Aquamarine Dupes

Hi everyone!  So now that Spring is officially here I have started to put away my darker polish and started pulling out my fun bright polishes!  As I was pulling out my Spring and Summer nail polish colors I noticed that I had four aquamarine blue nail polishes (two of which I have bought in the last  month or so) that appeared to look very similar in the bottle.  So I decided to try them out side by side to see if I had any dupes (duplicates).  As it turns out none of these four nail polishes are dupes, but several are close enough that unless you are a polish-a-holic you probably don't need to own all four!

The four nail polishes I decided to test were: Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos", OPI's "Mermaid Tears", Nicole by OPI's "Alex by the Books", and Zoya's "Wednesday". As you can tell from the picture above, all four nail polishes looked very similar in the bottle.  I wanted to give you all an idea of how the nail polishes compared to each other along the way!  So here is how the polishes all looked after I applied a clear base coat (I use Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Invisible") and then one coat of nail polish:

After one coat I was convinced that I probably did NOT have any dupes, but sometimes you never can tell until you get that second coat of nail polish on!  While applying these four polishes I noticed that Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos" was very watery and thin, which I find to be a problem with a lot of Essie nail polishes.  But on the opposite end of the scale I found OPI's "Mermaid's Tears" to be a tad goopy and thick.  Zoya "Wednesday" and Nicole by OPI "Alex by the Books" both applied very easily.  After waiting about 15 minutes between coats of polish I added a second coat to all four nails, and then I had to add a third coat to Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos"  After a quick drying topcoat (I use Orly's "Sec'N'Dry") here is how the finished nails looked:

In the end Zoya's "Wednesday" and OPI's "Mermaid's Tears" were very similar.  The only real difference was Zoya had more blue in it.  Nicole by OPI's "Alex by the Books" (which is part of the new Modern Family line) was the lightest of the four polishes and Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos" was just a tad bit darker and than "Alex by the Books."

Here are my over all impressions of each nail polish:

Zoya's "Wednesday":  Easy application, covered well in two coats, no streaking, and very little to no staining on my nail upon removal.  Cost: approx. $7-8 (USA)

OPI's "Mermaid's Tears": Slightly thick and goopy, amazing coverage (almost a one coater!!), no streaking, and unfortunately some staining occurred on my nail upon removal. Cost: $9 (USA)

Nicole by OPI's "Alex by the Books": Easy application, covers well in two coats, no streaking, and no stained nail after removing the polish. Cost: Between $6-8 (USA)

Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos": Very watery, difficult to apply (though buildable with patience), required three coats, but was very easy to remove and left no staining on my nails. Cost: approx. $8 (USA)

Overall since the four colors are very similar you really don't need to own all four of them.  My favorite of the four is OPI's "Mermaid's Tears" which unfortunately was a limited edition color and is a bit difficult to get your hands on.  So if you cannot find the OPI then I suggest you go for either Nicole by OPI's or Zoya's nail polish.  My least favorite by far is Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos" because of the watery formula.

Thanks for reading my blog!  :)