Can you dupe it?

The word dupe is thrown around when it comes to makeup often. Many of the most popular "cult following" products from the high end cosmetics have a drug store "dupe". While I am a total DIYer in my non makeup life, I've always extended that to find affordable options to more expensive options. 

But let's be real, sometimes you just can't duplicate or the quality is just much better than the drugstore or cheaper options. Sometimes it's the same thing. 

We buy the brand name Advil with Sodium because nothing works as well as it does. But Tylenol? Always buy the generic. 

Edited to add: Dave has very reactive skin between his eyes, on his lids and a spot on his neck. For 15 plus years I would see it flare up and see Dave's embarrassment when someone mentioned it. One day a Sephora employee approached and told him about First Aid Beauty face lotion. zomg! Life changing. Expensive too. We tried all the drug store options containing oatmeal. Nothing works like this for him. Nothing. Another example where it doesn't pay to shell out looking for dupes. He buys two tubs a year and he hasn't had a flare up in years. 

What's the point? As a stay at home mom with a family on a budget I can't always get the fancy makeup. It's regulated to upswings in my business and holidays. 

Enter Nars Orgasm. With spring possibly, maybe, coming. (It snowed this morning) I am feeling the draw to peachy colors   I took 10 wonderful alone minutes to run into Sephora the other day. I didn't have to watch any tiny fingers grabbing at anything so I went around looking for inspiration. 

I went to Nars and swatched some Orgams. (That sentence made me cringe) I have tried it a million times before. I never bought it though because I had a small free Super Orgasm by Nars. I never wear it because it has huge chunky glitter fallout. Hate! Hate! But the color is gorgeous. 

I hit up the drugstore and picked up the $3 ELF blush and bronzer in Saint Lucia. I read on a million sites it was a good dupe. For $3 why not! Even if it wasn't identical the color was nice. 

 

So in comparison to Super Orgasm which differs in regular Orgasm by having chunky awful glitter, ELF is much more peach with a great golden glow. The Nars being much more pink and less of a gold sheen. But honestly I think the color is going to work better for me and my red head freckles. I also noticed the Nars one with the huge glitter fell off my hand almost immediately. Maybe I'll give it another chance after all. 

While I was at it I compared it to my favorite "blush" ever, Bobbi Brown Bronzer in Antigua. It's sold as a bronzer so many pale ladies might just pass it by and not even notice it. I know I always did cause until a few years ago the bronzer market sucked for us vampires. But man this one is so so so gorgeous. My mom went out and bought it too. She's all about drugstore but it's just that good. It's similar to Nars but a deeper terra cotta-ness to it. 

Then I just dug through my makeup to see if anything else was like it. The only thing I came up with was Flush by Makeup Forver in the Color & Contour palette. 

It looks similar in pan but on its totally different. 

Not even close on. Much more brown and no shimmer to it either. 

Woah that's a lot of words to compare blush. Some of you who are friends with me on Facebook know about my dad getting hurt and is in the hospital. I plan to write up a big post about that but I just ask can you all cross your fingers and send some healing mojo his way. He has a brain injury along with a bunch of broken bones. 

Would anyone be interested in more makeup reviews? I have a list in my Filofax of stuff I think would be neat to review...