Hi everyone! Today I have another polish from the new Orly Holiday 2017 collection to share with you. This one reminded me of an OPI from a few years ago, so I put them on together so we could see the similarities and differences.
I’ll start with Orly Faux Pearl. This is on all my fingers but my middle finger. Faux Pearl is a nude with a slight gold shimmer in the bottle. This leans a little on the peach side of nude on me. Formula was really good! It went on very easy but watch for too much polish on the brush as that will cause cuticle flooding. I did not notice the shimmer really at all until I got outside in some indirect sun. I think the shimmer does warm up the color a bit though. I used two coats plus topcoat for the Orly.
OPI My Vampire Is Buff is on my middle nail only. It is a cooler buff/nude creme. This one had a much streakier application, especially on the first coat! It wasn’t as opaque either, needing three coats with a matte topcoat before the third coat to try to tame the streaks. Once it was on the nails I really did like it though! It looks really smooth and you can’t tell I had any trouble with application.
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So depending on if you prefer cooler or warmer tones, one of these should work for you. I think I’m pretty neutral, I didn’t look at either of these and think they looked bad with my skin tone. The color difference is slight. My husband noticed a difference (after I asked him) but he just figured I had put an extra coat of polish on some of my nails changing the color that way.
So in my opinion, the Orly wins in formula and application but I do wish the shimmer actually showed up a little better.
Orly Faux Pearl (on all nails but the middle), 2 coats plus topcoat with OPI My Vampire Is Buff (middle nail only), 3 coats plus topcoat.
Opi Nail Lacquer
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My name is Paula and I live in California right now with my hubby of many years and Chico my “baby”. You will see him featured periodically at the end of a post (the dog, not the hubby).🙂frugal. With that, I hate buying polishes that are dupes or WAY close. I see no need. I definitely have a polish obsession, but in this aspect, cost outweighs owning polish. And I don't like to buy a polish that I essentially already have. Definitely nothing against those who do!! Thank goodness for those of you that buy dupes. If you didn't, I'd never get to see comparisons of similar polishes. Thanks to those of you who do buy dupes, I was able to pick Essence Choose Me! up instead of OPI Catch Me In Your Net or Zoya Charla. I was able to pick up Revlon Electric instead of Chanel Mimosa. You get the idea.
So, unbeknowst to me, I bought some dupes. Obviously as the title suggests, those dupes are Orly Ancient Jade and OPI Mermaid's Tears. I picked up Ancient Jade (from the Precious collection) first back in February. I even used it in one of my posts. I later bought Mermaid's Tears in early May. I had seen swatches of MT online, and obviously I had worn AJ. I had not a FREAKIN' clue how similar they were. I hadn't even given it a second thought, honestly. In hindsight, I definitely thought AJ was much more green, and even when I heard rumor that they were dupes for each other, I just couldn't believe it. So I just had to swatch them together, and here's what I got.
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So they're obviously really, really close. Complete dupes? I'd say no. Close enough? Absolutely. If you're like me like I said above, I would say you don't need both. They are so so similar. If I had to chose, I'd pick Ancient Jade.
Aside from the fact that I don't enjoy the ProWide OPI brushes, Orly won me over with the formula. Completely opaque in one coat, not streaky, easy to use, just awesome. I used 2 coats of each in the photos for a more true comparison. OPIs was fine, too, but it did require 2 coats and if they were on the thinner side, you might've needed 3. I'd still say 2 coats is fine, though. Mermaid's Tears had the same applications as the other two polishes (Stranger Tides and Skull & Glossbones) I have from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Thin and watery, but opaque in 2 coats.
Color wise, anything I mention is SUCH a slight difference, so keep that in mind. By slight I mean if they were to go one shade different, they'd be identical. So MT is the slightest bit murkier while AJ is the slightest bit brighter. I'd also say AJ is about 1 shade more turquoise than MT. I think AJ has a more clean look than MT, and I think it's a little more striking. By striking I mean alluring. It has a demure brightness that MT doesn't have because it's more murky.
Opi Nail Lacquer Top Coat 15ml; Nail Polish Beauty Expert
These photos do not have a top coat. I painted them as if I was going to use a quick dry top coat. I didn't wait for the first coat to dry fully before adding the second. I felt my nails about 15 minutes after painting them, and they're both dry to finger marks.
And can you tell how my middle finger nail and kind of my index finger nail are starting to curve inwards at the sides? Clearly my nails are a little too long for me and I need to file 'em down a bit. Lol. Eh, I'll get around to it eventually.
So they're obviously really, really close. Complete dupes? I'd say no. Close enough? Absolutely. If you're like me like I said above, I would say you don't need both. They are so so similar. If I had to chose, I'd pick Ancient Jade.
Aside from the fact that I don't enjoy the ProWide OPI brushes, Orly won me over with the formula. Completely opaque in one coat, not streaky, easy to use, just awesome. I used 2 coats of each in the photos for a more true comparison. OPIs was fine, too, but it did require 2 coats and if they were on the thinner side, you might've needed 3. I'd still say 2 coats is fine, though. Mermaid's Tears had the same applications as the other two polishes (Stranger Tides and Skull & Glossbones) I have from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Thin and watery, but opaque in 2 coats.
Color wise, anything I mention is SUCH a slight difference, so keep that in mind. By slight I mean if they were to go one shade different, they'd be identical. So MT is the slightest bit murkier while AJ is the slightest bit brighter. I'd also say AJ is about 1 shade more turquoise than MT. I think AJ has a more clean look than MT, and I think it's a little more striking. By striking I mean alluring. It has a demure brightness that MT doesn't have because it's more murky.
Opi Nail Lacquer Top Coat 15ml; Nail Polish Beauty Expert
These photos do not have a top coat. I painted them as if I was going to use a quick dry top coat. I didn't wait for the first coat to dry fully before adding the second. I felt my nails about 15 minutes after painting them, and they're both dry to finger marks.
And can you tell how my middle finger nail and kind of my index finger nail are starting to curve inwards at the sides? Clearly my nails are a little too long for me and I need to file 'em down a bit. Lol. Eh, I'll get around to it eventually.
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