NYC new for 2012 nail polishes--swatches and dupe comparisons

Alrighty, another pic-heavy polish-scrutinizing post today. Here we have 3 of the new for 2012 nail polishes from the In a New York Minute quick-dry line by New York Color. I was so excited to see

they added some new shades. I have a handful of other of their quick-dry polishes and I'm a fan. I'm happy to say that these did not disappoint either. 

High Line Green--a fun yellow-based shade somewhere between lime & grass green.

Big City Dazzle-- small red, magenta, blue and gold glitter in a clear base.

Water Street Blue--nice, bright blue!

Photo taken outside in natural light. All polishes are 2 coats--no top coat. I LOVE the formula of all 3 of these! The 2 non-glitters have this awesome finish. I hesitate to call them cremes because they almost look like a glossy plastic on your nails. They cover easily and evenly despite their spindly little brush and they actually do live up to the "quick-dry" claim. 

Big City Dazzle is marketed as a "sparkle top coat" and I would have to agree with that. The glitter is so pretty but very sparse. It'd take like half the bottle to get any kind of opacity without undies. The glitter spread out evenly with no issues and the base was a little on the thin side--which was surprising considering we're talking about a glitter polish. 

Big City Dazzle over Water Street Blue

So of course, you know I had to raid my stash to see if I had any dupes for any of these colors. I was sure I had a dupe for the green but I was surprised to discover otherwise. The closest I could come was China Glaze Tree Hugger and Starboard

Left: High Line Green, Middle: Tree Hugger, Right: Starboard.

As you can see, none of these polishes are any kind of a match. Tree Hugger is much more yellow, plus it has a shimmer to it and Starboard has more blue undertones in it. I wonder if Gaga for Green might would come close? I was hoping to have my clutches on the Electropops by now but I can't find it locally (I don't live anywhere near an Ulta and the only other place around this Po-dunk town that sells China Glaze is my Sally's and they are sold out...so it looks like I'll be ordering online for my China Glaze fix as usual)...

Moving on to the blues...I am obsessed with blue polishes, so I wasn't shocked to find several dupe candidates in my stash.

Left to right: Water Street Blue, Sally Hansen Insta-dri Brisk Blue, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, OPI Fly.

The NYC and Sally Hansen polishes look like they are one in the same to my eye. Ogre the Top Blue is just a touch darker and Fly is a little too teal to match. I was hoping WSB would come closer to the OPI blues because nothing beats a 1.99 dupe for $8 polish but no dice. Oh well...

Bring on the glittahs!

L to R: NYC Big City Dazzle, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink. Sinful Colors in Frenzy

Now as soon as I saw Big City Dazzle, I thought "that is SO a dupe for Rockstar Pink--and they do have pretty much the exact same shades and sizes of glitter in them--but they vary in the amount. 

(click to enlarge)

Left to Right: 1 coat of BCD, 2 coats of BCD, 1 coat of  RP, 2 coats of RP, 1 coat of Frenzy (why did I even include that one? It really is too different to have any business in this comparison)...

If you enlarge the pictures, you can easily see that it takes 2 coats of Big City Dazzle to equal the same coverage that 1 coat of Rock Star Pink gives. And, while Rockstar Pink can be built up to opacity easily, BCD is just too sparse for that. The glitter itself really is pretty dead-on, though. In the end, despite my inherent dupe-tolerance, even I admit I don't need both of these polishes and if I had to chose, I'd rather just have another bottle of Rockstar Pink (me and RP go waaaay back. It was basically the only polish I wore for like a year straight after my son was born. It's the only polish I have ever actually finished and re-purchased. Of course now that I have 800 OTHER bottles of nail polish, it doesn't get as much attention as it used to.....poor forgotten RP)...

So there's the scoop on some of the new NYCs. I am SO loving these plasticy cremes of theirs. Hope they make more!