Sky Blue Glitters: Revon Blue Mosaic compared to OPI Gone Gonzo!

About two months ago Revlon release the The Expressionist Collection, click here to see the full collection. It included a pretty sky blue sparkle nail polish called Blue Mosaic. I believe this collection will be entering into Revlon's permanent line. More recently OPI released it's limited edition collection for the holidays, The Muppets Collection. Click here to see all post related to The Muppets Collection. The Muppets collection also has a sky blue sparkle polish, its name is Gone Gonzo! While they aren't exact dupes as Blue Mosaic has some green hexagon glitter thrown in, the are very close!

I'm cheating! Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia (The Expressionist Collection Fall 2011)

I actually did this swatch months ago, if you follow the blog, you know I've had this polish in many post but I've never done some actual swatches. I love love love Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, it's been one of my all time favourite polishes for over a year and this one makes me feel like I'm cheating on DL! LOL anyways... you can see a caparison post between the two here. 

Facets of Fuchsia is a black jelly base with small purple glitter and large purple hexagon glitter in it. If I can remember correctly this was two coats plus a top coat of Seche Vite. This just started showing up in Vancouver in the last month or so. It's from The Expressionist Collection for Fall/Winter 2011, you can see the whole collection here. I loove this polish, probably cause it's a lot like Bad Romance! I found mine at a Target, it was $3.74 US. In Canada they can be found on displays with Carbonite in London Drugs and  Shoppers Drug Mart for around $5 CAD.

Revlon - Carbonite (Finally arrived in Canada!)

So I know Revlon's Carbonite has been around for you American girls for a little while now. But here in Canada we finally got some displays with it. I looked forever for this over a month ago, and looked with no avail, and pretty much just moved on. I really didn't think it was worth ordering from eBay since I do have Chanel's Graphite, which is suppose to be a close match (I'll talk more about that in a comparison post).  I finally found it, it was on a display with The Expressionist Collection (link here to read more about that collection).

I would describe Carbonite has a pewter/gun metal type of colour. It's very grey with a hint of greenish gold to it.  It's a foil finish to it and has a ton of depth. Super great colour for Fall, and also a great neutral. One issue I had with it was it seemed thick and didn't just "slide" on like Chanel's Graphite did. You can sorta see how almost clumpy it looks. I used two coats and one coat of Seche Vite top coat. I've seen displays with Carbonite, literally in every grocery store and drug store this week. Mine is from Zellers and was $4.99 CAD.  London Drugs and SuperStore both had the from $5.99 CAD. 

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SPOTTED: Drug Store Fall Displays Bellingham, WA (Labour Day Weekend)

So I, along with thousands of others decided to take a little shopping trip over the boarder this past weekend. I didn't go very far just to Bellingham which from Vancouver is about 45 minutes. I really just wanted a few new tops for work and to check out the new fall nail polish... so heres what I saw. Above it the new Revlon polishes from The Expressionist collection. I've done a post on it here. As you can see in the post I bought all of them, from left to right, Starry Pink, Blue Mosaic, Facets of Fuchsia, and Smoky Canvas. This display was in Target. They were $3.74 US each.

Also in Target was this Sonia Kashuk display, which I believe is a Target exclusive brand. They are $4.89 US each. This is her Fall/Winter 2011 Collection. I didn't buy any of them, I did buy her Limited Edition pink blending sponge and a few of her makeup brushes. Below is my favourite from the collection, it's called Blank Slate. I'm kinda regretting not buy it now, but it really looks like China Glaze's Concrete Catwalk. 

This was from Rite-Aid. It was 7 polishes from Maybelline and their Express Finish line. I bought the one the very right called Cool Couture. It's the only Maybelline in my entire collection, the bottles are very unattractive to me. The colour looks so pretty in person, I just had to have it. There was one more Maybelline display beside this one with nail polish on it.. 

I loooove shopping over the boarder. I go about once a month, this time it was just a quick trip just to Bellingham. Bellingham is about 20 minutes from the actual boarder, if you looking for nail polish, they have a Sally Beauty Supply, Target, and Wal-mart. If your trying to reach a Ulta from Vancouver the closest one is Lynnwood, while your in Lynnwood you can check out Nordstroms too, which carries Butter London, MAC, and Deborah Lippmann. 

My two other favourite things about the states are: EOS lip balm and Pink Rockstar :) both I can never find here in Vancouver. 

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

Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance & Revlon Facets of Fuchsia Comparison

This morning I did a blog post all about Revlon's The Expressionist Collection thats being released this fall (click here to see the whole collection). In it I talked about Revlon copying some of Chanel's colours and now this collection is very similar to some of Deborah Lippmann's polishes. I couldn't help but compare these two right away. Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance is one of my favourite polishes. Both polishes are black jelly bases with purple glitter and larger purple hexagon glitter. Above is Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance and the left is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia. So how did the two stack up?...

Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance (three coats)

Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia (three coats)

The similarities are:

A. Both have the same black jelly base

B. Both have small square glitter

C. Both have hexagon glitter

D. The colour of the glitter in both are exactly the same shade

E. From arms length away you would think they are the same.

The differences are:

A. Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia goes on thicker

B. Revlon's Facets of Fuchsia has much more glitter both small and large

C. Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance had a smoother appearance without a top coat

Top: Revlon - Facets of Fuchsia

Bottom: Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance

The final verdict? 

I'm sitting here looking at the wheel at all different angles and lighting and they aren't exact dupes because Revlon's has more glitter, but honestly from a distance they are pretty much the same. I love them both. So really the question is $5 or $22? 

    - Deborah Lippmann $22 CND ($16 US)

    - Revlon $5 - 6 CND ($4 US)

Revlon is very easy to find (sometimes not the Limited Edition displays though), The Expressionist displays can now be found in London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Zellers. 

Deborah Lippmann is found in stores in Canada at Holt Renfrew, Murale,  and other high end boutiques. The Deborah Lippmann site does not ship to Canada but you can go to nordstroms.com and they do ship to Canada, they will add in the duties though. A better option if you live in Canada might be nailpolishcanada.com, they carry Deborah Lippmann, and they have free shipping when you spend over $29 CAD. 

You can also check out Deborah Lippmann's website to see where to find her polishes near you lippmanncollection.com. 

THANKS FOR DROPPING IN! 

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 :)