Thursday, May 31, 2012

Review: Deborah Lippmann The Stripper To Go

My recent Deborah Lippmann order came with a free sample of The Stripper To Go, a nail polish remover mitt. I'd never tried this product before so I thought it might be fun to share my experience with you all. Will The Stripper To Go become my new private dancer or is she just another pretty face? Let's find out!

The mitt comes in a little sealed package that makes it easy to take this with you on the go or to pop in your luggage for trips.



The packaging claims one mitt is enough to remove an entire manicure, so I thought I'd use this to try and take off my Essie Bikini So Teeny manicure. (Strippers removing bikinis... This has become a raunchy little post, hasn't it?) Gotta love the name and the "for go-go girls" tag!


Once you take the mitt out, it looks like this:



The mitt has a lavender scent to it, which isn't one of my favorite scents, but I'll admit it smells better than regular remover. I wrapped it around my right index finger and then kept it pressed into my nail for about two minutes to see if it would soak up the polish and I was less than impressed with the results. It only took off about half my polish and my nail was covered in little fibers.




I probably could have already completely removed this entire manicure using traditional polish remover and cotton balls in the two minutes it took for The Stripper To Go to do half a nail. *Queue trombone* Wah waahhhh.


But I decided to give it another shot using the same method on my right thumb and this time the results were even worse. It felt like the mitt was starting to dry out a bit. The polish had not been removed at all, only slightly dimpled, and the stringy fibers were everywhere again. It looked like I'd been petting a Persian cat, not trying to take off my nail polish.



I tried scrubbing off polish with the mitt rather than pressing down against the nail and that worked better than just putting my fingers into the mitt, but still not as well as just a good ol' cotton ball. After scrubbing the polish off three nails, I just gave up and removed this polish the old-fashioned way.  Overall I found the whole Stripper process unnecessarily long and less convenient than traditional polish removal.


I really love the idea of these mitts and I wanted to love the product itself since I think they'd be great for trips, but sadly the execution was a big fat FAIL for me. These are also on the pricey side--$12 for a pack of six mitts--and frankly I don't think they're worth that much. However, I've read some rave reviews for this product so I guess your mileage may vary. But yours truly is one disappointed go-go girl!

21 comments:

  1. Great concept but yeah bit disappointing, lucky it was a freebie :)

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    1. Agreed--on both counts! I wanted to like this but in my experience, the quality was just not there.

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  2. Thats too bad. Least you didnt pay for it! (= Thats a plus!

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  3. Sorry it didn't work well for you :(. I had a good experience with mine.

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    1. I've read both good and bad reviews for this product, so sounds like maybe it's a little hit or miss?

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  4. What a shame! And for that price? Bleh.

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    1. Yeah, if they were cheaper then I'd say these might be workable if you're travelling and in a real pinch but for the asking price, I can't personally recommend them.

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  5. Wow. I've loved the ones that I've gotten as samples so much that I ordered a box to have on hand for trips. I didn't even consider sticking my finger in it and letting try to work. I took it out of the wrapper and got busy wiping at my nails. I was able to get all of my fingers done and a couple toes before it ran out of juice.

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    1. I know with cotton balls you can either scrub or press it into the nail and let it absorb the polish, so I thought I'd try both methods with this as I've seen reviews that use the mitts both ways too. Wiping worked better but my mitt seemed to dry out pretty quickly and I wouldn't say mine had enough for ten nails. Reviews on these seem a bit mixed overall so maybe it's a hit or miss type of thing.

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  6. How frustrating! I got one free in an order but have yet to try it. I was thinking about keeping it for a trip but maybe if I do I will make sure it is a trip where I can easily buy NPR if I need it :-/

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    1. They might help you in a jam so long as you're wearing a creme--not sure this would work too well on glitter, though I could be wrong. Scrubbing with the mitt worked okay, I just found it much more tedious than regular remover and gave up since the mitt was drying out.

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  7. Lovely "raunchy post"!!! Stinks this wasn't so great, but heck when its free it ain't so bad...although if they cost that much and are this crummy UGH!

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    1. Thanks! :) I'm surprised Sally Hansen or a similar brand hasn't come out with a more affordable version of a polish mitt. I really enjoy the concept but I think the price is way too high for how these perform.

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  8. Yikes. Too pricey to be so inefficient.

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    1. Totally! Even a remover-soaked cotton ball pressed into the nail would have picked up more than the mitt did. :(

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  9. I knew it was too good to be true. Maybe rubbing the whole time would have been better than just letting it sit on the nail.. hmm these new inventions, eh.

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  10. I knew it was too good to be true. Maybe rubbing the whole time would have been better than just letting it sit on the nail.. hmm these new inventions, eh.

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    1. Rubbing did work better, but I still prefer just a classic cotton ball--easier and cheaper!

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  11. These sound like a great idea, but I wouldn't want to deal with the fact that they might end up sucking. The price is just too much for that. I'd rather stick to cotton balls and a bottle of remover.

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    1. The idea is excellent so I hope one day a drugstore brand will come out with a more affordable version of this that hopefully works better too. Until then, yep, I'd stick with your cotton balls!

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