Dupe-Fest Swatcharama – The Final Chapter

I thought I had only one installment of Dupe-Fest Swatcharama left, the battle of silvers, but I guess I did two more A England polishes, too.  Let’s knock these out so I don’t keep having to hunt through my archives for the photos.  Here are episode one, episode two, and episode three.

Let’s go red.  I’m not usually a big fan of red, so when I buy one it means I really like it.  And apparently it means I buy it more than once.  For this polish battle I compared A England’s Percival and Butter LONDON’s Knees up.  These two metallic reds are so similar that I was convinced that they were perfect dupes when I placed the bottles side by side.

L: Butter London’s Knees Up R: A England’s Percival

I also compared A England’s St George and Wet & Wild’s Morbid.  Morbid was reviewed as a dupe for Chanel’s Black Pearl, but when it showed up it looked like a blue-green shimmer.  I didn’t swatch it right away, but it seemed like a long shot that it would resemble Black Pearl.  I didn’t think it would be a dupe of St George, but I thought it might be similar, based on the appearance in the bottle.

L: A England’s St George  R: Wet n Wild’s Morbid

L to R: A England’s Percival, Butter LONDON’s Knees Up, A England’s St George, Wet n Wild’s Morbid. Two coats of each, no base or top coat.

Knees Up‘s formula is lovely but the brush in those awkwardly shaped bottles is so insubstantial.  Percival‘s pigment is a bit richer and just a teensy bit cooler.  St George has a slightly holo shimmer and is very nearly a one coat wonder.  Morbid looks totally different on the nail than in the bottle.  I believe it may actually be similar to Black Pearl, although I’m not convinced it’s a true dupe.

Winners: I can’t pick winners on this set.  They’re all marvelous.

Lastly, let’s look at silvers.  I’ve mentioned before that my lifelong dream is to find the perfect liquid metal, quicksilver finish.  I buy silvers whenever they look like they’re going to get close to my metallic dream.  Here are five.

L to R: Wet n Wild Fastdry’s Silvivor, Rimmel’s Pure Silver, Zoya Trixie, Julep’s Leighton, Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear in Celeb City

By this time of the evening I was getting tired and application got really messy.  Try to ignore all of the excess bits.

Thumb: Wet n Wild Fastdry’s Silvivor. L to R: Rimmel’s Pure Silver, Zoya’s Trixie, Julep’s Leighton, Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear in Celeb City. Two coats, no base or topcoat. No cleanup, obviously.

Thumb: Wet n Wild Fastdry’s Silvivor. L to R: Rimmel’s Pure Silver, Zoya’s Trixie, Julep’s Leighton, Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear in Celeb City. Two coats, no base or topcoat. No cleanup, obviously.

Of the three foils, Celeb City and Trixie were pretty comparable and brilliantly silver.  Silvivor was a bit mediocre by comparison. Of the two non-foils, Julep’s Leighton was the superior formula.  It applied like a dream, and unlike Rimmel’s offering it had a lovely smooth finish.

I chose a winner, but called J over to give me his unbiased opinion.  He knows about my dream of quicksilver nails, so he used that criteria to choose.  We both agreed.

Winner: Julep’s Leighton.

I was surprised by this result, although maybe I shouldn’t have been.  I’d read a few negative reviews of Julep’s products, so when I received this one as a gift from a friend I was in no rush to try it out.  That’ll teach me not to prematurely judge a brand.  This silver is the absolute best silver I’ve ever tried.  Smooth and beautifully self-leveling.  The shade may be better described as nickel.  Maybe even zinc.  It’s less silver than Celeb City or Trixie, but it’s the best white-toned metallic polish I have.  I’m still not convinced I should join the monthly Julep Maven club, but I’m certainly open to trying more of their products.

And that’s it.  Dupe-fest Swatcharama draws to a close.  Good grief.