The 31-Day Nail Art Challenge, Day 5: Blue - Subtle Tone-on-Tone Stamping

My first late post of the challenge!  I have a good excuse, though - I painted my nails Thursday night, planning to take photos Friday when I got out of work at 3:30 when the light was better.  On Friday, I ended up getting called in to work at 7:45am, and asked to stay late - so I didn't get home until 9:45pm last night!  Twelve hour days may be good for my wallet, but not so much for my nail blogging schedule ^_^

So far, even though it's simple, this is my favorite manicure I've done for this challenge.  I found two lonely bottles of everyone's fave stinky blue, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue (the old version) at my local Walgreens recently, and picked one of them up on impulse.  I noticed that it was very close in color to Sinful Colors Endless blue, but was not a dupe... so I decided to do some tone-on-tone stamping!  Here is the result:

I was a little afraid that, because the colors were so close, I wouldn't get a good stamp.  Fortunately, it worked just fine - Pacific Blue is a hair lighter and more opaque than Endless Blue, so I used it as a base, and stamped Endless Blue over it.  I used the Mash-51 plate with the offset triangles, because I thought it complemented the bright color.  I honestly am glad that I missed out on posting, because I got to wear this mani for an extra day.  This will definitely go into my regular rotation!

I received a lot of compliments on this manicure at work from customers, which was very gratifying, since usually no one notices my nails, haha.  I just love this color blue; I think it's so flattering universally.  I wish I'd picked up both bottles when I saw them... hopefully the other one will still be there next time!

The stamping is very subtle, which I think works for such a bright color.  I am going to try other variations of this technique later on to see if I can do a similar manicure in more colors!
Here's a bottle shot (the colors in the photos are pretty accurate on my monitor, but yours may differ):

Thanks for stopping by; I'm having such a great time with this challenge, and I adore looking at the spectacular work that the other ladies participating in this challenge put out.  I'm so awed by their talent!

The rest of the prompts are shown below, in the lovely graphic shared by Sarah at Chalkboard nails, here:

Don't forget to check out their work in the links below, and please add your link if you are participating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Zoya Jules vs. Sinful Shine Prosecco: Are they Dupes?

A few days ago, I made a quick trip to Walgreens and picked up a couple of Sinful Shine polishes I couldn't resist.  One of these polishes, Prosecco, is from their Shining Bright Off the Runway collection.  It's a gray-taupe (graupe? ...hmmm, not sure about that one...) crelly with ultra-fine gold microflakies.  It reminded me very much of a polish I already own from Zoya's Spring 2011 Intimate Collection, Jules.  I swatches them here to see if they were dupes.  In all of the pics below, Zoya Jules is shown on my thumb, middle finger, and pinky finger; Sinful Shine Prosecco is shown on my pointer and ring fingers. I used China Glaze Choo-Choo Choose You, from their new All Aboard collection, for the dots.

As you can see above, the finish is a bit different. Although I topped all of my nails with NYC Grand Central Station to help them dry faster, the pre-topcoat finishes were essentially the same as you can see above.  Jules dries just a bit shinier than a silk finish, but it's not a gloss.  Prosecco definitely dries glossy true to its brand name, but with a bit of bumpiness due to the microflakies, which I will address shortly.  In terms of application, Jules was the clear winner.  It went on very smoothly, with no streakiness or pooling at the cuticles.  Prosecco was a bit on the thin side and was a bit streakier than Jules, but the application was certainly not below average for a drugstore polish and didn't detract from my opinion of the polish as a whole.

Middle, pinky: Zoya Jules
Pointer and ring: Sinful Shine Prosecco

 The bases of both these polishes were quite sheer, requiring three thin coats for opacity. Jules was slightly more opaque, and you could probably get away with two coats if you were more generous with each. Drying time was pretty decent for both polishes; I didn't have any problems, nor did I notice a difference between the two.

Thumb, middle, pinky: Zoya Jules
Pointer and ring: Sinful Shine Prosecco

In terms of base color, Jules was just a half-shade darker and warmer than Prosecco, though both fall into the warm-gray-with-a-hint-of-taupe category.  The difference is actually less pronounced in real life than it is in the photos; my boyfriend couldn't pick out the difference.

Thumb, middle, pinky: Zoya Jules
Pointer and ring: Sinful Shine Prosecco

The shimmer is where the biggest difference lies.  Both have a pale gold shimmer, and the color is very, very similar; only in certain lights is the difference visible at all -- Prosecco's shimmer leans a tiny, tiny bit warmer than Jules'.  The texture difference is quite pronounced, however.  Prosecco's shimmer is composed of microflakies, and is significantly coarser and sparser than Jules' shimmer, which I am inclined to describe as nanoflakies.  They are so super small that it is difficult to even tell that they are flakies unless you look extremely closely.  The effect on a macro scale is that Jules almost seems like a grey-gold silk metallic, while Prosecco definitely reads exactly as it is:  a grey crelly with gold microflakies.

Thumb, middle, pinky: Zoya Jules
Pointer and ring: Sinful Shine Prosecco

The Verdict:

Are they dupes?  Nope!  Are they similar?  Absolutely, yes.  If you're a polishaholic like me, I think that these are distinct enough to add both to your collection, but they're similar enough that they will definitely fill the same niche in your collection if you're on a budget.  Prosecco is definitely a great wallet-friendly alternative to Jules at only $1.99, fully 88% cheaper than Jules at full price.

Have you seen any of the Sinful Shine Shining Bright Off the Runway Collection polishes in your local drugstores?  What did you think?  Let me know in the comments!