Elf Mint Cream

Next up another ELF polish, this time ELF Mint Cream. So, I really am not feeling this polish, I love the idea of mint green nail varnish, but it gives me lobster hands! Although I do like this version better than the Essie alternative Mint Candy Apple, comparison pictures below.

Ok so now for some pictures of the lobster hands, I’m not sure what to be more apologetic over the lobster hands or the terrible application that I wasn’t aware of until I saw the photos. You’ve been warned!

The application was actually better than some pastel colours, which tend to be streaky. The first coat was horribly streaky, but it evened out on the second and third coats. The only complaint would be the couple of stray long hairs on the brush of the polish which contributed to the horrible application.

I wore Mint Cream for 3 days before I took it off, there were no chips and no obvious tip wear. Mint Cream was £1.50 from the Elf website.

I then did a comparison between Mint Cream and Essie Mint Candy Apple, the application of both was very similar. The first coat of both was a streak-fest and I felt that the ELF polish actually applied slightly better.

From L-R, Essie MCA, Mint Cream, MCA, Mint Cream.

I so smudged my baby finger, for some reason my pinkie always squishes into the finger beside it! Personally, I prefer the ELF polish to the Essie, what do you think?

Comparision OPI TMF V Elf Innocent V ELF Desert Haze

So when I saw the two Elf polishes, Innocent and Desert Haze, the first thing that struck me was how alike the looked and the second was they look a lot like one of my favourite polishes ever, OPI Tickle My France-y from the French collection.

I love TMF its my favourite mannequin hands shade, it’s one of those colours that goes with everything and it practically applies itself the application is so good. It’s also a completely work appropriate colour.

So let’s have a look at the bottles, from L-R, ELF Desert Haze, OPI TMF, ELF Innocent. 

In the bottle, Elf innocent looks very closer to TMF, than Desert Haze does. 

We’ve seen all of these polishes before, here’s some links, Desert Haze, TMF, Innocent,  so here is a quick comparision of the three on the nails.

Picture taken in natural light no flash, from L-R, ELF Desert Haze, OPI TMF, ELF Innocent.

The picture shows 3 coats of Desert Haze and TMF and 4 coats of Innocent.

While they are not dupes, they are 3 variations of the nude theme, Desert Haze, is a more brown nude and Innocent is more peachy nude. Tickle My France-y is in the middle of the other two, it has a little bit of brown and a little bit of  peach.

The application was best on TMF, closely followed by Desert Haze, I struggled again with the Innocent application. My favourite of these 3 is definitely Desert Haze! I originally complained about the application of Desert Haze, the first time I used it, but I applied it in a hurry that time. I only painted two nails (although I'm only showing one here) this time and had no issues. (I'll go back and edit the original post I think.)

Have you tried any of these three? Do you have a favourite mannequin hands shade?

Comparison China Glaze For Audrey and H&M Bella's Choice

A little while ago, the lovely Lynnie did a post comparing dupes for China Glaze For Audrey (check it out here). This reminded me that when I got my hands on H&M Bella’s Choice, I was wearing For Audrey and I thought they looked very similar. 

First up, the two bottles,

They look very similar in the bottle, with For Audrey being a little more bluer maybe. In person, I think that For Audrey is a little dustier than Bella’s choice, which seems brighter.

I’ve read about people having issues with the application of For Audrey but I find that it’s a perfect two coater, as is Bella’s Choice. 

Natural light, no Flash.  From L-R, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice.

Natural light, Flash. From L-R, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice, For Audrey, Bella’s Choice.

I can’t see a whole lot of difference between the two polishes in the pictures, Bella's choice is definitely brighter than For Audrey. I have definitely seen pictures where they look more different. All in all, if you can’t get you hands on the China Glaze, I’d definitely recommend the H&M polish as an alternative. If I remember correctly the H&M polishes retail at €4.50 for 9ml.  China Glaze is available online from various etailers, the bottles are 14ml.

Orly Mirror Mirror V Collection 2000 Wham

Today a comparison between Orly Mirror Mirror and Collection 2000 Wham. Both polishes are light grey creams. Check out the cute Orly bottle with the little mirror charm, it's too cute!

First up a picture of the two bottles,

Looking at the bottle, you can see that the two polishes look similar.

Next up, on the nails. From L-R Mirror Mirror, Wham, Mirror Mirror and Wham.

On the nail Mirror Mirror looks a bit lighter than Wham. I like this colour, so I'm glad I have both but they are very close.

For these swatches, I did three coats of each polish and both polishes needed all three coats. There’s no top coat on these swatches. I love the handle of Orly’s polish it’s very easy to hold whereas the Collection 2000 handle is a pain to hold I think it’s not long enough. However I think I preferred the Collection 2000 brush.

Essie Chinchilly V Claire's Unknown

Firstly, apologies for leaving it so long between posts, I've not been well, but I have a good few posts coming up to make up for the gap! I hope everyone is having a good start to their weekends. Today I have a comparison post for you.

So a few months ago I was going to a wedding and had popped into town to pick the last few bits to go with my gúna (or dress for non-Irish speakers!), when I realised that *gasp* I had no polish to go with the dress, I happened to pass Claire’s and picked up this unknown polish. Anyhow I got home and realised it was very similar to Essie Chinchilly which I already owned, so I thought I’d do a comparison of the two for you.

First up some bottle pics,

In the bottle, the polishes look quite similar with the Claire's one looking maybe a little lighter.

Now I said this Claire’s polish was unknown because for the life of me I can not find a name, I know from US blogs that claire’s polishes have names there. So am I being stupid and just can’t see it or do the European polishes have no name?

Now on nails, from L-R Chinchilly, Claire’s, Chinchilly, Claire’s, first up no flash,

The Claire's picture looks a little lighter here but they are quite close. Now a flash picture,

The flash washes the colour out a bit but it's a bit easier to see the difference but they are close.

So the two polishes are very similar, the size of bottles is similar. The Claire’s polish sells for €3.50. I’ve worn Chinchilly and never had any problem with wear time but I’ve never worn the Claire’s polish so can’t comment. Although it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever wear the Claire's polish as it smells really bad. The Essie brush was as all essie’s quite thin while the brush in Claire's was extremely thick and wasn’t ideal to polish with.

In the end I wore a completely different dress to the wedding and went for a mani, so ended up with OPI off with her red on my tips, which I’ve been meaning to buy ever since.

So have you used Claire's polish? Can you find the elusive name on the polish? Did I get a bad bottle of polish or do all Claire's polishes smell similar?

Elf Smokey Brown V OPI IDKJ

Today a comparison between ELF Smokey Brown and  OPI You don’t know Jacques (YDKJ).  When I saw Smokey Brown it reminded me of YDKJ, so I pulled out the bottles and what do you know, there were very similar so first up a picture of the two bottles.

Looking at the bottle, you can see the ELF polish is a little lighter than YDKJ. Next up, on the nails. From L-R YDKJ, Smokey Brown, YDKJ and Smokey Brown.

Flash Picture

No Flash

Again Smokey Brown looks lighter on the nail, the ELF polish need three coats but the OPI was fine with two. For the sake of comparison I did three coats of each. There’s no top coat on these swatches. I don't own Particulare to compare the ELF polish too, but I do know that it is also lighter than YDKJ, so this might be a good bet to replace that, although I think that Particulare has been re-released. 

Elf Lilac V OPI Parlez-Vous OPI

Wow, I have followers, welcome to my rambling world!  Today I have a comparison because the whole time I was wearing the ELF lilac polish I kept thinking it reminded me of another polish and all I could come up with was OPI Parlez-Vous OPI. I think it was the dustyness in the colour, but I was very wrong, but since I took the pictures I thought I'd show them anyway.

First up the two bottles

Now on the nails, from L-R Parlez- Vous OPI, Lilac, Parlez- Vous OPI, Lilac.

This picture is very colour accurate, given the purples are so hard to photograph, I only wish my hands weren't so lobster-ish! The formula on both of these is good, but the ELF brush is no where near as nice as the OPI pro-wide brush, which is one of my favs. That said the ELF brush isn't that bad at all.