Comparison Post with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and Illamasqua Stance

In my post about China Glaze's On Safari collection last week I mentioned doing a comparison post for Kalahari Kiss; I have that (plus another comparison featuring Illamasqua Stance) for you today. 

By far the closest colour to China Glaze Kalahari Kiss in my collection is MAC's In The Buff (a limited edition shade from summer 2010). However, I think these two colours are far from being twins. Kalahari Kiss is much brighter and cleaner, whereas In The Buff has a much dirtier, murkier tinge to it.

Left to Right: China Glaze, MAC, China Glaze, MAC

In The Buff leans towards the greenish/grey side, while Kalahari Kiss is much more of a clean camel-beige. It's also much more wearable than In The Buff, and generally more flattering, in my opinion. Formula-wise, I'll also take the China Glaze over the MAC. MAC's lacquers are notorious for being weak in terms of formula, and this was still a little streaky at two coats, were Kalahari Kiss was perfect.

The other comparison I wanted to share with you features Illamasqua Stance and Zoya Charisma.

When I first tried Illamasqua Stance, it's nearly-neon vividness brought to mind another purple-neon: Zoya Charisma. However, the two are actually quite different.

Left to Right: Illamasqua, Zoya, Illamasqua, Zoya

Illamasqua Stance is much more cool toned and purple leaning, where Zoya Charisma is more of a warm pink-red. Charisma is also more of a true neon, drying with a matte finish. I much prefer the look and finish on Illamasqua Stance. For me, there is no contest here- Illamasqua knocked this one out of the park. You can see my original swatches of it here.

Just for the heck of it I also pulled out NARS Anardana to add to the comparison (it's shown here on the index finger), but it much more of a pink, rather than purple.

I hope these comparisons helped you out! Which colours are your favourite?

China Glaze Hunger Games Comparison - Harvest Moon

As soon as I saw the first pictures of the China Glaze Hunger Games collection I knew I had to have Harvest Moon. I have a weakness for all coppery metallics, and despite having several lacquers that fall into that category, Harvest Moon found its way home with me. This is a comparison featuring a few of the closest colours I have to China Glaze Harvest Moon. These are the likely suspects:

Left to Right: China Glaze Cracked Medallion, China Glaze Harvest Moon, MAC Originality, China Glaze Foxy, OPI DS Glow, OPI Pros and Bronze. 

Obviously, Cracked Medallion can't really be too similar to Harvest Moon because it is a crackle polish, but in the bottle they are similar, so I added it in. China Glaze Foxy is also far more red on the nail, but in the bottle a lot of the bronzy shimmer was visible, so that came along as well. Here they are on the nail:

Left to Right (index finger through pinky): MAC Originality, China Glaze Harvest Moon, OPI DS Glow, OPI Pros and Bronze. The thumb is China Glaze Foxy. 

I thought MAC Originality would be closer to Harvest Moon, by the latter is darker and warmer, with a slightly orange caste to it. The other shades are all leaning towards a lighter bronze. OPI Glow has a mixture of larger particles in different shades of gold and bronze. It's probably the sparkliest of these. OPI Pros and Bronze is unique in this bunch for being quite pink, along with the light gold/bronze particles it contains. It is also the sheerest polish in this bunch.

And here is my Cracked Medallion fail; I applied it over still-wet polish which caused it to not really crackle much at all. It's a sparkly medium bronze, anyways.

Out of these shades, I'm a big fan of both MAC Originality (one of MAC's home-runs when it comes to lacquers- they are notorious for being hit and miss in the polish department), and OPI DS Glow. Glow is lovely, but also takes several coats to build up to it's best potential. China Glaze Harvest Moon is significantly different from both of those polishes, and certainly unique enough to warrant picking up. It also has an outstanding formula; it's easy to apply and opaque in two coats. It's also gorgeous: pigmented and eye-catching, an incredibly sparkly deep copper metallic. Beautiful!

Copper Domo approves of this copper comparison. Do you?

Butter London - Trout Pout

I've spent some time considering what an appropriate "first-post polish" would be to publish on this blog, but in the end I'm just going to share what I happened to be wearing today. Which, as it turns out, is a perfectly beautiful lacquer. It's Butter London's "Trout Pout". Obnoxious name, pretty colour. It's a cantaloupe-pink creme that has a not-quite-neon vibrancy to it. This was two coats, and it was still a bit streaky in some spots, but not noticeable enough to warrant a third. I used Essie's base coat and quick-dry top coat for this manicure. I really like this, and think it's a perfect spring colour. It also garnered quite a few compliments. By the end of the day I did sustain a couple chips; while lacquer usually chips on me within the second day of having applied it, this did seem to be unusually chip prone. That said, it's well worth it for such a beautiful, vibrant polish. It is unique in my collection, and it's a keeper for me.

...well, I guess you'd probably like to see pictures at some point, right?

So that's my first post on The Lacquer Tracker, and tomorrow I'll post something pretty and pink for the lead up to Valentine's Day. In the meantime, here are a couple photos of my picks from today's MAC release ("Shop MAC/ Cook MAC" collection):

 

MAC lipstick in Watch Me Simmer - a bright, opaque pink-orange.

MAC Tendertone Lip Balm (SPF 12) in Purring - sheer tangerine balm, with a heavenly scent.

MAC Fluidliner in Added Goodness - smokey mauve/black eyeliner. Slightly metallic finish.


That's all for tonight, folks (hah, as if I'm not totally just talking to myself here... but seriously, if this blog post I'm about to send out into the vast, wild, untamed internet finds it's way to you, feel free to comment and tell me what you thought of Butter London Trout Pout, or the latest MAC release!).

The Lacquer Tracker