Across the Universe - Deborah Lippmann

A few days ago I posted about my precious hubby surprising me on Valentine's Day with one of my most coveted after nail polishes - Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe.  From what I've read on her website, Deborah Lippmann loves music (she even has a few cd's out) & she names some (if not all) of her polishes after songs.  This one is named after The Beatle's song Across the Universe. 

I tested this polish with 3 different base coats:  Zoya Anchor, OPI regular base coat & some generic kind I got at Sally's Beauty Supply.  I got the least amount of shrinkage with the OPI so I went with that. 

This polish is a navy jelly with aqua micro glitter and the bigger hex glitter of green and blue.  It makes me think of a mermaid or the deep ocean or maybe even the universe. ;)  For the top coat, I didn't go with my old faithful Seche Vite because I had read on another blog somewhere that the 2 didn't play nice with each other.  I used Orly Polishield on my left hand & Zoya Armor (no drying drops) on my right so I could see which one held better.  I had just the slightest bit more tip-wear with the Zoya but I am right-handed so I think they were both an even match.

As thin as this polish is I was surprised that it was opaque in 3 but it was and most definitely worth it!  I'm going to wear this for as long as I can because it is so awesome.  *Edit:  It wound up lasting 3 days which is a long time for me.

Photo taken outdoors at sunset.

See how sheer it was @ 1 coat?

Sorry for the crappy lighting - not sure what was going on...

Deborah Lippmann's nail polish is on the expensive side ($18/bottle) & is available at Nordstrom's, Neiman Marcus...you get the picture.  While I do love love LOVE my nail polish, that is quite expensive IMO & I would never buy that for myself & that is why it is so special to me.  Do you own any of her nail polishes?  What are your thoughts?

Base, Color & Top Coat Mis-Match...or is it the weather?

Over the weekend I did mine & my mom's nails but 1st, let's look at my mom's:

I used CND Stickey as the base coat with 1 coat of Petites in Raspberry Ice.  I love polish that is opaque in 1 coat but they are so rare!  I have come to realize that the opacity is not based on brand as I initially thought but basically it's based on the pigmentation of the color itself. 

Anyways, this color is a hot pinkish-magenta with some shimmer & I love it!  I'd gotten some inspiration from Scrangie (who I consider to be one of the top guru's in the nail polish world) http://www.scrangie.com/2011/01/cover-girl-iceslicks-anti-freeze.html.  For my mom's mani I put 2 coats of Cover Girl IceSlicks Anti-Freeze on top of the hot pink and it is fabulous!  On a nail wheel I tried Anti-Freeze over China Glaze's Goth & it looks amazingly awesome (like outer space) but I just don't think black would be appropriate for my mom - she would feel very out of place.  This isn't the best pic because it was so hard to photograph but the blue glitter gives off an aqua/purple shimmer & I love it!  It took absolutely forever for the 1st coat to dry but once we got the 2nd coat on, we topped it off with Seche Vite.  You may ask, what's the problem?  Well, in less than 24 hrs after giving her this mani, it started to chip & there was shrinkage at the tips.  I even buffed her nails to get the shine off so that the polish would adhere better!  I think I'm going to start keeping a list of base coats, polish brands & top coats that don't play nice because after all this hard work, I don't want it to happen again.



So after I did my mom's nails, I did my own.  I used Nailtek Foundation II for the base coat & China Glaze Bahamian Escape (also a 1-coater!).  I added Konad to it from plate m50 using the Konad special polish in purple & topped it off with ole faithful Seche Vite.  And guess what - mine started peeling off within 3 hours!  That's just ridiculous.  My sweet husband even washed the dishes for me & I was in church most of this time so it's not like I was doing some type of manual labor that would ruin my mani.  Ugh!  I was so aggravated!!!  I was able to touch up most of it so thankfully it was hard to tell but then it started peeling again within just another few hours! 

Later I added a purple rhinestone to the ring finger as an accent.  This pic was taken after I'd touched it up for the second time & this time around the touch-ups are definitely more noticeable (see pointer finger in the top corner).  Btw, all pics are clickable so you can enlarge for more detail.

So I have a few questions for you:

Which do you like better, with or without the rhinestone?

What do you think caused these issues?  The interaction of these polishes, the weather, the user? ;)

Have you experienced anything like this?