Deborah Lippmann Xanadu Swatches

Hello, everybody!  Today I have a great polish to show you from Deborah Lippman, and the post is going to be a bit on the picture-heavy side.  So, you know, fair warning.  This is my first Deborah Lippmann, and I think I did a good job narrowing it down.  I actually won a DL twitter contest and got a $30 credit for the website.  The kicker, though, was that it was right in the middle of my no-buy and the credit was only good for a week.  I found myself considering breaking my no-buy and getting a second bottle, but I ended up reaching out to my fellow nail bloggers to see if anybody would be willing to help me out.  As luck would have it, Jessica from Trial & Acetone was willing to use the rest of the credit and send me my polish.  I felt so much better knowing that half of that credit wouldn't be wasted!  Click through to see the rest of the swatches!

Swatches show one coat of Deborah Lippmann Xanadu over one coat of Formula X For Sephora Reckless for opacity.  The first photo is in direct sunlight, the second is in shaded natural lighting, the third is HD fluorescent (direct), the fourth is HD fluorescent (indirect), and the final photo shows regular indoor lighting.  Sorry for all the photos, but I wanted so badly to capture that lovely shift and share it with you!  Xanadu was very thick when I got it, and didn't spread very well.  I thinned it out quite a bit, which made it much more workable.  It is on the sheer side (though, that may be in part to the thinning required to make it workable), so I paired it with periwinkle undies.  Since Deborah Lippmann is quite pricey, this also serves to extend the longevity of the polish by using fewer coats per mani.  The color is absolutely gorgeous.  It's a shimmery sky blue with a lilac shift and small cobalt glitters.  It dries to a really smooth finish, which is surprising to me for a polish with this level of sparkle!  Are you as enamored with Xanadu as I am?