Aqua Pool? Bright Lily?

Hi, Fireflies!

You may have seen some other bloggers talking about this dupe recently, but when I came across a bottle of Gap Bright Pool, I had to see for myself if it was just like Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily.

Can you tell the difference?

Aside from the middle finger looking crappy because of a patch job that is peeling off, all the nails looked the same to me.  Both of the formulas were the *same*.  Yes, the $20 (and up) RBL and the $6 Gap polish were the same, for all intents and purposes.

Better yet, the RBL is discontinued, and Bright Pool is available in Gap stores everywhere.  And right now, they are BOGO, effectively making it a $3 polish.  Boo-yah!

Bottle shot:  Rescue Beauty Lounge Aqua Lily and Gap Bright Pool.

Playing around with some of my other colors, I found a 'cousin' of these polishes, though it wouldn't be mistaken for a dupe.  I started with Illamasqua Venous, a dark turquoise cream.

I added Color Club Pearl-spective, a purple shimmer - in the same color family as the Aqua Lily/Bright Pool shimmer, but much larger shimmer particles.  It's not gritty, though.

It probably isn't worth it to buy these colors just to make a look that you can likely get for $3 at the Gap, but if you already have them, putting them together makes a nice combination.

I bought a wheel of rhinestones from Cult Nails at The Make Up Show, and decided to get silly-blingy with them.  Outrageous!

Which look is your fave?  Would you still pay $20+ for a bottle of the original RBL?

Is it a Dupe? Guest post from Julie of Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl!

Hello hello, Lit from Within readers!!  The lovely Nidia and I have decided to swap blogs for the night.  My name is Julie, but I'm also known as the Blue-Eyed Girl, from Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl!  When Nidia and I were discussing the swap, I just knew what I wanted to do - I wanted to post my normal Comparison Thursday series on her blog for the week!  She, in turn, injected some much needed nail art on my blog.  Go check out her delicate and pretty design here.


Ok, so on to the subject at hand!  Comparisons!  I abhor purchasing duplicates.  It drives me crazy!  Typically, if I find a duplicate or a near duplicate, I have to purge the one with the worst attributes, i.e. takes too long to dry, not pigmented enough, formula is a pain in the tukus to work with, etc.  I'm also trying to cut down on my hoardish tendencies, so I've also been purging near duplicates.  Lastly, I like doing these comparisons to help people find near duplicates of hard to find polishes to help sate their lemmings.  Often times, though, something I think may work well in my head for a comparison doesn't really pan out after all.  Tonight, I'm going to show you what I thought may be close dupes where one is hard to find and the other is not, Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie and Elevation Polish Pic de Subenuix.  Unfortunately, these two aren't even really near duplicates.  The color scheme is in the same family, but, as you will soon see, one is much darker than the other.

The basic color scheme for these polishes is a purple base with teal shimmer.

Elevation Pic de Subenuix

Pic de Subenuix is more of a blurple than a true purple.  The teal flash is uber present here giving the polish a vivid teal glow.  

Application was fantastic, like with most Elevations.  I didn't have to add any thinner, and it didn't pool or drag.  It's not a one coater like Pic de Sotllo, but took around 3 coats for full opacity.  The first coat is a little streaky, but it builds nicely with a few coats.  The dry time was great and didn't require too much time to be dry enough that I could go to sleep.

Scrangie

Scrangie's purple base leans red versus Pic de Subenuix's blurple base.  The teal shimmer is much more pronounced in the bottle than it is on the nail, which was disappointing.  

Also disappointing was the formula.  I mean, seriously?  You pay that much for a polish with a barely workable formula?  

Scrangie is one of those polishes that is so thick that it wants to stick to itself and not spread out on the nail.  Then, it was clumpy when you went to add another layer.  I was just really disappointed all around.  In my opinion, it's just not worth the astronomical prices people are asking in blog sales or other sales forums.  If RBL re-releases it, sure, grab one.  However, don't pay a bunch of money for it.  It's not really worth it.

Pantone Parachute Purple

In the true spirit of teamwork, Nidia has take photos of an alleged Scrangie dupe, Pantone Parachute Purple.  Keep in mind that our lighting set ups are different and we don't have the polishes side by side, but it appears that Parachute Purple is closer to being a dupe of Scrangie than Pic de Subenuix.

It does, however, lean more blue than red, so they don't appear to be exact duplicates.  If I get my hands on one after my no-buy, I'll definitely update this comparison post.


And here are the obligatory refrigerator photos.  I find that I can coax even the most shy duochromes by photographing in the refrigerator.

So, there you have it!  Of the two I own, I vastly prefer Pic de Subenuix.  However, if you're a collector, I could see the allure of Scrangie.


You can purchase Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes at their online store.  Follow Ji's blog and Facebook for updates and news.  Elevation Polishes may be purchased at Lulu's Bigcartel store and Llarowe.  You can follow Lulu at her blog, I Dig Brown Nail Polish, for news and updates.  Lastly, you can purchase Pantone polishes at Sephora.


Thanks so much for reading!  Come check out Nidia's post on my blog today, too!  It's gorgeous, so well worth the extra click.


Which of the three is your favorite?

Thanks so much, Julie!  I loved the comparisons.  One of these days I'll get up the courage to start getting rid of my dupes!

*I was not financially compensated for this
post.  All items in this review were
purchased by me for my own use.  The
opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my
Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*

Fairy Dust? or Pixie Dust?

Well, Zoya PixieDust won't make you fly, but it will make you FEEL like your flying, right?

Well, it'll make you want to fly?

Ok, it'll make your fingers feel bumpy, and it's pretty.  But that's pretty much all we can ask from nail polish, anyway.

My friend Jill wanted Zoya London, a beautiful medium grey, with French tips done in Dahlia.

She also wanted them topcoated, which made them supersparkly and smooth, but it also meant that they barely lasted a day before they chipped off.  Word on the street is that if you want to use base and/or top coat with Zoya Pixie Dusts, it has to be the Zoya brand, or you'll get chipping.

Zoya Vespa.  Icy, pale green.  It practically glows.

I took a cue from Jill's mani, and decided to do these with a Dahlia French tip as well.  Love the contrast.

Zoya Nyx.  Icy, pale blue.  But, wait a minute - that's a Julie G bottle I'm holding there.  Yep, one of my nails is painted with Blueberry Fizz.  In Real Life, it was nearly impossible to tell them apart, so I'm calling it a dupe.  By the way, it's my thumb.  Did you guess right?

And, French-tipped with Dahlia again. 

Dahlia.  Well, I can't just show you the little sliver of Dahlia without showing you the whole mani, can I?  I love this color.  Black, with silver sparkle.

No French tips here, but there is another dupe!  My thumb is actually painted with Orly FX Black Pixel.  Nearly impossible to tell apart in Real Life.

As far as formula, you can't go wrong with Zoya.  All of these applied great, one or two coats as you like.  They definitely dry with a texture and a sparkle, but I don't find it to be too rough.  I think the Julie G Gumdrops are more textured.  All of these are easier to remove than regular glitters, but harder than creme polish. 

Have you found any other dupes yet?

Essie - no dupes in my drawer!

I am the person whom the advertisers love.  I am the one who reads these blogs that say - forget all the other blues you have, THIS is the one you need.  And I say, yes, yes, I DO need that particular blue.

So, I bought two new Essie shades:  Bikini so teeny and Mojito madness.  Both colors were touted as THE new shade, and I believed that..sorta.  I knew I had to look in my extensive collection to see if I had any dupes.

So I picked the closest 4 bottles of light blue I had, and swatched.

Essie bikini so teeny, China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle, Zoya Jo, and Jessica Movie Premier.  I thought for sure Electric Beat, and maybe Kinetic Candy, or DL Let's Hear it for the Boy would be close.  Kinetic Candy and the DL didn't even merit a swatch they were so different.

I don't think any of them are alike.  Electric Beat and Movie Premiere are similar (the Jessica was ONE coat, can you believe it?  All the others were two)  Jo is much darker on my nail than it was in the bottle.  So I can breathe a sigh of relief - no dupes for the beautiful Bikini so Teeny.

Next, the greens.  Again, I picked the 4 closest greens I had.  Essie Mojito Madness, China Glaze Gaga for Green, Revlon Bonsai, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, and Sinful Colors Exotic Green.

Ok, I just realized that because this is my right hand, the swatches are all backwards from the lineup.  DERP.  Thumb is Mojito Madness, index - ChG Gaga for Green, middle - Revlon Bonsai, ring -  OPI Don't Mess with OPI, and the pinky is SC Exotic Green.

Gaga for green looks close in the pix, but it's visibly different in RL.  GFG is a much sheerer polish that took 3 coats for opacity, and is a little more yellow.  OPI DMWOPI was the closest in the bottle, but is the most different on the nail! This is why I don't trust bottle comparisons.

Again, nothing close in my stash.  Good thing, because I really do like that Essie.

With 10 different colors on 10 different nails, I knew I'd be re-doing my mani, so might as well test a couple of glitters!  On the Essie BST, I layered Revlon Radiant (said to be a DL dupe.)  Very pretty, nice coverage - I could have added another layer for full opacity, but I liked it with the underwear showing.  I'm liking the flashes of green glitter, too.

And, finally, a layer of Sinful Colors Call You Later over Essie MM.  Not sure I would pair these together again, but I do like that flash of gold in that glitter.

So, does anyone know of a dupe for either of these Essie colors, or are they truly unique?  Have you worn them with a glitter topcoat that you liked?

Golden-Green Comparison

I know I have dupes in my stash - it's inevitable when there are so many polish lemmings you must fulfill...  So I gathered some of my golden-green polishes to see if I had any dupes.

I see 2.. maybe three.

On my thumb is Maybelline Color Show Twilight Rays.  It is really an olive green color with gold flecks, but it looks almost black indoors.  Not even close to the others.

On my pinky is SpaRitual Optical Illusion.  This one would probably look more like Twilight Rays if it were layered over black.  As it is, it doesn't look anything like any of the others.  I don't know how many layers it would take to look like what it does in the bottle.  I think this was 2 coats.

These next 2 are pretty much identical in color, as well as name.  They are both called Golden Green.  The index finger is from CQ, and the middle finger is Models Own.  I can't tell the difference, except the CQ was cheaper. Both applied nicely and took 2 coats for opacity.

On my ring finger is Jessica Iridescent Eye.  It's a smidge lighter and brighter than the other two ... but it's so close.  I don't have OPI Spotted the Lizard or Chanel Peridot, but I understand they are alike to Jessica Iridescent Eye, so I don't feel the need to own either of those.

It's a bummer that Jessica IE has so much color shift in the bottle, but it doesn't translate much to the nail.  I didn't get any of the blue or copper on my nail.

This is a pretty popular color, so I'm sure there are even more dupes out there.. hopefully I won't be tempted to buy any more of them!

Oops & Dupes

I paint my nails pretty often, so it's not THAT big of a deal when I screw up a nail, but I had *just* painted my nails with my brand-new, gorgeous Model's Own Peacock Green when I remembered that I promised to trim my dogs' nails today.  I use a Dremel (grinder) to do this, and it was bound to happen between 3 dogs that I would slip and gouge my nails.

Yes, I can hear the world's smallest violin playing for me.

I probably have a lot of dupes in my growing polish collection, but I wanted to start with some I had read about and see if I had any others in my collection that were dupes or cousins.

From L-R, Orly Buried Alive, Orly Royal Velvet, OPI Glacier Bay Blues, Nubar Indigo Illusion (over China Glaze First Mate)

In RL, the two Orlys are exactly the same in color, application, everything.  Bummer.  GBB has that wonderful blue/purple duochrome, but the blues are different.  Indigo Illusion is also a duochrome, but reads more shimmery.  No cousins here.

Another dupe I knew I had was China Glaze Riveting and Finger Paints Vermillion $ Painting.  I also tried Ulta's Snap Dragon Me Down (too golden) and Zoya's Gwin, which is the right color, but not sparkly enough.

Pinky - Zoya Gwin, Ring - Ulta's SDMD, Middle - FPV$P, and Index - ChG Riveting

I was disappointed that the much lauded Riveting (Hunger Games Collection) was a dupe I already owned. Both formulas were pretty similar, 2 coats, nice application.  The Ulta polish was a little thin, requiring 3 coats.  I really like Gwin, but I am still on the hunt for the perfect orange/tangerine creme.

I had read that the Wet & Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint was a dupe for China Glaze For Audrey, but I didn't know it would also be a dupe for Color Club's New Bohemian

Thumb - Revlon Windfall; L-R Sinful Colors Mint Apple, CC New Bohemian, CG For Audrey, W&W INAR-M

The CC polish is lumpy because I added a third coat to get the color right, but didn't pay attention to the drag. Oops.  In RL the color is indistinguishable from the other two.  Formula-wise, the China Glaze wins hands-down.  No contest.  It's almost a 1-coater.  W&W is a passable dupe for less money, though I don't like the brush or the formula as much.  The Sinful colors is a cousin, but has shimmer, and leans more green.  Windfall is way too green, but it's gorgeous, and I kept it on for my next mani, to be revealed tomorrow. (cue the suspenseful music)

Any dupes you know about?