Today I have a comparison of my ALL-TIME favorite nail polish Wish On A Starfish by China Glaze and the new polish and If Wishes Were Starfishes by Moon Shine Mani from her Project Dupe It series! The Moon Shine Mani dupe had big shoes to fill because as I said this is my favorite nail polish ever. I own 2 bottles and always have an eye out to get a third. Yeah I’m obsessed. Can I just say that I’m super excited that an indie brand is doing textured finishes AND remaking mainstream polishes?
Note: For all of the photos, the MSM polish is on my middle and pinky fingers. I feel my outdoor photo is more color accurate than my indoor photo. Please excuse my shaping in these photos as I decided on a whim to give myself stiletto acrylic nails and I haven’t quite gotten the hang on shaping this style.
While I don’t feel the MSM is an exact dupe to the original it’s definitely really beautiful and I’m glad that I have it. I love MSM brush and formula. I have quite a few polishes by this brand and I always love the formula on them. Consistently always really great nail polishes.
So what differences are there between the two? The CG version has a strong gold shimmer that sits below the texture and the MSM version has an iridescent microglitter mixed with a fine gold glitter (the website calls it a gold fleck) that creates the texture. The MSM version has a nicer shimmer, in my opinion, with those iridescent glitters but they’re very delicate. I had a hard time photographing them. I have a video on my Instagram that showcases them better. The MSM version is also a bit lighter in color than the original.
The differences in texture were pretty apparent. This was the most disappointing difference for me to be perfectly honest. I feel that the CG version has more of a rough sandpaper finish like what you’d expect from a textured polish. The MSM version has a softer finish. Kinda typical of what you would find with glitter heavy polishes. On a positive note, I’d imagine it’s much easier to smooth with top coat than the original polish. Usually even 2 coats of top coat doesn’t make the CG polish 100% smooth.
Overall I’d say the polishes are similar on paper (both being pink with shimmer) but not exact dupes. Zoya’s Zooey is the closest polish I have to WOAS and they aren’t close dupes. Zooey also has holographic glitters mixed in. Again just similar on paper, since they were both pink textured polishes with gold shimmer.
All of that said, I would recommend the Moon Shine Mani polish since it’s gorgeous BUT I wouldn’t recommend it as a dupe for WOAS. It would have been perfect for me if it had more of a classically textured finish. However since it’s so hard to even find a new or barely used bottle of WOAS, the Moon Shine Mani version is a good alternative if you’re looking for a pink polish with pretty sparkly components. I didn’t know so many people’s bottles of this CG polish had evaporated until I saw MSM swatchers’ mentioning it! I guess that’s another reason why this polish goes for $20+ on eBay! Phoebe mentioned that she based this dupe off of photos since her bottle has dried up as well.
Update : Since posting this I was informed by LittlePandaPit over on Instagram that the Sally Hansen Sugar Coat line has a polish called Sugar Plum that might be a dupe contender. If I track down a bottle I will post a comparison of that one too.