Ah yes, the infamous Clarins 230– that expensive and illusive unicorn pee. Clarins 230 is a unique colour-shifting polish that hits every colour of the rainbow. But, like I said, it can get expensive. You may end up finding one cheaper in a blog sale like I did, or maybe you’ll get lucky and find someone who wants to swap it. But in all likeliness, you’re slapping down some major cash (considering it’s just a bottle of polish) on this baby. And that ain’t right. So let’s get some photos out of the way first so we can talk about dupes!
On all but my ring fingers, I have three coats of Finger Paints Be a Pal-ette and one coat of Clarins 230. I find that a dark purple really brings out the different colours of 230, but others like using a royal blue (Revlon Royal, in fact!) as well.
On my ring finger is one coat of Nfu-Oh 51 over three coats of Finger Paints Be a Pal-ette. Nfu-Oh 51 has the same type of colour-shifting pigment as Clarins 230, except this is a flakie. And it’s much cheaper– you can get your hands on a bottle of it for $12.50 from Fabulous Street
Here’s a side-by-side with the bottles. Look at those rainbows!
Other dupes that have come out include:
Liquid Euphoria – Bliss (good luck finding this one!)
Urban Decay – Toxin (again… good luck!)
OPI – Movin’ Out
Beyu – 209 (there’s a good and a dud version of this, so be careful when tracking this one down!)
Milani – Totally Cool (this seems like a weaker version of Clarins 230, but along the same idea. Not sure on in-store availability, but I see it’s in stock over at Cherry Culture.)
KleanColor – 230 Chunky Holo Fuschia (love that it’s numbered 230! This is like Clarins 230 in a chunky glitter form)
If you’re into frankening, there is a Franken Clarins 230 recipe, but that involves another hard-to-find polish– Maybelline Colorama #40 Frosty Pink. And you can’t just skip out on Frosty Pink, because that’s the key ingredient that gives the franken its colour-shifting properties.
There is some good news, though! There are two Clarins 230 dupes available at an affordable price!
Max Factor – Fantasy Fire (check out this post over on Cute-tickle nails for some awesome swatches!) – available in the U.K., not so sure about here in Canada or in the U.S.
Girly Bits – Shift Happens (Pam will have these available in February!) The polish will be available here and at Llarowe
With the Max Factor polish coming out especially, I’m wondering if we could see a resurgence in these sorts of magical Unicorn Pee-type colours. We had crackle polish last year, flakie polish this year (and it looks like magnetic polishes again this year), wouldn’t it be great if polish companies got it together to release unicorn pee as the newest trend? Oooh dear wallet… you’re in for a beating. I don’t care about dupes, I’ll buy them all!
Do you have any other dupes? Know where I can get Max Factor Fantasy Fire in Canada? Have a Clarins 230 recipe of your own? Leave me some Clarins 230 love in the comments– I’m so in love with this polish and love talking about it… clearly, haha!
