Too close for comfort

8:10 PM Laura 7 Comments

Buying nail polish is a really agonizing experience for me. I love shopping, but I hate spending money, so going to Ulta is like sending a lactose-intolerant ice cream lover into a Ben & Jerry's factory.

I can literally spend an hour going back and forth between nail polishes, painfully setting one down only to pick it up again milliseconds later. It's quite difficult.

This past trip to Ulta, I first thought I was going to get Essie Turquoise and Caicos, since I know that I don't have anything like it. Then I saw OPI You Don't Know Jacques, the whole Essie French Affair collection, Orly Galaxy Girl, numerous China Glazes, and just TOO MANY TO PICK FROM AGHHHH. In the end, I decided to get OPI Cajun Shrimp, not even thinking that I might have a dupe for it.

Well. I do.

First, here's Cajun Shrimp on its own.

Outside, shadyish.

Outside, sunnyish.

Inside by a window.

That's two coats. It's a lovely color, slightly pink undertones, really nice, bright creme. Now, when I got this home, I began to have the sinking feeling. I went to my polish drawer and pulled out Essie One of a Kind. Looking at the bottles side by side, I couldn't tell if they'd be that similar.


The Essie looked substantially darker and oranger than the OPI. But, on the nail...

Sun. Order from L to R: OPI, Essie, OPI, Essie.

Outside, shady. Same order as above.

The Essie is a teeeensy bit darker and more pigmented than the OPI, but there's really no point in having both of them, they're way too similar.

This made me very mad. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, money is not something I like to spend lightly, and I was kicking myself for not even thinking that I might have a similar polish at home. I missed Turquoise and Caicos! AGGABLAH.

I hadn't done anything artsy in a while, so I figured I should punch it up a little bit. Here's what I did:

 Outside, normal light. Ignore the obnoxious fuzz on my index and middle fingers. I had already started removing the polish on my right hand so some cotton fuzz got stuck to this hand. I used tape and Nyx 162 for the design.

Camera was being a buttface and said it was out of memory so I didn't have any room for indoor pics. Camera sucks. I deleted everything on it and it still says the memory is full, so I'm using my grody old camera. 

Anyway. Major bummer. Anything like this ever happen to you?

7 comments:

  1. I'm very indecisive like that too! I hate dupes but that's what Frankens are for! :)

    Regarding your post below, try adding nail polish thinner. I have a few gloopy glitters including that one and Sinful Colors Hottie... I added nail polish thinner and now they go on much nicer!

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  2. I like the funky red sparkly stuff you did there. And that sucks with the similar colors; you should carry around a swatchlog or something XD

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  3. Psst! I'd return the dupe. Unethical, I know, but I'd do it.

    Okay, now back to my comment-restraining boycott.

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  4. @Sophie: I haven't frankened anything yet, but I was going to try it during the summer on my no-buy. I'll have to hang on to this one for that!

    @Sonia: I lost my swatch notebook! Boo.

    @Anna: I don't think you're allowed to return nail polish. Also, "comment-restraining boycott" is redundant. :)

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  5. I know what you mean about going to Ulta...it's a dangerous place! Unfortunately it's right next to the bank, so I deposit my paycheck and inevitably walk out of Ulta with a few new bottles of nail polish. It's a problem.

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  6. Glad to hear I'm not the only one! It's a fatal attraction...

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  7. Pshhh. Done it a million times before at Sephora =)

    And comment-restraining boycotts are intentionally redundant because they are just that vitally important to society. I am also aware that that was a redundancy.

    Aaand now you've made me break the boycott. And I was doing so well. Whelp. I guess I'll go "eloquently" and "relevantly" spam your posts.

    (And yay! New followers/comments!)

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