Milani Golden Romance Swatch

~purchased by me~

When the Maybelline Brocades collection came out a LONG time ago I wasn't initially impressed, but as time went on and more and more swatches came out I developed a deep lemming for the shade Gilded Rose. Unfortunately for me, the brocades collection never came to my stores. Any of them. And then, as if the nail polish gods had heard my prayers, Maybelline decided to make Gilded Rose core. I immediately ran to the drugstore, in search of the elusive shiny but alas, no luck. The store I went to hadn't updated their Color Show shelf yet and there was simply no shiny to be had. So I wandered around the CVS, a bit dejected when my eyes landed on what looked like the aforementioned shade in a very different bottle.

What was this sorcery? I hadn't even heard anything about this polish at all among the nail bloggers I follow, though its assumed Maybelline twin had made quite a big splash. Surely it wasn't a dupe? I had to find out.

So pretty that I couldn't wait for daylight before snapping a pic!

ooh, shiny. Even better the next morning

It sure looked like it. I did a quick google image search at home and it looked like an exact dupe for the Maybelline Gilded Rose! And it only cost me $1.99!

This was opaque in 2 coats and dried quickly. I'm not one for sheer polish but even at one coat, where you could still see VNL, I loved it. It's extremely reflective; so much so that you can even see yourself in it. Pictures do it no justice; this is one that you have got to see in real life. For a polish that is so glitter/particle heavy, it dried smooth. I only used one coat of topcoat (Seche Vite) and it was perfect! Formula win!

In case you didn't know, Milani is clearancing out this line currently at most if not all drugstores. In fact, you can get this polish on the Milani website for only $1.99! Score! It's gorgeously shiny in the sun as well.

So shiny apparently, that it attracts big black nasty bugs :(

I didn't notice it until I was editing the picture!

The one chief complaint I heard about the Maybelline Brocades was that they were notorious for chipping something fierce. I worried about that being a problem in this polish since they both look like they are made of the same material but my worries were unfounded ^_^ This polish wore like iron for me, lasting 5 days without chips. Ignore the strange line of my middle finger. I think it's just a reflection because I definitely don't see it on my nails now.

5 days and going strong!

Most impressive, no? Even more remarkable was the fact that I didn't wear my usual Orly Bonder as base coat for this polish. I had a scary bendy moment with my pinky nail so I wore Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener (which I highly recommend) as my base. Grand verdict: if you don't have this yet or have problems with chipping for Gilded Rose, consider getting this! It's achingly beautiful, cheap as all heck and wears very well. You might still be able to catch it on clearance at the drugstore or you can buy it direct from the site. Go get this bug attracting polish today!