Dupe-finder: OPI Glitzerland vs. Julep Sienna
Hello lovelies! Thank you, Tamala at Tall Girl in Heels, for letting another tall girl take over your page :-).
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Jessica, and I have been running the blog Sparkle and Shine Nails since March of this year. My interest in nail polish probably started a year before that, thanks to a good friend of mine whose stash far outnumbers mine, hehe. Besides the blog, I am a graduate student wanting to be a professional school counselor. I think Harry Potter is the best book series EVER, and I have a very wonderful husband who encourages me in everything I do, including my addiction :-).
So now that you know a little about me, I want to share a little something with you. A month or so ago, Ulta had a sale on OPI polishes, where if you bought two, you got an Ulta-exclusive OPI polish free. I didn’t have a pale gold polish yet, I love OPI’s formula, so I bought Glitzerland. Glitzerland came out with the Swiss collection in the fall of 2010, but can still be found with OPI’s regular line. It’s a very pretty pale golden shimmer-borderline-foil polish, unlike any gold I had.
Fast-forward two months, and I find a nice blog sale with some decently priced Julep polishes (only $3!!). I have never owned Julep polishes before because of price. So I came across Julep Alfre (lavender metallic frost), ordered it…and got Julep Sienna by accident. Sienna is another pale golden shimmer- foil polish, very similar to Glitzerland (hence the reason I ordered Alfre instead. Though as a side note, the blog owner was FABULOUS, and sent me Alfre for free, allowing me to keep both Julep polishes!)
I know there many a polish-girl who will own very similar polishes, which is very helpful for polish-girls like myself, who for whatever reason (mine being finances) don’t want dupes in their stash. However, when you do have colors that you believe are dupes, you have the chance to tell girls who want a certain color which polish is a better deal or better formula. In this case, for someone looking for a nice pale gold foil-finish polish, here are two options for you :-).
First, here’s the bottle shot:
As you can see, in the bottle with no flash and artificial light, they are very close. Sienna does look a little paler and less shimmery than Glitzerland. Next test is on the nail, so below I will present the colors with one coat, two coats, then three coats. There is no base or top coat on any of these, to help give an accurate representation of the actual color.
one coat flash
one coat natural
two coats flash
two coats natural
three coats flash
three coats natural
And here’s one last picture of it from a little further away, to give an idea from afar how similar or different the colors are.
Okay, here’s the lowdown on colors, formula, and bottle/brush. Then you can decide which polish you prefer!
Color: While the colors are similar, they are NOT identical. Sienna is more champagne-colored than Glitzerland. If you were to compare the pictures TO a bottle of champagne, Sienna is the liquid and Glitzerland is the golden foil wrap around the top of the bottle. But the colors ARE similar.
Formula: Both polishes have a thin, slightly running formulas. If you aren’t careful, there may be a little pooling around the cuticles, and with a foil finish like that, the chances of streaking are high. However, as you can tell in the pictures, Glitzerland is more sheer than Sienna, even though the color is darker. Sienna was opaque in two coats, whereas Glitzerland had a slight visible nail line at two coats and needed the third to completely cover.
Bottle/brush: The OPI brush is hands down one of the easiest brushes to use and apply polish with. The Julep brush wasn’t bad, though, just smaller. The OPI bottle is also much fuller than the Julep bottle. OPI standard bottle size is 0.5 oz., while Julep is only 0.27 oz. In terms of bottle size and retail price, OPI generally retails $8.50, while Juelp retails $14, so compared to the amount provided, Julep costs much more (but does offer deals like the Maven program).
After seeing these two polishes together and getting a little info, which one do you prefer? Let me know at the following:
And once again, thank you Tamala for letting me take over!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine Nails)
Thanks for reading,
xoxo -Tamala
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