After hitting up 3 different Walgreens I finally got my hands on this collection! Much like the China Glaze Bohemian collection I have been lusting after these ever since Sally Hansen posted a teaser pic on their
FaceBook page. Many people have been saying they're going to pass on these because they are "dupes" of the China Glaze collection and at twice the cost I can see why people would want to dismiss them. But I hate to say it, they're not, with the one exception of Scarab, that's an exact dupe of ChG Deviantly Daring. Also, there have been rumors that there's actually two more colors to this collection and according to the numbers on the bottles (number 2 and 4 are missing) it does indeed look like two more color *should* be released (now I'm not saying they will definitely be released because I don't know but I can't imagined they'd have an incomplete collection).So anyways, here they are...
I used 2 coats of polish for every swatch shown..
Moonstone is a beautiful Opal. It doesn't really have a color "shift" it's more iridescent so you see hints of blue and pink coming through the white base. This is not a sheer polish and was opaque in 2 coats.
Firefly is a coppery, reddish gold with a subtle shift to green. This one was very surprising because in the bottle you see green lining the sides making it appear that it has a green color shift, but sadly the green shift only appeared in the underwater shot (although in the right lighting you might be able to see it).
Plume is gold with a subtle green shift. In the bottle this looks like yet another
Chanel Peridot dupe, however, the main color of this is a warm gold not green.
Do you hear the angels singing? If not you need you hearing checked because this color is a bottle of awesomesauce! Lava is an reddish orange flakie with a yellow color shift. Yes a duochrome flakie, nothing gets more awesome than that!
Scarab is a beautiful teal. The color shift in this one, like ChG Deviantly Daring, is very minimal. It does have an ever so subtle shift from blue to teal but let's face it, it's teal.
Copperhead is a reddish brown with a hint of gold shimmer. I was very meh about this color but it's actually very pretty and perfect for fall.
Now here's some comparisons...
SH Moonstone vs Pixi Opal Sheen
I almost didn't compare these because they looked so different in the bottle(Opal Sheen has a strong pink undertone whereas Moonstone is more blue/pink iridescent). Yet they photographed very similar, although you can see that Opal Sheen is far more pink. The only big difference is Moonstone has a frosty appearance where Opal Sheen is very smooth.
These look nothing alike (lol). I only compared them because I figured people would want to know if they look alike, they don't. Now you may ask why I didn't compared it to Unpredictable and the answer is because even in the bottle they look nothing alike, not even similar.
So here's the big comparison! Plume vs ChG Rare and Radiant and as you can see the base color is totally different. In fact, they're opposites! While Rare and Radiant is a green that shifts to gold, Plume is a gold that slightly shifts to green.
Again these look nothing alike but I didn't want poor Lava to be left out of the comparisons lol.
Ok, so here's the only dupe. If you already own ChG Deviantly Daring you DO NOT need to spend $9 for the same polish. The *only* difference is Deviantly Daring is slightly sheerer, I used 2 coats each to swatch but if I did 3-4 of Deviantly Daring I would have the same intensity of Scarab.
If you recently picked up the new
Maybelline Color Show polish in Downtown Brown and thought that Copperhead looked like it, think again. Even though I swatched using MAC Blue Brown pigment it's very similar to Downtown Brown (MAC Blue Brown pigment is more of a redder brown). While Copperhead has the red brown thing going on it doesn't have a blue shift, instead it has subtle gold shimmer.
Overall: These had a great formula, not thick or brushstrokey. They applied smooth and even and are very pigmented! You only need 2 coats to achieve full color opacity. They have an average dry time only if applied in thin layers, If you apply too thick they seem to never dry. I applied each color over WnW Black creme so you could see the duochrome color and I also applied a matte topcoat. Unfortunately the matte top coat did nothing but dull it so I'll have to experiment more with that.
Price: I bought these for $8.99 a piece at Walgreens, but Walgreens prices are always high(to me at least). I think when these come to places like Walmart they may be a couple dollars cheaper. Bu for now if you could only get a couple from this collection I would say the must haves are definitely Lava followed by either Copperhead or Firefly.
Hope you enjoyed and happy shopping! ;)
