Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe is my first Deborah Lippmann nail polish. It was the one that I was lemming badly ever since I first set eyes on it.
Even though I bought it at the same time as Chanel Peridot, it took me all this time to wear it! Why? I wanted to save it for a special occasion…at least for the first time.
New Year’s Eve was the perfect opportunity because not only does it have the bling, but it complemented my blue monochromatic outfit.
I layered Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe over OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It! Using the OPI as a base allowed me to achieve the bottle colour with fewer coats of Deborah Lippmann.
I wore this polish from December 30th to January 2nd. All swatches were photographed on the last day, unfortunately.
Later on in this post, I’ll show you what Across the Universe looks like solo.
What did you wear to ring in the New Year?
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe Pictures
Comes in a plastic box
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe Ingredients
This polish contains Biotin, which is great for your nails. Lots of people take Biotin supplements to improve the health of their hair, skin, and nails.
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe Swatches
All swatches have:
- Nubar Foundation Base Coat
- 1 coat of OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It!
- 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Natural Light
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Sunlight
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Flash
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Natural Light
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Claims: TRUSTED, Product Status: HOLY GRAIL
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- Glitter
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- Blazing blue & metallic green glam in sheerest navy
Key Notes
- Name: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe
- Amount: 15 mL (0.5 fl. oz.)
- What I Paid: $20-ish CAD
- Where to Buy: Deborah Lippmann website, Holt Renfrew, SpaBoutique.ca, Amazon.com, Nordstrom, FlatIronExperts, DermStore & other places
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe Review
Colour
Across the Universe by Deborah Lippmann is a show-stopping nail polish that I consider a must-have for those who are big fans of green and blue!
It combines the colours in a sexy, mysterious way – light blue, medium blue, and shamrock green all in a translucent blue base. It’s this translucent base that gives the polish depth and allows the glitter to shine through instead of being covered up.
Every time I looked down at my nails while wearing this (which was often), it reminded me of a mermaid’s tail, right down to the scales.
Even in dim light, it catches the light. In sunlight, it glitters like crazy! This is a polish that you’ll be admiring on your nails throughout the day – it deserves all your attention.
Finish
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe is a glitter polish, so there is noticeable texture. You’ll want to apply a good top coat to smooth it out.
It has light-blue hexagonal glitter, shamrock green hexagonal glitter, and vibrant-blue, small glitter. The colours complement each other so well!
Application & Formula
The formula had a great consistency – not thick or goopey like I was expecting with a glittertastic polish like this.
It was easy to paint on, however, sometimes one or two of the glitters would hang beyond the tip of my nail. I needed to push it back with my finger because I didn’t want something scratchy. (When I applied a top coat at the end, that also helped to smooth the edge.)
Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe Solo
If you don’t layer the polish over another colour, this is what it looks like by itself. (I did 2 coats here. The nail wheel was originally white. Also, see how some glitter sticks out over the edge? That’s what I was talking about in the previous paragraph.)
Achieving the Bottle Colour by Layering
The beauty of this polish is that, because of its sheer base, you can layer it over other nail polishes to achieve different effects.
Since I was in love with the bottle colour, I opted for one coat of OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It!, which is a vibrant, shimmery-foil-like, pigmented blue polish I enjoyed wearing. (Click on the link to see my swatches and review on it.) On top, I used two coats of Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.
You could also layer Across the Universe over a black for a darker, more dramatic effect. (I really wanted to keep the blue personality, though. I think that’s how it looks best.)
What I layered to achieve the bottle colour
Packaging
I really dig the square bottle – it looks luxurious and modern without being flashy. For some reason, every time I look at it, I imagine that it’s made out of a block of ice.
What I don’t care for is the plastic box that holds the polish. I think it’s unnecessary. Most people will just throw it in the garbage. (I’m going to store this polish in its box in my Helmer, though.)
I realize that this polish is advertised as being luxurious (and luxury polishes often come in boxes), but I think it’s not environmentally friendly. (Maybe you can recycle it?)
Animal Friendliness
Those who are vegans or those who just want to support cruelty-free beauty products, you’ll be pleased to know that Deborah Lippmann nail polishes aren’t tested on animals.
Price
This polish is more expensive than your average bottle, but considering how stunning the colour is and how you can play around with it over hues you already own, I think it’s worth the higher price tag!
Pros
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Cons
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Final Verdict: 10/10
Deborah Lippmann nailed it – this was pure love and lust from the second I saw it. I highly recommend this colour, and it’s a polish that I’m sure I’ll be wearing multiple times!
Have you worn any Deborah Lippmann nail polishes? Do you love Fiona Apple’s cover of the song, Across the Universe as much as I do? What’s your Holy Grail nail polish?
DL glitter polishes are so pretty. I’ve been eyeing a few of her polishes but haven’t picked up one yet. Happy Birthday, Glitter in the Air, & Bad Romance are on my wish list.
PinkGlitter recently posted: Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes
Hey PinkGlitter!
I agree – they’re so pretty. Even the bottles are beautiful, and make you want to display them.
All of those colours you mentioned look gorgeous. I only have 2 Deborah Lippmann polishes so far (none of the ones you’ve mentioned), but I’ve seen those other colours in person. Glitter in the Air is so girly, and very different from anything I have – might get it.
This polish never gets old! I love it!
Erin S. recently posted: Blushing Noir’s January Giveaway!
Hey Erin!
Never! 🙂 That’s exactly why I know I’ll be wearing it again and again. Gotta love polishes like this that never lose their charm!
Gorgeous! You know, Ive been kinda sad because I broke my nails, and girl, it seems your nails are looking extremely well-shaped and fantastic! Haha makes me anxious of my nubs. Keep up the good manicure work!
Happy new year, Mary! All my best wishes for this 2012!
Marcia recently posted: Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance "Dupe" Manicure.
Hey Marcia!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, too! Hope that 2012 treats you well – you deserve much happiness! 🙂
Ouch – broken nails always sounds so painful to me! I’m sorry to hear that, but they’ll grow back! 🙂 And even if you decide to maintain them super short, I actually think really short nails look so chic, too. (In fact, just last night, I chopped off my long nails and went super short – nubs. I’m very happy with them. I enjoy growing my nails as long as I can before they annoy me. Then, I’ll cut them extremely short. There’s no single length I prefer, which I guess is weird, since most people have a preference.)
Thank you so much for saying that about my nails being well-shaped! I’m really surprised because I have a lot to learn about nail shaping – it feels like I’m always doing it wrong.
This looks great!! You’re right, it’s perfect for NYE. Love the combo with Swimsuit…Nailed It!
Marisa recently posted: Barry M – Emerald Green
Hey Marisa!
Thank you! 🙂 It was a great excuse to bust out Swimsuit…Nailed It! again. (I fell in love with the colour all over again.)
I was thinking “mermaid scales,” and then you said it. It’s gorgeous! I haven’t splurged on a Deborah Lippman.. yet.. I’m wondering if this will be the one that gets me – Bad Romance almost did.
Hey CupK8!
While I think Bad Romance is gorgeous, too, Across the Universe is THE ONE to get for your first Deborah Lippmann polish. It has that ‘Wow Factor’ for sure. You won’t ever get bored while wearing it.
Hmm.. maybe I’ll spoil myself a little bit when the semester starts..
If you can splurge… 😉
Oh, and I wore butter LONDON Tart with a Heart over Black Knight for NYE – Scrangie posted a picture of that combo and I NEEDED to wear it. So I did.
I remember seeing Scrangie’s manicure! I already wanted Black Knight, but she had me lemming Tart with a Heart just so I can layer it! BEAUTIFUL!
It reminds me of a mermaid! I love deborah lippmanns gorgeous glitter polishes!
Hey Abby!
Great nail addicts think alike! 😉
Do you have any favourites from Deborah Lippmann’s collection of glitter polishes?
I love DL polishes, too bad I don’t have any. The price is over my budget. This polish looks great. It’s so sparkly and I love blue and green. I wish they had a dupe for this that was cheaper. On New Year’s Eve/Day, I wore your penguin nail art because they were soo cute and I wanted to show all the people at the parties/gatherings my family and I were going to,
Hey maddy!
The way Revlon is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to dupe this eventually. But, until then, maybe you can ask for it for your birthday or something like that. Or…if you have a lot of glittery blue polishes and anything with green hexagonal glitter, you can try layering them to come up with your own creation that you love! 🙂
That’s awesome how you sported the penguin nail art! 🙂 I’m flattered that you chose my design for such an important occasion. Was everyone in awe over your polishing skills? 😀 Hope you had a lot of fun wearing them.
They loved the nails and I spent my time painting the girls’ nails with the penguin nails and showing them your other tutorials.
That sounds like so much fun! 🙂 Thanks again for being so supportive of me and for sharing my tutorials with others.
If there’s one polish I would break down and get from DL, it’s definitely this one. I adore blue, green, glitter and jellies, so I’m a total sucker for this one. It looks amazing on you and I’m glad you splurged for it. I can totally understand about waiting for the right occasion-I’m waiting for the right occasion to break out my dupe from ULTA.
As far as GitA, I think you should test out Revlon’s Whimsical first. From the comparisons I’ve seen, it’s just as good as the Lippmann, at a fraction of the price! And for NYE, I wore a green/blue glitter jelly from CC, Untamed Luxury. My blue/green lover credential are peeking through, LOL!
another Cristina recently posted: Revlon Whimsical-OK, fine, I like it….
Hey another Cristina!
Ooohh…you’re right, Revlon Whimsical has a Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air feel to it. Love how you layered the Revlon one over different colours – gave me a good idea of the layering possibilities. (I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for Whimsical.) 🙂
Oops, meant to post the prior comment separately, at the end of the other comments. Got it confused because I wanted to tell Maddy that there are a few dupes or near dupes out there. There’s one by Essence called Blue Addicted, there’s another one by Icing that has extra silver glitter in it called Force of Love, and I own one from ULTA that came in their Glitterati pack. The Glitterati pack was still available at ULTA last week. I’ve swatched my dupe over CG’s Blue Year’s Eve and two coats by itself to compare with Mary. In both cases, it looks very close to Mary’s pictures. The only differences I see is that the base color might be a tad bit darker in the ULTA, and maybe there’s more hex glitter in the Lippmann? Anyway, these are all economical options if you can’t splurge on the Lippmann.
another Cristina recently posted: Revlon Whimsical-OK, fine, I like it….
Thanks for letting maddy know about an affordable alternative, another Cristina! 🙂
Thanks for telling me about those alternatives!
Another lovely colour on you! No wonder you love wearing blue and greens!
I think the OPI you used as a base was PERFECTLY chosen. I am like that too, CultNails Unicorn Puke or ORLY Fowl Play, I will layer those forever so that I don’t waste the precious contents of the bottle 😉
HappY New year! What a perfect way to start the year in glittery style!
(I just removed my new years manicure too… literally 1 hour ago) 😀
Marta recently posted: Holographic & Geometric
Hey Marta!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 😀 (Wow, when I first typed that, I put “HAPPY NEAR!” Soon I’ll be condensing all my sentences so that I become the town lunatic who rummages through dumpsters. Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme. A. Bit.)
You have such fantastic taste – Unicorn Puke and Fowl Play look incredible on you! Hey, I just thought of something. Wonder what they would look like layered over each other. That would be a cool little experiment.
Across The Universe is a gorgeous polish! Choosing OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It! was perfect for it! It really helped you to achieve bottle color. I’d love it to add Across The Universe to my collection one day, as well as some other Deborah Lippmann colors since I have none but knowing that I could buy a few polishes just for the price of one, kind of stops me each time. I’m sure they’re worth it, so one of these days I will own a Deborah Lippmann polish!
Melissa recently posted: Mad As A Hatter, OMG!
Hey Melissa!
If you do splurge on just one Deborah Lippmann polish, this is definitely it! And it’ll make you want more, though, so be careful…haha! 😉
This one is so pretty, and I love the name so much!
Ashesela recently posted: Zoya Neeka with Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat and China Glaze White Cap
Hey Ashesela!
It’s the perfect name for it, isn’t it? It’s like looking into the galaxy…of glitter! 😉
I never would have thought to use these two polishes together, but I’m glad you did–this combo rocks!! I have been wanting both for a while now–they’re on my polish wishlist. My New Year’s manicure was Kendall on the Katwalk–it was a Christmas present. It’s still on my nails and I can’t get enough of it! 🙂 Do you find that polishes with large chunks of glitter like Across the Universe are easier to remove than polishes that are purely fine particles of glitter?
Hey Jessica!
What an amazing Christmas gift – Kendall on the Katwalk is ridiculously pretty (and also very unique)!
No, sometimes even the really chunky glitter polishes are just as hard to remove as the fine glitter ones. For me, it seems to be more an issue of: 1) How many coats I’ve used (More coats = Harder to remove) and 2) If I used the glitter as a layering polish or as the sole polish (Layering = Easier to remove).
When I removed Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, it wasn’t a nightmare to remove because I had OPI Swimsuit…Nailed It! underneath it, which really helps. I think it’s because the glitter adheres to that polish rather than securing itself to your bare nail (well, bare nail with a base coat).
I’m coveting the Deborah Lippman. It is gorgeous.
Hey Janet!
Beautiful, isn’t it? It has quickly taken a special place in my heart.
I just put ATU over Ulta’s Wild Night this morning. I matted it first, which I also liked, before putting SV on. Debating about Lady Sings the Blues, now, which looks beautiful as well!
Hey Maureen!
Great idea to mattify it – that’ll make all the pieces of glitter even more noticeable. I’ve gotta try that sometime.
Lady Sings the Blue looks pretty, too! 🙂 I don’t have it, but from looking at it in the bottle, it’s beautiful!
Love this layering combination! I’ve always wanted this polis but haven’t gotten myself to buy it yet. I do have Happy Birthday and Ruby Red Slippers from the line and thought they were well worth the price (back before all the similar rainbow glitters were released).
Katie recently posted: Glitter Overload
Hey Katie!
That’s cool how you have Happy Birthday. And if you got it early on, you probably have the original one, not the re-release! 🙂 Nice!
I would absolutely love to get my hands on ANY Deborah Lippmann polish. Alas, it’s waaaaay over my self-imposed $10 limit. *extra sad face* Maybe I’ll drop hints with the hubby in case he’s feeling generous (although my new camera is an early birthday present so chances aren’t very high). 😉
I love how you layered it to look like the bottle color! I concur, it looks its best if you keep the blue character of the base intact. This is such a great mani to ring in the new year! Sparkly and trendy (apparently navy is huge in winter 2011). 😀 I sported navy nails myself: Cult Nails Time Traveler with Clairvoyant/Unicorn Puke on top. I haven’t taken them off yet and I’m shuddering just thinking of the possible Smurf hands.
Carmela recently posted: Indulgent Intermission: The Nail Polish Tag
Hey Carmela!
Your New Year’s Eve manicure sounds divine! 🙂 And your husband was so sweet to get you that new camera. You’ll put it to great use! 😀
I love it layered over Orly Sapphire Silk – my nails look like candy! http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7146/6430496805_c873d3b2ff.jpg
Koshka recently posted: Looking back on 2011
Hey Koshka!
Oh my! Your photo makes me want to wear Across the Universe with Orly Sapphire Silk! GORGEOUS combination! The jellyish nature really shows in your manicure more than mine. 😀
Gorgeous! I have yet to purchase a DL polish even though I love so many of them. I’m still fighting with myself on getting the Get This Party Started set….
Frosso recently posted: Finger Paints Asylum
Hey Frosso!
I almost bought that set, too. So much glittery goodness!
I often layer my favorite glitter polishes over an opaque base… not because I don’t want that many layers of glitter or anything, but just because I don’t wanna waste my favorites by applying 4-5 layers to opacity! This would be one of those polishes that I’d do that with because, if I could get my hands on a bottle of this, it would definitely be one of my faves!! I’m loving anything blue/green right now so I’d be seriously hoarding this polish!
Nicole recently posted: Greatness Is What We On the Brink Of: Metallic for Life Review
OMG!! This is so beautiful!But for me buying them is quite a luxury, one I don’t have!
Emm recently posted: Black Leather Clutch Wallet From Mochi
Hey Emm!
Aww…well, maybe one day. Or…who knows? Maybe it’ll be a thoughtful present from someone. 🙂
It may have already been mentioned but judging from your swatches it looks pretty close to lake placid on acid from lacquistry which is only 7.50 a bottle plus shipping. Killed my lemming at least.
Hey Blookazoo!
First of all, your nickname is awesome! Hehe, made me giggle!
Oh wow, thanks for mentioning that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that polish you mentioned, but it’s great that you shared this! 🙂 Hopefully someone else can save some money if they can get hold of that colour.