Leighton Denny - The Heiress

Lilac/periwinkle mid purple creme

So, even if the weather here in the UK isn't playing ball, I'm going to pretend it is Spring and show you a lovely spring purple, Leighton Denny's The Heiress

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.  Formula was wonderful as it always is for Leighton Denny.

Love this colour, it's definitely my favourite shade of purple and after looking at it a while it started to look slightly familiar....

So I dug out one of my all time favourite Nails Inc shades, St John's Wood for a comparison

The comparison is St John's Wood on index and little finger, Heiress on middle and ring.  If we're being picky they're not total dupes, SJW is a tad darker/more intenses  but we're really splitting hairs - they're as good as dupes.

Although both retail for around the same amount Nails Inc is much easier to pick up cheaply on ebay....  I'd say formula is comparable, both awesome cremes.  As for longevity, I've never done a comparison - something to add to the todo list!

Boots 17 - Revenge

Purple/taupe with purple/pink secret shimmer   

That description sound familiar? Yep, Revenge was one of the many polishes in 2011 that appeared to be inspired by or outright duping Chanel's infamous Paradoxal.

Now I don't have Paradoxal to compare but you'll have to take my word for it that they're not total dupes.  Although some folk actually prefer Revenge because the shimmer is a lot less hidden.

Take that Just In! with a pinch of salt - this was released in 2011!

Revenge is a purple toned dark brown with a good amount of pink/purple fine secret-shimmer.  But not so secret you can't see it!

Application was good, swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat.

This will be my last post for a week  - I'm off to Disney World, Florida for a conference - I'm so excited to see the sun again, it feels like it's been grey and cold here in the UK forever - it's forecast to be high teens, early 20's while we're there - hooray!.  And hopefully I'll get some time for shopping/haulage - I've made myself a Google map with the nearest Ulta, CVS, Walmart and Walgreens on!

Nails Inc November - Special Effects/Mirror Metallic - Swiss Cottage

Green/Gold/Turquoise Duochrome Metallic    

Swiss Cottage is one of 3 polishes I picked up recently from QVC as a Mirrored Metallic Collection and it's definitely the stand-out although perhaps not too unique.

And being a duochrome I took lots of pics to capture the colour shift.

Bottle Shot

Full Sunlight

Swiss Cottage has a base green colour which sometimes looks more blue/green with a strong gold duochrome.

Swatch is 2 coats with no top coat.

In the sunlight picture it loses all the duochrome but shows a very pretty fine sparkle.

It's definitely in the same family as Chanel's Peridot (and dupes) although I think Swiss Cottage might be more green/blue leaning and less warm gold than Peridot, but only a comparison will tell!

Alix Avien - 243 (Paradoxal dupe)

Purple/taupe with purple shimmer

I picked up this polish on hols in Turkey last year, from a quick google search I'm pretty sure it's a native Turkish brand which is cool.

Obviously it's not the most unique of colours, I'm sure it was created as a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal, but hey, it's a good dupe and was a lot cheaper than Chanel!

Swatch shown is 2 coats with no top coat.

Formula was gloopy and a little tricky to work with.  I wore this on holiday and it lasted well

It's pretty of course, just like the original!

Topshop - Zodiac

Pewter with a greeny gold foil finish


Earlier this year, around February time, Topshop released a new collection called Sisters of the New Moon with a mystical/fantastical theme.  The bottles have black overprinting on the lids


I picked up 3 of the nail polishes which IIRC were £6.50, slightly more than regular Topshop polishes I think..


On with the polish, first up is Zodiac...

How to describe Zodiac?  The easiest way would be to say it's pretty good dupe for Chanel Graphite!


Kristy from the Polish Haven did a comparison post and I think it's fair to say they're dupes! 


TopShop describe this as a multi-tonal metallic which while true isn't massively helpful...  I'd say it was a Pewter with a greeny gold foil finish


Swatch is 3 coats to full depth with no top coat.


These should still be available from Topshop.

Max Factor - Fantasy Fire

Gorgeous sheer purple/green duochrome and possible Clarins 230 dupe?  

I'm sure most of you have heard of and seen Max Factor's Max Effect Fantasy Fire 45 by now.  It's a newly released potential dupe to the elusive, HTF, Clarins 230 aka Unicorn Pee.

I have to say straight up that I don't have Clarins 230.  I've toyed with those ebay auctions but always managed to talk myself down from paying £50+ for a single polish.  So this won't be a comparison post, I'm just gonna bombard you with pics of Fantasy Fire because whether it's a dupe or not (and it's certainly similar) it's still totally gorgeous.

I picked up Fantasy Fire in in a tiny branch of Boots a couple of days ago.  There were several new colours including some interesting metallics. This afternoon the sun came out long enough for me to grab the following pics.  As the weather was pretty variable I didn't know how long the sunlight would stick around I just popped a couple of coats over my existing manicure, a-England's Elaine.  As it turned out it was a pretty excellent base coat for FF.  I'd already seen swatches of the polish alone on BeneBelles blog and knew it was super sheer and that layering was the way to go

So first up a couple of bottle shots

In the bottle it's predominantly a pinkish purple with lots of shimmer and a duochrome of blue and some green and maybe a hint of gold around the edges.

The bottle is tiny, just 5ml and they cost £3.99, pretty expensive for such a weeny amount of polish but in this case totally worth it!

All the following swatch shots are 2 coats of Fantasy Fire over my existing mani of a-England Elaine, a dusky purple.  Looking at the swatches now I wished I'd added a topcoat to really make the shimmer sing but never mind....

With all of these pics you can click for bigger versions.

 This was the only shot I got that just about showed all the different colours - I think 230 maybe more overtly duochrome.

Love how it looks like a gradient in this shot, just wish my ring finger had been at the same angle!

 One of the few times you can see the green strongly in the bottle.

I hope you can see the range of the duochrome in these shots which starts as a sheer purple with a red shimmer and then switches between gold shimmer and a strong green with a green/gold shimmer.

Out of the sunlight the shimmer is much redder and there's no hint of the duochrome.

These are both under electric light and IRL the shimmer is redder still.

It is totally gorgeous and to be honest it's close enough to 230 for me!

There doesn't seem to be any information about the new colours on the Max Factor site, they still only have the old colours up so I can't tell you if this is part of a collection or just a new release of colours.

So, what do you think?  Totally stunning or what?!

MAC Bad Fairy and Accessorize Pink Spice Comparison

There's been a lot of mutterings in the np world about possible dupes for the much sought after Bad Fairy from MAC's Venomous Villans collection.

As I was lucky enough to score a bottle at the airport and then got my hands on some Accessorize polishes from their online store I thought I'd do a comparison.

First up, ignore horrible state of my hands/cuticles. One day I will remember to apply handcream *before* taking the pics :-) And ignore the fluff (where does it come from?)

All of these pics are 3 coats of each plus seche vite top coat

Pointer & ring finger are BF, index and pinkie are Pink Spice


















Sorry for so many pics but I wanted to show the polishes in different lights and from different angles.

In terms of application they were very similar, very sheer and uneven on the first coat and then the colour builds. If anything the Accessorize brush was better, my MAC brush was a bit fat and splayed at the end. Similar drying times too. The MAC brush was easier to hold though, the Accessorize one is like a fat stubby nails inc brush.

I can see the difference between the two, but most people, certainly what Liz Hurley would call the 'civilians' of the nail polish world, won't be able to tell!

So, in conclusion, for me they're not *exact* dupes, Bad Fairy has slightly more bling, like the sparkle/foil particles are slight bigger and in certain lights you can see the copper duochrome more in Bad Fairy.

But Pink Spice is a very close sibling and for the UK gals (and the limited countries that the Accessorize website will ship to) I think it's a damn fine alternative.