Nail polish brand comparisons

So it’s been a while now since I started using nail polishes fairly heavily…and, like everyone else on the planet, I’ve formed some opinions. In the past two years I’ve used several polishes and top/base coats from Borghese, China Glaze, Del Sol, Nubar, OPI, Sally Hansen, and Zoya. So which is best, and for what?

I can’t really say which one is “the overall best”. They’ve all got plusses and minuses. Zoya has an incredibly wide range of colors and finishes, but they’re thinner. China Glaze is the brand most prone to drying out and going all gudgy, but they work well as nail stamping polishes…and they utterly amazing holographic polishes. Nubar isn’t available in many retail outlets, and it’s among the more costly; but they have a goodsized array of stunning duochromes. And so on, and so on….

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Liner Pencil Kit faceoff: Sephora versus Urban Decay

To someone who's not a hardcore devotee of either Sephora or Urban Decay, the 24/7 Jackpot kit and the Flashy Liners kit seem similar, with a few telling differences:

• ...the UD pencils are smaller than the Sephora pencils. You get 50% less product per pencil in the Urban Decay kit.
• ...but there are two more small pencils, and a fullsize Zero, in the Urban Decay kit.
• ...but the Sephora kit costs about half what this one costs.
• ...but the Urban Decay kit has two bright colors with no equivalents in the Sephora kit (El Dorado and Electric)

So how do you choose?

For me, since the UD 24/7 kit was an impulse purchase and there is no logic in those anyway, it wasn't a matter of one versus the other. I bought that just over a month ago, and I got the Sephora kit during the 2010 Friends and Family sale. I've been a huge fan of the Flashy Liners for years, and got my first Urban Decay pencils primarily to see what all the hype was about. I got the 24/7 kit because it lets me sample a few colors that UD has and Sephora currently does not; it lets me note the similarities, for the bargain-hunter in us all; and because it was pretty and I was in a store, for a planned purchase, and saw this and caved.

Both Urban Decay's Glide-On and Sephora's Flashy pencils are waterproof, go on very smoothly with no skipping or tugging, last all day, and don't have a tendency to fade or wander. Both fullsize pencils give you .04 oz of product. Sephora's fullsize pencils cost $8 each...while Urban Decay's pencils cost over twice that amount ($17.)

There are some color-dupes that I suspected, and was able to confirm:

• Urban Decay's Ransom = Sephora's Flashy Violet
• Urban Decay's Gunmetal = Sephora's Flashy Grey
• Urban Decay's Zero = Sephora's Deep Black
• Urban Decay's Electric = Sephora's Flashy Blue (not part of the Sephora kit, just another pencil from this line that I already owned)

If you're near a Sephora, you might want to order Sephora's Flashy Liner kit during the last few days of the Friends and Family. Or - hey, just buy it, try it out, at $20 full price for seven pencils it's a good deal.

Bare Escentuals’ High Shine colors versus MAC’s pigments

MAC Cosmetics has been selling highly pigmented loose-powder colors for years. In early 2009, Bare Escentuals released its first “high-shine” color - a loose-powder shadow that was a bit similar to MAC’s pigments, in that it adhered better and had a very bright finish. In late 2009, Bare Escentuals announced the release of a second high-shine color. When the Buzzworthy kit was released in spring 2010, it was quickly snapped up.

Now - in late summer 2010 - Bare Escentuals has announced the release of several new high-shine colors, in their own packaging and with their own applicator. I haven’t yet found whether these will be released under the Bare Minerals banner, or as part of the Buxom lineup. Some are already saying what a good deal these colors are, since consumers will be paying $16 for 1.5 grams - that’s $3 more than a standard Bare Escentuals eyeshadow, which is .57 grams of product.

Sure, compared to other BE eye colors it’s a deal. But what about when you compare them to MAC pigments?

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Comparison: John Frieda Root Awakening versus Suave Professionals

(I don’t know that I’m going to get into too many comparisons or reviews of toothpaste, shampoos, et cetera. I’ll likely stick with makeup. But this comparison really surprised me, and I wanted to share what I found.)

A while back, I picked up some John Frieda Root Awakening strengthening and restoring shampoo and conditioner during a BOGHO (buy one, get one half off) sale at the local drugstore. I liked John Frieda’s shampoos even though they were pricier - they made my hair look and feel better than Suave did - so I’d alternate the inexpensive stuff with my John Frieda haircare. While I was in the store, I spotted something new from Suave - their Professionals moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, in the bigger bottles. They were also BOGHO, so I decided to give them both a try.

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Define Pleasantly Surprised

When I was initially browsing through Aromaleigh v1’s permament line and making my initial wishlist, I had initially thought that I wouldn’t order Angelique (from the Eye Lusters collection.) It’s another pink, I said to myself. I have lots of pinks and reds, I don’t really need any more. And then, quite by chance, I received a sample of this color. I had it sitting around for a few weeks, then I had my jar of TSS’ Define Beauty out when I had all my samples in the makeup area (as opposed to on my desk, where I compare things / build my wishlists / et cetera.) I noticed that they looked quite similar…so I swatched them.

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Comparing golden yellows

I recently received my big sample orders from Pure Luxe, Aromaleigh, and Everyday Minerals - and I've been slowly but surely going through all the colors, figuring out what I want to order in fullsize. I've already talked a bit about how several of the colors from Aromaleigh v1's Eye Lusters collection caught my eye, so I put aside most of the sample packets and concentrated on those. I found that of the six I'd ordered, three defnitely looked good. One color didn't thrill me as much as I thought it might, so I set it aside. Two others...two others looked like close duplicates of stuff I already had. One, Edie, was a dead-on match for Simply Naturals' Pink Pearl. The other, Nico...I initially thought that Nico would be a close match for Bare Escentuals' Meow as they had a similar dark golden color base. Just for confirmation, I pulled another color that looked close: TSS' Necessary Laughter. I then set about comparing.

Applied dry, the three colors do seem awfully similar. There was hardly any difference between the shades. Since I always wear my colors over a cream base and often apply them damp, I got a new brush and tested with the damp application. That was when the differences truly showed up.

Nico has a darker gold base than the other three colors. Also (not really visible in the photo above - apologies, my photo skills are growing but they're still not as good as I'd like them to be), Nico has a pink interference-shimmer while Meow and Necessary Laughter have golden or slight blue interference shimmers. Since Bumblebee, from Aromaleigh v1's L'Orchidee collection, was described as having a "blue highlight", I wondered how it would compare to the other three. Applied wet, it has a more pronounced blue shimmer than Meow or Necessary Laughter; but it has the same base color as those two.

I have some more yellows on the way from TSS. Bright Outlook, in particular, may be a closer match. I'll have to check when that color comes in...

MMU Sample Sizes: Aromaleigh, Everyday Minerals, Pure Luxe, The SheSpace

Mineral makeup companies, especially the online-only stores, know that customers have lots of choices. They also know that people may want to test before they commit to buying something in fullsize. Many of them allow you to buy most of their loose-powder products in a much smaller, less expensive sample size. Some even give away free samples with orders. So when is a purchased sample a good deal? Who’s got the best value, in terms of samples? Going in alphabetical order, dealing only with the companies I’ve purchased from:

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