Are you a lacquer connoisseur?

    con-nois-seaur (noun) 

1. Expert; especially: one who understands details, techniques, or principles of an art that competent to act as a critical judge

2. one who enjoys the discrimination and appreciation of subtleties 

I had a bit of wake up when I did my comparison posts on Revlon Facets of Fuchsia vs. Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance (read here) and the comparison post for Revlon Smoky Canvas vs. Deborah Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas (read here). I realized I'm not as big of a nail polish connoisseur then I thought I was! I've been loving high-end brands like Chanel, Dior or Deborah Lippmann for a while and I thought I would be able to tell the difference between the copies that lower end brands put out. After doing my comparisons I would know NOW how to tell the difference up close, but honestly while I was writing the posts I was still a bit confused and would have to cross reference which file I pulled the picture out. Just like you don't have to be a wine connoisseur to be a wine lover. I might not be a lacquer connoisseur, but that most defiantly still a lacquer lover!


For more about Revlon's Expressionist Collection (click here)

Are you a lacquer connoisseur?

Deborah Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas & Revlon Smoky Canvas Comparison

In my post about the new Revlon fall collection called The Expressionist (click here) I mentioned that my favourite was the polish called Smoky Canvas. Smoky Canvas right away reminded me of Deborah Lippmann's Waking Up in Vegas. Just like Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia comparison to Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance (click here), I'm going to give you another quick comparison. 

Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up in Vegas (two coats)

Revlon - Smoky Canvas (two coats)

This one is a lot easier to compare. Both applied amazingly well. Both were smooth and opaque in two coats. You can see the tone of them are slightly different though. Revlon's Smoky Canvas had a very slightly more brown undertone while Deborah Lippmann's Waking Up in Vegas had a slightly more grey undertone to it. While not exact "dupes" they are very close. Again just like the other comparison from a distance they both look the same. You could be wearing a different one on either hand and I doubt anyone would know the difference.

Top: Revlon - Smoky Canvas

Bottom: Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up in Vegas

Final verdict?

Defiantly "dupe" realm. Not exact, but so close. Honestly you could be wearing Smoky Canvas and tell me that you have Waking Up in Vegas on and I would have no reason to doubt you, they are just that close. So again the only question is would you like to spend $5 or $22? For more on where to get these brands and the prices click here.

Get up and shake the glitter off your clothes now, 

thats what you get for waking up in vegas!

I'm just starting to blog, and I'm loving watching the stats go up and seeing people from other counties are reading my posts. Thats so exciting for me! Please don't be shy to ask questions or tell me what you you think in the comments :) Thanks

Revlon The Expressionist Collection A/W 2011

Exciting!!! This is Revlon's newest collection called the Expressionist collection and it is influenced by art by Franz Kline. It has four polishes from left to right: 

• Facets of Fuchsia  (a black jelly base filled with purple glitter and a sprinkling of purple hexagon glitter)

• Blue Mosaic  (a clear base packed with blue glitter and sparse hexagon glitter in blue, green and silver)

• Starry Pink  (a light purple/pink milky cream with silver glitter and silver hexagon glitter)

• Smoky Canvas  (a light brown cream with grey undertones)

When I saw the first bottle pictures of these a few month ago I got so excited. I only started paying attention to drug store nail polishes about a year ago. They have come a long long way!

Revlon has been putting out look a-likes for some time now. But it was mostly Chanel colours they copied so now it looks like they've moved on to Deborah Lippmann. I'm a little torn on this idea. I personally like wearing my Chanel or Deborah Lippmann polishes and knowing there isn't anything else like it. The other part of me thinks that it just pushes brands like Chanel to work even hard to come out with the next big thing, and that keeps things exciting!

My first impression...

• Facets of Fuchsia is a possible dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance (one my my all time favourite polishes) (See comparison here)
• Blue Mosaic is a possible dupe for Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe
• Smoky Canvas is a possible dupe for Deborah Lippmann Waking up in Vegas (see comparison here)
• Starry Pink was the only one I wasn't sure if it copied another polish, from another brand maybe? If anyone knows, let me know!

I have Bad Romance and Waking up in Vegas so I'll be doing a comparison post soon. Now my thoughts on the colours... Smoky Canvas by far my favourite of the bunch, application was perfect. I was opaque in one coat, but I did two coats out of sheer habit. I can tell already that Facets of Fuchsia will be the one of the bunch to get the most hype.  Starry Pink was a hot messy after 3 coats, goopy and just not flattering. To get the three sparkle polishes opaque it took 3 coats, my guess is that these are best layered with other polishes.

Revlon is sold nearly everywhere! In Vancouver its available at London Drugs, Shoppers, SuperStore, Wal-Mart... You never have to go very far to find Revlon. It retails for $5 CND. Limited Edition collection displays I find pop up in London Drugs stores first. These are set to be release in October.

This was my first impressions of the collection, I wanted to get a few pictures up cause I'm sure they will be in a store near you soon. I'm going to have some DL comparisons coming. I would also love if you let me know what you think in the comments :)