Sally Hansen Pacific Blue DUPE?!?

Sally Hansen created the most amazing and unique nail polish called Pacific Blue. It soon became a favourite amongst YouTubers and everyone in the Nail Art community. I bought my bottle a little under a year ago and it doesn't compare to anything else in my collection. It's a beautiful dusty bright cobalt blue, it isn't at all like a Royal Blue as it's much lighter, but it's also not a sky blue. It's somewhere in the middle. It's very difficult to describe when you have nothing to compare it to...

Recently Sally Hansen has decided to change the formula of Pacific Blue. The original is a very creamy opaque colour that could easily be a one coater. The reformulated version, that still has the name Pacific Blue, is a much darker colour with silver shimmer and a jelly formula. The colour isn't unique at all as it's much for of a royal blue! It isn't an ugly shade, but not unique and opaque. 

As I was strolling around Boots, looking for any possible dupe options, I found the new Barry M collection for summer which included the colour Damson. It's again a bright cobalt blue, that's in between a royal blue and a sky blue. They look identical in the bottles. It's tough to find a dupe of Pacific Blue since the formula is so amazing, you want to find something that's equally amazing. The Gelly range from Barry M has very pigmented polishes too so I wan't too worried about the formula. 

In the swatch to the left I'm wearing the two polishes, can you tell the difference? 

I'm wearing Pacific Blue on my index and ring finger and Damson on my middle finger and pinky. They are probably 98% identical. Damson maybe has one extra drop of blue that makes it a TINY bit brighter. In all honesty, on my nails it's hard to tell a difference, and when I asked my mum (another nail polish lover) she couldn't tell them apart. 

Both applied equally beautiful. I used two coats for Pacific Blue and two coats for Damson. They both applied just as smoothly without any streakiness or bald spots. They both dried very quickly. Barry M Damson has a bit more of a shine since it's a gelly formula. 

The photo to the left shows the difference in colours the best. Damson is sliiiiightly brighter than Pacific Blue. In most lights however they look identical. 

This is a photo I took on my phone. The colours look identical. 

Which do you prefer? Are they dupes? Will you be trying out Damson by Barry M or faithfully sticking to Sally Hansen Pacific Blue? 

Here are some more similar colours: On my index finger I have H&M Serenity Now, on my middle finger Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, on my ring finger Barry M Blue Grape and on my pinky Mecca Cosmetica Cobalt. All of them have two coats. In the bottles they all looked much darker and didn't even think of comparing them, but they are more similar than I thought.

My friend steph.nails on Instagram told me that Serenity Now by H&M was very similar, although it's very dark in the bottle on my nails they are very close. It's slightly darker and has a little bit more blue than grey. Pacific Blue is a little bit more muted. Serenity Now is also a little more sheer so I would normally use three coats. The formula of this was is amazing though, it was very smooth and easy to apply. It's a nice wide brush so covered the nail very easily without getting streaky. After I took the photos I applied a third coat, Serenity Now is fully opaque, but the third coat also makes it much darker and it leans closer to Barry M Blue Grape now.

The second nail polish I picked out is one of my favourites, and also my most used polish (other than white, base and top coats), it's called Blue Grape by Barry M. It's part of the gelly range but it's actually a really sheer polish. With two coats you can still see my nail line and normally I would apply three coats. It's much darker than Sally Hansen Pacific Blue and also a much brighter shade.

Finally I tested Mecca Cosmetica's Cobalt. This also has an amazing formula, like every Mecca Cosmetica polish. It's a super opaque formula that's really easy to work with, it wasn't streaky whatsoever and dried very quickly. It is slightly more of a brighter blue, but still is quite a muted colour compared to the others.

None of these are as close as Barry M Damson though, I wore those two colours for a full 24 hours and saw it in every light, they are 98% identical and the photos above actually show more of a difference than in real life.

I hope this post has been helpful if you're looking for a Pacific Blue replacement.