Thursday, April 26, 2012

on 35 comments

Fun is ... Clairns 230, Fantasy Fire and a gold/green morphing franken

For nearly two years now I have been stalking ebay looking at bottles of Clarins 230 thinking these various thoughts:
"Yes, I should get it now before all the bottles are gone"
"No *slaps face* don't be stupid and pay that for a bottle of polish:
"Oh look, this one is only $60, quick I should get it now"
"No, I can totally franken this using red/green colour morphing powder"
"Hang on, how will I know if I have my franken recipe is just right if I don't have the real thing to compare it too"
"Just get Fantasy Fire and be satisfied with that"
"But the collector in me really needs to own a bottle of 230"
"Imagine if I found a box full of 230's in some garage sale, I could make a squillion dollars"
And so on and so forth.

So a few weeks ago,  I did the deed.  I paid a horrid amount of money for a single bottle of nail polish.  And do I regret it? Nope, not one little bit.  I feel a small amount of relief as I gently stroke my bottle *my precious*.

What do you do when you get your bottle of Clarins 230, you slap it on and compare it to the other polishes you bought (yes you Fantasy Fire) and made (yes you purple franken with red/green pigment) and see what they all look like.

First I tried just Clarins 230 on it's own.  This was three coats, which all looked very smooth and even in real life, although in these photos the index finger looks like it got a thicker coat.  So pretty and squishy and the red/green sparkle really is to die for.



Next, I compared Clarins 230 with my franken and with Fantasy Fire.  
Verdict: franken is much more opaque, Fantasy Fire is a much brighter purple and neither of them quite had the same strength to the green sparkle that Clarins 230 had.




Next, I tried them all over a purple polish, and my favourite go to purple polish is Ulta3 Orchid.  This one really showed that the sparkle in the Franken and Fantasy Fire wasn't as strong.





This set of comparison photos is just of Clarins 230 and Fantasy Fire over Ulta3 Orchid.  Are you sick of this yet??



Finally, because I was disappointed that my franken didn't have as much green sparkle as Clarins 230, I added a good few heaped straw measure fulls into the bottle.  BAM, lots more green sparkle, and lots more red sparkle!  DOH I added too much, now I have to split it into two bottle and dilute it.  Actually, if I just left it as one coat of my franken instead of two, it's pretty damn close.




Well, that was fun.  I totally enjoyed my play with the magical unicorn pee and it's friends.

35 comments:

  1. **boggles** Is there nothing you can't recreate?

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  2. I bow to the comparison Queen! BTW, I tihnk your franken is the nicest of the 3.

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  3. How did you recreate the jelly base? I'm curious about that!

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    1. Oh, the secret the the polish tint concentrates we can get from Beauty World they all make perfect jelly bases, you just need to mix the colours. For this I used Ferric Ferrocyanide (dark blue), Red 7 and Red 34.

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    3. Thank you!
      Pity they don't ship outside Australia, I'm DYING to have more jellies polish, as I'd wear them alone (or as base with special topcoats) ALL THE TIME!

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  4. uhh amazing! I love your franken best I think once you added all the extra powder! If you have two bottles just send an extra my way ;) hehe

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  5. oh I so hoped I wouldn't have to get clarins 230 having got fantasy fire lol
    Your photos look great btw

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  6. Ahhh I bought that pigment off you ages ago but haven't gotten around to playing with it yet, I know what I'm making first!

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  7. I'm dreaming for him, there are year, but I never had the nuts to order him. Go away evil of the nail polish, go away, don't temp me ;o)
    Tuli

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  8. please!The franken recipe!Please!

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    1. The ingredients are Ferric Ferrocyanide (dark blue), Red 7 and Red 34 nail polish tints from Beauty World, suspension base and Red to Green colour morphing powder.

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  9. Gorrrrgeous! Thanks for the comparisons! Love your franken!

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  10. Great comparison!
    drool worthy definitely!

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  11. I like fantasy fire! Really pretty :)

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  12. Thanks for the comp ! Very thorough and informative.

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  13. My favorite is your franken! I would buy that over the clarins!

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  14. I got FF a few months back to sedate my need for 230 and I have to say it worked. Now I can see them compared im definitely greatful for just getting FF. There's not much in it for £50.

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  15. I'm glad you broke down and got it...I did the same and am so happy I did! My precious is right!!

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  16. Clarins 230 seems to have shot up in price again since Fantasy Fire entered the market. Your franken looks great! Are you still glad you got the Clarins since you have Fantasy Fire and the franken?

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely. I consider myself a bit of a polish collector now, so I really did need it in my collection.

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  17. Also--this is one of the best and most clear comparisons I've seen so far! The differences are much more marked.

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  18. Fantastic (as always) comparisons, I like them all :-)

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  19. You could sell your franken and make a squillion dollars, it's pretty much identical! Thanks for the comparisons. :)

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  20. I love love love your franken! You are a freakin franken genious! I would choose it out of all three (before or after the extra sparkle) - you should seriously consider selling it. I would be there in a second! :) Well done!!

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  21. Wow your franken was AMAZING!!!! How do you get it sooo close - a polish genius :-)

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  22. Argh, I have almost full Clarins 230 that I'm dying to swap.. I would have given you mine!
    It's gorgeous alright, I just don't seem to adore it as much as I wanted to.
    (I'm not going to sell it, it's not new and I don't want to make someone to pay for it...)

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  23. You're not planning on reordering the Konfusion copper red/green pigment are you? (And/or know of any group buys?) 14g is a ton....

    Awesome job and swatches!

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  24. love your comparisons! my mum in law just brought me 4 bottles of fantasy fire from the uk when she came over from UK to visit. i have not used it yet, i just like to hold it in my hands as i know it is the closest i will get to clarins 230!!! i would love the extra green in it but hey at 3 pounds a bottle from the uk i cannot complain!!!!

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  25. I think the franken beats all that mythical branded polish!

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  26. Fabulous post!! Someone mentioned you sold them the color morphing powder..where did you find it? I keep trying to hunt down a bottle of Ninja Polish Divinity with no luck and was hoping to franken some polish myself :)

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  27. Your Franken was brilliant! Do you still sell the pigments/morphing powder? I realize this was posted quite a while ago but I thought I would ask!Thanks!

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I live in Canberra, Australia with my husband, Mr Ten and Miss Eight. My blog is all about nail polish, and a few other bits in between. You can contact me at morenailpolish@iinet.net.au