Vinyl Deborah Lippmann is a new collection from the celebrity manicurist that brought us the amazing cult colors Bitches Brew, Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Brown Eyed Girl. Carried exclusively at Bath & Body Works, this collection is named after Lippmann’s new album of cover songs, Vinyl, where she covers songs that were originally recorded on, you guessed it, vinyl.

Inspired by women who are once again discovering the joy of bright, eccentric polish colors (that’s me!), she decided to rework popular colors from the 80s and 90s with a modern, wearable twist. All the shades are named after songs on her album and 10 of them will become permanent. Twice a year an assortment of Limited Edition colors will be released, reflecting the seasonal fashion trends. Call Me, You Give Love a Bad Name and Beautifully Obvious are all LE neon colors.

I am sad to report that as much as I wanted to love these polishes and send you all out to your local Bath & Body Works to hunt down this line, I just can’t give them my seal of approval. I was honestly disappointed in every way by the two Vinyl colors I was able to test. Let me break it down for you.

Packaging: While the bottles are sleek and adorably tiny, they are completely impractical. The cap is uncomfortable to hold and the neck holding the brush is way too short. The brush starts right under the cap, making it near impossible to control application. And the small size of the bottle makes it difficult to get the correct amount of polish on the brush. Basically, it was a nightmare trying to get anything resembling an even coat of lacquer on my nails or the nail art wheel.

Formula/Color: While I found Fade to Black to be highly pigmented, it only needed one coat, the formula just wasn’t what I would expect from a Lippmann polish. It was similar to Zoya but didn’t flow as nicely. I’m sure it’s because this line and all the new Lippmann collection polishes are free of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate. That tends to make most lacquers a bit thicker and trickier to spread. You Give Love a Bad Name is a bit thinner and sheerer which made it better to apply but the sheerness didn’t go away with 3 coats. And while the gold shimmer makes this a very wearable neon pink, it’s not a stand out shade.

Price/Value: Do I think that the original Lippmann Collection is high priced? Abso-freakin-lutely! But, as frugal as I am, I don’t mind plunking down $15 for one of those polishes. Because I am guaranteed that the formula will be top notch, the pigmentation will be what I expect and the shade will be unique. So when I see an $8.50 price tag on an awkwardly shaped bottle that is less than half the size of most polishes (.2 fl oz) I cannot, I repeat CANNOT, justify spending my hard earned money on any of these.

What I can recommend is the spring line from the original Lippmann Collection. A set of 4 elegant, skin toned shades, the colors are How Far Is Heaven, Baby Love, You Can Leave Your Hat On and Fashion. Inspired by chic, refined fashions such as white linen shirts, nude chiffon dresses and sheer pink blouses, there is bound to be a color that suits your skin tone.

I was able to test Fashion and while I don’t know that it suits me at this very pale moment in time, I could see me wearing this when self-tanning season is in full swing.

Here are a couple of pics of my swatch tests. Let me know what you think. Has anyone else tried Vinyl Deborah Lippmann? Share your review with the group!