I got Baptiste as a gift from my very dear friend and loved it instantly. Essie Sexy Divide has been one of my favorite purples for a long time. How do they compare?
Let's see:
Very different in the bottle: Baptiste has a distinctive red undertone; and Essie features a strong blue one.
Let's look on the nails now, shall we?
/don't forget you can click to enlarge/
Not so different, huh?
I have SD on my pointer and ring fingers; Illamasqua on middle and pinky.
They are definitely not dupes; but Essie is a very acceptable substitute, even by mine "buy-all-dark-purples-ever-released" standards.
I prefer Baptiste application-wise. Other than that, they are really close. Difference? Illamasqua has this strong, dense glow to it; Essie shows more of a sparse, star-like sparkle.
PS: Please excuse my deformed pointer. I had a bad cooking accident back in September, when I chopped off a big part of the nail bed; it's still in recovery.
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Summary only...
What a great purple! Pleasantly neutral (not to be confused with boring) - not too warm, not too cold. Pigmented and very reach. The color actually reminds me of a lilac bush in bloom rather than of a grape pop.
Yes, excellent purple, but such an annoying little bitch to photograph! I took 90+ pictures, yet still do not have a perfect one; so I'm showing Grape Pop a-la puzzle.
Here I'm pretty happy with the bottle color. When I saw in on a shelf in Trans Design, I was "Wow, it has some dusty quality to it!" Yep, bottle color does seem a bit muted:
Ring finger and pinky are very close to life as well; pointer and the middle one are way off: much bluer than IRL.
On the nails, thou, Grape Pop is extremely bright and vivid, nothing muted and dusty about it:
It's pretty color accurate.
As much as I love the color, I dislike the formula. I don't know if I got a dud; but I sure hope I did, otherwise it's one disaster of a collection formula-wise. I barely deep my brush into the bottle and somehow end up with a huge blob of varnish; the blob is both runny and too thick. Bleh. Half-full glass: it applied streak-free in two thin coats.
After two days I decided to spruce my mani up a bit... And invented a poor man's Scrangie! Oh well, it's not exactly RBL Scrangie (OK - not really close); but the general idea is here:
Is it pretty or what?
Yes, I got carried away...
Not a bit of PhotoShop involved: I just took some pics under a bright sunlight; and some in the shadow.
CND Sapphire Sparkles over China Glaze Grape Pop.
PS: Did you noticed I was able to visit Trans Design? Yep, brick and mortar. It's heaven.
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Summary only...
Very different in the bottle: Baptiste has a distinctive red undertone; and Essie features a strong blue one.
/don't forget you can click to enlarge/
I have SD on my pointer and ring fingers; Illamasqua on middle and pinky.
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