This blog has moved: Comparison: Ciaté Strictly Legal and China Glaze Side Saddle

Monday 2 April 2012

Comparison: Ciaté Strictly Legal and China Glaze Side Saddle

I have reviewed Ciaté's Strictly Legal in the past, but had failed to notice how similar it is to China Glaze's Side Saddle. This is why I need to make these comparisons, because I am always drawn to similar colours and textures and end up having too many dupes or near dupes which is the case with these. As always with comparisons I try to take as many pictures as possible.

Both are very pigmented and opaque in 2 coats and have exactly the same type of shimmer that shines mainly gold, but you can see reflections of pink and green as well. It's been very popular these years and it seems to be a type of shimmer you can find in a lot of nail polishes and cream eye shadows as well.

However, the base colour is slightly different. Side Saddle has a deep purple base whilst Strictly Legal is a beautiful burgundy. Both are equally dark with respect to lightness making them hard to distinguish on the nail. The one thing that is different on the nail is the way the shimmer looks. It's a lot more golden and apparent on Strictly Legal, SL looks like a polish with shimmer while in Side Saddle the shimmer is not as apparent giving it that 'lit from within' look.

All in all, they are very similar and close to being called dupes. They are not twins, they are sisters.

Bottle swatches (artificial light)

(artificial light)

Side Saddle, Strictly Legal and Ciaté Wait Until Dark (artificial light)

I also thought it would be useful to compare them with another two colours, Nubar - Prevail (with a topcoat) as it is, too, a purple with hints of gold and Ciaté Wait Until Dark since it is another popular Ciaté purple, but as you can see it is not a true purple but a grey base with a lot of purple shimmer.