Battle of the Chanel Peridot Dupes featuring OPI, Deborah Lippmann and Gap!

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers!  Today, I have a post that many of you have been asking about!  It seems like every nail polish company is now trying their hand at duplicating the gorgeous Chanel Peridot!  Today, I will have a comparison of all the dupes I have for you so you can decide for yourself!

Can you tell which is which yet?  Here are the contenders (in no particular order) CHANEL Peridot, GAP Gold Rush, Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us and OPI Just Spotted The Lizard.  Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Each nail above has three coats of the color.  I tried to show you with my nails at different angles so you can see the color flashes.  Have you guessed yet which is which?

This is the order they are on the nail, from pointer finger to pinkie it goes OPI Just Spotted The Lizard, CHANEL Peridot, GAP Gold Rush and Deborah Lippmann Swagga Like Us!  Let me tell you, I'm glad I took a picture of the order because with three coats, the OPI, CHANEL and GAP look identical!  Same shade, same color flashes, the only difference was the formula!  The OPI has the most brush stroke looking and needs the 3 coats the most to achieve the effect while the CHANEL and the GAP seemed pretty identical in formula and basically achieved the same look in two coats.  As you all can see, Swagga Like Us by Deborah Lippmann is NOT a dupe, it's much warmer, more copper rather than gold and doesn't get nearly as much of the green flash!

So there you have it, I'm going to call it and say that the first three ARE dupes!  I know I didn't originally think that Just Spotted The Lizard was in my Spiderman post but with three coats, I can't tell the difference between the three.  There is however quite the large price difference!  CHANEL Peridot retails for $25 while OPI Just Spotted The Lizard is around $8 and GAP Gold Rush is $6.  I'm a HUGE Chanel fan and think their formula is outstanding, but my second choice if you don't want to spend the money would be the GAP polish! 

What do you think of these polishes?  Dupes to your eyes as well? 

Deborah Lippmann Dance Music Holiday Mini Trio vs Wet N Wild Ice Baby Collection

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers! I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I fell off the wagon with the 30 days of untrieds, but sometimes life just gets in the way! So, to make up for it, I've been trying to show you some awesome collections and today will be showing you a fun comparison post!  As you've seen on here already, Deborah Lippmann came out with a really cute mini holiday trio called Dance Music a few weeks ago that's 3 really cute and fun glitters.  Similarly, Wet N Wild released a limited edition collection only at Walgreens called Ice Baby that's all glitters and when I saw the two, they looked similar but I wasn't quite sure if they were dupes so clearly I had to swatch them together!  So now, without further ado, on to the polish!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Just Dance

Above:  3 coats of Cost is no Issue

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - 2 coats of Just Dance/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers 2 coats of Cost is No Issue
First up we have Deborah Lippmann Just Dance vs Wet N Wild Cost is no Issue.  The first major difference is opacity, it only take 2 coats of Just Dance to be opaque while it takes three for Cost is no Issue.  The second major difference is color.  Just Dance is far more teal and a bit more vibrant where Cost is no Issue is lighter in color and more pale.  As you can see when they are swatched together (both using only 2 coats) Just Dance is much brighter, more highly pigmented and has much more teal than aqua to it.  For me, Deborah Lippmann wins this round!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Flash Dance

 Above:  3 coats of Wet N Wild Back Alley Deals

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - 2 coats of Flash Dance/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers - 2 coats of Back Alley Deals

I really thought that these two were going to be dupes when I first saw them, until I put them on the nail and it became clear that they were very different.  First of all, it only takes two coats of Flash Dance to be opaque whereas it takes three for Back Alley Deals.  Also, Back Alley Deals is far more purple!  The base of Back Alley Deals is a dark purple glitter with fuchsia larger pieces of glitter so the overall look is more purple whereas Flash Dance is more of a fuchsia base with hot pink larger glitter giving it a much more pink look.  For me, Wet N Wild wins this one because I prefer the purple to the pink base, however both are gorgeous!

 Above:  2 coats of Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Dark

Above:  Pointer and Ring Finger - Deborah Lippmann Dancing in the Dark/ Middle and Pinkie Fingers - Wet N Wild Diamond in the Rough

I know, I know, I forgot to swatch Diamond in the Rough by itself!  I honestly thought I had worn it before!  Oops!  Anyway, can you tell the difference between these two?  If I had to fine something, the base of Dancing in the Dark is a smidge darker than Diamond in the Rough, but unless I was really looking for it, these two are dupes!  Both dark grey glitter bases with larger hexagonal holographic glitter.  These two truly are 99% identical.

All in all, are these collections (or at least the three that "match") dupes?  I have to say no!  While Diamond in the Rough and Dancing in the Dark are dupes, the blues and the purple/pinks are different enough to justify having both.  Of course the price points are very different with the Wet N Wild coming out to $2.99 per bottle, although they are fairly hard to find being a limited release and the Deborah Lippmann set being $29.  If you're a glitter fan though, treat yourself for the holidays!

What do you guys think?  Dupes or not?  Do you have either or both?  Which do you like better?

MAC Unconditionally Fabulous vs. China Glaze Snow Globe

Good morning my fellow lacquered lovers! Today I have a "versus" post for you! Now we all hate dupes, because it's frustrating when you are super excited about a new polish only to discover that you have an EXACT duplicate of it already in your collection but by another brand! So, I hope this post will help everyone avoid unnecessary dupes! Yesterday I showed you MAC Unconditionally Fabulous and I promised to do a comparison with China Glaze Snow Globe. Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

Can you tell the difference yet?

First, let's look at each polish on its own with no base coat:

Above:  1 coat of MAC Unconditionally Fabulous

Unconditionally Fabulous is a ton of iridescent glitter (you can see pink, purple, blue, green and orange) in a sheer jelly base, almost clear.  There is a LOT of glitter in this polish!  I have no idea how many coats you'd need to make this opaque, but I'm guessing it would be a lot.  Luckily this polish is not too thick as some glitters can become and it really easy to work with.

Above:  1 coat of China Glaze Snow Globe
Snow Globe is iridescent glitter that's suspended in a clear jelly base.  The glitter is much more sparse than in Unconditionally Fabulous and the glitter itself seems more transparent.  You can still make out some colors (blue, pink, orange, green) but it's much more pale.

Let's take a look at them side by side:

Can you tell which one is which?  They are both a base of one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme (the best one coat black cream in my opinion) with one coat of the glitter on top.  Give up?

The pointer and ring finger are China Glaze Snow Globe and the middle and pinkie finger are MAC Unconditionally Fabulous.  As you can see, there is a LOT more glitter and coverage in one coat of Unconditionally Fabulous than there is in one coat of Snow Globe.  I'm guessing you could build up Snow Globe in 2 or 3 coats, but you'd have to allow time to dry in between coats so the glitter doesn't get all smushed around.  It also appears to me that Unconditionally Fabulous has more colors in it that really pop when layered on a dark color.  It stands out a bit more where Snow Globe is far more subtle.


So, are they dupes?  They are close, but they aren't exact.  Snow Globe seems to me to be the weaker, not as spunky little sister to Unconditionally Fabulous.  If you don't want to shell out the cash for Unconditionally Fabulous, Snow Globe makes a good second place, and if you want a more subtle look with less sparkle, Snow Globe is the way to go.  I do think there are enough subtle difference to justify having both (at least that's what I'm telling myself) but do you NEED both?  Probably not.  If you guys would like, I can see how many coats of Snow Globe it would take to get the same glitter bomb effect of Unconditionally Fabulous, just let me know in the comments!  Snow Globe is part of China Glaze's Holiday 2011 Let It Snow Collection and Unconditionally Fabulous is one of MAC's limited edition Glitter and Ice 2011 polishes.

What do you think of these two?  Are they dupes?  Are they different enough to justify both?  Which do you prefer?

China Glaze Techno vs OPI Servin' Up Sparkle Swatches and Review

Good morning my fellow Lacquered Lovers! First off, I'm super excited today for two reasons. The first reason is that this is my 99th post! Crazy! I can't believe I've written about nail polish 99 times (and still have a LOT more to go) and thanks to all of you for reading! The second reason I'm excited is that today is Fashion Night Out in New York! I can't wait to go to Ricky's FNO party tonight (and don't forget to check out their website HERE for all sorts of fun beauty goodies and 10% off today with code FNONYC) and to go see the Color Club Mobile Truck! We'll see if we have time for any more events but not to worry, I'll have my camera with me so I can blog about it!

So in honor of this very special day, I have a super fun post! I'm calling it the "Battle of the Holographic Glitter Top Coats!" As I was re-organizing my nail polish hoard last weekend, I was looking for any dupes I might have and surprisingly, not that many! However there was one that I was curious about, so today I give you China Glaze Techno vs. OPI Servin' Up Sparkle.




I decided to swatch these over black so you could really see the sparkles pop. So I began with one coat of my trusty OPI Nail Envy topped with one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme. Then on the pointer and ring finger (pointer is the top most finger in the picture) has one coat of China Glaze Techno and the middle and pinkie fingers (pinkie is the bottom most finger) has one coat of OPI Servin Up Sparkle. So, how do they measure up?

Both polishes have small and large pieces of silver holographic glitter suspended in a clear base. However Servin' Up Sparkle has a bit more glitter! Here are some blurry pictures to really show you the rainbow holographic effect in both:




As you can see, the fingers with OPI Servin' Up Sparkle are definitely more sparkly and have more rainbows and glitter than the fingers with China Glaze Techno. Now, you can certainly get the same effect from two coats of Techno as you do from one coat of Servin' Up Sparkle, so if you're looking to avoid dupes in your collection, definitely only one is needed and you can layer it up as desired. Here are some bottle shots:




In the bottles, they look virtually identical, it's not until it's on the nail that you can see that in Techno, the glitter, mainly the large glitter, is more sparse. All in all, they are both gorgeous if you are a glitter fan (like I clearly am) however I don't think they are both must haves. I would say that if you like your glitter more spread out than Techno is probably the glitter for you because you can have it sparse or layer it up to make it more glittery. If you love the glitter bombs, then Servin' Up Sparkle is probably the glitter top coat for you!

What do you think of these polishes? Do you have both or either? Which do you prefer? Anyone else hitting up Fashion Night Out tonight?