I love a good dupe. Nothing pleases me more than finding a lipstick, outfit or nail varnish that could pass for something twice the price. It’s nice to treat yo’ self, especially when it comes to beauty, but when the high street brings out some excellent dupes it’s not always necessary. Read on to see if I found a dupe for ‘mint candy apple’, the cult essie nail varnish.
I have been looking through my stash recently and noticed the similarities between essie ‘Mint Candy Apple’ and Maybelline SuperStay 7 days in ‘Mint For Life’ so I thought I’d do a dupe post. Let’s get right down to shall we? Here is a manicure with both polishes and as you can see they are pretty damn close. When you know that they are different polishes, you can see that the essie polish is slightly darker, but if you didn’t know I definitely think this could pass as a regular manicure!
The following picture is the same manicure in brighter, natural light. As you can see that the essie is a teeny bit darker and also more green. The Maybelline polish is more of a pastel blue based mint, while the essie looks more sage green-y mint to me.
I absolutely love essie nail polishes and I have to say that the formula and resulting finish was a lot nicer on the essie nails. Essie polish applies perfectly, this was full coverage in two coats, and I could have got away with no top coat (although I never would as that would be SACRILEGE). In comparison, the Maybelline polish dragged on application, which made the finish bumpy and uneven. It also needed 3 coats to reach full opacity which, when you factor in the draggy application, was annoying. I *do* however love the Maybelline wide brushes, as you can pretty much coat a whole nail in one go.
I would say that the Maybelline nail varnish in ‘Mint For Life’ is definitely a colour dupe for essie’s ‘Mint Candy Apple’. However, application-wise, I’d rather stick with essie.
Essie polishes are £7.99 in Boots, and the Maybelline SuperStay 7 days polishes are £4.49, so if you’ve had your eye on the essie version I can definitely recommend the Maybelline polish as a cheaper alternative.
Do these kind of dupe posts interest you? I’d like to do some more as I’m trying to shop my stash a bit more… let me know!
Lex
