Hello all! In this Dupe Week edition of Franken Friday, I turned to Laurie Nievin  for a guest post! She talks about two polishes that she has duped with her creation!

Hard to find nail polishes are often costly and let's face it Hard To Find! Have you been wondering what the htf stands for when you see it on blogs? It took me forever to figure out htf stood for Hard To Find lol! And here I always thought I was smart. Well actually I am smart because I have recreated a few htf's simply by making them myself. My first foray into "frankening" was making a dupe of Essie's Starry Starry Night. Here is a picture of my franken Natural Law--I don't have Starry Starry Night but after looking at pics of it online I feel my dupe is dead on therefore I don't "need" it!


Another dupe I did was of China Glaze's Grape Crush. I had some holo graphic glitter on hand and a friend of mine sent me a nail swatch of Grape Crush. I think I nailed it so I named my Grape Crush dupe Oops I Did It Again.

I'm glad my friend, Destany, whom I lovingly call Igor, likes to franken as well! It's fun and it's really easy! Don't be afraid to try it, there are lots of infinite possibilities for you if you do!

THANKS SO MUCH LAURIE!!! What do you guys think of Laurie's creations?

So in Tuesday's post I hid another pop-up giveaway! Congrats to those who saw it! The giveaway was for a bottle of Facets of Fuchsia, so let's get right to it!

Congratulations Jodi!!!! I've been in contact, and I will get the polish mailed out soon! But now, on to polish!

For today, I decided not to showcase a single polish, but some side-by-side comparison shots. I have chosen a blue and a green. We will go with the blue first...
The OPI is Suzi Says Feng Shui and the Zoya is Breezi. To me, these are pretty much dupes to the naked eye. I'm sure if you really broke it down and squinted and over analyzed you could make a case on the contrary haha I still like them both. But the real fun is in my green comparison...
Four. different. greens. All so close it's tough to tell the difference! Julep Emilie, OPI Jade is the New Black, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh and Sinful Colors Envy. Sure they are a tad different...one's a teeensy bit darker, one's got a smidge a blue...but check out the closeness!

The fun part about this one is the price...Julep retails for $14, OPI for $8.50, Finger Paints for $4.99 and Sinful Colors for $1.99. So yeah. I don't regret owning all four of these, despite the fact they are so much alike.

Do you guys own an dupes? I have a few more that are similar, but nothing like these.

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

Hello everyone! Today I have a dupe of one of my most wanted polishes. It's been so long since I've even seen a decently priced bottle of this polish that I'm starting to think they have all disappeared! The polish is called Vampire State Building, and it's from OPI's 2000 New York Collection. There are two bottles on eBay right now for $60.

So when someone mentioned Revlon Vixen was a dupe, I had to get it! No way could I pay $60 for a bottle of polish! Not only do I think it's silly, but I'm pretty sure my husband would kill me lol From what I remember about Vampire State Building, this is a pretty close dupe...but I won't give up on actually getting my own realy bottle of Vampire State Building eventually!

Pictured is two coats of the glorious vampy red creme!

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 Do you have Vampire State Building? How close in this? Wanna swap your bottle to me? I would be eternally grateful! lol Anyway, I'm LOVING this beautiful creme. What do you think of it? And don't forget to check out yesterday's post. It's awesome :)

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

This is the dupe that has caused such an uproar! An almost complete duplication of Deborah Lippman's Bad Romance, Facets of Fuchsia is a black jelly base with purple glitter - hexagonal and all that. So pretty in the bottle! So I sat down to use this spectacular polish on my nails. I get my previous polish taken off and....the power goes out.

Stupid storm! So what you are about to see is a painting job done by flashlight. A small flashlight. One placed on a table not really near me. lol Base of OPI Nail Envy, two coats of polish - and by the light of the next morning, I realized I should have used three coats - and a top of Poshe.

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Looks like I got a tad bit of shrinkage on my ring and pinky fingers. I'm thinking it's because I waited too long to put on the top coat. All my other fingers on both hands were fine - and those two were the last ones to get top coat.

But in all this, I decided this was more of a layering polish. This polish isn't goopy or stringy or hard to work with. It actually kind of floated on my nails. But it's still better for layer, IMO. I decided to try it over Wet n Wild Fast Dry Ready to Pounce, from the new On the Prowl collection. Pictured is one coat over this deep purple color.

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What do you think? I think it looks better layered! I shall experiment with different colors later. Right now, we are in the middle of our transition to Autumn, which means more dreary days than sunny ones. I need to break the lightbox back out!

Do do you like Facets of Fuchsia? Want your own bottle? Well, you can win one here! It's another pop-up giveaway! Comment on this post with your name, e-mail and one thing you love about fall. I will announce a winner in Thursday's post!

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

Hello out there and welcome to Dupe Week! Hopefully during this week I can give you some affordable alternatives to more expensive polishes....or just help you decide which brand is better for you! Keep in mind, I don't have more of the expensive alternatives, so putting brand against brand will not play a large part of this.

First up is Icing Force of Love, which is a close dupe of Deborah Lippman's Across the Universe, which has long been on my wishlist. I don't think the polishes are exactly the same, just close enough to fit your budget. It's a blue jelly base, packed with blue and green glitter. I found this version hard to work with and clumpy. But, it comes in a thin tube, so it could be part of the packaging. Like I said, I don't have the Deborah Lippman version to compare how easy the polish is to apply. Pictures is three coats.

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As you can see on my index and middle finger, there are dips and bald spots in the polish. The base is very dense, so I don't know if I shuffled something the wrong way or pressed down with the brush too deep or what. At any rate, I also decided to try this over a base of blue. I used two coats of Jesse's Girl Girls Night Out from the JulieG collection.

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Bottom line: This polish should do in a quick fix for ATU lovers. Especially if you can't afford it! Force of Love retails for less than $8 (I won this bottle in a giveaway), while ATU retails for $16-18. What about you? Do you have ATU or Force of Love? Both of them? Which do you prefer?

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

Today I'm sharing something that is kind of...comforting to me, I guess. I'm not exceptional at it, or even good by any means, but it's something that sometimes my son and I can share.

Like I said, I'm not good at it. I just like doing it. Lucas helps me a lot! He loves stirring batter and frosting and decorating cookies and cupcakes. It also helps him be creative! He has come up with some pretty odd concoctions hahaha Maybe today's post will tickle your sweet tooth...

Lucas' cookie creation! Banana peppermint sugar cookies

A cake Lucas and I made for my husband's birthday one year

Vampire sugar cookie!

Look at the tongue hanging out...he's concentrating!

Decorating gingerbread men

Vampire gingerbread man!

Lucas also loves to help me cook, not just bake. Maybe one of my next I am... Saturdays will be out my crazy cooking concoctions. :)

Hello all :) I have another of my frankens, the very first one I ever made actually! It's called Wishful Thinking. I chronicled making it in this post. I hadn't swatched it at this point, but it's perfect for China Glaze Week because the base is China Glaze Shower Together! This is two coats of my creation :)

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What do you think? Did I do good? lol Stay tuned happy campers - cause next week is Dupe Week!

There's lots of sparkles today, kids! I have for you, on this fourth day of China Glaze Week, one of the new Metro glitters, CG in the City! This polish features a clear base packed with bronze and silver glitter, as well as a light purple and a medium purple glitter. It's not very dense, so with three coats, there it's not opaque.

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I think this polish is better suited for layering. So I used a base of China Glaze Urban Night - the polish that I featured yesterday!

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The layering really makes it pop, huh? It just makes everything look more rich! I think I'm going to try this glitter over a variety of purples soon. But I can tell you it was a PITA to remove. Mostly because it was a base of OPI Nail Envy, three coats of polish, a coat of Gelous and a top of Out the Door. Crazy thickness!

What do you think? Better for layering? And on a side note, I'm so excited for tomorrow! I will be featuring another of my frankens :)

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

Good morning! I have the third installment of China Glaze Week, and it's another Metro Collection :) This one is called Urban Night, and it's a deep purple eggplant-y creme that is just beautiful! Two coats, no streakiness or clumpiness...just excellent color!

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Isn't it just so pretty? I can't wait to wear it again! Do you have a favorite purple?

And on that note, I just want to say that I love each and every reader I have. I adore the comments that get posted, even if I never reply to them. I look forward to seeing what others post and their thoughts. It truly makes blogging worthwhile :)

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)

Movin' on to the second day of China Glaze Week! Today I have another polish from the Metro Collection - Midtown Magic, the color of a brownie...packed with golden shimmer. Opaque in two coats with a smooth formula.

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I wish I had mad photography skills to capture this beautiful color. I didn't want to take it off after two days, but it was starting to chip. So I picked up my bottle of Barielle Buddha-ful, a milky flaky and...

The milkiness makes it look....weird

So you can see how much it changed...

But then I got to thinking that this polish looks a lot like OPI Midnight in Moscow. So I did a little compare...

Midtown Magic, left, and Midnight in Moscow, right

Midtown Magic is much more shimmery-er (is that a word?) Midnight in Moscow is really, very subtle. They are like cousins rather than siblings.

 **DISCLAIMER**  I was not paid for this review by anyone. I either purchased these polishes myself or were given gifts as friends because I could not find the particular shade I wanted myself.  I am not a professional nail tech, nor do I want to be. I'm just someone who enjoys polishing my own nails :)