To Dupe or Not To Dupe: Color Club Halo-Graphic vs OPI DS Passion

It's Holo time! Normally, if you know me, in the past I used to throw a particular holo over any polish I had. The polish? DS Passion which is from OPI Designer Series, from the older series that is now discontinued.

So when I purchased Halo-Graphic from Color Club (Halo Hues collection) while I was at Harmon's, I was shocked because I believed it was an exact dupe for DS Passion.

Question is, is it really a dupe?

Halo-Graphic vs DS Passion

DS Passion is from OPI's Designer Series that is now discontinued, I believe this series is from any formula changes as this polish and another I have, have a very distinctive smell of chemicals (smells like permanent marker, not a sharpie, but the real smelly ones). The smell on this one isn't as bad as the other one though. 

Anyway, DS Passion is a mauve-pink holo. The holo is there, just not very distinct, it photographs just a little bit, all over the place. It is on the sheer side, so when I painted the nail plate, it took 5 coats to get it opaque.

Color Club's Halo-Graphic from the Halo Hues series. Looks like a lilac-pink (with gold overlay?). In the bottle though the base color looks similar to DS Passion, but going on not so much. 

Can we just stop for a second and look at that holo! It is insanely amazing! And that's only in the bottle!

Depending on how much you load onto the brush, it can either go on sheer with the first coat or very opaque. On the nail plate I used 2 coats.

Halo-Graphic's holo/halo (which is it?) bursts when the flash hits it. DS Passion's is more subtle, and you can see the base color more so with Passion than with Halo-Graphic.

Would I Call Them Dupes?: Not really. The base color may appear similar, but they aren't dupes. Maybe close to dupes, if you couldn't find DS Passion, Halo-Graphic would be a perfect replacement. In fact I lean more towards Halo-Graphic anyway. The formula is amazing, and the holo/halo is out of this world.

Price: I believe Harmon's sold Halo-Graphic for $7.99, but has it on sale for $3.98. Being the older Designer Series is discontinued, I did however purchase this from Harmon's as well for $5.99 They had a slue of this collection discounted.