Category: Swatch

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday! I’m currently on a very, very long drive to Northern New Brunswick to start our Christmas celebrations, but I wanted to make sure I got a Swatch Sunday post done for today! & I thought since we are only 3 days away from Christmas, we needed to get glittery! & boy, are we going all out!

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is Deborah Lippmann Stronger. This shade was originally released in 2013 & created in part with Kelly Clarkson. I picked up my particular bottle at Winners/Marshall’s a few years back, probably on sale because that’s usually the way.

The polish itself is a smoky purple jelly base which is packed full, & I mean full, of multi coloured & holo glitters. There are varying sizes as well, which you can really see in my macro shots. Absolutely stunning. This is definitely what I like to call a party glitter — the kind of polish designed for a special occasion, like Christmas or New Years Eve, when you just want everything about you to sparkle. Or maybe if you’re having a down day, & you want eye catching movie star worthy nails for buying bananas.

Normally a shade like this, I would wear layered over a corresponding shade like dark purple or navy blue. This cuts down on the coats you need, which helps make removal easier & saves on polish. For my swatches though, I pulled out my UNT peel off base coat & applied the polish all on it’s own to see it in it’s true glory.

For my swatches I did 2 coats of polish which for me was enough, but wasn’t completely 100% opacity. I feel with the holo though, it fills in the gaps & you don’t even notice you can kind of see my naked nail. If I really wanted full coverage, sponging would be the way to go, especially when you have a bit of a trickier formula due to the dense glitter.

I applied two coats of top coat to my nails to seal & smooth my glitter. One layer of super quick dry top coat (YSL Beauty Quick Dry Top Coat) & then a thicker glossy top coat (Essie Gel Setter) just to smooth everything out.

I definitely recommend wearing a peel off base coat with glitters like this, just because it makes removal so much easier than trying to soak off a thick layer of glitter. I’ve done it–it takes way too long, uses way too much nail polish remover, & is no fun at all. Peel off base coats, like UNT Ready for Take Off, make life so much easier because you can just pop it off & move into the next manicure. & that makes me happy!

So what do you think about Deborah Lippmann Stronger? Do you have a favourite glitter like this? Any secrets to removal you can share? Hop on over to my Instagram, & let me know what you think!