Paradoxal and Friends

I keep talking about de-duping my stash, yet I continue to acquire polishes that I know are likely dupes or near dupes to things I already have. Case in point, I bought Chanel Paradoxal fairly soon after it was released, yet that did not stop me from asking Lucy to get me Barry M Dusky Mauve when we did our swap, nor did it stop me from buying Revlon Perplex pretty much the minute I first saw it. I finally had a chance to swatch the copycats alongside the real thing recently. I know plenty of people have already done this, but I like to see for myself and figure more pictures means more information or at least confirmation available out in the world wide web.

First up, the Barry M. In the bottle, it looks very much like the Chanel.



On the nail (two coats for each), they continue to look very much alike. Very, very much alike, in a variety of lighting conditions. Bravo, Barry M!


Lightbox, top to bottom: Paradoxal, Dusky Mauve, Paradoxal, Dusky Mauve.


Room light, top to bottom: Paradoxal, Dusky Mauve.


Flash, top to bottom: Paradoxal, Dusky Mauve, Paradoxal, Dusky Mauve.

Next up, the Revlon. In the bottle, it looks pretty close, but not quite as close as the Barry M did.



On the nail (again two coats for each), it's same story as the bottles: close, but not quite. Bright light brings them closest to each other in appearance.


Lightbox, top to bottom: Paradoxal, Perplex, Paradoxal, Perplex.


Room light, top to bottom: Perplex, Paradoxal.


Flash, top to bottom: Paradoxal, Perplex.

The Revlon definitely leans more purple than the Chanel, and that's a fine thing as far as I'm concerned.

And finally, not at all a dupe but a polish I picked up because the brown and purple shimmer combination it had going on reminded me a bit of Paradoxal. CQ is a brand made by Scherer, the company that also makes Petites, Petites Color Fever, and Chameleon polishes. This particular shade is called Shimmering Bark; it's much warmer than Paradoxal but seems distantly related somehow.



Since I already had Paradoxal on two fingers, I went ahead and did a comparison even though I knew from the bottles that these were not close.




I don't need to tell you which is which, do I?

One big difference between Shimmering Bark and Paradoxal is Shimmering Bark is much more sheer; I used four coats of it versus two for Paradoxal. Hello, layering polish.