my interpretation of…happy birthday

When those first photos of Lippmann Happy Birthday (HB, for short) started making the rounds on the polish blogs, I kept saying to myself, “That would be really easy to dupe, and even improve upon, with the addition of holographic glitter…”

And after receiving several pleas for such a dupe once the Lippmann site had sold out, I embarked on a quest to locate some similar hexagonal glitter, as well as some smaller square glitter, to mimic the general appearance of HB.

Before setting out, I had a look at my inventory of polish to see what I could utilize “as-is.” (Turns out, polish that already contains glitter will best be able to sustain the addition of more glitter, and well, maximum glitter saturation is the goal…)

As luck would have it, Love My Nails, a line I have only been able to locate in certain (read: ginormous) Walmart locations, has several clear-based glitters, one of which,  “All That,” is mainly tiny purple and silver holographic square glitter.

Bingo. We have our base! Now, to find a ton of rainbow-hued hexagonal glitter. The pink glitter comes into play later.

I have a handful of discount beauty supply stores that I frequent. Each one carries different brands, a varied selection within each brand, and random nail art materials.  (I have even gone so far as to make a chart with a corresponding map to keep track of which store carries what. What? You’ve never done this? Did I also mention that I am the daughter of a German engineer? Well, in any case, if you ever find yourself in Little Saigon, looking for a specific polish, I’ll totally hook you up.)

I was able to acquire a vast array of diamond-shaped holographic glitter from one location, but since HB contains no diamond-shaped glitter, we’ll save that for another post. (Two of my variations of Ruby Red Slippers have this style of glitter, but I have already said too much.)

From another shop, I found purple and teal holographic hexagons, but no multi-colored variety. From yet another, a location I had long-since written off, due to its over-priced polish, I stumbled into a display that had an entire rainbow’s worth of holographic bar glitter. (Even black! So gorgeous layered over a solid black polish, but I digress. Again.)

What stopped me dead in my tracks was this little container:

(It is much smaller in person. 1 1/4 inches by 1 1/4 inches to be exact.)

This tiny jar of glitter held the building blocks for my project, since it embodied most of the colors used in the original. Orange is the only color missing, and frankly, no one will be missing it when all is said and done.

Once I started adding scoops, (I bought my measuring scoop from Aromaleigh) one at a time, and a few extra balls, for better mixing, I added a bit of another Love My Nails glitter, Pretty in Pink, to the mix. This seemed to balance out the warm-to-cool color ratio somewhat.

I played around with several different colors, sizes and shapes of holographic glitter, adding some here and a little more there.

Here is a group photo of the ingredients I experimented with:

(Simultaneously, I was trying to make a version that was by demand, er, request. Nixxy, of Nixxy’s Nails fame, has an allergy to formaldehyde/ formaldehyde resin, in addition to living in Australia, where certain polish brands are prohibitively expensive. All the base polish I used were f. and f. resin free to accommodate Nixxy’s allergy, and her custom versions have both more purple/blue glitter as well as silver holographic bar glitter in an attempt to replicate this in polish form. And, to avoid a nutsacking.)

Here is a bottle shot of my interpretation of Lippmann’s Happy Birthday, which I have been calling, “Hapy Birfday” but will gladly send a bottle to anyone who comes up with a better name (anything would be better than mine!) …just leave a comment with your suggestion, and an email addy, so I can contact the winner.

And a little closer…

I have yet to try this as a manicure, but I will post the pictures when I do.

What do you think? Is this a passable dupe for the $18 Lippmann?

(Feel free to contact me on MakeUpAlley if you can’t wait for Deb to get hers back in stock…I have some up for swap and am willing to customize the color combination, within reason.)(Please note: I do not have any orange glitter to add, nor will I be attempting to locate any. Hope this isn’t a deal-breaker. =D)

I will continue this series on my interpretations of another Lippmann- Ruby Red Slippers, as well as my version of OPI- Creme de Menthe. Stay tuned!