Lilac Comparison

I found the notes I'd misplaced yesterday. You can see why I needed them; Essie Lilacism (Art of Spring collection) and Revlon Gum Drop (Scents of Summer) are pretty much indistinguishable on the nail:



Top to bottom: Revlon, Essie, Revlon, Essie

Just in case the bottle influenced the appearance, I tried it with the Revlon in hand; same result:



The two major differences between these polishes: the Revlon took four coats to look the same as three for the Essie, and the Revlon smells like candy when it's dry. I am still undecided on whether I like having nails that smell.

Vacation Turquoise Comparison

Not too long ago I saw a message board post that L'Oreal Waters Edge (from the Passport to Paradise collection--missing apostrophe in Waters is theirs) was a good substitute for Essie Turquoise & Caicos (2010 Resort collection). It's well established on nail blogs and boards that the L'Oreal collection dupes Essie's long since sold out North Fork collection, but none of those posts have mentioned Turquoise & Caicos so I wasn't really expecting these to be close. They don't look like dupes in the bottle:



L'Oreal Waters Edge (left), Essie Turquoise & Caicos (right)

They don't look like dupes on the nail, either:



Top to bottom: L'Oreal, Essie, L'Oreal, Essie

They are close enough that I can see how a non-obsessive person could be content to just have one or the other. The L'Oreal is certainly cheaper, and didn't need any more coats than the Essie (I used three of both--three is my default).

I did another comparison just after this one, but I've misplaced my notes on that one and those polishes were so close I can't tell which is which from the photos, so that will have to wait for another entry.

Aptly Named

I've wanted Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure since I first read about it at Talking Makeup last fall. I wasn't the only one--lots of ladies on the nail board were keeping an eye out for. At least one even called Sally Hansen and was told it wasn't going to be a spring release but would come out in the fall. We should have known not to trust Sally on that--it started showing up in stores a few weeks ago. First sightings were in Walgreeens stores in Missouri, and for a while that's the only place it could be found. Then it showed up in Walgreens in a few more states, including Illinois, so I started looking around here. I went to the Walgreens by my house that was the first place I saw the Revlon spring pastels this year. I went to the Walgreens by my office where I'd gotten some of last year's Tracy Reese limited editions. I went to Walgreens I hadn't previously known existed. No luck. Then someone posted on the board that she'd gotten one at Rite Aid, so I stopped at my favorite Rite Aid, the one that I often have good nail polish luck at, and there it was--the full spring Complete Salon display.



Colors are (left to right): Dianthus, Amazing Blaze, Pomegranate, Sunflowers, Lagoon, Sea And Be Seen, Dive Deeper, Silver Lining, Ring My Shell, Bermuda Sand, Iced Coffee, Beachy Keen, Barely There, and Hidden Treasure.

I scooped up the Hidden Treasure and took it home with me, where I found it was very, very similar to something I already had: GOSH Rainbow, which I'd gotten in a swap with a kind person in the UK.



But sometimes things that look alike in the bottle look different on the nail, so I tried each over a very deep plum base (Sally Hansen Complete Salon in Pat on the Black). I couldn't tell them apart:



Top to bottom: Hidden Treasure, Rainbow, Hidden Treasure, Rainbow

Does the fact that they're pretty much identical mean I didn't need Hidden Treasure? From a usage standpoint, yes. From a collecting standpoint, no. I enjoyed the hunt, and am happy to have found the Hidden Treasure. And it remains pretty hidden--I've still not seen it anywhere but the store where I found it, and a lot of people in other states have yet to see it at all. It's not even listed on the Complete Salon Manicure website, neither in the shades list or in the "what's new" section. I think Sally needs to hire some nail boarders to maintain her website.

Change of Heart

I just changed the name of this blog from "I Still Don't Have a Blog" because even though I continue to maintain my original online journal (Hat on Top, Coat Below) and my extremely neglected LiveJournal (where I've posted only four times in the last year, and two of those were about my Dreamwidth account, in which I've never posted), I've decided that even though the world already has plenty of nail blogs, I'm going to try my hand (hah--hand; I amuse myself) at doing one, too. At this point, I'm not entirely sure how the content here will be different than the posts I've been making on the nail board at MakeupAlley (I'm thekarend at MUA)--guess I'll figure that out as I go.

Regarding the new name, it comes from a post by a troll on the nail board criticizing the quality of photos people were posting--she was evidently so upset that she couldn't manage to spell "nail polish" correctly. Some people on the board think this joke is old and tired, but it still amuses me, so I went with it. My cuticles are less frazzle-y than they were before I started hanging out on the nail board, but they're far from perfect. Fortunately, I am much less concerned about what people think of me than I used to be, so I will post regardless. Starting tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. I do have to keep my job so I can buy more nail polish, so must limit the amount of time I spend on non-work stuff like this new nail blog.