Sparkly Zoya's: Final Comparison

Hello Ladies! One final post of this sparkly Zoya blogathon...I just wanted to give some quick comparison bottleshots.  I was originally concerned that Peyton, Blaze and Aurora might be fairly similar before I bought them, but as you can see from the photo below they couldn't be more different.

From L-R : Zoya Peyton, Blaze and Aurora

You can also clearly see from this shot see that the holo glitter in Aurora is much more concentrated that in the other shades, and its utterly mesmerizing on the nail.  It ranks amongst my sparkliest polishes of all (second only to the Smitten Polish 'Magic Words' collection polishes...post to come on these).  So imagine my surprise to see this fantastic comparison post by More Nail Polish comparing OPI DS polishes, Zoya's, Ozotic's and Dance Legend, showing that the Dance Legend WOW Prism polish packs in more glitter than all of them....I strongly predict there will be some DL polishes entering the stash in the near future.

Jen at The PolishAholic (one of my absolute fave bloggers) did a wonderful comparison post of Holiday polishes from several major brands, including the Zoya Ornate collection.  Check it out at this link.

One of the comparisons made on the More Nail Polish post is between Zoya Blaze and Picture Polish Monroe.  On her post these look very similar.  I have both of these so took a quick couple of comparison shots and I think they are quite different.  I think Monroe was re-released with a new formula, and I wonder whether this is why mine is so dissimilar to Blaze....

Left - PP Monroe, Right - Zoya Blaze

As you can see here, in my bottles the PP is a darker shade of red, more of a burgundy, and the Zoya is more pink leaning towards raspberry.  Both are fabulous, and not dupes.  So yes, if you like sparkly red polishes I think it's justifiable to have both.  Then again I think it's justifiable to spend more on nail polish than food, so what do I know?

Finally, I was interested in finding comparisons to Dream with Picture Polish Cosmos (which I don't own, but was considering) and found this great post from the Polished Cricket. In her post she suggests that these are quite similar, but that Dream is better and from her pics I agree.  Definitely no need for both methinks.

Until next time :)

Bargain Chanel Taboo Dupe - No.7 Galaxy

Hello Ladies! I have some very exciting news to share with you today....I have tested both and found that the new No.7 Gel-Finish polish "Galaxy" is, in my opinion, a 100% identical dupe for Limited Edition Chanel Taboo (Taboo review).

With the current Boots No.7 voucher scheme, that means you can pick up this shade for £4, compared with the spendy Chanel pricetag of £18.  Sounds too good to be true?  Well here's the pics so you can see for yourself...Click the pics to embiggen....



Chanel Taboo dupe test with No.7 Galaxy - artificial light

In this swatch I'm wearing two coats of each polish, over NE basecoat.  There is NO topcoat in these pics, so you can see the glossy finish of the 'Gel-look shine' on the No.7 and the natural high shine of the Chanel.  Can you see a difference? I couldn't!  I turned my hands every which way, and looked at the polish in a range of lighting and I honestly couldn't tell these apart.

Chanel Taboo dupe test with No.7 Galaxy - artificial light

Both polishes are a deep eggplant/aubergine base with blue and magenta shimmer particles peeking through.  In most lighting conditions this comes across as a dark blackened aubergine, the shimmer only pops in direct sunlight or under halogen lighting (why do all my polishes look so much prettier in my kitchen? I'm going with the halogen bulbs as the reason).

left: "Galaxy" by No.7, right: "Taboo" by Chanel

If you read my review of Taboo you'll know that this polish was one of the biggest disappointments to me in 2013.  I just didn't feel that for the £18 price tag it packed a lot of punch.  I also found the formula quite gloopy and difficult to work with and the wear-time dissapointing.  The No.7 dupe on the other hand is a fraction of the price (£7 full price, current voucher offer gives you £3 off) and the formula was really nice.  The gloss of the gel finish was surprisingly good too.  For this price point the No.7 is a fantastic bargain!



"Galaxy" by No.7

Here is the No.7 polish on its own, two coats, this time with SV on top too.  I really enjoyed this polish to wear, and I'm impressed with the level of quality from No.7 on this one - I got better wear out of this polish too in comparison to the Chanel.  For a bargain 'drugstore' brand this is a solid offering.  For the £4 I paid for this polish I'm very happy.  I feel I was duped by the Chanel in more ways than one.  It is still a mystery to me why so many bloggers listed Taboo as one of their favourites of 2013, unless their point was to boast that they'd bought a big spendy LE polish. 

So there you have it ladies - one more reason to get down to your local Boots and take advantage of the £3 off voucher/Buy one get one 1/2 price offer while it lasts - it finishes a the start of February!

Flakie Comparisons: New Barry M 'Crystal Glaze' and others

Today I have a picture heavy flakie comparison post for you.  In recent weeks I've picked up three new flakies and was keen to see how these compare to polishes I already have.  My new polishes include brand new shades from Barry M ("Crystal Glaze"),  Color Club ("The Uptown") and No.7 ("In the Stars").  The No.7 is a polish I've seen described as a 'microflakie', sporting ultra fine iridescent particles that I think you could also consider to be a soft duochrome glitter.  I have divided this comparison into traditional sized flakies (the 'macroflakies') and the fine glitter sized particle polishes (the 'microflakies').

So, onto the comparison, here is the line-up:

The 'Macroflakies'
(L-R) Barry M "Crystal Glaze, Essie "Shine of the Times", Color Club "The Uptown", Layla "The Butterfly Effect (52)"

The 'Microflakies'
(L-R) No. 7 "In the Stars", Color Club "Pearl-spective"

The first observation to make with all of these, is that the colour in the bottle is completely different to the colour on the nail! For these swatches I've layered each macroflakie atop No.7 "Just Black".  With the exception of the Barry M polish (two coats) these are a single coat of the flakie to give you an idea of the density of flakie bits...


L-R: Crystal Glaze, SOTT, The Uptown, Butterfly Effect - Natural light

(L) Barry M Crystal Glaze (R) Essie SOTT - macro shot

Immediately we can see that the tone of the colour shift on the Barry M offering is completely different to the other three, which are all similar to each other.  Despite looking positively pink in the bottle, the Barry M flakie comes through in shades of blue, aqua and almost clear pieces.  One thing I wasn't keen on was the clear/pale flakie particles on first appearance look like missed patches on the nail so at first I thought I'd smudged the polish.  The density of particles in the Barry M polish is also much less than the others - roughly half. 

Comparing the 'red toned' macroflakies - of these it seems that on a black base, Essie SOTT and Color Club The Uptown are close enough to be dupes.  The Layla "Butterfly Effect" is very similar, just a little more red toned.  This can be seen more clearly in the photo below, which was taken in direct sunlight...



L-R: Crystal Glaze, SOTT, The Uptown, Butterfly Effect - Sun light

In bottle, the Color Club and Layla polishes look like dupes.  So I also compared these on their own, with no base colour.  Shown here are three coats of each:



L-R: Color Club "The Uptown" and Layla "Butterfly Effect" - Sun light

Despite the intense in-bottle indigo colour, both of these are really watery and thin on their own.  There is still considerable VNL with three coats, so it would take a hell of a lot to become fully opaque.  It's less obvious in this picture, but the Layla polish is slightly darker toned, and slightly more opaque than the Color Club.

Now onto the microflakies! For comparison I have the new No.7 shade "In the Stars" and Color Club's "Pearl-spective" from their recent Kaleidoscope collection.



L-R: Color Club "Pearl-spective" and No. 7 "In the Stars"

Both microflakie shades are gorgeous layered on black. Shown here is one coat of each.  Again the in-bottle colour is nothing like the on-nail colour and these two shades are far from dupes - in fact they are sort of mirror-images of each other.  The No.7 appears predominantly blue and has a subtle shift through aqua to pink.  The Color Club looks predominantly pink, with a subtle shift through purple to blue.  Both very pretty and worth owning both I think.  I found some excellent pics of the No.7 layered over blue and on its own here.  There is also an excellent review of Pearl-spective here, which again shows swatches over different base colours.  It looks as though the shift is highly dependent on base colour, so this is something I'll play with at some point. These microflakies remind me of the Ozotic 'Sugar' polishes from the 900 series (great review here), although I don't have any of those for comparison.

Phew! So the final comparison is price...Macroflakies: I bought the Barry M with my Boots points (hurrah!) and the RRP is £3.99.  The Essie and Layla polishes I bought from Amazon sellers for £8.04 and £5.94 respectively with free P&P.  The Colour Club was part of a duo-set in TK Maxx for £3.99, so effectively £2.  The Microflakies: I bought the No.7 with one of those handy £3 off vouchers Boots sometimes hand out, RRP is £6 so I got it for £3.  The Colour Club was part of a 4-polish mini-set in TK Maxx for £3.99 so effectively cost £1.  Full size Color Club polishes are available for about £8 if you can find them, and occasionally TK Maxx has 8 polish sets for £8-£10 which is a frickin steal.

Recommendations: If you own none of these, and want to, then I would recommend the No.7 micro-flakie "In the Stars" since this is easy to find, super pretty, and potentially the cheapest if you get one of those voucher offers.  For the macroflakies I'd recommend the Layla polish "The Butterfly Effect" (Ceramic Effects No. 52).  It's the cheapest, and so similar to the other shades that it makes no difference really which you pick. 



Comparison: Chanel Taboo & Nails Inc Regent's Palace



Today I have a new comparison to show you - Chanel Taboo vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace.  I'll start by giving away the ending - these are not dupes.  However, it's worth taking a closer look, the comparison isn't as crazy as you might first think.

Readers of this blog will know that I have never been so excited, or so disappointed by a polish than I was with Chanel Taboo (my Taboo review and swatches).  I won't repeat my review here but the main reason for my disappointment was the vast difference between the in-bottle and on-nail impact of this polish.  In the bottle it looks like instant galaxy nails - it's utterly packed with phenomenal looking colour, sparkly bits and what-not.  On the nail, it looks for the most time, like a dull dark black/purple.  The 'pop' in the bottle is only seen in flash, and direct sunlight, and even then only when you're really looking at it.  The formula is also pretty pants, quite gloopy.

So I wondered - supposing you don't want to spend £18 or can't get a hold of this limited edition.  What else could you get that would look as good or better?  Step up to the plate Nails Inc Regent's Palace....



Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace (middle, pinkie)
Natural Light

In close up here you can see some evidence of the sparkly bits in Taboo, and you can also see it's in a much darker base than RP which has a fairly indigo base to it.  Both polishes have a lovely shimmer, but the brighter toned base of RP means that this shimmer is much more evident on-nail in a variety of lighting conditions.  Pictured here is two coats each of colour atop a Nail Envy base.  There's no top coat here.

Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace (middle, pinkie)
Flash

When you look at these under flash, you can see more of the bottle-beauty of Taboo coming out and the tonal difference in the bases is more pronounced.  I don't often take swatch pics with flash on because a) it makes me look like a scary albino lady and b) 99% of the time you're not going to be looking at your polish by flashlight so it's not really a fair test of how pretty it will look (I wouldn't have had such a lemming for Taboo if I had seen it in more natural lighting pics I think).
Taboo does have more sparkle than RP for sure, although bear in mind that this sparkle is not actually visible by eye a lot of the time.  So to add some extra zing to the RP I then popped on a thin coat of Max Factor Fantasy Fire (possibly the best layering polish of all time, there is nothing that this won't make more fabulous.  It's like the mani equivalent of bacon).
 


Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace with Max Factor Fantasy Fire (middle, pinkie)
Natural Light 

Wowza! Regent's Palace on its own is a fabulous metallic purple shade (see my purple metallics comparison post here) but layered with Fantasy Fire it's stunning.  Again, not a dupe for Taboo, but certainly punching far above its weight in terms of price comparison and on-nail 'pop factor'.
Finally with flash, it's the return of the albino:



Chanel Taboo (index, ring) vs. Nails Inc Regent's Palace with Max Factor Fantasy Fire (middle, pinkie)
Flash

In terms of on-nail impact, sparkle, and purple-ness (I know that's not a word, but it should be) for me Regent's Palace plus Fantasy Fire is a clear winner.  In terms of price it's also a no-brainer: the Chanel will cost you £18 but it's Limited Edition so if you miss out in store I've seen this changing hands for £30-£50 which is just insane.  I got the Nail's Inc in a set of 3 from TK Maxx (bargain polish heaven) for £9.99 which by my maths makes this £3.33, but full price would cost you £11.  Fantasy Fire is £3.99 in Boots/Superdrug for a mini bottle.

So for my mani that's £7.32 vs £18, or full price it would be £14.99 vs £18.  At full price the argument is less compelling, but Regent's Palace is one of the few Nails Inc polishes that I would be happy to pay full price for.  Even on it's own, without the Fantasy Fire topper, I feel that Regent's Palace is a better all-rounder than the Chanel.  Blasphemy I know, but there you have it.
 

Finding the perfect purple...

Every nail polish addict has a favourite drug...I'm far too greedy to settle for just one, but I do have a particular weakness for metallic purple polishes.  It doesn't matter how many I've already got, it doesn't matter if I know the shiny one I've just seen in the shop/online is an almost exact dupe of something I've already got three of...I.Just.Can't.Help.Myself.  I know, it's a sickness.

I've collected here some of my favourites for comparison, just in case unlike me you don't like to own many incarnations of the same purple :) 

Right, onto the nitty gritty....



Looking for the perfect purple?

These four are some of the lushest purples that money can buy. From left to right we have: Avalon (A-England, review here), Rebel (Leighton Denny), Sexy Divide (Essie), Regent's Palace (Nails Inc).

Of these, the most similar are Sexy Divide and Regent's Palace. Both are deep dark rich shades with a red edge - Regent's palace is packing some burgundy shimmer that's hard to make out here but I'll be comparing this to Chanel Taboo in a future post and its more obvious there.  Avalon and Rebel are cooler toned purples.  For me, Avalon has the most 'pop!' and is a much more in-your-face purple whereas the darker shades have a richer texture that reminds me of plush velvet....but maybe that's just me.



brands (L:R) - A-England, Leighton Denny, Essie, Nails Inc

I love Rebel, it's such an amazing colour, but it has the weakest formula of the bunch.  It's quite thin, needs three coats to get this level of opacity, and looks streaky and awful on the first coat.  It does even out perfectly though.  In terms of brushes and other such nail geek concerns I'd say they're all about equal.  In terms of quality the A-England and Essie offerings are the best.  Wear time on all four is pretty good with perhaps the Nails Inc being marginally less hard-wearing than the others (I find that generally with NI polishes).  Apart from Rebel (which is 3), all polishes are two coats of colour with Nail Envy undies and SV on top.  I made an arse of 'Rebel', squidging it near the tip, turns out its a tricky business operating a camera with semi-wet nails.  Avalon also appears to have tip wear, but that's because I swatched after wearing Avalon for 4 days for my last review.



Purple Comparison - Artificial Light

I paid £11 (full price, John Lewis) for Rebel, £6 for Avalon (gem of the month, RRP £9, A-England website), £3.33 for Sexy Divide (TK Maxx bargain - 3 for £9.99!!! RRP £8, Boots) and finally £3.33 for Regent's Palace (again, TK Maxx marvel, RRP £11 from John Lewis).  At these prices I'd say buy them all! But if you were paying full price, and you could only get one....then I'd say Essie 'Sexy Divide' is the best purple for your money, with Avalon a close second.  There's no way I'd pay full price for the Nails Inc.

Coming soon....Regent's Palace vs. Chanel Taboo (not as crazy as you might think!)