I used two coats of all of these reds. The Borghese is the closest to Melt Down but it's not a dupe; the Borghese is a shimmer rather than the metallic micro glitter of the Milani. The Nina (from last winter's Crushed Velvet collection) is too light to be a dupe and tends more toward being a foil than the Milani. The Sally Hansen (which came out with Opulent Cloud) is too warm-toned to be dupe, and it's also more of a shimmer like the Borghese.
Hot Metal, being purple, has lots of friends in my stash. The Nina (from the Hard Candies collection) has a very similar base color but it has silvery micro glitter instead of the purpley blue flash of Hot Metal. The Viva la Diva (which I got in a swap) looked darker than Hot Metal in the bottle but is really close on the nail—it's got the same purple flash against the plummy pink; if you can't get Hot Metal but can get 61, I think they'd fill the same slot in a collection. The NYC is pretty much Hot Metal with all the glitter removed. The NYC was the only two coater in this group; the others needed three.
Things went a bit off the rails when I got to Molten Rock—you'll see that I have two blues and two greens here, which is not the most helpful comparison ever. The Nina I justified by wanting a Nina in all three of these, and Velvet seas was the closest I had. The CHI just does not belong; I meant to grab the blue from this collection, but it's dark like the green so they look pretty close sitting in a Helmer drawer. Why I didn't notice I had the green instead of the blue until I'd put it on, I really have no idea. Ah well, at least the Ulta was a good pick for this comp; it's just a hair lighter than Molten Rock and more shimmery than metallic but still pretty close. The Nina, besides being teal green instead of turquoise blue, is a foily shimmer, so not really much like Molten Rock at all. The CHI we've already discussed. It's a very pretty polish, but does not belong in this comp. (Molten Rock is three coats; the others are two.)
But wait, there's more ... as jbrobeck pointed out in the comments on yesterday's entry, a lot of companies are doing the glass flecked/micro glitter/metallic-y thing for summer 2010, so since I had the Sally Hansen Ultra HD polishes handy, I grabbed a couple of those to compare.
Byte is Hot Metal's lighter, brighter, pinker sibling; they're definitely closely related. Molten Rock and Spectrum are cousins—both turquoise blue, but Molten Rock is darker and metallic while Spectrum is lighter and more glittery. I used two coats of Hot Metal and Molten Rock, three of Byte, and four of Spectrum. (An aside: If you look closely at the hand pic above—or click to see the full size— version), you can just see the end of the scar on my palm that I've had since I was a very young girl; I got it so long ago I don't remember how it happened—I want to say I pinched my hand in a door or something like that.)
*****
A little more than a week remains to enter my Wet 'n' Wild contest. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how much interest it's generated; I'm now over 200 followers, so will turn this into a 100 and 200 followers contest by giving away two sets of the polishes. If I can find the last one I'm missing for the second set, both sets will be new from the store. If not, the second set will be 11 new and one I've swatched on one nail.
Great comparisons and I'm glad that you were able to get your hands on Hot Metal. I agree with JBrobeck, summer 2010 is definitely all about glass flecked mermaid scales.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Those Milani. And the Nina. We have the Nina in the UK but the range must be ancient. And the HD!
ReplyDeleteGlass fleck shimmer. Shimmer fleck glass. Oh.....
So much to yearn for.
I love hot metal. It looks gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all these comparisions!!! Really do appreciate it!! All of them are lovely. I have a few of the non-milani ones. I saw the nina on sale and may go back and pick it up. I still want all the milani's lol!! Have a good vacation :)
ReplyDeleteare you sure, you've got the viva la diva polish from me? I don't remeber sending it to you- maybe it was an australian swapper?
ReplyDeleteSUCH great comparisons. SO many awesome colors. Thanks for sharing all of these goodies with us.
ReplyDeleteSusie
Thanks, everyone!
ReplyDeleteamusedPolish, yes you are right; I looked more carefully at my swap spreadsheet and see I got the Viva la Diva from Sweden. My apologies; one day I will swatch the pretties you sent me, but today is not that day. :)
These are GREAT comparisons. Thank you for this. I had a hunch Byte & Hot Metal were similar so I'm going to stick with Hot Metal.
ReplyDeleteGreat comparisons, thanks!
ReplyDelete