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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday dupes: a comparison

After purchasing the new drugstore version of Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday (Confetti Tasmanian Devil) at CVS the other day, I thought it would be interesting to see how all of the drugstore versions of Happy Birthday that I own compare to each other.

 Left to right: Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters (retail: $1.99), Confetti Tasmanian Devil (retail: $1.99), Milani Gems - original version (retail: $4.99) and Milani Gems - newer version (retail: $4.99)

For purposes of this post, I'll refer to the two Milani Gems polishes at "1.0" and "2.0" since Milani changed a few of the glitter shades in the newer version of this polish.



For these first swatches, I used multiple layers of each polish on a clear background. Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters is still a bit sparse even after several coats, because the clear base in this polish is pretty watery overall. As you can see, all three of the other polishes are pretty much opaque. I lost count but I think I used five coats for all of the polishes in the above swatches.

Here's a closer look at each one:


 Wet n Wild
Party of Five Glitters

 Confetti
Tasmanian Devil

Milani Gems 1.0

Milani Gems 2.0


For the above swatches, I painted the "nails" with an opaque white, and then used just ONE layer of each glitter polish, so that you can see the glitter detail of each polish.

Here's a closer look at each one:

 Wet n Wild
Party of Five Glitters

I think this Wet n Wild polish is probably the most straightforward of the four, in terms of the combination of glitter. The glitter is more sparse in this polish than the rest, but I honestly think it's VERY close to the combination of glitter in Milani Gems 2.0, just less dense.

 Confetti
Tasmanian Devil
  
Tasmanian Devil is the only polish of the four to contain silver micro-glitter in addition to larger pieces of glitter. I think this adds such a festive look to this polish--I absolutely LOVE it. It feels like a confetti party exploded on my nails!

 Milani Gems 1.0

If you were lucky enough to buy Milani Gems before they changed the color combination, you know that this polish is truly a Gem. The colors are that of gemstones (ruby, sapphire, emerald) and if you scroll back up to the swatch taken after five coats, you'll see that it really looks like you've got gemstones on your nails when you wear this one (the green-tinged base helps with that effect as well).

 Milani Gems 2.0

I think that Milani Gems 2.0 is much closer to Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, because it now has pink and purple glitter. I think this one's the closest of the four to Happy Birthday (take a look at Kelly's swatches to see what I mean).

Also, I want to mention that when I was talking to Krissy about this on Twitter the other day, she was curious if Confetti Tasmanian Devil was a closer dupe to Happy Birthday than Milani Gems. I immediately thought of Milani Gems 1.0 when I answered back, "I think Tasmanian Devil is closer", so apologies, Krissy--I totally forgot about Milani Gems 2.0 which I think is the clear winner for best dupe of Happy Birthday (with Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters coming in second). You can check out Krissy's dupe comparison post of Happy Birthday and Gems here.

Tasmanian Devil isn't even in the running really, because of all that silver micro-glitter. But man, it's SO pretty that I think it might be my favorite of the bunch. If you're a glitter gal, definitely keep your eyes peeled for this one at CVS!

Some of the products featured in this post were sent to nouveaucheap.blogspot.com for previous reviews. Other polishes were purchased with personal funds.
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18 comments

  1. oooh~~ me want want want!! it seems perfect for a party,,, esp for the holidays :D wnw is my fave, sucks i missed it T_T

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  2. I actually like the Confetti the best. The others(Milani 1.0 and The WnW) seem to have too much green and red, which make me think Christmas. And I liked the Confetti over the Milani 2.0 because of the small silver glitters.

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  3. Honestly from your swatches, the Confetti is my favorite of these as well! I have both of the Milanis and the WNW, and I will HAVE to have the Confetti.

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  4. Honestly from your swatches, the Confetti is my favorite of these as well! I have both of the Milanis and the WNW, and I will HAVE to have the Confetti.

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  5. After seeing your post on Tasmanian devil I ran out and got it I love it thanks so much for your informative post I didn't even know there was more than one version of Milani gems, I need to go and see which version I have...

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  6. ULTA Pinata-Yada-Yada is also another pretty multi-color glitter polish similar to Happy Birthday. I think I actually prefer it too.

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  7. Ahhh, thanks for this! The Confetti one is amazing. I don't have CVS where I live though - does anyone know how I could go about arranging a CP for it? I think I need it *that* much! :p

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  8. Ahh, thanks for this! The Confetti one is amazing, but I don't have a CVS where I live - does anyone know how I might go about arranging a CP for it? I think I might need it *that* much, lol! :p

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  9. I have both versions of milani gems and they are both beautiful! I saw the confetti one the other day and now I am regretting not buying it I'm really loving the silver micro glitter stuff

    So pretty thanks for the comparisons

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  10. I'm thrilled that Confetti will continue to exist. :) I bought quite a few backups when I heard that they may not stick around.

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  11. Thanks for the comparison post! I almost got the Confetti the other day. I think your swatch may have given me the push to get it. :)

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  12. I also love the Ulta version of this polish. I have it on over black right now and it reminds me of New Year's Eve!!

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  13. Thanks for the comparison! :) I have Milani Gems 2.0, which I absolutely love. Have you seen Claire's version? It's super dense.

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  14. Thanks so much to everyone who commented on this post. It sounds like you all are loving the Confetti polish as much as I am! lol! Definitely worth $1.99 FOR SURE. I love it more and more the longer I look at it.

    And thanks to those who mentioned the Ulta version. I completely forgot about that one--I don't live near an Ulta so I haven't seen it in person, but I've seen it on various blogs and it's super pretty too. :)

    Makeup Morsels: I haven't seen the Claire's version! I must check that out. Thanks!

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  15. I say that you must now get Ulta's Pinata-Yada-Yada, NYX Carnival, Essence Circus Confetti, Claire's Bedazzled, and Kleancolor Afternoon Picnic too! Then if you had Lippmann's Happy Birthday you would have a nail polish for each finger! Too funny!

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  16. I don't know if I could handle five coats, but I love the glitter armor look!

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  17. I have Po5G but, haven't used it yet. I got it to make all those fun glitter sandwiches I've been seeing. I saw Tasmanian Devil today and snatched it up so fast, I almost knocked the whole display over. I loved it so much that I painted my nail right there in the parking lot. LOL I LOVE IT!!! And you're right, the silver micro-glitter makes it.

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  18. Is there a reason why they released two versions of Gems? I never figured it out!

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