Party of Five Glitters vs. Gems

The universe knows when you're happily wearing a new polish that you don't want to change. That's when you find the new displays of polishes that everyone has been talking about. And those displays are full. How does the universe know?!

While I skipped around Walgreens looking for some new conditioner wearing My Kind of Cool Aid, I found the new Wet N Wild Fast Dry polishes. I picked up a few, including Party of Five Glitters, which is another potential drugstore dupe for Lippmann Happy Birthday. I left MKoCA on a few more days and finally have some comparison shots of Party of Five to share.

Party of Five Glitters is a clear-based polish filled with large silver hex glitter, medium light blue and fuschia hex glitter, and smaller red, green, and gold hex glitter. Isn't that 6 glitters? Maybe the tiny gold glitter is really a reflective silver? Back to the real question - This $2 option is better for your wallet than a $16 polish, but is it worth the savings against the $5 Milani Gems? Comparison Time!

 

Party of Five looks significantly more pink than Gems 

when the bottles are side by side.

I used one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme as the base 

to make the glitter nice and visible.

1 Coat, 2 Coats, 3 Coats, 1 Coat of Party of Five Glitters

Party of Five has a thick clear base and it makes getting the glitter on the nail challenging. I thought the first coat of this "fast dry" polish was sufficiently set so I put on a second and third coat to get more glitter on the nail. What happens when you pile coats of thick polish on top of wet polish? Bubbles. And I didn't get enough glitter on the nail to cover these major bubbles up.

2 Coats Gems, 2 Coats Party, 1 Coat Gems, 1 Coat Party

Gems has a slightly different color combination of large and small hex glitter - no fuchsia, more green - but the difference is definitely less visible on the nail than it was in the bottle. Gems has a thinner base and it feels like there's significantly more glitter landing on the nail in every brushstroke. It seems that Gems also dried faster, smoother, and shinier than Party of Five.

I think with a little thinner and some more drying time between coats, Party of Five Glitters could be a fun glitter polish to use again. If I wanted to save some money, I would buy Party of Five instead of Happy Birthday. If I could only walk out of a drugstore with one glitter polish, though, I'd definitely pick Gems over Party of Five. I don't need an odd fuchsia hex here and there as much as I need the sheer density of the glitter bomb fiesta that Gems provides in two coats. Pow!

Revlon Perplex - UWS Brunch Time

I love Broadway musicals.  When I was younger, living thousands of miles from the Great White Way, I'd make my siblings, cousins, friends, everyone watch PBS's Great Performances, the Tonys, and the odd random tour performance with me.  Now that I live here, I like suprising friends with tickets to actual shows (thank you, TKTS!).  This Sunday, we took our friends to see In The Heights and they took us to brunch on the Upper West Side. 

If I was going to be dining on microdairy cheeses and gourmet sausages while sipping bellinis, I figured I should switch up my sparkly holiday polish for something chic... perfect time to try out Revlon Perplex!

This is a dark grayish taupe with a faint purple shimmer - much like its pricier alternative Paradoxal.  Like other taupes, it can pull purple, gray, or a muddier brown, depending on skin tone.  For $4-5, it's definitely worth trying this shade out if you can find a bottle.

Indirect Sunlight - Dark Gray with Purple Tones on me

Flash to see the Purple Shimmer on Nail & in Bottle

Perplex went on deep and glossy on me in two medium coats.  It didn't agree with my Gelous-Seche Vite combo, though.  That's not tip wear in the pictures. That's major shrinkage :( Even with wrapping, it just pulled away from the edges.  Since I'm changing back to my holiday glitter bombs tomorrow, I'm not that upset, but next time I wear it, I'll try another top coat. This shade is awesome - I gotta make it work without shrinkage!

Holiday Season! - Milani Gems

I know it's late and tomorrow's a Monday, but I had to fit in this post because... I loved our four day Thanksgiving weekend, I love the holiday season (counting down the days to Christmas in AZ), and I love my husband for going out of his way to find Milani Gems for me.

I've been looking for Gems - it's a Milani Jewel FX off their Rockstar Heavy Glitter display - and the one display that I've found had all of the other polishes and two empty spaces where Gems was supposed to go. So close, so far!!  That was the only display I even found after looking in many other Duane Reades, CVS, and Rite Aides.  It's becoming a pattern with drugstore collections that the polish gets found once I stop looking for it.  And that happened again this time.

My husband goes out in the windy cold weather to get us some Dunkin Donuts breakfast - I'm addicted to their coffee - and comes back with the last bottle of Gems from the last CVS in Staten Island that I hadn't checked.  He's too sweet... awww.... so I put Gems on as soon as I could to show my appreciation.

My goal is to wear festive holiday polish looks through New Year's and here's my first post-Thanksgiving Jolly manicure - Orly Enchanted Forest layered with Milani Gems.

The Bottle Buddies Pic - aww, they like each other!

1 coat of Milani Gems over 2 coats of Orly Enchanted Forest

I love this festive glitter! Gems is supposed to be the $5 sibling to a Lippmann Polish that's more than three times that price. It's true that when macro shots of the two polishes are compared there are slight differences. Gems has large and small hex glitter and the color combination is slightly different. Lippmann's Happy Birthday has large hex glitter and small *square* glitter with a little more pink in the mix. I think Gems is definitely a good dupe-ish substitute and I'm so happy to have it!! 

Good luck to everyone else who may be on their own drugstore searches - you can find those polishes!