Dupe Or No Dupe: Manicure edition!

Hello!!

First, if you missed it, I'm having a giveaway! You can check it out by clicking here.

Next, something you may not know about me is that I'm a hockey fan. I'm not quite as avid about it as I used to be, but I still like to make sure I go to two or three games a year. I support my local NHL team, which is the San Jose Sharks:

Source

The last time I did a manicure for a game, it was right after the last Sally red tag sale, at which I picked up both China Glaze Blue Sparrow and China Glaze Blue Iguana. In the bottle, these look exactly alike, so I decided to do a Dupe Or No Dupe about them.

However! As you may know, Blue Sparrow is a matte polish, and Blue Iguana is not, so they are definitely not dupes. But what I wondered was, since they looked so much alike in the bottle...would they look the same with topcoat and/or nail art on? I decided to make each one the base polish on one hand of my SJ Sharks manicure to find out.


First, let's have a look at China Glaze Blue Sparrow on the nail, with no topcoat:

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

China Glaze Blue Sparrow

Such a pretty, vibrant blue with little sparkly flecks, and the matte finish adds to the textural fun. Sorry about the ding, but I didn't bother to redo since I knew I was going to put nail art over it.


Next, China Glaze Blue Iguana:

China Glaze Blue Iguana

China Glaze Blue Iguana

Definitely different so far. Almost a duochrome with that flash of green, and otherwise a pretty blue with sparkly flecks, but in a glass-like finish.

The next step of my manicure was to do a gradient of black polish (Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris) over the blues:


Gradient with Blue Sparrow:

Gradient with Blue Sparrow

(strange how the matte polish almost seemed to mattify the creme during the gradient...Note how different it looks over Blue Iguana)

Gradient with Blue Iguana:

Again, very different, and both pretty in their own way.

But here comes the topcoat...let's see what happens then...

For my final touch, I put a coat of Rainbow Polish The Great Blue over each, and finished with Seche Vite. Here is the final look with both polishes:

Over Blue Sparrow:

Over Blue Iguana:

Definitely still different, but not as different as before. Blue Sparrow seems to be a little deeper blue with a little bit more depth, and Blue Sparrow is a bit more bright. To tell you the truth, in real life, you really had to compare these side by side to see a difference--you couldn't tell unless you looked closely.

So what are my conclusions? Definitely NO DUPE for sure, and certainly each have more of their own uniquely awesome qualities than you can tell from the bottle. These didn't hold up as much with the addition of nail art, however, and for that purpose, if you already have one of these, and are looking to save a few buckazoids, you could probably skip the other. You can matte up Blue Iguana with a matte topcoat if you like, and of course can topcoat Blue Sparrow like I did.

One last point, however! See how I put the glitter over them? Well, the strangest thing happened with Blue Iguana only--the blue polish UNDER the glitter stained my nails something wicked fierce.  Nothing would remove the stains, and I have little dark dots on that hand, and can only swatch opaque colors over it. This didn't happen for Blue Sparrow, I have no idea why. So strange!

What do you think? Was it interesting to see the two polishes used in a manicure rather than just swatches? Or do you think just having side-by-side swatches is fine, and this didn't really add much?

Anyway, thanks for looking! Just goes to show that just because something looks like a dupe in the bottle doesn't mean it actually is. :)

Big hugs,

M.

Before & After: Nubar Iris Dust glitter sammich!

Hello!!

Today I have another manicure from the Flip- Flop February challenge...sort of. Sort of, because I kinda messed up a little bit. The prompt for today is Stamping/Jelly Sandwich...but somehow it made it into my calendar as 'Stamping/Glitter Sandwich'. Not a huge difference, except for the fact that I made my sammich without using jelly polish...I used non-jelly duochrome instead. Bad, bad blogger. :(

However, I really love the colors and the result, so I have to share it anyway! 

Here are the polishes I used, in the order I used them; from left to right, Nubar Iris Dust, Rainbow Polish Pheasant (a clear-based polish with copper, yellow and blue glitters), and Sally Hansen Amber Ruby, from and old, old, old school Nail Prisms release:

Nubar Iris Dust, Rainbow Polish Pheasant, and Sally Hansen Amber Ruby

Here is Iris Dust on its own; it's a rich purple-brown-gold duochrome with a fairly strong color shift: 

Nubar Iris Dust

Aaand, closer up. :)

Then I put on a layer of Pheasant, letting it sit where it lie instead of smoothing or trying to perfect placement (because I think  little randomness looks best in a glitter sammich). Finally, I topped it with Amber Ruby, which is similar to Iris Dust, but different enough to add dimension:

Okay, that's a lot of pictures, lo, but I wanted to try to catch the different colors through the shift. And I realize these colors aren't for everyone, but what can I say, I just love them. I love the way the duochrome shifts over the glitters, I love the metallic tones, and I adore the way the blues just pop out from the rest. Can't you just see these colors on a gorgeous pheasant out in the wild??

Thank you for checking it out, and please take a look at what the other participants did today. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Santa & Elves

Hello!

Okay, let me just say right up-front, it's not my fault.

See, what had happened was? When I sat down to do this prompt (Santa & Elves), I had just caught up on a 'The Walking Dead' marathon. And what else can you expect when you've just been watching people get ripped apart by zombies, and then you try to switch to thinking about Santa! Of course you're going to wonder what happened when Santa came to deliver presents to the remaining humans on Christmas Eve in the zombie apocalypse. Totally normal, totally predictable, not weird or sick or twisted AT ALL.

Please don't judge me.

What I figure is this. Since Santa and his elves are magical, as soon as the zombies touched them, they'd disappear, right? But the clothes that the zombies were touching would probably get left behind. And of course because they smell like zombie food still, they'd get ripped to shreds. Only logical.  ::nods head vigorously::

So here's what I think the aftermath would look like:

The...HORROR...

Oh, the elfmanity...

Clearly they got Santa's jacket and his belt...and it looks like they got at least one pair of elf shoes, based on those little green shreds...it's madness...it's insanity...heck, I don't even know which way is up!! Thank goodness Santa got away to come and bring presents another day.

Here's how I made it.
1) Two coats of Julep Scarlett as the base color.
2) One coat of Rainbow Polish Festive Fruitcake.
3) Added a square gold stud for Santa's belt buckle.
4) Added small black square glitters for shreds of Santa's belt.

I know it's silly and strange, but I hope it made you smile a little bit. Thanks for looking, and please check out the other participants' takes on the prompt (almost certainly more traditional than mine), linked below. :)

Merry Christmas Eve,
M.

Before & After: Ornaments

Hello!

Today's post does double-duty and I love it! First, today's prompt in my CNT Winter Holiday Challenge is 'Christmas decorations/tree/wreath/ornaments/etc.', and I chose Ornaments because in my Llama Nails alphabet challenge, we're on 'O'...so, 'O' is for Ornaments. :)

I started with a base of China Glaze Foxy, which has sat sad and neglected in my untrieds box for quite some time...boy, what a mistake it was to not have tried it before. As a lover of reds, this is one of the prettiest red polishes I've ever seen:

China Glaze Foxy

China Glaze Foxy

To create 'garland' for the ornaments to hang from, I saran-wrapped the tips of the nails with China Glaze Passion, and then put Rainbow Polish Festive Fruitcake glitter over the tips. Finally, I stamped ornaments hanging down on the accent nail using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (now called Silver Star), and Bunny Nails plate HD07:

Deck the halls with boughs of polish...

Falalalalalalalala...

I'm in love love love love love...the textured tips really remind me of that crazy tinsel-y garland and the glitter just adds pop, I think. :)

Thanks for looking, hope you liked it! Please check out the manicures by my fellow Tart-lettes and Llama-ettes, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Indie-licous spotlight NOTD: Rainbow Polish Great Blue

Hello!

Today I have a fun glitter sandwich to show you that I made with a very cool indie polish. I was just playing around with some colors one day and loved the result. That means I don't have pictures before & after style, but I had to share with you anyway. :)

For my underwear, I used Wet n Wild Rain Check; then I put on a coat of Rainbow Polish Great Blue, which has a very fun mix of hexes and diamonds in different sizes and in several shades of blue, plus holographic hexes and bar glitter. You can see the true colors in the bottle.

After putting the glitter on, I wanted to give it a little shimmer, so I topped with with a coat of Pure Ice Oh Baby!, which is a really translucent blue shimmer. Here is the final effect:

Rainbow Polish Great Blue + Pure Ice Oh Baby! over Wet n Wild Rain Check

Look at all that pretty, chunky glitterz...

In terms of reviewing the polish, it went on great and required minimal fussing; this is one coat with a little strategy, but not much. I love this chunky look--it's fun and sort of retro, and I like the way it stands out against the light underwear. :)

If you're interested in checking out Great Blue or other Rainbow Polish delights, you can find the Etsy store by clicking here.There appear to be a few holiday polishes up for your festive delight!

Thanks so much for reading!

Xoxox,
M.

(These polishes were all purchased with my own money.)