Deborah Lippman: Rock Star Minis Review

Rock Star mini set! 

With the new transition into beige outfits, I thought it was only fitting that I find a few colors to match my nails too. 

I'm a huge fan of soft gel, and I often do my own gel nails at home, but unfortunately when you're on the move a lot, it's hard to do those on the go (without hauling my whole nail box with me). 

After doing a quick inventory count of my nail polish collection too, I find myself preferring minis, just because I can get more colors without needing to change color every day to get through one bottle !

The RockStar set I bought, upon some research, is actually a Nordstorm exclusive, but for some reason was also available as KissBoutique exclusive. 
KissBoutique is a store in Hong Kong, and I often find myself there whenever I have nothing to do. While the sales assistants at the shop can be a little insistent about their products, but they're also the only store in Hong Kong I've found that sells Deborah Lippmann and Butter London, so if you're interested, please check them out! You can find the store in isquare at Tsim Sha Tsui on B1 next to Haagen Daaz or on the first floor of Windsor House in Causeway Bay. The Rockstar set, or any set with 5 minis, retails for around $500 HKD. 

The product description:

What it is: A five-piece set featuring a gorgeous neutral range of Gel Lab Pro Nail Color.

What does: Each polish features a dual-patented formula infused with 10 active ingredients that help deliver health, wear and shine while giving you the gloss and cushion of a gel manicure without the nail damage. Evening primrose is an omega-6 fatty acid that reduces moisture loss; biotin is a vitamin that stimulates keratin production; keratin is a protein and the main building block of your nails; and nonychosine F delivers strength and resilience to fortify weak and brittle nails. Green tea extract protects nails from damage by free radicals; aucoumea deters ridges from forming; platinum powder resists wear; and epoxy resin fuses the lacquer to bind layers together. Additionally, silk fibers produced by silkworms even out the nail plate for a smooth finish. 

These are also toluene-free; formaldehyde-free; formaldehyde resin-free; camphor-free; DBP-free; xylene-free; diethyhexyl adipate-free, cruelty free and vegan friendly. 

I'm not totally sure where the trend of calling non soft gel formulas, 'gels' or 'gel lab' came from, and I find it mostly misleading and a little confusing when it comes to buying products, but at least with these I know they're definitely not gels with the glass bottles (as gels can't be exposed to normal sunlight/anything with UV or LED lights.) 

In regards to Deborah Lippman's formula for polishes, I've always found that her polishes have wildly different formulations for every different color and that buying one shade will not mean that the other one works in a similar way. That being said, I find their Gel Lab Pro Color formula to be incredible, and far more long lasting than their original line. For comparison: Usually most nail polishes will chip and wear away on the tip on me within two or three days, including Deborah's original formula, whereas these lasted up to a week with only minimal tip wear. They also all have a great shiny finish even without top coat, and I haven't experienced any significant staining without a base coat either. Personally, I don't care for the new contour brush too much, but it's nice to get a little bit more coverage on the mini brushes. 

The shades are: 

- Ghost in My Machine (full-coverage champagne shimmer)

- Cool Your Heart (full-coverage cool nude creme)

- Like a Rolling Stone (full-coverage dusty taupe creme)

- Quiet Storm (full-coverage deep taupe creme)

- Smoke on the Water (full-coverage slate grey creme)

Like a Rolling Stone 

Described as a full-coverage dusty taupe creme, I really love this shade. As you can see, the shade dries down a little more cool toned and a little more grey than it is in the bottle. It has a little bit of an industrial tinge, like a beige tinged concrete shade. I think this is one of the best shades to work with from the collection, it dries quite quickly, is self levelling and very very full coverage. For this shade, you can get full coverage in one coat, but for longer wear time or a thicker finish on the nail, I opted for 3-4 coats. It dries quickly, so it's not a lot of waiting time. One of the downsides is that it leans on the thicker side with its full coverage formula, so it can be prone to having a slightly 'streaky' finish if you aren't using enough polish. However, the shine on this formula is incredibly forgiving, so even with minor streaks and dents, even with no top coat it ends up photographing wonderfully. Shown below I've done 3-4 coats with no top coat or base coat. Additionally, without the need for a top coat, you can always touch up the shade without much issue, especially on the tips. I didn't experience any chipping with this shade. 

Smoke on the Water (ft. Ghost in My Machine)

Wearing Smoke on the Water, with Ghost in My Machine stamped on top. While Smoke on the Water is described as a slate grey creme, it actually has really subtle nuances of lilac and violet in a sort of, dark concrete grey. Depending on the lighting, this either has more of a 'purple' or a 'grey' tinge, which you can see in the pictures below comparing natural sunlight (eg. yellow light) and more of an overcast lighting (eg. white light). Similarly to Like A Rolling Stone, this shade also dries down to a darker shade than shown in the bottle. This was also one of the easier shades to work with, which had a similar consistency to Like A Rolling Stone, full coverage in one coat, self levelling, and dries quickly. However, this shade was a little on the runnier side, so I have experienced some flaking/chipping with this shade.