Your Claws: Near dupe for Essie Butler Please (but better)

In my ridiculous collection of nail polish, I have more blues than almost any other color (in close competition are purples and teals). I kept seeing swatches of Essie's Butler Please from last fall, and I decided I needed it. It was my first Essie. But I was disappointed. It's really thin and streaky. I put it on one hand and was so annoyed that I just took it off. Blah.

But then I noticed that I already have something almost identical! Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue. You can see in the swatches below that it is very close in color, though Butler Please is just slightly darker. And the formula of Pacific Blue is a MILLION times better, and I don't think I'm exaggerating. You can pretty much get away with one coat of the Sally Hansen, and it will be completely opaque. For the Essie, you need to use 3-4 coats minimum, and even then it can be a little uneven and somehow lumpy. The Sally Hansen blue levels itself much better, and you get a perfectly smooth surface. Also, the Sally Hansen polish dries to a shinier finish. The Essie just looks dull. Can I emphasize any more how much fucking better Pacific Blue is?

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue (left) and Essie Butler Please (right)
in natural light.

So if you've been craving Butler Please, I suggest just getting Pacific Blue instead. It'll be $3 or less, versus $8 (and Essie never seems to go on sale), and it's just as nice a color and a vastly superior formula. I'm a big fan of the Xtreme Wear nail polishes in general - every one I've tried has been great.

ETA: If you see a bottle of Pacific Blue in the store, it will look weird. Like white streaky weird. Even if you shake it up, it'll still have some white cloudiness. Ignore that. You absolutely will not see any of that when you paint your nails. I promise.

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