Thursday, October 28, 2010

MAC Bad Fairy

Today I have swatches of MAC Bad Fairy from the Venemous Villians collection. I was not going to buy this one because MAC limited edition hysteria makes my head hurt, and I just didn't want to have to call around and find a counter that would put one aside for me and drive who knows where to get it. I did want it because I do like Disney, and while I had the dupes for the other two nail colors in the collection, no one had found a match for this one early on. I happened to be online the Sunday after the release when a kind person I know from the MUA nail board made a few available for sale on LiveJournal at what I thought was a very reasonable price, so I decided that was a sign and sent off a private message and crossed my fingers hoping I'd been fast enough. I was, and not too long after I had this beauty in my hands. It's a duochrome, so that means lots of pictures are necessary. The first four photos below are in varying levels of indirect indoor light, and the last one is outdoors in the sun, where Bad Fairy really glows. It's a bit sheer; I used three coats and still got some nail line showing in some lights.











The duochrome in Bad Fairy reminded me of a Sally Hansen Nail Prism I'd gotten in recent swap, Bronze Ruby. I knew the Sally Hansen wasn't a dupe because it lacks the foil-y grittiness of the MAC, but I thought maybe layering might help with that. I first tried one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Fireberry Red under two coats of Bronze Ruby on my middle finger. That combination was no Bad Fairy, though in the sun it did look sort of similar.


Top to bottom: Bad Fairy, Fireberry Red with Bronze Ruby, Bad Fairy, Bad Fairy.



Fireberry Red with Bronze Ruby (top), Bad Fairy (bottom).


Next I tried two coats of Orly Shine (a silver foil) under two coats of Bronze Ruby to try and get that metallic-y thing going. The texture of that combination was closer to Bad Fairy than my first try, but the color was still off. I did like the effect of the Prism over the foil, so I plan to do some more experiments along those lines to see what I can come up with.


Orly Shine with Bronze Ruby (top), Bad Fairy (bottom).


I've seen mentions of other polishes being dupe-y to Bad Fairy. OPI DS Perfection is one leading candidate (not that it's easy to find anymore), though All Things Nails found it to be not that close. Same story with OPI The Show Must Go On according to The Lacquerista. Milani Hot Flash from this past summer has a similar texture and base color but lacks the duochrome. Accessorize Pink Spice seems to be the current front runner in the dupe race, but some say it's not a perfect match either. Right now, I'm feeling glad I was able to get Bad Fairy.

15 comments:

  1. great pictures, loving that first layering experiment too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bautiful color!

    I'm glad you go it too! Great post, very informative, Thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh wow, you caught the bronze in it so fantastically!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you were able to find BF and not have to hop through too many loops. I have it one right now and it's def up there as a top ten polish love. Orly Shine with Bronze Ruby is really pretty too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awesome photos! I think I have Bronze Ruby... I will have to try this!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the mention KarenD!

    Yeah, so far no dupe for me so I'm definitely holding on to my BF. I'm so glad you got one and once it hits the sunshine - it's all duochromey goodness... :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh, no wonder everyone wants this polish! its so prettttty~

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love this colour.. I don't have any place around me that sells M.A.C. I'm sure a dupe for it will come up somewhere but I think the OPI might satisfy me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your photos of Bad Fairy look great, you really captured the colours! I also managed to grab one and I really like it, I've never seen another polish like it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I totally missed out on this one :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very pretty when you caught the bronze!, good comparison.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Are you a follower of Scandalously Polished? She found what looks very much like an OPI dupe a few days ago, I'm not sure whether it was the OPI you mentioned, but I couldn't tell the difference!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Karen, New follower here. Bad Fairy is my one and only Mac Polish. It's really special. Just wanted to say I really like your writing style and the excellent quality of your pictures. Thank you also for your research and experimentation!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks, everyone!

    Joan, yes, I saw her post about DS Perfection, and it sure does look similar to Bad Fairy at some angles. Still, I've seen enough photos that show what AllThingsNails does to think the two aren't truly dupes. I'd sure buy DS Perfection if I could find it at reasonable price though, as it's pretty.

    Tiso, thanks so much for your comments. Glad to have you reading!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I can't wait for my Bad Fairy to arrive (postal agent) but I really like the nail prism too!! Very crimson - I love colours like that...

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.