Sparkly Nail Lovelies

That post title makes me feel a little like I am a blogger in Father Ted’s lovely girl contest. If you don’t know what I am talking about, I’m not mad. Just disappointed. Which everyone knows is a billion times worse.

So despite not being able to wear nail varnish to work I am still purchasing with a feverish passion. I actually look forward to finishing work on a Friday so I can paint my nails. It used to be so I could sit down on the sofa but our sofa is hideously uncomfortable so it has been relegated to second most-favourite-thing-to-do-on-a-Friday-evening.

Now I have a proper job I can afford all the pretties I wanted when I was working part time and spending all my spare ££ down the pub on Thatcher’s Gold. It was hard to miss the Essie Luxeffects collection on the blogs and my heart leapt when I saw A Cut Above.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided I really should get around to purchasing. Locating this on the internet was like extracting blood from a stone but I finally tracked down a seller on Amazon. Too long a wait and one missing parcel later it arrived! Excelsior!

But.

In the meantime I had purchased another pretty. One that looked kind of similar to the much lusted after A Cut Above…

Yes. Another rose gold glitter polish. Revlon’s Sparkling.


So you can see the similarities. They are both rose goldy glitters, pretty much the same shade and with hexagonal glitter along with standard glitter particles.

You can see Essie’s polish has more hexagonal glitter while Revlon’s is more sparse. They are very similar in colour though. This is two coats.

This is the most true to colour I could get

Essie’s is definitely more rosy in colour, the Revlon’s glitter can appear silver in some lights but the overall effect is a similar shade.
Essie’s formula is thicker so it is easier to get more hexagonal glitter on your nail in one swipe but it does mean you can have bald patches in some areas and loads of pooling glitter in others (see my little finger!)

I love the hexagonal glitter and that is primarily what drew me to this polish so I personally prefer the Essie but the Revlon can be built up so a similar effect and it is still a gorgeous shade, not to mention more accessible! It’s maybe not a total dupe but a good very similar alternative.

The Essie polish cost me around £8 excluding postage from an Amazon seller. I will not link to them however as I was not 100% happy with their service. Revlon polishes retail for around £6.50 or so and are available in Boots, Superdrug and other usual suspects.

What do you think? I love me a good dupe, I’m going to paw through my lipstick collection and try and find some too!

Dupey Dupe Dupe?

Happy Sunday morning! I hope you are having a fun weekend so far! I was helping my Aunty move yesterday, nothing too strenuous but lifting boxes and putting things away and my back is mangled today! Coupled with a lack of sleep and when I did nod off the randomest dreams would wake me up again so I’m not feeling completely with it today. Add on the stench of ammonia from cleaning out the rabbits at 8am and you have a tri-factor of semi-consciousness.

Onto more pressing matters, lipstick. Or rather, some of my favourite shades of lipstick. I was reading a blog recently, though I can’t remember for the life of me which, where the blogger was using Barry M’s 147 Peachy Pink lipstick and had heard it was a dupe for MAC’s elusive Ever Hip. They went on to say that they weren’t 100% sure as they didn’t have Ever Hip. I have both of these and thought it would be a good idea to put it to the test.

On the left is Barry M’s 147, priced at £4.49 and available from Boots, Superdrug and the Barry M website (where there is also a Cookie cam so you can watch their rabbit!!!) On the right is MAC’s Ever Hip, a LE which was re-released with the Fashion Flower collection in the summer. MAC’s lipsticks are £13.50 and available from MAC counters, stores and their website.

You can see they look similar, maybe Barry M is just a teensy bit pinker in the bullet.

These were all taken with a bit of Liposan (Nivea) blue tube lip balm underneath. On the lips it is hard to tell the difference. The flash pictures aren’t amazing but you can see without there is barely a difference between the two. I would say the biggest difference is the finish rather than any discrepancies between the shade as Barry M is matt (and rather drying and sometimes a bit patchy to apply) whereas Ever Hip is a cremesheen formula which glides on easily and I don’t find it as drying as a lot of other lipsticks.

I took some swatches of these and some other shades I thought could be similar-ish for comparison;

Catrice Ultimate Shine 080 Coralicious Pink, Barry M 53 Coral, Barry M 147 Peachy Pink, MAC Ever Hip, Illamasqua Obey, Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil Bolero and Topshop Ooh La La

You can see on these photos that the main difference between them is the finish. I do think if you have them both then great, they are a lovely shade that I do need to crack out more often. However if you have Barry M 147, or missed out on Ever Hip (I wasn’t going to bother but went to Cardiff a few days after the collection launched and asked if they had any left out of curiosity) then I’d say Barry M is a good substitute. It might take a little more work in application and a slick of lip balm beforehand but your saving nearly a tenner and thats off RRP, god knows what the mother that is Ever Hip goes for on eBay.

I don’t wear most of these as often as I should. I only got Nars’ Bolero a few weeks ago so that has remained in my handbag and I wore Topshop’s Ooh La La on a night out a few weeks ago and loved it so I’ve worn that a few times since. I also love Illamasqua’s Obey but as it is SO matt I do struggle with it sometimes and have yet to find it’s ideal gloss partner, if you have any suggestions please throw them my way!

Do you agree with this? Have you any other dupe suggestions?