Milani Intense Metal Comps

Picking up from my last entry, today I have comparisons to the three Milanis I got from the Liquid Metals Intense Colors collection.


Left to right: Milani Melt Down, Borghese Chianti Wine, Nina Ultra Pro Viva La Velvet, Sally Hansen HD Zip.


Top to bottom: Melt Down, Chianti Wine, Viva La Velvet, Zip.

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.


Left to right: Milani Hot Metal, Nina Ultra Pro Dragon Berry, Viva la Diva 61, NYC Nail Glossies 239.


Top to bottom: Hot Metal, Dragon Berry, 61, 239.

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.


Left to right: Milani Molten Rock, Ulta Alter Ego, Nina Ultra Pro Velvet Seas, CHI Hot Ring Illusion Around Saturn.


Top to bottom: Molten Rock, Alter Ego, Velvet Seas, Hot Ring.

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.


Left to right: Milani Hot Metal, Sally Hansen HD Byte, Milani Molten Rock, Sally Hansen HD Spectrum.


Top to bottom: Hot Metal, Byte, Molten Rock, Spectrum.

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.