Perfectly Polished Tips 216 - RBL Teal & OPI Ski Teal We Drop Comparison

l-r RBL Teal & OPI Ski Teal We Drop

In case you haven't noticed teal is pretty much my favorite color polish to wear. The creme-ier the better :) I purchased Rescue Beauty Lounge's Teal first and it was love at first stroke. RBL's formula is amazing, pretty much all of the ones I have are one coaters. To me there is nothing better and easier than a polish that is good to go with one coat. Being that I love the color so much I had to purchase OPI Ski Teal We Drop. I had read online that it was pretty much a dupe to RBL Teal but I didn't care.

pointer & ring = OPI, middle & pinkie = RBL

This photo is one coat of polish, you can see a difference not only in the color but the coverage.

pointer & ring = OPI, middle & pinkie = RBL

Two coats and the RBL is slightly darker. The OPI has awesome coverage with two coats of color.

pointer & ring = OPI, middle & pinkie = RBL

Three coats and you can't really tell the difference. I don't really purchase OPI much anymore to be honest. I absolutely hate the pro wide brush. I have small nail beds and most times I make a huge mess when using OPI. I will purchase if there is a color I feel I absolutely must have but if I can find in in another brand with a normal brush I go for that one.

I like the formula on both of these polishes, however if I had to chose one I'd pick the RBL. 

Perfectly Polished Tips 214 - Essie Dive Bar & China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic Comparison

Finally the comparison swatches I did a few weeks ago will be posted! I mislabeled a photo and of course I never write things down so I forgot what was what. I need to get better with that. It takes me 9,000 years to upload and edit photos. I really should upgrade from photo bucket.

First up I have Essie Dive Bar and China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic. Both polishes are a gorgeous, shimmery teal. Each has this amazing purple shimmer but it doesn't show on the nail. I think I took a million pictures trying to see if it was possible to capture it. Nope, you can only see it in the bottle.

Dive Bar's base is more blackened than Rodeo Fanatic. They are by no means dupes but similar enough to me that I probably don't need to own both. I like the formula on both polishes, as of late I have been gravitating towards Essie. I'm not sure why, both companies have been putting out some neat colors. I think I prefer Essie's formula and brush overall though.

Rodeo Fanatic on index & ring, Dive Bar on middle & pinkie 

You can see the purple shimmer! Why won't it transfer to the nail?

I'm not sure if Rodeo Fanatic is still available, it was released sometime ago. I saw Dive Bar at Target yesterday so I know that one is current.

Happy Weekend! :)

Perfectly Polished Tips 86 - Reader Request

One of my lovely readers asked that I swatch Essie Skin Deep and CND Love Struck. Here you go.

This post made me regret every polish I turned down because of how it looked in the bottle. While it is clear that these two are not dupes they look closer in color in the bottle. Skin Deep is a baby pink with subtle silver shimmer, Love Struck takes on more of a foil finish. Either way I like both of these polishes. Get the CND while you can; CND recently announced that they were discontinuing all except 40 of their shades.

Perfectly Polished Tips 75 - Comparison Swatches

One of my readers asked if I could do a comparison of China Glaze Cow Girl Up and Zoya Rihana. Here are the bottles, they look very similar.

Here they are on my nails. Both polishes are two coats with no top coat. Rihana is more on the pink side while Cow Girl Up is more purple. Cow Girl also has a slight blue shimmer while Rihana does not. I think if you aren't super picky one of these could satisfy the lemming for both. In my opinion the China Glaze applied better.

I hope this helped! If you ever want pictures of something or comparisons please feel free to ask! I always try to post comparisons when I put up swatches of new collections but sometimes I leave some out like I did with these two.

Perfectly Polished Tips 73 - Zoya Vibe

Vibe is the second fall collection out from Zoya this fall. At first glance to me it looked as if they put two of each color in the box, and I was disappointed. I took them into the sun to swatch and got a surprise. I love cremes so it's not a surprise that I would love this collection. They all applied very well with the exception of Riley. That one was streaky but three coats of color evened it out. This collection has possible dupes of OPI Got the Blues for Red, which was recently discontinued and a HG red for me as well as OPI Hollywood & Wine which is also a discontinued color. When I reviewed Priti Polish I wrote about how much I loved the brown creme, well this collection has one as well and I am in love. Seriously a year ago I wouldn't have given any brown a second look, this fall I'm all about them.
((my nail is broken as well in these pictures, and sorry for slight sloppiness, swatching reds is not for me))

Alix is a strawberry creme, but it reminds me more of an apple. I would say this color has a slight jelly finish. It is also the polish that is close to me beloved Got the Blues for Red.

Asia is described as a red currant creme and is the lightest of the reds in this collection. I really like that these polishes are opaque with two coats. Usually jelly-ish reds aren't. The closest dupes I found to Asia were OPI Vodka & Caviar and Lippmann Stop and Stare. With Stop and Stare being the most similar.

Dakota is a red apple creme. I would say it's more of a cherry red. It's obviously darker than the above two but still red. I have more reds than I know what to do with, but I have been so impressed with Zoya lately that I may get rid of the others and keep these. Red is such a classic color, especially a red creme. Dakota is similar but a hair darker than Carolyn NY Brooklyn.

Riley is a cranberry shade and is a little more pink than my camera picked up here. This was my problem of the group. It was streaky at two coats but three made it perfect. This color reminds me of OPI Marooned on the Magnificent Mile, but since I just sent it to a new home I no longer have it to compare.

Zoya calls Sam a plum brandy creme. In the bottle it looks like baby poo brown but it's so red on the nail. I don't see any purple at all. This is the color that I think is similar to OPI Hollywood & Wine. On the nail they look very close. I added Color Club Feverish in there because it's much darker in the bottle than on the nail.

Nina is called a burgundy wine creme. I say it's a chocolate brown creme, but that's just me. This may be my favorite from the collection. I thought I had a picture comparing it to Priti Polish Widow Iris but I don't. They are pretty much the same polish though.

So not a super exciting collection but I'm just happy that I don't have to get a back up of Got the Blues for Red or Hollywood & Wine. I feel like by getting back ups that I am hoarding. I have more polish than any one woman could possibly use up in a life time. Unless I changed my nail color hourly, which isn't going to happen.

Vibe is up on Zoya.com and don't forget about the Zoya Promo!

Perfectly Polished Tips 65 - ManGlaze Swatches

ManGlaze is matte nail polish. It is for women and men who do not want glossy looking nails. I was a bit skeptical when I saw this polish, because one, I love glossy wet looking nails and two it's called ManGlaze. The company currently has two colors, a matte black and a matte grey. Apparently the polishes are made to last long. I have only swatched them so I do not know about wear time, I do plan on using one soon so I will report back. Both polishes applied very smoothly and the drying time was amazing. The company asks that you not put a top coat over them so I didn't and with in 10 minutes I was good to go. I was worried about the drying time because it's rare that I go with out using a quick dry top coat. The bottle design on these is amazing. I love the cartoon and punk look that they have going on.

Fuggen Ugly is a matte steel grey, it really is a gorgeous color. It has shimmer but nothing over the top or overly girly. This picture is two coats with out a camera flash.

This is Fuggen Ugly with flash. I really love this polish, the matte finish doesn't even take away from the awesome shimmer which I love.

The Death Tar is a matte black. This polish has great shimmer as well. This polish could be a one coater if you really wanted. I did two just because that is what I do.

I compared The Death Tar to some other black and charcoal polishes that I own. Besides being matte it is pretty unique to my collection. Essie Over the Top and Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot seem to be identical. The Death Tar has much more shimmer than those two and is a hair darker. The last polish which is L'Oreal Patent Black Silver is more of a true black rather than a charcoal like The Death Tar.

Surprisingly enough I didn't have anything that was at all similar to Fuggen Ugly. I don't usually wear grey so I'm glad that I finally have one that I like. ManGlaze can be found at ManGlaze.com and they retail for $6.66.

Perfectly Polished Tips 56 - Lippmann red Comparison

Lippmann I Want Candy is from last fall if I remember correctly, and Stop and Stare is from this fall's collection. My first thought when I opened Stop and Stare was wow this looks similar to the other jelly red that I'm not crazy about. In the bottle they are very similar but on the nail IWC is very sheer. Stop and Stare can be mostly opaque in 3 coats.

On the nail the difference is very apparent. I'm not crazy about I Want Candy mostly because I don't like having a visible polish line. I love Lippmann polishes though so I will keep it and maybe one day I will love it.

Perfectly Polished Tips 51 - SpaRitual Surreal & Blue Comparisons

I'm really big on blues, it's funny because when I first started wearing nail polish regularly I would only do pinks. Then I moved on to red and sometimes purple. I think my first blue was CND Blue Blood and it was so out of my comfort zone. I kept on collecting blues though, but it wasn't until I purchased OPI Dating a Royal that I felt comfortable in blue. Now it's my favorite color to wear. I've praised SpaRitual before for it's amazing colors and formula. Here is another polish from the fall 2008 Inspired collection, Surreal. It's a dark, blackened blue with amazing blue shimmer. The only thing that sucks is that you can't see the shimmer unless you are in bright light. So it's one of those ones that just looks black. SpaRituals have a beautiful glow about their shimmer though so I don't mind.

Dupe Alert! Surreal and Orly Star of Bombay are basically the same polish. I also compared the two to Chanel Blue Satin. Blue Satin is lighter than the other two though and you can tell you are wearing a blue polish and not black in all lighting. I prefer SpaRitual's formula to Orly so I will be passing the Orly on to another blue lover.

SpaRitual can be found at SpaRitual.com, SkinStore.com, and Aveyou.com. Orly can be found at Sally Beauty, head2toebeauty.com, 8ty8beauty.com, and transdesign.com.

*I am not affilated with any of the websites/stores/sellers that I post about on here.*

Perfectly Polished Tips 42 - White Creme Comparisons

I don't wear white nor do I do french manicures yet some how I have three white creme polishes in my stash. I do find that they are good to put under sheer colors or jellies, or even some neons. I compared these three polishes to see which was best for a stark white manicure.

OPI Alpine Snow, Essie Below the Belt, CQ French White

Here are the polishes after 1 coat, these do not have a base coat underneath. The CQ is most sheer/streaky, followed by the OPI. To my complete surprise the Essie was the most opaque and least streaky.

Here are the polishes after 2 coats. The picture is slightly blurry but again the Essie looks the best to me.

Here are the polishes after three coats. I was not at all impressed with the CQ, which is probably why I've been using it for frankens. The OPI is managable, I'm sure with a ridgefilling base coat and more patients it would look great. The Essie won this for me, it was not at all streaky and had great coverage in three coats.

It is Dare Week on the MUA Nail Board, my dare was any white. A stark white mani was suggested so here it is: