Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper to Go vs. flakies

Day three of the great Stripper to Go Experiment!

Today's contenders:

One coat of Essie Good to Go base, two coats of Nicole by OPI It's All about the Glam, one coat of Essie Shine of the Times, and one coat of Seche Vite.



I wore this combo to the hockey game last night, and I have to say I really liked it! Subtle, pretty, and shimmery. The dense flakies of Shine of the Times make it an ideal one coater over lighter polishes. I wouldn't try this with say, any of the Picture Polish flakies - it'd take too many coats to see any flakies at all!



I wore this polish for about a day and a half before removal, and here are the results.

Left hand:



Right hand:



The mitt after cleaning:



Overall, this was a pretty big disappointment. There were flakies left all over my nails, even on the first few nails, and by nail 6 I really had to work at it to get anything off at all. This resulted in some bits of lint coming off the mitt and sticking to my nails. As with the creme + glitter experiment, I found that the mitt itself dried out before I got to my right thumb. I did try to use the packaging as a cover for the mitt, but it just didn't work - I couldn't grip the mitt enough to work it over my nails.

Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper to Go vs. light glitter polish

Day two of the great Stripper to Go Experiment! After my success with removing black creme polish, I had to up the ante.

Today's contenders:

One coat of Essie Good to Go base, two coats of Revlon Dreamer creme polish, two coats of Revlon Whimsical glitter polish in a jelly base, and one coat of Seche Vite.



I really loved the way this manicure turned out, and I have to admit I was reluctant to remove it, but it must be done. If you don't have Whimsical by the way, definitely try and find it - the sparse glitter with teeny tiny microglitter is lovely, feminine, and sweet. I tried to wear it alone without a base colour when I first got it home, and gave up after four coats - definitely get something pretty and blue for underneath!



I digress. Onto the results!

I wore this polish for about 24 hours before attempting to remove it.

Left hand:



Right hand:



The mitt after cleaning:



I'd be lying if I said removing the glitter polish was as easy as the creme - I really had to work at it, especially for the last two nails I successfully cleaned. By the time I got to my right thumb, the mitt had failed completely and barely made a dent in the topcoat. I ended up adding some of my own polish remover to the mitt and finishing the job.

I'd rate this a partial success - the mitt removed the polish from 9 out of 10 glittery nails, albeit with some elbow grease. On the flip side, it had to contend with six coats of polish plus some glitter, which is still rather impressive.

From what I can tell, the mitt primarily fails because the polish remover evaporates before you can get to the tenth nail. For my next experiment, I might try covering the mitt with its foil packet to see if that helps the problem.

Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper To Go vs black creme polish

This is the first of a five day experiment with Deborah Lippmann's The Stripper to Go - a portable finger mitt that claims to be able to remove polish from all ten fingers, even glitter. My first encounter with these mitts didn't go so well - it failed after two fingers. To be fair, the polish was a total glitter bomb, but then the product is supposed to be able to handle it.

I decided to start things off with something simple: my favourite creme polish, coincidentally also a Deborah Lippmann product - the black creme from the Edge of Glory 3d holo set.

I used Essie all in one base coat, one coat of Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory black creme (yep, that's one coat!), and one coat of Seche Vite topcoat.



I wore this for about 24 hours. As I thought, the toughest part was resisting the impulse to layer a glitter or shimmer topcoat on top of this!



I opened the packet and got to work. I was shocked at how quickly this took off the polish - a few swipes and it was gone. I worked quickly as polish remover does tend to evaporate fast.



The results were impressive. All ten fingers wiped clean. There were some stray bits of black polish remaining, but those I put down to my unbuffed fingertips, not the stripper. I badly needed to buff my nails before I applied the polish in the first place! I took care of that afterwards.

Left hand:



Right hand:



The mitt after cleaning:




I used the outside of the mitt to clean up a few bits underneath my nails and around the edges.

Overall I'd call this experiment a success! The Stripper to Go did remove the polish cleanly from all ten nails. The best part? All I had to throw out was the mitt and its packet instead of the usual assortment of cotton pads.

Tomorrow, I up the ante: creme polish with a very light glitter on top. We'll see how it fares!

Deborah Lippmann: The Stripper To Go. An Experiment.

A while ago, I had a chance to test out one packet of Deborah Lippmann's The Stripper to Go (for go-go girls), and posted the results here. Thanks to Nail Polish Canada, I now have in my possession five additional samples and I'm really looking forward to playing with them!

The experiment:

See how far The Stripper to Go can go on various polishes including cremes, jellies, shimmers, and glitters.

The Rules:

1) Polish must be worn for a minimum of 24 hours to allow for complete curing.
2) The same base and topcoat will be worn for all manicures
3) The same procedure will be used for all fingers/manicures: apply the mitt, rub, and hope for the best!

I'll post the results as they happen over the next several days.

The hardest part of this whole experiment may be going an entire day with a creme polish on my nails without adding any flakies or glitters!

Stay tuned...