Fairy Dust vs Electric Lane Comparison

Hey there people, now here's a question.  Who doesn't want sparkly rainbows on their nails?  I know I do!  Nails Inc Electric Lane is the nail polish that made number one on my all time top ten polish list. If you want to look at that, here's the (link) which also includes a couple of Electric Lane swatches.

But I've seen manicures online using China Glaze Fairy Dust.  The difference between these two polishes is something I've been wondering for ages.  Finally, I couldn't wonder any longer so I bought some Fairy Dust so I can compare the two. 

I bought my China Glaze Fairy Dust from Amazon, and when it arrived, I couldn't see much difference at first glance:

The glitter pieces seem to be exactly the same size and colour to me.  So I made up some nail wheels with lots of different colours to try over:

Black: Deborah Lippmann - Fade to Black

White: Poundland Jess (link to full review)

Grey : Leighton Denny - Zero Gravity

Green: Barry M Gelly - Key Lime

Blue: Bourjois One Seconde - Bleu Water

Red: OPI- Big Hair...Big Nails

 

I decided to do one coat of each and no topcoat so you can fully tell the difference (if any).  Here's what I got:

I think you'll be able to guess, but the N's are the Nails Inc Electric Lane, and the C's are the China Glaze Fairy Dust.  As you can tell, more noticeably on the red and black is that the Electric Lane has a denser consistency.  However, in this light you can't really tell so well.  I have a couple of close ups which show it better:

 

Firstly the black:

I think this shows the difference in density much better, although in this lighting my photo seemed to come out a bit blurry, strange.  I think it might be the holo freaking my camera out.

 

Here's the red:

Again, a heavier glitter presence from the Nails Inc.  However, in my opinion, for a glitter topper, that's not necessarily a good thing.  The heavier covering of glitter is hiding the base polish somewhat, rather than enhancing it.

 

Also, Electric Lane dries to quite a sandy matte finish, which I like, but is another difference from Fairy Dust, which dries to more of a gloss as you can see.

 

Here's a picture I took in a rare sunny moment:

Definitely on the black you're starting to see the holo.

 

Here's how the brushes differ:

They both performed admirably, no problems with blobbing during application, and both glitters went on pretty evenly.

 

Here's a full nail swatch of Electric Lane over Nails Inc Devonshire Row:

So how much do they cost?

Nails Inc Electric Lane costs £12 for 10ml

China Glaze Fairy Dust costs £6.49 for 14ml

 

However, there isn't anywhere on the high street I can buy China Glaze, and Amazon have stopped free Super Saver Delivery unless you spend £10, so there will be extra to pay for shipping.  There is a Nails Inc stand in larger branches of Boots, so you can get them with no P&P to pay.

 

However, even with this taken into account, Fairy Dust is cheaper, and you get more.

 

I have managed to get full coverage on my nails with Electric Lane with four coats, I doubt you'd ever manage that with Fairy Dust.

 

So, which do I recommend?  Amazingly, I actually recommend Fairy Dust!  Electric Lane definitely has more bling, but I prefer the glossier and less overwhelming finish of the China Glaze.  Plus of course it's cheaper.

 

No one could be more surprised about this outcome than me, but that's the conclusion I came to.  I still like them both though in different ways, so you could certainly justify owning both.

 

Do you own either of these polishes? Or do you have a different favourite holo glitter topcoat?  Would love to hear about it if you do.

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~

Barry M Gelly Lychee vs OPI My Vampire is Buff - comparison and review

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing really well.  I've finally made it to my week off work, am off on my hols tomorrow woohoo!  Of course I'm taking my laptop so I'm hoping I might even get some cheeky blogging in   :-)

So, I was having a rant a while back on Twitter about my work printer taking a million clicks to print one page, and I called the printer a "beige git".  I finished this with a disclaimer stating I wasn't beige-ist, which led to a bit of a discussion with Liloo of Le Petit Jardin of Liloo (link) about whether I was beige-ist or not, all tongue in cheek of course!  If you haven't checked out her blog before, you should give it a look, especially if you're into make-up as well as nails, it's fab, and she's beautiful inside and out, I love her and her blog. :-)  Anyway, this conversation led round to a chain of thought, because I'd bought Barry M Lychee the previous week and not used it yet, and it's kind of beige. 

I got to wondering how close it was in colour to My Vampire is Buff by OPI.  And usually, if I've wondered it, other people have too.  And because I own both I thought I would do a quick comparison and review for you.

So here we have the polishes side by side:

You can immediately see that they're close, but in no way dupes.  The Barry M is more of a taupe, whereas the OPI is whiter and pinker, although the pink hue doesn't come out very well in photos, it is there in real life, just the slightest blush tone.

So here they are side by side on my nails:

Lychee is on my index and middle finger, and My Vampire is Buff is on my ring and little (pinkie) finger.  Both two coats.

I think this shows the difference in tone better than it shows in the bottle.  But of course, if it was just a case of choosing which colour we like best, there would be no need at all for nail polish reviews, would there?  So how do they compare in application?

MVIB: First coat a bit streaky and still some visible nail line
Lychee: Not as streaky and shinier

MVIB: Consistency just right, easy to apply
Lychee: A bit runnier, need to be careful about leaving polish on stalk as it could drip, but still easy to apply

MVIB: Not as self levelling as some Nails Inc cremes but still OK
Lychee: More self levelling, pretty good

MVIB: Brush typical OPI brush, just right softness, nice shape
Lychee: Main let down, too square at top so made shaping at cuticles more difficult, and a bit too stiff, although released polish well

MVIB: One coat touch dry time 3 min 45 sec
Lychee: One coat touch dry time 3 minutes

MVIB: 2 coats left only very slight nail line
Lychee: 2 coats left no nail line, could be a one coater with medium thickness application

MVIB: £7.85 from Amazon UK (link)
Lychee: £3.99 from Amazon UK (link)

So lets have full swatches then.  Here's Barry M Gelly Lychee swatched on all fingers:

And here's OPI my Vampire is Buff swatched on all fingers:

So which is the winner?  Lets recap:

Barry M Gelly in Lychee dries faster, is more opaque, is more shiny, and importantly it costs less. 
 
OPI My Vampire is Buff has a slightly better formula and much better brush.  So there's pros and cons to each.

At the end of the day then, for me it comes down to which colour I prefer.  I personally prefer My Vampire is Buff, because I like white-based polishes, and I find Lychee a little bit uninspiring. 

However, the happy news is that to polish nuts like me, they're different enough to justify owning both, which is always a good thing.  They're not the same, they're SIMILAR  ;-)

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

OPI Alpine Snow vs OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Hi All!

It's Saturday and I'm off work, so happy!  Even better, the suns out, and that can only mean one thing, SWATCHES!!

This is a post I've been meaning to do for a while, then I saw that someone navigated to my site while looking for a comparison, and I felt all bad because I hadn't done it yet, and it spurred me into action.  So whoever you are, anonymous, thank you for the boot up the bum that I needed.

Looking at the two in the bottle, it's obvious why people can't decide between them:

In this, and every, picture, My Boyfriend Scales Walls is on the left, and Alpine Snow is on the right.

So lets get into it on my nails:

As you can see, Alpine Snow on the right, is ever-so-slightly brighter.  This picture is a pretty good representation of how it looks in real life, indoors but in the light from the window.

Formula wise, you can see that I had a little bubbling issue with My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I didn't have that last time I used it, perhaps I shook it a little too vigorously.  These pictures are all three coats, and I didn't need to do any clean up.

Lets have another pic.  This one's in the sunlight:

I think this one shows the shine nicely.  You can see on my index finger that My Boyfriend Scales walls shows more shine than Alpine Snow.

One last pic of it on my nails, this one in the shade:

Getting back to the formula, they are slightly different.  I prefer the formula of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, because it's less self deleting than Alpine Snow, and it seems to self level better.  Also, I'm pretty sure I had to add some thinner to my Alpine Snow when I first got it to make it more cooperative. 

Brushwise, theres not much in it.  If I HAD to chose between them, My Boyfriend Scales Walls brush is a tiny bit better, you can see the difference between the formulas quite well in this next pic, look at the difference in how each polish clings to the brush:

The coating on the brush is denser on Alpine Snow (right), and that gives you a pretty good idea about the application.

They both needed the three coats for perfect coverage, dry time was identical and medium/fast. 

I would actually say that this is the one time where I'm happy to own both, even though they're so similar, as they both have their place in my collection.  Alpine snow where I need a bright white, especially for nail art and dotting, and My Boyfriend Scales Walls for all over nice shiny and level nails.

But, if you can't afford both, and so I absolutely have to pick, I would say to choose My Boyfriend Scales Walls, as it's a bit more versatile.  I bought both of mine from Amazon and paid about £7.50 each.

So there you go, comparison done, I hope you liked it!

Until next time....

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~