Laura, our resident nail expert, was kind enough to show us her collection of Smokey Taupe nail polishes. (Smokey Taupe nail polish has been so in this season and Laura has clearly been on top of the trend!) Check out her awesome comparison of the polishes below!
First, Laura asked that we ignore the application...she does not intend to actually wear five different color smokey taupe nail polishes out and about. Laura did all this painting for you guys! :) :) :) Let's focus on the color people...
The 411 on Smokey Taupes from Laura
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| Over the Taupe, Bad Influence, You Don't Know Jacques, Mink Muffs, Chocolate Moose |
Coats and Formulas
Pictures are all of 3 coats (except for Over the Taupe, which was 4); no base coat or top coat.
On the first coat, Bad Influence was the hands down winner. I could have stopped after one coat with this - it was not streaky, almost completely opaque, and so creamy looking. Absolutely gorgeous formula. Too bad I started off with it because the other formulas seemed SO bad in comparison even though they're pretty decent generally speaking. For the other colors: Over the Taupe was really watery and transparent, pretty disappointing. You Don't Know Jacques wasn't bad, a bit more opaque than Over the Taupe but still pretty transparent on the first go as is the norm. Mink Muffs was similar, not as watery as the OPI polishes, but very transparent. At first glance, these Over the Taupe, You Don't Know Jacques, and Mink Muff looked exactly the same after only 1 coat. Chocolate Moose is obviously not even close to the same color as the rest of these, but I'll leave it on here anyway.
Nothing newsworthy about the second coat except that Nars looked finished while the others still needed another coat to show their bottle colors.
Third coat - all colors were opaque except for Over the Taupe - it still showed through in the cuticle area, so I actually had to do a 4th coat on this one to get it totally opaque, which is pretty disappointing. Nars again had the best formula - it didn't even need a third coat but it didn't get thick or clumpy when I added one anyway. Mink Muffs and You Don't Know Jacques came out nicely - opaque and creamy after 3 coats.
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| Thumb: Bad Influence, Left to Right: Over the Taupe, You Don't Know Jacques, Mink Muffs, Chocolate Moose |
Color
As far as the colors go, it's pretty obvious from the photos that You Don't Know Jacques and Chocolate Moose aren't dupes for Bad Influence. Chocolate Moose is in a different ballpark of colors completely. You Don't Know Jacques is in the same family but several shades darker with a much bluer/grayer base. Bad Influence, Over the Taupe, and Mink Muffs are really similar overall. All are creams (no shimmer at all) and definitely in the taupe family. If you look really closely at the super close up pics, you can see that Bad Influence is slightly grayer/greener/beiger (somehow it is actually all of those!) than the more warm/chocolately toned Over the Taupe and Mink Muffs. The differences are so minor though - I can't imagine anyone on the street catching a glimpse of your nails would be able to tell which color you were wearing! I can't speak to chipping yet because I've only worn these as swatches for comparisons so far. I'll give more details when I do a full manicure with these!
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| Thumb: Bad Influence, Left to Right: Over the Taupe, You Don't Know Jacques, Mink Muffs, Chocolate Moose |
Recommendations
If you can afford it, Bad Influence is totally worth it for the formula and application. It's described as "smoky taupe" on Sephora's site, which seems pretty accurate to me. I can't really recommend Over the Taupe given that it took 4 coats to even be presentable, although it is a similar color to Bad Influence. Mink Muffs is very slightly darker and a bit warmer/browner than Bad Influence, but it's a great and very similar alternative if you don't want to shell out twice as much (.5 oz on both for $16 for Nars vs. $8 for Essie or even cheaper if you can find Essie deals online). But if you're a fan of this color family, they're different enough to justify having both!
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| Thumb: Bad Influence, Left to Right: Over the Taupe, You Don't Know Jacques, Mink Muffs, Chocolate Moose |
