Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Revlon Spring Minis

You may have noticed that I took a longer weekend break from posting than usual, but I had a good reason: I was in Illinois to attend my niece's wedding. She was beautiful and happy, the weather was great, and I got to spend time with family I don't see often enough, so that's all good. My nails, I'm sorry to say, did not look so great, but of course that was a very minor annoyance that affected only me. I'll have that story another day, after I've gotten the photos off my camera. Today I've got some swatches I did before I left of one of the Revlon mini sets they released this spring. (You can see the display in this entry.) This set is made up of Waterfall, a light blue shimmer, Sparkle, a silver and holo glitter, and Garden, a lime green creme.



When I swatched Revlon Blue Lagoon to see how it stacked up against Chanel Riva, Elizabelle wondered how the blue in this set compares to Blue Lagoon. Having now had a chance to get them side by side, I can say they're close enough to be declared dupes. Here are the bottles, Waterfall on top and Blue Lagoon on the bottom:



And here they are on the nail, again Waterfall on top and Blue Lagoon on the bottom, three coats of each:



If I stared at them long enough, I could almost convince myself that one was an eensy weensy bit darker or had ever so slightly larger shimmer particles, but I'm pretty sure that was all in my head. If you've got Blue Lagoon, you don't need Waterfall to complete your Revlon blues set unless you collect by name instead of color/finish.

The next one in the set, Sparkle, also looked familiar. Here it is with its big sister Belle from the Just Add Sparkle collection that came out near the end of last year. Both have small silver and transluscent holo glitter mixed with large silvery holo hex glitter in a clear base.



I layered two coats of each over the light blue twins, and it was hard to tell them apart at a glance. Some nails got more hexes on them than others, but that was an application issue; the bottles seemed to be equally hex-rich.


Top to bottom: Belle (over Blue Lagoon), Sparkle (over Waterfall), Belle, Sparkle.


The only difference I could see was the small silver glitter in Belle was mostly square, while Sparkle's was rounded. (You might have to click on the picture to make it big in order to see this yourself.) I don't think that's enough of a difference to make Sparkle a must have if you've already got Belle.


Top to bottom: Sparkle (over Waterfall), Belle (over Blue Lagoon).


So if neither Waterfall nor Sparkle are truly the "fresh new shades" promised by the display, what about Garden? Here it is on its own (two coats, no top coat):



If Revlon's made this color before, I sure don't have it. What I do have is other bright greens, so for comparison purposes, I pulled out a couple of them: Orly Green Apple and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Grass Slipper.




Top to bottom: Grass Slipper (2 coats), Garden (2), Green Apple (3).


Green Apple is the odd one out in this trio; it's lighter and softer than the other two. Grass Slipper is a touch deeper and yellower than Garden, but I don't think it's a big enough difference to make a person go running out to find the mini set if the Sally Hansen is already in one's stash.

Even though none of these minis fills in a gap in my stash (admittedly a hard task at this point), I can't feel bad for buying them because I do like the bottles quite a lot. They're a good size for minis (.25 fl. oz./7.5 ml), and the tall handle makes them much easier to manage than other minis I could mention (*cough* OPI *cough*). Even the fat-on-the-bottom shape that I'm not so fond of in the full sized Revlons doesn't bother me in the smaller footprint of the mini. And if you don't already have big bottles of these colors/finishes, the minis are a good value even at their full retail of around $8.

18 comments:

  1. I hate it when companies release "new" colors in sets and they're really just renamed!

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  2. awhh sad about the repeats, especially if they advertised as something new..

    thanks for sharing!

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  3. I'll be looking for those green shades! I don't think I have something like that on my stash.

    Don't you just adore minis? :)

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  4. Thx for sharing! So happy to know I can pass as I already have dupes or close enoughs to not have to seek them out. Really liking the way the blues with the sparkly topcoats look!

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  5. This is such an in depth post, thank you so much it is very helpful! I love the blue and that glittery color! But now that you do this post I realize I have similar colors and dont really need those colors(of course I still want them though:D). Thank you so much again great job!

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  6. I love them . They are so cute . The blue is gorgeous .

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  7. Great post, and I completely agree with thenailaholic
    But the green shade is awesome!

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  8. gorgeous! I want to get one of these sets for a blog giveaway!

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  9. that baby blue is just gorgeous color... but the green i want more ;-)
    p.s. your enter is not among the others, so if you want to be a part of my giveaway you'll have to enter again... sorry, google is lazy again ;-)

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  10. I'm thinking I need all three! Especially the blue and glitter.

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  11. Congratulations for your niece getting married ^_^

    Shame that the colours are not new after all but at least the bottles are cute :)

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  12. I don't have any of these and love all of them so I am so going to have to try to get my hands on them.

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  13. Thanks for the comparison! I tried Waterfall a few nights ago and found it to have an odd consistency...thick and chalky. When I removed it, after the first swipe of polish remover the remaining layer was holey and weird. Maybe I shook it too much? Still love the color though. I'll try it again. AND I really want to try the green now too!

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  14. Thanks, everyone!

    nail crazy, thanks for letting me know; I tried again and think it went in this time.

    Elizabelle, I don't think shaking would cause that--maybe your bottle just needs a bit of thinner?

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  15. Wow lady! So many greens!

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  16. I like Revlon polishes, the fat base helps with my clumsiness :P
    I really like Green Apple, I don't have any luscious green polishes, I will have to keep an eye out for it :) x

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  17. I was able to get belle on clearance last week. Is a beautiful glitter to add on top of other colours. To me both pastel blues look the same.

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.