To Dupe or Not To Dupe: Scarlett vs. Lisa

I've been attempting to come up with a nice catchy phrase to start my posts off with, so far, I've been failing at it. 

My nails have been bare for an entire day which is a shock (hello stain-age!), but I'm contemplating on dying my hair which is why I haven't done anything yet.

Besides that, as the title of this post says, this is a dupe post! 

After searching high and low for the new Nicole by O.P.I. Selena Gomez collection and only finding the glitter collection at stores, I lucked out yesterday and found the rest of the collection! The only color that I've been dying for is actually Scarlett. CVS had only one bottle of it left, so I snatched it up without even thinking about it.

Coming home though I noticed that Scarlett is rather similar to Zoya's Lisa.

First off, I apologize in advance for the photos. I took all of them with my Lumix camera which I've had for a while, but never really used, that is until yesterday. I discovered the exposure setting (yay!) so the photos don't appear so dark with the flash.

Now I wouldn't say these are exact dupes, they are similar though. Lets start off with Scarlett first.

I want to quickly note that the base coat used was my trusty Revlon Post Trauma Nail Treatment. I did not use a top coat on either swatches.

Although the name is Scarlett (if you're familiar with Selena Gomez then you'll know the reasoning for the name), this is a far cry from a red. I would definitely say that this is more of a raspberry pink, possibly on the cool side. To me it is a gorgeous color.

Upon swatching it, I noticed that the formula is on the sheer side. The first coat took a little to get it even, as there was slight balding (the color pulling away from the areas on the nail care of the brush). It took 3 coats to get the color to become opaque, in fact I'd go as far as possibly applying a 4th coat, as to my eye I could still see part of the nail tip.

Next, Lisa.

This is the color I actually wore on Valentine's Day. Zoya's website describes the color as such, An iridescent combination of deep raspberry pink, bright candy apple red and subtle gold tones in a dazzling sparkle finish. In my opinion Lisa leans more towards red than pink, definitely not a true red though because you can see the subtle pink and gold tones to it in natural light (majority of my photos are taken at night due to my work schedule).

With Lisa, it was opaque after 2 coats. The application being thicker and more even.

Comparison.

It might be difficult to tell with the photo, as I was still figuring out the settings on my camera, but Scarlett definitely photographs with more of a pink tone compared to Lisa. With Lisa, the pink tone is there, but not as noticeable. As I mentioned before Scarlett took 3 coats (a fourth could be applied), while Lisa only took two for full opaqueness. The drying time, also was different. Scarlett taking much longer than Lisa. And with Scarlett I also used. Zoya's Hurry Up drops. Both have shimmer, although Lisa seems to sparkle more, even without a top coat.

Overall result? I love both colors, but I gravitate towards Scarlett more due to the pink raspberry color that the polish is. It's eye catching to me.

Would I call them dupes? Not quite. They are very close though, perhaps if one isn't a nail polish addict (is there a nail polish anonymous group I could attend?), they probably wouldn't notice the difference.

Price Range: Nicole by O.P.I. range varies depending on where you purchase the polish. I bought Scarlett at CVS so the price was $7.99. Zoya polishes are priced at $8.00 on the Zoya website.

Disclaimer: Products mentioned in the post were purchased by myself.