Nubar's "Spark" a dupe for Butter London's "All Hail McQueen"?

Butter London "All Hail McQueen" and Nubar's "Spark" in bottle - dupe or no dupe?

So I went to Farmers on Friday night - the first place in New Zealand to sell Butter London ... well, at least that I know of - some nail salon may stock it or something, but I don't frequent those places?  Anyway ... to Farmers, to check out their stock of Butter London ... I sort of was expecting for it to all be a bunch of bull - but whaddya know, it's TRUE!

HOWEVER, of the colours I really wanted, they only had "All Hail McQueen" and "Marrow" - no "Bumster", "Victoriana" or "Minger", so I just got "All Hail McQueen" - no "Marrow" as I have to sell off some of my purples before I get another.  Oh, and I know the name "All Hail McQueen" has apparently changed to "All Hail the Queen" ... who knows why, perhaps her majesty complained ... or perhaps McQueen's camp didn't like it ~ you think they might have consulted them first though, so I can't imagine what the problem is ... all I know is the name of it and fact that it was inspired by McQueen ... along with "Bumster" (which apparently has also been renamed to "Burn" or something like that) are what initially attracted me to this brand in general!  But ANYWAY, my bottle says "All Hail McQueen" so that's what I'm gonna call it!

So here's the thing - because we can't get Butter London here in New Zealand stores, until this week that is, and because online sellers charge high postage (as they have to) and eBay sellers ask exorbitant prices (for both the product AND shipping), I got Nubar's "SPARK" from their prism's collection because it looked like a good dupe.  Whilst doing that I continued to scour eBay looking for a bottle of All Hail McQueen that someone would send here - all the while looking for someone online who could definitively say whether it Spark was dupe for All Hail McQueen ... and haven't found anyone, so I'm gonna do it myself!

For starters, in the bottle - they look similar, but I truly think that "All Hail McQueen" looks softer - "Spark" looks sparkier!

And here they are on nail - this is 2 coats for both.

And to tell you the truth, I really can't see TOO MUCH obvious difference between the 2 - if there was one, I'd say that SPARK was frostier ... the holo particles are perhaps more silvery, bluey; where as All Hail McQueen's holo particles are warmer, maybe even smaller, yes, smaller even - and overall All Hail McQueen is maybe a tiny bit golden-peachy whereas SPARK is more taupe-ish.

And in bright sunlight, SPARK goes more holo - which you can't see in any of these photos I don't think - sorry.
 

In terms of application - I really like both Nubar and Butter London formulas -  but I might just have to rate All Hail McQueen as slightly better - only slightly - like after one coat, I could have let it be ... whereas Spark could have done with one more layer.

 

And in terms of actually applying, they're both sweet ... I always put a LOT of product on the brush so that I don't have to keep dipping into the bottle, and that's why I like Nubar ... and Butter London so far (even though I only have 2 bottles ... oh wait, 3 ... just got another one today in the post, bought it off eBay ... before I read the Farmers catalogue) because in my opinion they're not gluggy, don't go on streaky (no bald spots ... well MAYBE Spark has the potential to do so - I think it even tried to do a bald patch on my thumb but due to the nice formula I was able to move it around and cover it), and don't try to dry before you finish (like some of the Orly polishes I have) which means I can keep brushing and moving the product around to get good coverage.

So, despite a slight difference in particle size and maybe particle colour and perhaps particle effect in bright sunlight ... what's the main difference?  PRICE of course!  All Hail McQueen cost me $29.95 ... and a trip to Farmers at St. Lukes Westfield with my hubby - a rare outing without our offspring.  Spark cost me about $15NZD, a little bit of time looking for on-nail pix of it on the net, half an hour (well, maybe an hour, 1.5 hours?) or so looking for the cheapest one on eBay (as well as cheapest shipping) and then a little, no, a LOT longer looking for a seller who sold the rest of the shades in that collection plus a few (well, a LOT of) other colours that I wanted ... then finding some dosh to pay for it ... but all in the comfort of my own home =)

Oh, and Spark is 15ml; All Hail McQueen is 11ml.  So economics wise, Spark is probably the go-to shade.  But no ... I had to have All Hail McQueen =) coz I'm fussy like that!

Oh, one more difference - you can't get Nubar in New Zealand.  So, if you live in New Zealand, like/want this shade and don't do eBay, get Butter London's All Hail McQueen ~ mind you, not all Farmers stores will stock it, so maybe wait for someone else to buy it, not get so buzzed out by it and then sell it on TradeMe ... like me ... hehe, not; I'm keeping mine.

I Heart Nails - Butter London

"I heart nails" by Butter London.

This is my FIRST and only bottle of BUTTER LONDON.   Apparently this particular colour was created exclusively for Harvey Nichols (I Heart Nails ... cleverly, the H and N also stands for Harvey Nichols), so is not available via normal retail - I think it was a "complimentary gift" when you bought however much worth of product from the store.  However, I had to buy  it off eBay ... and up until now it's been the only bottle that I've been able to win/buy off there because they're either too much (some ebayers are selling them for way more than the store price) or the seller isn't sending to NZ or I just haven't had the dosh.  I did try and buy a bulk lot off someone, but they didn't know the ins and outs of sending nail polish overseas (i.e. getting around customs hassles, etc.).

Anyway, I had read in one person's blog that this colour was not so great; I personally think its fine.  I've also read a few complaints about Butter London in other peoples' blogs ... I get the idea that not everyone likes Butter London ... not sure why because what I was reading wasn't specific, but I'm thinking it had something to do with the price vs. the formula or/and maybe the size of the bottle - I don't know, something or rather.

Here's my verdict: I would pay the little bit extra for this tad expensive brand ... I personally found it really good to apply and dries hard and fairly quickly. I also LOVE the packaging/bottles - I think they're so cool.  I also really like the colours!  And I really like the names.  So I dunno, maybe I'm getting sucked in by the marketing ... but this bottle of polish certainly beat a bottle I tried of Chanel polish; and also 2 bottles of Mac ... and most of my bottles of Orly; not to mention my NARS Zulu ... supposedly one of the most sought after colours of green nail polish and I'm not sure what all the fuss is about, and I LOVE green and therefore green nail polish.

Anywayz ... here's the REAL buzz going on in my corner of the universe ... Butter London isn't available in New Zealand ... until this morning ~ I took a look at my mum's "Farmers beauty club" catalogue that just came in the mail this morning ... perfumes, boring-ish, like that Marc Jacobs "BANG" bottle though ... eh, Kim Kardashian perfume, here already, wow, next ... creams, boring ... mens scents, harhahar Fifty Cent has his own scent, wow, wtf ... foundations, make-up, boring, wherez the nail polish ... sunscreen, blah blah ... oh, finally, nail polish: ChiChi Fluro Nail Set, $29.99, might get that for daughters for Xmas; or Miki Glitter nails Set at $14.99, yay, plus Chocco Gloss Set, yes, think I"ll get that ... and then ... BAM!!!!  Page 20, bottom left corner - BUTTER LONDON!!!???!!!!

It reads:  "Introducing our latest nail care brand, butter LONDON"?????  And more blah blah after that, but OH MY GOSH!!!!  Farmers?  For real?  Like I would think maybe Smith & Caughey or somewhere flash-ish.  But Farmers - COooOOoooL!  Catalogue only mentions these shade names: "Tea with the Queen, Pillar Box Red, Yummy Mummy" ... seriously, they have to have more than this; picture shows other colours - the turquoisey blue one, HRH, the hot pink one (sorry, can't remember names, so excited), plus the creams and ... other stuff!!!  WOW.  Prices are $13.95 to $52 - farrrrk, that's expensive at the top end ... hope $52 isn't for a bottle of polish.  ANYWAYZ ... I'm gonna go there tonight and see for myself ... I hope they have "All Hail McQueen", "Bumster" and "Victoriana" - 3 colours I want.  Would also like "Jaffa".  And then many more after that.  I was going to order those colours from Oz for my Christmas prezzie to myself ... seeing as no one else gets me anything; it would've cost $100AUD (approx. $120-$130NZD), so I'll see what and how much Farmers are doing it for =))

What's With The Cattitude (OPI Shrek) ...

This isn't the Opi Shrek "cattitude" polish.  These are my fandango nails.

I'm not a nail-polish-pro-slash-know-it-all.  I might be slightly addicted at this moment.  I remember watching an E! Red Carpet show a while back and they were critiquing Rhianna and mentioned that she was wearing bright neon blue nail polish with a matching dress - and I thought how cool - but not me ... I thought about how I used to be so into it when I was younger, but how I was now so "over it!"

I think this is a neon colour (Turned Up Turquoise by China Glaze) - I thought it looked much better in real life!

Later on, I saw that supermodel Heidi chick on Oprah wearing grey nail polish, telling Oprah it was the latest shade ... and thinking ... "Hmmm, coool"  (but Oprah REALLY didn't like it).  About a month later I saw my sister-in-law wearing grey nail polish.  Ho-hum, nothing clicked at that point ... just slightly interested.

"Chinchilly" by Essie - I really liked this!  And then got bored of it when I saw what else there was.

 Then in July 2010 I saw my mum painting her nails for some 'thing' we were going to.  Again, I reminisced about how I liked to madly paint my nails with my mad cousin when I was younger - we didn't use base or topcoats (didn't know about them) so our nails went yellow all the time, harhar!  But we were really blardy good at painting our nails - perfect every time I tell you!!  And I looked through my mum's small polish collection, looking for a colour to paint my nails - she had kinda boring neutrals ... but I saw this orange that I thought was sorta out there ... I don't think they had orange back in the day.

I think this is called "Dance Craze" and it's from L.A. Girl's DISCO BRITES collection (they glow under blacklight ... apparently) - I thought it was garish when I put it on; 2nd time around, I was kind of used to ... if not INto ... garish, lol!

So probably the week after, I went on to TradeMe and - without even knowing what Opi was, but knowing what Shrek was - I bought 3 bottles of Opi's Shrek-movies-inspired nail polishes "for my daughters."  I got the stuff, put it on, and was like: "WOW - snot green nail polish, WOW" ... and from that point I've kind of lost it!  I kept saying it was for my daughters or my mum ... but now it's all just FOR ME!!!   Well, I get a few bits and bobs for my sister-in-law, and I paint 2 of my dear friend's nails and have got them into it as well.

This isn't the Shrek nail polish - these are my fandango nailz (painted with China Glaze's "2NITE" shade from their OMG collection) against some of my jewellery "collection" (I think I was maybe addicted to collecitng jewellery prior to catching this nail polish buzz).

But seriously ... I've kinda lost it ... after 10 or 15 years of not touching the stuff ... I've gone absolutely mad for it ... AMAZED at all the different COLOURS, SHADES of colours, FORMULATIONS ... the THINGS this stuff can do!

And now all the FABBOH brands - back in the whenever it was I used to paint my nails hard out, we'd buy Revlon and L'oreal - and Streetwear was the coolest brand - and then there was all these other random bottles of nail polish that I'd get from the markets at Auckland Uni or Aotea Square; who knows what they were - or where they are now ... I probably chucked them all in the bin one day.  Well now, I can't believe all the different brands that you can get - MIND YOU, may I add that you can't get them in New Zealand ... but I WILL get them, oh yes I will!

I really like Butter London - this is the first bottle of Butter London that I've been able to get: "I Heart Nails" - a shade they created especially for Harvey Nichols (and I think it was a complimentary gift ... but I had to buy it off eBay); you can't get Butter London in New Zealand - that I know of - and the website doesn't ship to NZ - I have found two websites that will ship here though =)

Anyway, because I was admiring them so much and thinking what a waste when I removed it coz now if I ever want to wear it again I won't remember what it looks like ... AND because I like taking photos - and I thought taking photos whilst doing the housework and admiring my nails at the same time would make the whole process of making a bed, putting clothes away, picking up toys a lot more interesting ... I took these pix:

(this is the Shrek nail polish - or one of them - from Opi's "Shrek Forever After" Collection, NH Spring 2010)
"What's With the Cattitude?"

Isn't it nice?  And so that's where it started ... 2 months later, madness has set in, but more about that later ... maybe ... well, probably not.  I'll take some pix of the other colours in this collection next ... well, probably not as well ... but it'll be of some other interesting shade =)