates that were still in their sleeves with the protective plastic yet to be peeled off. I flipped through them and decided on JR-4 (from a place called My Online Shop, which is a bit confusing because it's not MY online shop but someone else's).



First, I stamped with Harlem Nocturne on my accent nail. It worked just fine; there were some spots that didn't transfer but that's operator error, not the polish's fault.



Then I stamped with Enchanted Saphhire on the non-accent nails, which worked fine, too, and would probably have worked great in the hands of someone who's better at stamping. I didn't wait quite long enough to add topcoat so added some smearing to the mix. I wish the Milani looked as blue on the nail as it does when used for stamping over this Lippmann. I also wish it were easier to clean up.





I paired up Deborah Lippmann I'll Take Manhattan, a silvery blue-leaning green chrome, with Milani Enchanted Emerald, a deep green creme but not as close to black as Enchanted Sapphire was. These were one coat each as well, and again I used IA for a base.



I used one of the designs from the JR-27 plate (purchased at the same time from the same place as the one above) for my stamping experiments with this pair of polishes. This place has a couple cute Disneyesque Halloween motifs on it I should remember to try before the month is out but knowing me I probably won't.



Both of these greens stamped as well as the blues had, and I did a better job waiting to put topcoat on this time. The Milani green, like the blue, was a bit hard to clean up; guess that's the price to be paid for something so pigmented.





The last Milani, Enchanted Garnet, is a shimmer rather than a creme like the other two. It's a deep red wine, and the shimmer is on the shy side, at least in indirect light.



In direct low light, the shimmer glowed more.



I've made a goal for myself of using my matte topcoats more, so tried the Sally Girl one on Enchanted Garnet. I don't think mattifying does anything much for this particular polish, but it's good to try.



I found the Lippmann chromes much easier to work with than the Sally Hansen Color Foils from earlier this year; good thing, too, as they were a lot more expensive than the Sally Hansen. The other colors in that Lippmann collection are gold, pink, gunmetal, and rose gold; I'm okay that I don't have those and happy with the two I chose.

These Milani shades have a good formula but the colors don't excite me. I wish the two cremes were less dark, and I wish the shimmer were more shimmery. Actually, for a collection called Bedazzled, all of these should have been more interesting. Shimmers with a finish like the Zoya Ignite collection at the very least, but some blingy glitter to bedazzle me would not have been out of line, either.


10 comments:

  1. Hi dear Karen!! Enchanted Garnet is really nice, but I do not like the version with the matte top coat! =)
    kisses
    Marghe

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  2. The last stamping pattern is lovely :)

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  3. Great post Karen - and the green stamping is simply gorgeous!!

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  4. I always love reading your posts Karen, they are written so well and funny! Enchanted Garnet looks really nice with the shimmer, and the images on your stamping plates look awesome as well :D

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  5. Karen you have always nice nail polish ! today i like the most the green one metalic ,
    and stamping on its !
    have a nice weekend :D

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  6. I do like the Lippmanns :-) And pretty stamping too :-)

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  7. Sooo pretty! I've been salivating over My Online Shop's plates for months now. I just can't decide which ones to get.
    (^^,)

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  8. Nice stamping :0) The colours are pretty.

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  9. Great to see you stamping! That one plate will be great for your next Disney trip :)

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  10. the other image plate has such a cute designs :D

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.