NOTD: OPI Number One Nemesis

Another nail polish post! I apologize, for throwing so many of these at you in a row, but to be honest, I haven't been doing very many exciting things with makeup lately. I keep meaning to pull out some old favorites and swatch and review them, but I haven't found the time yet.

Luckily for us both, I have a deep and abiding love of nail polish, and that combined with my weak nails means that I am constantly playing with pretty nail polish, and I am more than happy to share the results with you here.

Number One Nemesis quickly became a favorite; released with The Amazing Spider Man collection, it doesn't exactly scream "summer", but I love these dark metallic shades. This was rumored to be a dupe of Chanel's Graphite (which I attempted to re-create in a previous post), a nail polish that had me head over heels when I first saw it nearly a year ago. I don't own it, so I can't tell you how close it really is to Number One Nemesis, but from what I recall I would say Number One Nemesis leans a bit more olive green in certain lights than Graphite does, although I would hardly call this an olive green shade; it is firmly located in the gunmetal family of dark grey metallics. The finish is what really sets this shade apart from similar colors, and what earns it its comparison to Graphite. It has a kind of foiled metallic effect, with specks of different colors adding interest and depth to what would otherwise be a fairly standard color.

In the following pictures, you can see the multi-colored tiny shimmer on my out-of-focus little finger, and you can see the mixture of dark charcoal and brighter pewter flecks that make up the bulk of this polish.

OPI Number One Nemesis, natural light

OPI Number One Nemesis, reflecting direct natural light 

Summary: This is a really pretty color, and definitely cured me of wanting to shell out $25 for Chanel Graphite; for ~$8, this is fine for me. In certain lights, it leans a bit olive green, but it is predominately a dark charcoal/gunmetal shade. I know OPI's formula wears very well on some people; I get no better than average wear from the brand, which on me means two or three chip-free days. No worse than usual, so I can't complain!

How do you guys feel about finding dupes for more expensive products? I sometimes feel bad about supporting ripping off of designers, but when it comes to cosmetics, I think most things are just reiterations of what's already out there, and when I buy dupes, I never would have spent the money on the original anyway. I feel like a lot of what you end up paying for is the branding in many cases, and that's not very important to me.