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.  

Walgreens Haul

I don't normally buy a lot of things at Walgreens because I found them to be historically more expensive than other stores.  However, I was in search of Sally Hansen Glass Slipper and they happened to be on sale there so I thought, why not?

I'm glad I went.  I'm also glad I went to a Walgreens I don't normally go to because as it turns out, the girl in the beauty department was a nail enthusiast like me and was more than happy to help.

As you can see, I didn't get SH Glass Slipper but I did end up with a lot more...for a the price of two bottles of polish and a protein bar.

I managed to get my hands on the LAST bottle of clearanced out Seche Vite at that location (I now plan on scouring every other local Walgreens that has it in stock) for $4.79(!) and I got a bottle of Loreal nail polish because the girl swore by it.  I figured it has something to do with the Essie relationship and picked up a pretty bottle of gold that was not only $1 off, but another WG employee ahead of me in line gave me her Loreal coupon for another $1 off.

Here's the polish I bought:

 L'Oreal - Because You're Worth It

For some reason, the middle finger was really streaky and applied poorly.  I had to remove it and re-apply it to get it to look like the other nails.

This was a weird gold.  I've been wanting to try one and purchase Wallis earlier in the week on Ebay but this is a shade that I hated when I first applied it and have slowly grown to really love it.  Its a strong metallic shade that has a really cool tone to it, which really surprised me.  It almost feels like having a light gold foil on my fingers.

Application was streaky but 3 coats sufficiently cleared up the streakiness and opacity.  I have light tan skin with yellow-to-olive undertones so gold normally looks really nice on me but I honestly believe this might be better suited for cooler toned gals.   Either way, I loved the overall shininess of it all and I didn't regret buying it like a few of the other polishes I've bought in the past.

Retail price on the first display I found it on said $6.49 but it was on another display listing it for $5.99 with another $1 off from the Walgreens coupon.  Another Walgreens employee hooked me up with her personal L'Oreal coupon so ended up paying $3.99 for it.

All in all the nail polish WAS worth it -- meaning I'd probably buy another bottle once I ran out -- and of course you can't go wrong with 14 bottles of nail polish remover and Seche Vite for less than $5.