Nubar Blue Hydrangea

I'm loving Nubar. I wish that they'd do more promotions because I'd be more apt to pick up some polishes. When they're already not easily accessible and you can only buy online, I think it helps to do something for customers that makes them want to pay and wait for shipping in addition to never being able to tangibly have the polish before purchasing. I know Zoya gets a little crazy with their promotions, but at least if Nubar had a free shipping promo for ANY order for a week or so, or 20% off ANY order, or something along those lines, I'd see myself more willing to buy polish.

But looking at some of their previous promos - 20% off retail orders of $50+ with free shipping on $40+ on VDay 2011, 30% on retail orders of $30 or more in November 2010, 20% on retail orders of $30+ St. Patty's 2010 - there has only been one promo this year so far, and all that I've seen require you to spend at LEAST $30 before you can get any sort of % off and at least $40 for free shipping. So you have to purchase at least 5 polishes for a % off and 6 for free shipping. I'd say 4 polishes for a % off, but their polishes are $7.49, they're not actually $7.50, which means 4 polishes only bring the total to $29.96. I find that kind of sneaky IMO.

So aside from the promo stuff, I knew when I saw swatches of Blue Hydrangea from their Spring Garden Collection, I had to have it. I don't really know why, it seems somewhat generic, but I really just fell in love with it.











2 coats Blue Hydrangea
1 coat Poshe

This polish is really gorgeous. It's a bright, pearly sky blue. When I say pearly, don't be apprehensive. It's hard to make a sky blue polish seem grandma-ish, and it's more pearly than frosty if that makes sense. The pearl in this polish is what makes it really pop. Instead of it being a simple, boring creme, going more extreme to make it a true shimmer, or changing the color by making it iridescent or duochrome-y, the pearlescent finish really makes this polish stand out. I LOVE it against my skintone, I find it to be very flattering.

The blue in this polish is very similar to OPI What's With The Cattitude. If you were looking for a non-creme version to WWTC, this is it. Not identical, WWTC is about 2 shades darker and slightly more green, but very comparable. And the formula on Blue Hydrangea is MUCH nicer.

The formula was very easy to work with. Completely opaque in 2 coats, it has a nice thickness to it, similar to the thickness of Orly polishes, but a little thinner. I did get some cuticle drag on several nails, but I definitely think that was my error and not the polish. It was easily corrected, though. The brush was nice and dense, with a good flare when pressed on the nail. I really liked this brush. It's generic, but that's a good thing. The other thing about the formula/brush is that despite the polish being pearly, there were NO brush strokes. Even before the top coat, there were no brush strokes.

OPI What's With The Cattitude vs. Nubar Blue Hydrangea Comparison





Direct Sunlight


2 coats of each

I woulda done this on my nails, but I'm actually wearing BH as my mani today, so I didn't want to take polish off and then reapply. Too lazy for that!!
Description between the polishes is above, but ultimately, in the sunlight, they look darn near identical (but they're not) save the pearly finish of BH. In different lightings, WWTC looks anywhere from 1-3 shades darker and just the slightest bit more green. As I said above, if you love the color of WWTC but don't want a creme, you have to have this.

Orly Ancient Jade Vs. OPI Mermaid's Tears Comparison

Something you should know about me. I'm cheap frugal. With that, I hate buying polishes that are dupes or WAY close. I see no need. I definitely have a polish obsession, but in this aspect, cost outweighs owning polish. And I don't like to buy a polish that I essentially already have. Definitely nothing against those who do!! Thank goodness for those of you that buy dupes. If you didn't, I'd never get to see comparisons of similar polishes. Thanks to those of you who do buy dupes, I was able to pick Essence Choose Me! up instead of OPI Catch Me In Your Net or Zoya Charla. I was able to pick up Revlon Electric instead of Chanel Mimosa. You get the idea.

So, unbeknowst to me, I bought some dupes. Obviously as the title suggests, those dupes are Orly Ancient Jade and OPI Mermaid's Tears. I picked up Ancient Jade (from the Precious collection) first back in February. I even used it in one of my posts. I later bought Mermaid's Tears in early May. I had seen swatches of MT online, and obviously I had worn AJ. I had not a FREAKIN' clue how similar they were. I hadn't even given it a second thought, honestly. In hindsight, I definitely thought AJ was much more green, and even when I heard rumor that they were dupes for each other, I just couldn't believe it. So I just had to swatch them together, and here's what I got.









In Direct Sunlight




2 coats Ancient Jade
2 coats Mermaid's Tears

Here's a photo of 1 coat of each for comparison:



So they're obviously really, really close. Complete dupes? I'd say no. Close enough? Absolutely. If you're like me like I said above, I would say you don't need both. They are so so similar. If I had to chose, I'd pick Ancient Jade.

Aside from the fact that I don't enjoy the ProWide OPI brushes, Orly won me over with the formula. Completely opaque in one coat, not streaky, easy to use, just awesome. I used 2 coats of each in the photos for a more true comparison. OPIs was fine, too, but it did require 2 coats and if they were on the thinner side, you might've needed 3. I'd still say 2 coats is fine, though. Mermaid's Tears had the same applications as the other two polishes (Stranger Tides and Skull & Glossbones) I have from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Thin and watery, but opaque in 2 coats.

Color wise, anything I mention is SUCH a slight difference, so keep that in mind. By slight I mean if they were to go one shade different, they'd be identical. So MT is the slightest bit murkier while AJ is the slightest bit brighter. I'd also say AJ is about 1 shade more turquoise than MT. I think AJ has a more clean look than MT, and I think it's a little more striking. By striking I mean alluring. It has a demure brightness that MT doesn't have because it's more murky.

These photos do not have a top coat. I painted them as if I was going to use a quick dry top coat. I didn't wait for the first coat to dry fully before adding the second. I felt my nails about 15 minutes after painting them, and they're both dry to finger marks.

And can you tell how my middle finger nail and kind of my index finger nail are starting to curve inwards at the sides? Clearly my nails are a little too long for me and I need to file 'em down a bit. Lol. Eh, I'll get around to it eventually.