Aztec tips and a comparison

Left Orly Lucky Duck, right OPI Jade Is The New Black
(Completely on the left is Konad Solid Pop Green)

Hello everyone :) Last week I attempted my first aztec nails, or should I say pixel nails? The nice green you see is Orly Lucky Duck, it had an amazing formula, a bit in between a jelly and a creme, which made it very easy to apply. So you'll end up with a glossy and opaque finish after two coats. On the swatches of it online, it looked more turquoise, that's why I loved it so, but in real life it leans a lot more towards green. Still very pretty, though I don't think I needed it, since I now find it very similar to a polish I already had: OPI's Jade Is The New Black. They're not dupes, JITNB is a bit dustier than Lucky Duck as you can see, but still I think they're so similar, that you probably won't need both. They both have a great formula and cover in two coats, also the drying time of the two polishes is pretty good, so the big difference must be in the brush/cap (or price). I like both the rubberized cap of Orly and OPI's Pro Wide Brush, but you might not agree with me ;)

About the nail art, I used tape strips to make the aztec pattern, what else, right? ;) The white is Essence Stamp Me! White and the red is OPI's Big Apple Red. Yes, it took me forever to make, haha, but I'm quite patient when it comes to nail art, so I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Though using it as an accent nail would be a nice compromise, like the polished perfectionist AmyGrace did here. Accent nail FTW, right! She's awesome. And that's it for this post, good night!

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Comparison: Zoya Charla, Essence Choose Me, Orly Halley's Comet, & Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune

September 3, 2011

This is my first comparison post, and I decided to compare these polishes because of a recent haul. In a recent haul, I purchased some Orly polishes including Halley's Comet. I did not intend to keep it and decided to give it to my sister because I realized it looked exactly like Zoya Charla and Essence Choose Me from my color wheels. Another blogger mentioned that Wet N Wild Teal of Fortune is Zoya Charla's cousin polish. To me, in person and from the photos, the Zoya, Essence, and Orly look EXACTLY the same. I could not tell them apart. The Wet N Wild is no where near the same. It has a more dark blue base and the "shimmer" is not as noticeable. In addition, all of the polishes applied relatively the same and dried in about the same amount of time. 

I like this comparison because Essence was only 99 cents where as the Orly polish was 10 dollars and the Zoya polish was 8 dollars.  That is a huge price difference. I was so mad when I got the Orly polish and realized it was the same as two other polishes that I already own haha. I even did google searches of swatches of the Orly polish and didn't even recognize the similarities before I purchased them.

So what do you think? Do you think the three polishes look the same? 

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Sephora Diving In Malaysia vs Chanel Peridot

Hi everyone! These pictures I just found are from a comparison of Sephora's Diving In Malaysia and Chanel Peridot, from a German blog called In Your Face. And I really can not tell any difference! Sometimes dupes have the exact same color but a difference in the shimmer for example, which is harder to duplicate. But from these pictures Diving In Malaysia and Peridot seem actually identical! Left is Diving In Malaysia, right is Peridot. So if you love Peridot, but don't want to pay the high price, see if you can get your hands on Diving In Malaysia, which is only €5.80 for a bottle of 5ml/0.16fl.oz. For the entire post (in German) and more pictures, click here.

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Comparison: Blues

Hi everyone! This comparison is specially made for Ivana, who was wondering how similar OPI's Dating A Royal and Essence's Chuck are. I also included two other blues that were worth comparing. The difference between all four polishes was hard to see in the bottles, but once applied one the nail their true colors became more noticeable. The blues I used from left to right:

China Glaze - First Mate (1 coat)

OPI - Dating A Royal (3 coats)

Essence - Chuck (1 coat)

Diamond Cosmetics - Blue Bell (2 coats)

Formula-wise all of them are decent, with OPI and Essence with the greatest. First Mate's formula is a bit thicker than the others but still manageable. And I love the fact that in can cover in one thicker coat. In the bottle it's harder to see, but once on the nail the difference between the navy blue of First Mate and the royal blue of Dating A Royal is quite clear. The formula of Dating A Royal is bit thin, but really nice to work with. And even though it does require three coats (or 2 thicker ones) for opacity, the great formula, short drying time and nice brush make it a very fine polish! Next is Chuck, which I don't have anything to complain about. The formula is just perfect and I love how pigmented it is. As you can see Dating A Royal  and Chuck are close but definitely not dupes. Chuck is brighter and consists more purple. One that I would call a Chuck-dupe is Blue Bell, which I wasn't that happy about. It applies quite uneven with the first coat and even though a second, thicker coat fixes that and makes everything smooth and opaque, the too flexible brush was a bit of a bummer. So clearly, Chuck's my favorite of the two, plus it's cheaper and I like the bottleshape better, haha.

So I hope this comparison was useful to some of you, and just let me know if there's anything I can change. Good night!

Bonus pic! I added China Glaze Calypso Blue on my thumb, turning this comparison mani into an ombre (of course it would've been better to have a lighter blue on my pinky then...)

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Comparison: Grey/blue pastels

Hi guys, my first comparison post! I noticed I had a couple of pretty similar greyish blue pastels in my stash. To be exactly: China Glaze Seaspray, Eyeko Rain Polish and Essence Got A Secret. I just showed Take Me To Your Cheateau next to the three 'cause I didn't want a naked nail on the picture lol. Anyway, I applied two coats of each polish. The Essence (and Color Club) had the best formula, followed by Sea Spray. Sea Spray applies pretty okay with the first coat, but it tends to get a bit streaky with the second one, still manageable though. And Rain Polish was quite a disappointement. When I bought this polish about a year ago, the greyish blue color it has wasn't very common, so I was very excited about it. But the streaky formula was such a blow that I've never used it more than one time to swatch! And one year later I ordered Sea Spray, 'cause it was "so unique" and "I didn't have anything like it yet"... Boy, was I wrong. They both have that same, very subtle, silver shimmer. And I think Rain Polish is a tiny bit lighter and more blue, but I'm talking about the tiniest bit ever here. So not a soul would notice if you'd wear both on the same hand. And then there's Essence Got A Secret, which is more an obvious grey and lighter than the last mentioned two. Also it doesn't have that blue quality but still it's a beautiful color.
Thanks for reading!

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