thoughts on... deborah lippmann 'happy birthday'

If you have magpie-like tendencies, I suggest you look away now, because in all honesty this may be the most amazing thing I have ever seen...

The polish itself is Deborah Lippmann's 'Happy Birthday', and maybe it's just me being a little strange, but I certainly felt like I had something to celebrate upon buying this.

I'm not going to lie, I spent at least half an hour just staring at this in the car after purchasing it in Plymouth last week. I spotted it online a long time ago now, and it's one of those things that you lust after but can never really see yourself owning.

The Deborah Lippmann website describes it as 'party in a bottle' and they could not be more right. There aren't really many colours missing from this mesmerising mix of glitter. It is perhaps slightly heavy on the green, but I've found that with most multi-coloured glitters like this (e.g. Nails Inc's Edinburgh Gate). Unless you like applying glitter to your bare nails, I would recommend applying a base colour. I went for a light nude colour to allow the glitter to be the centre of attention.

The photos really don't do this justice. In the above photo, I applied one coat of the polish and then just dotted glitter over the patches that had been missed with initial application. I was really pleased with how much glitter came out on the brush and it was obvious that the bulk of the polish was glitter, as opposed to cheaper polishes where there seems to be more clear polish than glitter.

I bought this from House of Fraser for £16 as a little holiday treat to myself. Would I usually purchase something so expensive? Probably not. I think it's a difficult one to judge because the DL glitter polishes, in my experience, are much better than most others that I've tried (with the exception of one particular beautiful Nails Inc one) but I would find it hard to part with the £14 that non-glitter polishes cost because it's much easier to find a cheaper dupe for regular colours. 

I think this is the sort of polish that you either receive as a birthday/Christmas gift, or buy yourself as a treat, as opposed to being a polish that the masses would go out and buy. Having said that, I would recommend this polish to anyone - I've been wearing it since Friday evening and it hasn't yet chipped and even without a top coat doesn't feel rough to the touch. While it is pricey, I think the quality is obvious and helps to justify the expense. Plus, isn't it just the prettiest thing ever?

Have you ever tried Deborah Lippmann polishes? Are you also a fan of pretty glitters?

Rx