It's time for another edition of Dupes Up! This weeks contenders:

butterLONDON: Wallis from the Winter/Fall 2011 collection.

Retail cost: $14

vs.

Loreal: Owl's Night from the Project Runway Colors Take Flight Collection.

Retail Cost: $5.79

It's starting to look like the color of Fall might be olive green shimmer.  I've seen this same color from butterLONDON, Loreal, Julep, and numerous others recently.  I bought the butterLONDON Wallis when it first came out a few months back and I LOVED it.  Still, how many of the same shade does one collection need?  I skipped signing up for Julep because, even for the $5 start up fee it seemed silly when the polish I was meant to receive was a close relative of Wallis.  So naturally, when everyone started going crazy over Loreal's Owls Night, I remained unimpressed.  I saw it a few times in various stores but always felt the same, "Isn't that JUST like Wallis?"  Well, eventually, I broke down and bought it.  And here's the answer:

In the bottle, they do look quite similar although they are most certainly NOT dupes.  The real question is, dupes or no, is it still necessary to have both in your collection?  Wallis is much more olive than Owls Night.  And it's shimmer is more compact.  A close up reveals the difference:

Owls Night is on the left here.  You can see that it's a deep olive/brown base with golden olive shimmer.  It's not as compact as Wallis and the base is more evident.  Wallis is brighter, greener, and has more compact gold shimmer throughout.  Here's the results on my nails.  These pics are artificial light and no topcoat.

Dupes? Definitely not.  Similar...well, maybe.  But in my opinion they're not even really cousins.  Owls Night could be mistaken for a brown rather than a green (although next to the browns in my collection it looks decidedly olive) while Wallis is unmistakeably green.  Wallis also has an obvious gold flash to it while Owls Night is more of a subtle shimmer.  If you can still find Owls Night, it was part of the Project Runway Colors Take Flight Collection,  it's definitely worth having in your collection.  Both were opaque in two coats and both are shiny and smooth on the nail.  If I could only have one of them, I'd go for Wallis since I feel the color is more unique.  But they're both beautiful!

Thanks for following! What's your favorite color for Fall?