NOTD: Piccadily Circus (+a dupe)

1 coat of Nails Inc. Nail Polish in 'Piccadily Circus'

Piccadily Circus is a lovely raspberry magenta colour, which is a nice alternative from the typical reds that are popular in the winter season. The application was amazing. The colour was opaque in 1 coat and the formula wasn't too dry or too runny. It dried quickly and I found it lasted well on my nails. I've never bought a Nails Inc. polish full price (£11), as I have only got them when they do the Diet Coke promotion or when they're free with Glamour magazine, but after using this one, I have to admit I'm swayed and will be looking more into their range!

As I was putting Piccadily Circus away, I had a glance through my nail polish collection and spotted 2 other polishes which looked similar and I found a cheaper dupe of Piccadily Circus!

First I looked at Nails Inc. 'Victoria', but decided that that was too red (It's like the redder older sister of Piccadily Circus), then I picked out Missguided Nail Splash 'Missunderstood', which I was given c/o Sara who works at Missguided at the Brum Blogger Meet last summer. In the bottle, they look completely different as Missunderstood looks a lot redder.

However, when swatched they are both a raspberry toned pink. Missunderstood is available from Missguided.co.uk and costs just £5 - More than half price of full price Nails Inc. The only difference I have found is that the formula of Missunderstood is runnier and you would need 2 coats to get a nice opaque colour. The wear of the Missguided nail splash is amazing and I only experienced tip wear after  approximately 4 days.

Do you like Nails Inc. nail polishes? Do you have any recommendations?

xoxo, Joy

Dupe: MAC Virgin Isle

Normally I ramble on and give you the whole back story in each post, but today I thought I'd get stuck straight in... I think I may have found a potential dupe for MAC's Virgin Isle Cream Colour Base, which I wrote about here.

Topshop Cream Blush in Neon Rose vs. MAC Virgin Isle CCB

Neon Rose is part of Topshop's permanent make-up range, priced at £6 for 4g, while Virgin Isle was limited edition from the MAC Stylishly Yours collection, priced at £13.50 for 3.2g. Although correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is a MAC pro product, so it would still be available after this collection has gone.

All photos were taken in natural daylight with no flash.

Left: Neon Rose, Right: Virgin Isle
(I probably should have given the products a clean before I took photos, lol!)

As you can see, the two products don't look particularly similar in the pan. Virgin Isle is a lot brighter than Neon Rose. Neon Rose looks pinkier, while Virgin Isle has a more orangey-red tone.

Swatch - Left: Neon Rose, Right: Virgin Isle

Swatch blended out - Left: Neon Rose, Right: Virgin Isle

Personally, I think the two products look very similar in these pictures. You can see that Virgin Isle is more pigmented than Neon Rose and you can see the different finishes of the two products - Neon Rose has a cream to powder formula, while Virgin Isle does not. But apart from that, I would say that they are dupes of each other.

What do you think? Are Neon Rose and Virgin Isle dupes or not?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Dupe: Benefit Dallas

I know there's a huge craze at the moment for Benefit's Coralista blush, but I thought I'd show some love for Benefit's Dallas blush. I got it as part of "Powder Pop", the old version of "Powderazzi. It is a trio of Benefit's Dandelion, Hoola and Dallas. From Look Fantastic: "Dallas from Benefit is the outdoor glow for the indoor gal! Some say it defies even Mother Nature herself. The perfect combination of bronzer and blush is right here, offering you an enviable natural looking glow."

I haven't used Dallas as much as I could have, since I seemed to always use my Max Factor Flawless Perfection blush in Mulberry instead (Shown by the fact that I've hit pan in the Max Factor, but still have a tonne of Dallas left despite the size difference). I only noticed the similarities between the two blushes recently. I really can't believe I hadn't noticed this before! (I feel a bit dim to be honest.)

Side by side:

With flash - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

In daylight - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

Swatches:

With Flash - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

In daylight - Left: Max Factor Mulberry, Right: Benefit Dallas

Both blushes have a very subtle shimmer to them - I don't normally like shimmery face products, but I really love these because the shimmer isn't obvious. They both have fantastic colour pay off and are buildable. I think the colours are perfect for all year round. In the pictures with flash, Mulberry looks slightly darker than Dallas, but I'd still say that they are a pretty good match. What do you think?

In conclusion, it costs £23.50 for a full size 12g box of Benefit Dallas vs £6.99 for 5g of Max Factor Flawless Perfection Blush in Mulberry. If I've done my maths correctly, it costs £1.96 per gramme of Dallas and £1.40 per gramme of Mulberry - Only a 56p difference! I know which one I'd pick. ;)

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Recent Purchases

I went shopping with my mum while I was at home last week and picked up a number of things, including a few cosmetics and a perfume.

Boots
I bought 3 L'oreal items from Boots, because not only was it 3 for 2, but if you bought 3 L'oreal items, you get a free beauty bag with samples and a headband (which I thought would be useful for when I apply make-up or when I wash my face). To be honest, I just really wanted the headband...

L'oreal Voluminous - £7.99
L'oreal Studio Secrets Smoothing Resurfacing Primer - £12.99

Earlier, I mentioned I bought 3 things from L'oreal... Well, I also bought a L'oreal Touche Magique, which is supposed to be a dupe of the YSL Touche Eclat. But I wouldn't know, since my mum has stolen it from me already!

Next

Next 'Diamonds' - I'd read this post on Jessica Alice's blog about Next 'Diamonds' being a dupe of Dior's 'Miss Dior Cherie'. Since I'm on a student budget, spending £40-ish on a perfume (regardless of how much I love it) is out of my price range. So at only £6 for 30ml, I decided to snap up the Next perfume. I really like the smell of it (Next's website describes it as "An opulent white floral fragrance entwined with fresh fruit nectars and crystalline musks"). It's sweet, but not sickly and a really girlie scent. It's a nice summer perfume. Love it.

Thanks for reading. xoxo, Joy