Mermaid Shells?

It's officially my birthday and as I publish this post I am still one follower away from my birthday wish :( Hopefully that will change by the end of the day.

I finally got to use Deborah Lippmann's Mermaids Dream and I couldn't have been happier. This polish was a dream to use and was exactly what I had imagined and wanted.

I love the colors and textures of it and while Urban Outfitter's Sea Dust is an almost perfect dupe, it's just not perfect enough.

Look at this lovely polish!

 I used two coats in all these photos.

After a day, I got inspired to do some nail art and wanted to do a (sorta) half moon manicure that looked like a mermaid's shell bra.

I used A-England Lady of the Lake for the half moon, Color Club Lavendarling for the stripes, OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI for the dots, and LA Splash Golden Seahorse for additional stripes.

It didn't end up perfect, but I think the concept is solid so I will attempt it again at a later date.

After I finished my shells, I noticed that Golden Seahorse was looking eerily similar to Mermaid's Dream - it doesn't show up all in these photos though - so I decided to compare it to the original and Sea Dust.

I layered Golden Seahorse over Zoya Bevin (thumb), Zoya Wednesday (index) and Zoya Zuza (pinky). Mermaid's Dream is on my middle finger and Sea Dust is on my ring.

 Golden Seahorse is lovely, but is not even close to being a dupe. It looks most similar layered over Zuza, but it missing the aqua glitter that make Mermaid's Dream unique.

This was my first time comparing Mermaid's Dream and Sea Dust side by side and I think Mermaid's Dream is definitely worth the money. MD only took two coats to reach desired opacity while SD took three thick coats. SD appears a bit darker and looks smoother; part of what I liked about MD was it's textured look, so I definitely prefer the original.


Thanks for looking! Now I just have to figure out what my birthday manicure should be.