Blue & Teal Polishes Comparison

I often get asked to do comparisons of nail polishes to find "dupes" or polishes that are extremely similar to exactly the same. Tonight I've compared 3 blue/teal colors that are pretty popular.

The first shade, which I compared both of the other shades to, is OPI's Fly. This is a color that came out in January 2012 in the Nicki Minaj collection (which I really love!). I even got a backup bottle of Fly because it's the perfect creme teal and I dread the day I run out of it.

Here is Fly compared to Essence "Let's Get Lost."

Let's Get Lost is a lot more blue than Fly. The difference is pretty apparent in the photo, and even more so in real life.

Next I compared Fly to "Shocking Seas" which is by Maybelline.

Shocking Seas is also a lot more blue than Fly. I would compare Shocking Seas to Let's Get Lost, those 2 are actually a lot more similar than either of the polishes are to Fly.

What do you think? Are either of the cheaper alternatives close enough to Fly?

Essence is sold at Ulta stores and Ulta.com for about $1.

Maybelline Color Show polishes retail for $3-$4 at drugstores like CVS, Rite Aid, and Target.

OPI retails for around $8.

Ombre Manicure with Floral Stamping

I did this manicure earlier this week. I chose 3 of my most beautiful OPI nail polishes and wanted to find a way to use them together and this ended up being the result!

First, I painted an off-white base color, and I used OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls (seriously, I love that polish! I need a backup already!). Next I did a gradient using my 3 OPI colors and a makeup wedge. Those 3 colors (from cuticle to tip) are:

• OPI - Dim Sum Plum (the bottle I'm holding)
• OPI - No Room for The Blues
• OPI - Fly

I think I might have sponged on 2 layers of the gradient to make the colors look really bold. After that dried, I used one of my stamping plates (BM16, which I got in a large set through Amazon), to stamp on the daisy pattern. I love how girly and whimsical that plate is! I had to stamp it twice on each nail to fill up my entire nail since the BM plates are so tiny, but I think it turned out great considering it's 2 stamps and not just one.

I can't get over how nicely the colors blended! What do you think?