Again with too much time on my hands!  I’m home again from work today, still feeling pretty under the weather, and I want to make sure I get a ton of rest so I can get over this as fast as possible.  My bf has had it for about two weeks now and I just don’t want that!!  So gotta take care of myself.

I picked up Essie’s ‘Queen of Hearts’ a couple weeks ago when it was on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart for $2.  $2 Essie!?  Count me in!  In the bottle its a pretty red with slight pink leanings, and subtle silver sparkle.  This was part of the ‘Essie Loves Diamonds’ collection by Judith Ripka, which came out a couple years ago.  I’d never heard of it or her, but apparently she is a jewelry designer.  The silver sparkle in the polish is supposedly genuine diamond dust.  Okey dokey!Again, yesterday when I was going through my stash, I realized that it was uncannily close to ‘Come to Bed Red’ by butter London, a beautiful, glossy, true red creme (previously reviewed here).  Paired side by side, they look pretty close, with the Essie being slightly more faded.Once on the nail, you can see the slightly more muted tone of QofH as well.  They’re not complete dupes, but pretty darn close – enough that I definitely don’t feel the need to own both.  Check it out:In all shots you see ‘Queen of Hearts’ on the index and ring finger, and ‘Come to Bed Red’ on the middle and pinkie.  The shots above show the slightly faded quality of QofH as compared to CTBR.  Also, in all shots taken, the fine silver shimmer is absolutely nowhere to be seen.  I couldn’t even see it with the naked eye in outdoor light, once on the nail.In these other two shots, I find that you can barely distinguish between the two – especially the last shot.  Personally, I think that if you didn’t know I had two different polishes on, you’d never ever guess.  And to me, if that’s the case, then these polishes are dupes.  Of course I can say that one is more muted, and I’m sure you can see that slight difference, but if I don’t let on and you can’t tell?   Absolutely NO reason to keep both, in my opinion.  To nitpick over the smallest of differences seems silly to me.  But, that’s just how I feel about it!  Clearly I’m not a true nail polish connoisseur as I’ve got less than 100 bottles, and many bloggers I’ve encountered have upwards of 700!!  So what do I know?

Details: As these polishes were just applied for swatching purposes, it was just two coats of each polish with no base or top coat.

Size, Price & Where to Buy: Essie polishes are 0.5 oz and usually retail for $11 CDN at drugstores (they’re about $2 cheaper at Walmart!).  This particular shade was Limited Edition.  butter London polishes are 0.4 oz and retail for $18 CDN at select locations (in Halifax you can buy them at Spirit Spa on Hollis St.).

In this case, butter London’s wins out over Essie’s version – mainly because I love b.London’s formulation, it is slightly brighter, and it irritates me that you can’t see the shimmer on the nail at all in QofH. Regardless of it being ‘genuine diamond dust‘.  And, I paid full price for CTBR!!  LOL so that’s something to consider, too.

What are your thoughts about dupes?  Do you feel the minute variations make all the difference?  Or are you the opposite, and feel that a red is a red, etc.?  How many nail polish do you own?

Ok, I’ve been sitting up for longer than I’d like, and its nap time (again!).  I hope I wake up tomorrow feeling back to normal and ready for the weekend!  If not, well…I hope everyone else has a fantastic weekend – enjoy it, have fun, drink a glass of wine, and take ‘er easy