Butter London Cheeky Chops Dupe

So today's post is going to be something new - New for me anyway.-. I love Pishposh & Polish, which is an awesome nail blog that I read daily. A couple Months ago the writer of PishPosh & Polish did a "Dupe" post that I just loved.
In case this is new to anyone else besides me, a dupe is when a blogger picks a really expensive polish, and then finds a duplicate of that polish at a much lower price.
After I read her post, I found a bunch of other dupes on other blogs, and now I'm hooked. So I wanted to make one myself!
The only problem I have is that I really don't own any expensive polish. As I've mentioned before, I'm not only on a budget, I'm also kind of a miser when it comes to money. Like, not quite as bad as Scrooge McDuck, but pretty up there. But then I remembered I have a couple bottles of Butter London polish I received as a birthday gift. While they are not the most expensive, at $15 a bottle, they are still expensive enough to not want to buy a bottle that often.
For my first dupe I will be pitting the $15 Butter London Cheeky Chops against the $5 Sally Hansen lightening that I picked up at my local drugstore.
Now, I LOVE my Cheeky Chops, but it's almost gone. I have maybe two more applications before it's dead, so if Lightening can pass as a good duplicate, I can save myself the $15 needed to repurchase the Butter London shade.

Now formula wise, both are creme based, but the Butter London is a thicker creme, and the sally Hansen is a bit thinner, and prone to bubbles, though careful application solves that issue.
I actually like Sally Hansen's brush more, it's domed, so application is a bit smoother near the cuticles.

Now for some close ups!

Cheeky Chops closeup.

I never really liked yellow polish until I received Cheeky Chops. I love this shade. It is a soft, pastel, sunny yellow.

Lightening close up.

I picked up this polish from my local drugstore, and it was the closest yellow I could find. I think it's a bit bolder of a yellow than Cheeky Chops, and a bit more of a mustard yellow, which I wasn't really a fan of at first, but now it doesn't really bother me.

Below are some pictures of both polishes on my nails. I labeled each nail to it's corresponding nail polish. So, BL is Butter London, and SH is the Sally Hansen.

For both polishes I applied a base coat of white polish to help coverage. And both polishes took three coats to cover. I was surprised to discover that the Sally Hansen had much better coverage than the Butter London! I could have actually skipped the third coat of Lightening and still would have had decent coverage.

I think on the nails the Sally Hansen shade is much more of a mustard yellow, while Butter London is a very sunny yellow. But I think they both have the same slightly glossy finish. I finished both shades by applying a coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat in one.

So my final thoughts are that Cheeky Chops has a better formula, but Lightening has better coverage. Cheeky chops has a nicer shade of yellow, but Lightening has a better brush. And they are equally matched when it comes to finish and durability. They chipped pretty equally after a week on my nails.

While I do love my Butter London, I think the Sally Hansen polish is a good replacement, and is close enough to Butter London in shade to give the bright look I want. Plus bonus points for saving me $10 dollars.

My final decision is that while I am a huge fan of my Cheeky Chops, I am also cheap, and while there were some differences, I am going to stick to the Sally Hansen Lightening when my Butter London finally kicks the bucket.

Though if I'm fortunate enough to get a new Cheeky Chops as a birthday gift or something, I wouldn't turn it down...:p

Thanks for reading my first dupe post!

Brittany

Which polish do you prefer? Do you think the Sally Hansen shade is a good replacement? Let me know in the comments!