My Humble Dupe of Nars Zulu

Yes.

Another franken!

I've had my eye on this one since I first saw it on Scrangie and Nail Polish Addict blogs. These two folks are my blog idols. I may never have the nails, the cuticles, the photography ability, or even the wit, I do have a love of polish.

I really wanted to capture the dark green. Dark and JELLY green. This meant the right starting point.

I had a bottle of this Walmart nail polish I found during Halloween. It was a dollar. You've seen the orange one I grabbed by mistake. (It's going to have it's own franken journey, too!)

This is a kelly green, kind of blue-ish. Bright. Pretty. The traditional franken recipe for Nars Zulu is using NY Summer Amaranth green. This is similar, a bit on the blue side of the NY Summer polish.

Plus, it was a dollar, so I thought, how can I fail? I had the Nars Zulu in mind when I bought it.

Dare to dream!

First I mixed some clear polish with the Walmart Halloween green polish (henceforth WHGP) and it wasn't clear enough, nor was it the right green. And not dark enough.

See, just perfect for that "chalkboard green" color, but I wasn't looking for that kind of green. I wanted ZULU!!! Shaka Zulu!!! Leader of the Zulu PEOPLE!!!

Then I left it for a couple days, and thought, dog, so close.

But I was in the Dollar Tree (henceforth DT) and found Maybelline Lemon Water.

A pathetic little bottle with some sort of rust schmutz inside of it.

I also added some Poshe nail polish thinner to the original WHNP and got the last out, adding this to the original franken made it more jelly.

Finally I added the Maybelline Lemon Water.

So, here she is! My franken! I am kind of proud. I think she's a little lighter than Nars Zulu, but on the other hand, she's a jelly goodness with loads of dark green. I am wearing it still. I can't seem to take it off.

 

 Snap-tastic!!!

My success is only mitigated by the state of my cuticles!!! Agggh! A mess to be worked on.