Adventures in Matte Land

I was a little skeptical of the whole "matte thing" but being one not to shy away from a challenge, I found a girl willing to swap her Essie Matte About You on MUA.  Here are the results of my findings.

Butter London - Trout Pout with Essie Matte About You (Index finger layered with Essie Flawless then Matte About You.)

I hunted this down at Ulta.  It was the last bottle and looked like it could have been opened but I gave it the benefit of the doubt.  It is an absolutely gorgeous color on it's own but with a matte finish gives it a pretty interesting look.  I plan on experimenting with other brights in the near future.

L'Oreal - Waters Edge with Essie Matte About You

Waters Edge is supposedly an Essie Greenport dupe.  As I don't own the latter, I can only rely on pictures from other blogs and it looks pretty close.  I really like this family of colors (being a Pisces) and it also looked pretty neat as a matte, but I still prefer Trout Pout.  Incidentally, I also ordered ILF from Manglaze who happens to be the purveyor of fine matte polishes.  It's supposed to be a nice teal color so I'll be swatching that as soon as I get it (which I hope is soon!)

Formula wise, MAY is nice, not too goopy like Seche Vite can be and dries quickly, which from what I understand is typical in a matte polish.  I like that this type of topcoat allows you to turn your normally glossy polish matte as opposed to turning your matte polish glossy.  Anyways, its a nice addition to my top coat family and it will probably be one I'll be using frequently to "tone down" a lot of the bright shades in my collection.

Giveaway Winner, OPI DS Dupe, & Why This Week Feels Like a Polish Bust

Congratulations to Bridget who won the "Besties Forever" giveaway!  Your palette will soon be on its way and I hope you love all the colors!

For everyone else who entered, make sure you check back soon because if I can hit 150 Facebook fans by my birthday (March 16!) I have a very special giveaway planned that's HUGE!

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OPI DS Magic was a recent acquisition from the nail salon at the Walmart Supercenter by my parents and my first DS.  Needless to say I was excited especially since the price I paid seemed reasonable for a Designer Series polish.   I just couldn't resist the silver cap:

I thought it might be similar to OPI Ink which is another great color but Magic leans a lot more blue than Ink does and there's a ton more sparkle.  Its also slightly less opaque, requiring approximately 3 coats for full coverage.

So its a great polish right?  Well, for what I paid (let's just say its more than the usual bottle of OPI) I was expecting it to be a unique shade that I definitely wouldn't own a dupe of especially since I still have a fairly small collection.

Boy, was I wrong.

Noticing it earlier tonight, for a minute I thought I had accidentally put the silver cap back on my bottle of Ink.  When I went to pick it up, I realized it resemble another color I had procured a few weeks ago on clearance while buying Seche Vite and Sally Hansen Glass Slipper at Walgreens.

 

Here they are together.

Why it took me this long I'm not really sure but I showed them to my husband as soon as I noticed.  He asked if they were "cons."  It was cute.  These are the results of my findings.

 

Can you tell which is which?  Yeah, neither can I.  OPI Magic is on the Middle/Pinkie fingers, Milani is on the index/ring fingers.  OPI took three generous coats, Milani took two and Milani was a quick dry.  If you can still find the Milani polish, I would highly recommend picking it up if you like this particular OPI DS color.  Chances are it'll be on clearance like mine was and it'll save you upwards of $8 or more depending on where you usually buy OPI. 

I also swatched two other polishes I recently acquired, OPI Fly from the Nicki Minaj collection and LA Colors BCC 564 that I picked up from my local Dollar Tree for $1.  They weren't so dupey but it was close.

Fly is on the middle/pinkie fingers while BCC 564 is on the index/ring fingers.  BCC 564 was greener but only took 2 coats while Fly leaned more blue and took 3 coats.  I would argue you don't necessarily need both and if you want a more saturated color, BCC 564 is the way to go especially for $1 + tax.