Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues

I'm not going to say that Deborah Lippmann Lady Sings the Blues is my first-ever HG polish. There are other polishes that I love for their wearable beauty (Revlon Lilac Pastelle) or because they're ultra-flashy yet go with everything (Color Club Cloud Nine). However, Lady Sings the Blues is the first time a polish has ever totally captured my personal aesthetic all at once, letting me wear my soul on my nails. It's black and blue, my favorite color combination; it has that sheer jelly base that makes it look a trillion miles deep; it reminds me of the ocean, the rain, and city skylines at night. I knew from the moment I saw the first pics that this polish would end up being a firm favorite.

As you'd expect after all that raving...it does have its flaws. It needs to be applied over black polish - this is two thick coats over black. Like most jelly glitters, tipwear is practically instantaneous. It seems to take forever (~20 minutes) to dry, although that could be a side effect of the humid Texas summer. I don't care. It's worth the fuss and the price - I got it for US$14 on Amazon, quite a savings compared to the usual price of DLs. Pick this one up if you like dark and glittery, because it is divine.

Different Dimension Orion Nebula

First off, I want to apologize for the application job you're about to see. It's messy, not because of Orion Nebula itself, but because of the Pure Ice Black Rage I used as lingerie under it. I find it practically impossible to apply black polish without making a mess (I suspect this is purely psychological), and Black Rage is a somewhat difficult polish, needing to be thinned after almost every manicure.

This is two coats of Different Dimension Orion Nebula over one coat of Black Rage. I was intrigued by Orion Nebula several weeks ago, then abruptly vetoed after reading that it requires a lot of "fishing" to get the larger pink/purple iridescent circles out. Then, in an act of polish-ADD hilarity that I suspect is actually pretty common, I forgot that I'd decided against it and bought it on impulse, remembering the "fishing issue" about five seconds after placing my order with a merchant who doesn't accept cancellations.

The copy was partially right: You do have to fish if you want many of those big iridescent circles in your manicure. However, I'm perfectly content with one or two. The smaller hot pink circle glitters are easy to get, but it does require dabbing onto the nail to get a semblance of even coverage. Fortunately, the black jelly base seeps away from the glitters as the polish is applied, so there's no need to shove glitters around with the brush, trying to get them clear of the base.

In the end, I was surprised by how much I like the result - some of my nails look like constellations or diffuse clusters of hot pink stars in an utterly black night sky, while a couple of unplanned "accent" nails have big, shiny, iridescent (and holo/dichroic at some angles!) planets or supergiant stars. Perhaps best of all, Orion Nebula has what I consider to be the most desirable quality in any jelly glitter polish - it looks positively fathomless on the nail, like I could stare at my manicure for a few minutes and end up lost in space. It's definitely worth the minor application hassles, although it's perhaps too fidgety for the strictly casual polish lover.