Hey!
Today I am looking for dupes for the well known China Glaze Fairy Dust. I am sure most of you are aware about it, especially if you are into polish-aholics kind of groups.
If you don't know it, it's a micro holographic glitter topper that makes every manicure a spectacular one. There, I said it. A spectacular one. So from meh it goes to wow. But the thing is, China Glaze is hard to find in our stores (actually it's available only in one store in Slovenia, as far as I know? Maybe more online stores?). And I was looking for a dupe for it for ages. Even before I actually had the polish. Probably because I didn't have it...
So, I gathered a couple of the closest looking polishes I had, and put them to work. I must apologize in advance for my nails in these photos. They are stained yellow (dark green polish, I am looking at you!) and a bit in a poor shape... *sighs*
The polishes I will be comparing are:
1. China Glaze Fairy Dust (yeah!)
2. Essence I ♥ Magic
3. Essence Hello Holo (discontinued)
4. ManGlaze Hot Mess
More after the jump!
Two layers, no top or base coat.
Two layers, no base coat. One layer of top coat (purple toned, to get the yellow out of my nails!)
Okay China Glaze Fairy (~4€) dust has micro glitter. And it applies sparsely on the nails. Even with two layers of the polish it still looked very gentle and well dignified on my nails. I think it would look lovely on any manicure. I also liked the effect it had on the sun *sparkles*
Drying time is fine, as you'd expect from a topper. Maybe 5 mins max?
Essence I ♥ Magic (2€?) is the closest dupe I have. I think I knew it the second I bought it. It's beautiful and contains more glitter than the ChG does. Also micro glitter and it dries fast. One layer and my nail was full of sparkling goodness. Not so subtle as the ChG is, but beautiful. I do prefer this one tho the original one, because it has more glitter, which means it's easier to achieve a more wow look. I think this glitter is also more cool toned, than the ChG one. It's hard to look at micro glitter...
Essence Hello Holo (sadly discontinued), must be my favorite of the bunch. Why? Because it shined incredibly when on the sun. Not even on the sun, also indoors. It's incredible. But also understandable because it has bigger glitter, regular glitter holo. Of course this one isn't a dupe, but is just pretty and belonged here.
ManGlaze Hot Mess ($13.13) is actually not a holo glitter.. I kind of forgot that, haha. But it does shine very well when used with a top coat. It's silver small glitter, lovely. Not a dupe, tho.
Funny enough I had the same hard time removing all this glitter, not depending on the size of the glitter. Which made me giggle, while I was scrubbing my damn fingers off. Of course I was too lazy for the foil method!
Do you think Essence is a good dupe? Would you prefer having the original ChG or is a dupe good enough for you?
