July 23, 2011

Battle of the Multi-Colored Glitters 2.0 - a detailed comparison of seven brands

Hello, Beautiful!

A few months ago I compared four multi-colored glitters, which included Deborah Lippmann, Ulta, Milani and Wet n Wild. Since that time I've acquired three more multi-colored glitters that I wanted to also compare for everyone. I've gone into a little more detail with this compare post, so I really hope it helps!!

Remember: Click on the photos to view them larger!!!!


Battle Of The Multi-Colored Glitters!

The Line-Up:
[Shown below from left to right: Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday, Sephora by OPI - Spark-tacular! Top Coat, Ulta - Pinata-Yada-Yada, Milani - Gems, Wet n Wild - Party Of Five Glitters, Claire's - Bedazzled, Kleancolor - Afternoon Picnic]





All shades of multi-colored glitters on a nail wheel:
  1. Deborah Lippmann --- Happy Birthday
  2. Sephora by OPI --- Spark-tacular! Top Coat
  3. Ulta --- Pinata-Yada-Yada
  4. Milani Jewel FX --- Gems
  5. Wet n Wild Fastdry --- Party Of Five Glitters
  6. Claire's --- Bedazzled
  7. Kleancolor --- Afternoon Picnic





All shades of multi-colored glitters next to each other:


Only with one coat:


Now with two coats:




Now I'll go into detailed pics and swatches of each shade individually...



Deborah Lippmann --- Happy Birthday
Shade Description: A clear (although every so slightly yellow tinted) base with small hex glitter in green, orange, silver, gold, light blue, and fuchsia -- and micro square glitter in royal blue, reddish-orange, silver, gold, and green.




Sephora by OPI --- Spark-tacular! Top Coat
Shade Description: A clear base with small hex glitter in fuchsia, green, orange, silver, light blue, and gold -  as well as micro and super micro hex glitter in the same colors. Every now and again there will be these weird yellow blotches, which aren't glitter. You can see some in the photos below.




Ulta --- Pinata-Yada-Yada
Shade Description: A clear base with small hex glitter in orange, silver, gold, and fuchsia - and micro hex glitter in light blue, green, silver, gold, and orange.




Milani Jewel FX --- Gems
Shade Description: A clear base with small hex glitter in green, orange, gold, silver, fuchsia, and light blue -- and micro hex glitter in red, green, blue, gold, and silver.




Wet n Wild Fastdry --- Party Of Five Glitters
Shade Description: A clear base with small hex glitter in silver, fuchsia, green, and light blue (the silver is just a little bigger than the other shades) -- and micro hex glitter in red and green.




Claire's --- Bedazzled
Shade Description: A clear base with small hex glitter in gold, blue, orange, red, silver, fuchsia, green -- and micro hex glitter in silver, orange, gold and fuchsia -- and super micro hex glitter in blue and green.




Kleancolor --- Afternoon Picnic
Shade Description: A clear, a very slightly tinted (a pinkish-beige shade) base with large hex glitter in silver -- medium hex glitter in fuchsia, green, orange, gold, -- and small hex glitter in green, royal blue, orange, silver, fuchsia, and gold.




Price Compare:
[In order from most expensive to least expensive.]
  • Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday: $18
  • Sephora by OPI - Spark-tacular! Top Coat: $9.50
  • Ulta - Pinata-Yada-Yada: $5
  • Milani - Gems: $4.99
  • Claire's - Bedazzled: $4.50
  • Kleancolor - Afternoon Picnic: $3.49
  • Wet n Wild - Party Of Five Glitters: $1.99


My final thoughts:
A lot of companies caught trend to the popularity of Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday glitter and developed their own. Of course there are many other multi-colored glitters out there, but I simply don't own them all and I can only talk about the polishes I own.

So far, nobody has made an exact dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday. Some may look the same to the untrained eye, but if you ever look at the glitters up close (like on this blog in the swatch photos) you'll know Deborah Lippmann has micro square glitter - something I haven't seen anyone else do just yet (at least not in the polishes I own). I'm sure someone will come out with one eventually, and there may already be one out there, but for now Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday remains unique.

If you can't bare to spend $18 on a single polish, even one as awesome and iconic as Happy Birthday, then I think you may be just as satisfied with Claire's Bedazzled - which is a fraction of the price. Milani Gems is another good option.

If you're looking for larger multi-colored glitter than you'll be very happy with Kleancolor's Afternoon Picnic. For a more speckled look go for Sephora by OPI's Spark-tacular! Top Coat or Claire's Bedazzled. For less dense glitter go for Ulta's Pinata-Yada-Yada or Wet n Wild's Party Of Five Glitters. 

19 comments:

  1. Great post! Thank you very much for the comparison.

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  2. Wow! A tour de force comparison!

    Thank you!!!!

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  3. Wow, amazing post! Thank you so much for the in depth comparison! After reading your post I think claire's and milani win this one for me :D

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  4. THey're alol very different!
    I love all ^^
    Thanks for this awesome comparison!

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  5. Oooh thanks for this post, you really have covered them all! I'm really interested by the Claire's version~

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  6. Great post! I've seen recent swatches of DL HB that show the smaller glitter is no longer square! :O

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  7. THanks for the great post! I have Happy Birthday, but have been looking for something to possibly franken with - thanks to you, Milani Gems it will be! :)

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  8. cilucia: Are you sure Happy Birthday is no longer made with square glitter? I recently picked up a second bottle of it and it still had the square glitter.

    I know the newer polishes - Candy Shop and Forget You - look like Happy Birthday glitter but they do not have the square glitter. They just have smaller hex glitter but the same color family.

    Hopefully that's what you saw and hopefully Deborah Lippmann is not changig their Happy Birthday formula! The micro square glitter is what sets that polish apart from others.

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  9. Truly outstanding post. Tons of clearly organized information and great photos!

    You get an A++!

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  10. Thanks April!! I have a few more multi-colored glitters but I'm waiting until I get even more before I make a new comparison post. There are 3 more on my list coming out in upcoming collections. I'll probably update this post January.

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  11. Tis the BEST nail polish post that I have ever seen!! I was looking for something EXACTLY LIKE THIS!! thanks sooo much!!!!

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  12. @ lilyisthebest: Thanks! If you liked this post then stayed tuned for The Battle Of The Multi-Colored Glitters 3.0! I have about 5 or 6 more to add to the comparison, and I plan to do that post in the very near future!

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  13. I know you probably wrote this awhile ago, but thanks so much for the post. the swatches help out sooo much when trying to buy online. and i love how you have everything so organized and the pictures are very clear. the side-by-side swatches helped tons.
    All this had to take forever to do, so thank you! : )

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  14. @ Glamatronic: You're very welcome! I'm glad it was helpful. And you're right; it is a lot of work but I'm lucky to be able to call what I do "work". It's a beauty playground every day :)

    A new Battle of the Multi-Colored Glitters is coming up this week :)

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  15. So I was working on a Post for this exact idea and I came across this and you have stopped me in my tracks. I cannot top this.
    Amazing Job

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  16. @ Brit: Aww, thank you! I actually did a version 3.0 with even more polishes (15 in total)... here's that link for reference: http://xoxovalentinekissesxoxo.blogspot.com/2011/12/battle-of-multi-colored-glitters-30.html

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  17. Thank you so much for this informative and well-photographed blog. These kinds of pages are really valuable to me because I have a very limited budget for extras such as nail polish. This article very clearly guided me to a purchase that's the best for my style. Keep up the awesome work!

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  18. Thank you for this very thorough and well-photographed article. These kinds of pages are invaluable to me because I have a very limited budget for extras such as nail polish. Your blog did all the work for me! It guided me to the purchase that's best for my personal style and kept me from purchasing glitters I was just curious about. Please keep up the awesome job!

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