Comparison: Nubar Greener vs. H&M Envy me

Hey everybody! It has been a while, I know. About a week ago I got a lovely surprise in my mailbox - a request from one of my readers for a comparison. Which is exactly the nudge i need to get myself to pick up the camera and work with it, as lately I did not have time for that. And I really am a fan of requests like these, they give me an idea for posts and additional motivation to actually post them.

To get to the comparison. As it happens, these two are amongst my favourite nail polishes in my stash. Absolutely adore the rich green shimmer. And yes, they are quite close, but are they dupes? Let's find out. 

Index finger: HM Envy me,

Middle finger: Nubar Greener

Ring finger: HM Envy me

Little finger: Nubar Greener

No topcoat on the photos. 

The bottles emphasise the fact that Envy me is in fact bluer than Greener. But on the nail that difference is not as obvious. After wearing them both at the same time for 5 days now, here are my observations:

- H&M Envy me has a bluer, hence colder undertone, while Greener is a slightly warmer green, even though they are both definitively on a colder side of green shimmers.

- Nubar Greener is a richer shimmer, which creates more depth in the colour.

- In most of the lights they look almost the same, but if you look at the nails up close you notice the difference between the undertones.

- After five days Envy me is chipped on half of the nails, Nubar remains only with a slight tipwear (I put topcoat on after I took photos).

Both brushes are excellent, although I am a firm fan of Nubar brush, it is my winner. Although H&M Envy me has more coverage with just one stroke, both can be two-coaters (and both get more depth with a third one). 

There you have it. I cannot pick a winner, I love them both, both are nail polish of excellent quality and I wouldn't switch one for the other, as I do find them different enough to own both. However, if you are not too picky about your undertone and all you need is a very rich dark green shimmer, you can easily pick either of them.

If you have any other comparison questions, let me know via email or comments. I hope this was helpful!

Have a lovely weekend!

~ Ulmiel

I heart Makeup - Brow Kit ~ Fairest of them all

Hey girls! How are you doing? Every time I write that I say that in my head with Joey's voice, hah, it cannot be unheard. :) Today I  have for you the Eyebrow set I <3 Makeup did, called Fairest of them all. Licila.si, slovene online makeup store kindly sent me the set and I have been using it every day since the day I got my hands on it. I do not think I will search for another one ever again, this baby is just perfect for me, I am really happy with it. 

I did a look a while ago, when I started testing the set, and took some pictures with it, to show you how it works on my brows. I have naturally strong brows, so I just fill them a bit, and then put the wax on and I really love how it sets the brows, they stayed this way whole day long, even when it was really hot. Usually when sweating the "browshadow" kind of disappears in couple of hours, but Fairest of them all stays put.

Package and what it contains

As you can see, there are three different shades in the set and a wax to fixate your brows. You get a small brush and small tweezers with it. The brush actually works very nicely. I tried tweezers just for fun, and they are not meant for a precise work, but if you missed a hair and it got longer, you will be able to pull it out with them. I think it is meant more for emergencies than anything else. I actually like the tiny mirror there as well, it works great for looking at your eyebrows only, but I do not really use it.

The package itself is sturdy, I move it twice a week with my luggage and the only thing that happened is, that the writing on the palette faded a bit. The eyeshadows do not break and the lid closes nicely, but not so hard you would need to struggle to open it. 

How it looks on me

I use the darker brown for my eyebrows and then I put the wax on them to fixate it. This is a look I did a while ago, I adore my blues. :)

Wow, sorry for the bitch-please eyebrow on my second photo, haha. :)

Comparison with other eyebrow sets

And then I decided to try to make a comparison with other eyebrows sets, so you can compare the shades. From left to right it is I <3 Make up Fairest of them all, Makeup Revolution Lock&Load palette, Essence  Eyebrow set (the one with horrible package) and on the top is the Catrice Eyebrow Pencil Date With Ash-ton.

As you can see, the two lighter shades in the set are indeed very light, comparing to the other shades in other sets. For me the brown one works perfectly, as it is a mixture between Ash-ton and dark Essence shade. Plus it is not as dusty as the ones in Makeup Revolution and Essence sets nor does it fade away as quickly as Date With Ash-ton. And none of them are shimmery, that's just my ArtDeco primer. 

 You can get I heart Makeup Brow Kit Fairest of them all at licila.si for 4,95€ or their official site for £3.99. I am really happy with it, I can only recommend it.

What do you use for your eyebrows? 

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Kiko 266 and a comparison with Catrice

Hey my darlings! How are you? I put this Kiko 266 on yesterday and realised I probably never even posted a comparison I did ... well, probably a year or two ago with Catrice Blue My Mind. I did show you 266 before but the photos are not so good, so let's look at it again. It is a gorgeous shimmery blue, I cannot get sick of these type of blues.

This was two coats, very easy application, Kiko has great brushes. And now for the old comparison, Kiko 266 vs. Catrice Blue My Mind.

My gosh, look at my nails! I can't remember the last time I had them this long. Blue My Mind is a discontinued beauty Catrice made in the first wave of their polishes, and both brush and formula were amazing. The colours are very close, Kiko is a tad bit lighter.

Which is your favourite Kiko shade and which one is the winner for you in the comparison?

BTW; this made my day:
 

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Comparison: China Glaze Fast Track vs. Catrice Clay-ton My Hero

How I thought these two were similar I still do not know. Scrangie said Fast Track reminds her of Essence Irreplaceable and in my head Essence and Catrice are close enough not to own them both. As you will see in the pictures, they are not really similar. Actually, they're not very close either. My skin had a rough time when I made this comparison. Luckily now it's much much better, thanks to my hand cremes and oils. It was dried up and I got a major cut on my pinky, like a paper cut, only a bit thicker and longer, it hurt like a papercut though. I was able to cut it out from the pictures, so I'll spare you the view. ;)

Clay-ton My Hero is a taupe with golden shimmer, while Fast Track is beige with golden glass flecks. I suck at describing colours, but I guess that's close enough. :) Naturally they don't look at all similar, I guess the concept of making could be, although I think China Glaze wanted the golden glass flecks to really pop out, whine Clay-ton My Hero is very work appropriate with shyer shimmer. 

Two coats of Catrice, three of China Glaze, both polishes have a wonderful formula and wonderful brushes.  I like them both, I was on the verge of giving Clayton away, but there is something awesome on it that I really like. So I kept it. Glad to know I don't have any dupes of it! :)

Do you have any of the two? Which one do you prefer?

Thank you for reading!

Kiko 300 and 347 with a comparison

 Wow, lately I'm bursting with imagination when it comes to titles, aren't I? Well, right now I'm effing starving, so my thoughts are pretty much all about that very unhealthy pizza I'm about to have. ;) I want to show you another two Kikos I have. 300 beat 299 and is now my number 1 Kiko polish, 347 was number two for the longest time, now it's number 4, but it's still utterly gorgeous! I also did a comparison between Kiko 347 and Orly Enchanted Forest ages ago, so I'm finally showing it to you.

First Kiko 300. Oh dear Lord of the Rings. I never thought I'd seen more gorgeous Kiko than 299, but they did it. It's one of those shades that make you stare at your nails, thinking: 'how the hell can this polish look so awesome?!'. At least I have these moments with polish that sweeps me off my feet. ;) 

Naturally this gorgeousness doesn't photograph well at all. It looks too blue on my photos, so does on just about every photo I found online of it. So I actually went through the scales of colours I found online and the closest I got to the actual colour is a colour called 'teal blue'. And it is, in fact. Add a few drops of green in the colour, but be careful enough to still keep it strongly on the blue side of the teal. Do I make sense? It pisses me off when I can't present a colour so beautiful accurately. You can at least very accurately enjoy in the tiny shimmer/micro glitter/glass flecks this little beauty has. It creates an insanely deep colour. Gorgeous. It took three coats for full opacity, excellent formula and brush. Kiko 300 was in fact a gorgeous NY gift from a good friend of mine, all the way from Spain. Thank you, darling, I love it! :*

Next Kiko 347. A deep green creme, but still green in every light. Right up my alley. 

Great formula on this one too, it's a two coater, the brush is again fantastic. I love these deep green cremes, although I'm more in a brighter green phase now for a while. And teal phase. Loads of teal. Anyway. Still a great one! 

When I got Kiko 347 I still  had Tevta's Helmer at home, and it looked awfully close to her Orly Enchanted Forest, so I did a fast comparison back then. It's so old I'm still using my very thick Seche Vite, hence the bubbles on my middle finger and the shrinkage on Orly. *sigh*

Both need two coats for full opacity, both have great formula and great brush, although I prefer Kikos. If you look really hard you'll notice Kiko has a tiny bit more blue in the colour, in softer light or if you won't check out your nails very carefully, the difference won't be noticeable. So I'm skipping Enchanted Forest, one less on the WL! :)

Thoughts on these two? Are the greens close enough for ya?

Thank you for reading!

Comparison: A England vs. Depend vs. GOSH

Hello everyone! How have you been? I'm back on my study time. Did I ever mention how much I dislike that? Not just because I can't blog as often, but my far the most because my spare time gets incredibly limited, which means less time with my friends and boyfriend. It sucks. So I've gotten myself 3 more MAC eyeshadows and a Venomous Villains lip gloss with Cruella de Vill, as comfort make up. Does that count? It has less calories than comfort food. Sucks big on the wallet though, even if it was a total bargain. ;) 

 

I owe you this comparison post. I love bright blues and I love glass fleck, so you can imagine I have a few. I compared A England Order of the Garter with GOSH Blue Monday and Depend 252, they felt the closest to A England. I also have Moyra 89, which is much much darker, and Revlon Mint Fizz, which is closer to the base colour of Blue Monday but has much larger particles. So i didn't include them.

Photos taken in the grey light of Ljubljana, like A England pictures were. But I went out on snow without jacket for ya, so snow helped a bit. ;)

 Enlarge this one, it's pretty good.

The photos are left fairly large, so you can see the details better. All of them need three coats for full opacity, Depend too, I don't know what happened on the edges of my nail, it looked fine IRL. GOSH would need a fourth one for my taste though. Which is funny, I remember when wearing it as a full mani three were more than enough ... go figure.

Anyway. Not dupes, of course, very obviously not. Depend 252 is the brightest, GOSH Blue Monday the tealest and A England Order of the Garter the truest blue. The particles differ too, you can see that best on the first picture.

Formula wise A England has no faults, the same goes for Depend. Fantastic formula on both of them, very easy application. GOSH however went a bit diva on me. For some odd reason it gathers on the edges, making my nails look thick. This happened every time with full mani too and I really hate that effect. Plus it would need the fourth coat. It also dries the slowest. Still, i love the colour. I love all three colours, actually. Very good varnishes, I do suggest you get them. :)

Which one is your favourite? Do you have any of them, did any of you have the same problem with Blue Monday?

Thank you for reading!

Comparison: Nubar Vino vs. Jumpy 140

Heya people! How are you on this cold day? We have a little bit of snow in Ljubljana. Nothing major, but it stuck to the ground for a day. Souther Balkan has some serious snow troubles though, as much as I saw, I'm worried that it will get to us too, brrr. 

So, when I wore Jumpy 140, it looked a bit familiar. I knew I didn't have anything like it for sure, but still, it bugged me. Then I remembered why. I think I wore Nubar Vino just days before and the base colour looked very close. So I compared them. 

 Aren't they cute? ^.^

 On these upper pictures, made outside, you can see the base colour is quite close. They're not the same, Jumpy is brighter, but close enough that when you're not wearing them at the same time, they remind you of each other. But here's the thing that Vino doesn't have and that makes Jumpy own his ass:

The mighty DUOCHROME!! Yes!! Jumpy is a duochrome, Vino is not. Here's a seriously bad blurry picture with a bad position of nails, just to show you the difference better:

See it see it see it?

Although I think both colours are fantastic, Jumpy 140 is cleary the winner for me. It's also enough for me to remove Nubar Vino off my WL. The base colours get close enough for my taste, and well, could you say no to the duochrome on top of everything? :) My thanks go to Tevta for letting me play with her Nubars.:)

Thank you for reading!

Essence Into The Dark vs. Bourjois 10 Days 18 comparison

Heya people! First post this year, woohoo! Hope you had a wonderful entrance and start of the year 2012. I know I said I'll be back on the 4th, but I feel like posting this now. Lovely MissDoll asked me in my last entry how close does Bourjois 18 get to Essence Into The Dark. I haven't worn Into The Dark yet, but luckily I did get my greedy little fingers on it. And you know how much I love to do a comparison for ya, so I did it today while changing the polish on my nails, because the one I put on yesterday seriously wasn't working for me.

 A big close up of the bottles, to see the difference in the shade of blue and size of the shimmer more clearly.

 The only half decent picture of the nails outside. Dead gloomy weather, bah.

The difference in colour is quite obvious, Into The Dark is darker, with bigger silver shimmer - it's seen also on weak light, while Bourjois' silver shimmer is so fine it almost gets lost in weaker lightning. They are both beautiful, although I prefer Into The Dark, it's fantastic, can't wait to wear it as a full mani!

Other stuff: application of Essence one is good, the formula is a bit thicker, but nicely manageable, two coats are more than enough. Bourjois has more watery formula, but I prefer that in general. The big fault of Bourjois is the brush. What. The. Hell. I did manage to get it on better this time, I guess there is a learning curve here too, but it's such an unnecessary experiment with the brush. Essence has a great, flatter brush, I love it. 

I did three coats of Bourjois, because I had bald spots, also the shimmer is more obvious with three (if you check my other entry where I had only two you'll see it). Essence is insanely pigmented, I did two coats, but if you're careful enough and use thicker coats, you can get away with one.

Into the Dark is a part of Essence limited edition Vampire's Love and is no longer available, but it costed under 2€. Bourjois 10 Days 18 is still available, here it costs around 5€. 

I love both colours, but if I have to pick a winner, it would be Essence Into The Dark. If you have it, don't let go of it!

Which one do you prefer?

Thank you for reading!