Joe Fresh swatches (incl. RBL 360 dupe!)

As you might have heard from Gotham Polish, Joe Fresh has opened a few stores in NYC this fall. Joe Fresh is a Canadian brand of clothing that also has a cosmetics line, including polishes!

In Canada, the brand was actually sold inside of a chain of supermarkets (the mega-supermarket-style ones), but they also have stand-alone stores. Every time we drove back to Canada, I would stop by Loblaws and grab a few polishes, since they were only 3 for $10 (or $4 each). The bottles are on the small side, though, at 0.2oz.

A couple weeks ago, I was in the city and decided to stop by the 5th Ave location (apparently, this is the only store that has cosmetics at this time). The pricing is the same, at 3 bottles for $10 or $4 each. There was a nice selection of polishes. I grabbed the following ones without having seen swatches beforehand:

Joe Fresh Teal - I love this polish! 2 coats, super easy to apply.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Teal and RBL 360 - When I saw it in the store, I immediately thought it was similar to RBL 360. I was ecstatic to find they are extremely close! IRL, I think you could tell them apart side-by-side, but this is definitely the closest "dupe" I have ever seen. I think the formula (or at least the brush) is better than the RBL, too.



Joe Fresh Persian Blue - A gorgeous blue creme, 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Persian Blue and Orly Sapphire Silk - Turns out I also have a close dupe of this one as well! Oops!


Joe Fresh Khaki - This jumped out from the display at me. Had to have it. 2 coats, but almost 1!



Comparison: Joe Fresh Khaki and Essie Sew Psyched - DUPE, again. DOH. This is why I can't buy without looking at swatches first!


Joe Fresh Slate - This one really spoke to me too! 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Slate and Misa Office Polish-tics - Similar feeling, but not dupes. I like both, but I feel like I should probably only keep one. I will defer this decision for a while, because I cannot decide now!


Joe Fresh Denim - A deep, dark blue, almost jelly-ish feeling. 2 coats.


Comparison: Joe Fresh Denim and Essie Bobbing for Baubles - Again, similar feeling, but not dupes. I don't have a lot of darker blues like this, to be honest.


I love the formula on these Joe Fresh polishes. 2 easy coats, and the brush is like a smaller-OPI pro-wide brush. The stem is a bit on the short side which can make things a bit tricky, but I think it's easy to get used to. There are probably polishes in this line that have lousy formulas (I'm thinking pastels), but all of the ones I have tried have been lovely!

The 2-3 times I've been to the 5th Ave Joe Fresh store, business has looked pretty good. Hopefully this means more stores will open in the future around the US! :D Wouldn't that be snazzy?

Joe Fresh Fig

Woohoo, hump day! I'm eating carrot cake for breakfast.

Joe Fresh Fig - Got this in a swap! I really adore Joe Fresh. We'll probably visit home over the summer, so I can pick up a few more shades at Loblaws :)


Comparison: Joe Fresh Fig and OPI Parlez-vous OPI? - Not exact dupes, but pretty darn close! Fig is a tiny bit less dusty.


It's been almost a month since my big exam, and I've had the laziest 4 weeks in recent memory. Now, I need to attend to my new year's resolution of eating better, learning to cook more, and exercising regularly! I'm seriously not an active person, so I decided to pick up DDR again (used to be a big fan in high school!). I ordered a new pad off Amazon yesterday and it'll get here before the weekend. I also ordered two new cookbooks (Ina Garten's "French" cooking book and Mark Bittman's book). So fingers crossed that I can be productive after work, instead of bumming around watching Netflix!

BTW, thanks to the power of Netflix, I finally got around to watching Billy Elliot! I loved it! So adorable and heart warming <3 I haz the warm fuzzies.

Some Canadian polishes for ya: Joe Fresh and GOSH

Over the holidays, DBF and I drove back to Canada to visit his family. Mine are also in Canada (usually), but this year they flew down to California to see my brother and the new baby. We were going to fly down too after we drove back from Canada, but the blizzard that hit the northeast cancelled that plan!

Anyway, we made a quick stop at Loblaws to get a few things and of course I had to look for Joe Fresh polishes! They are $4 each or 3/$10 so I picked three. There were others I'd seen swatches of online, but I didn't find them in store. Next time I'm in Canada though - watch out!

Joe Fresh Jade - I thought this looked a bit like Essie Pretty Edgy when picking it out, but it's actually quite a bit darker. I forgot to upload the comparison pic with that one though!


Here is it compared with some other greens, though:


Comparison: Joe Fresh Jade and OPI JitNB


Comparison: Joe Fresh Jade and Essie Going Incognito

Joe Fresh Gunmetal - pretty opaque in two coats! It's almost taupe-ish.




Comparison: Joe Fresh Gunmetal and OPI Brand New Skates

Joe Fresh Peacock - at least I think it is; there was no sticker on this one. There's a very slight duochrome, but it's pretty!




Surprisingly, I don't have anything similar to this! To help you get an idea of the color:


Comparison: Joe Fresh Peacock and ChG Emerald Fitzgerald

We went with DBF's mom to run some errands the day before Christmas and stopped at Shoppers Drugmart for some milk and other essentials. I miss Shoppers! I think their points system is a lot better than what they do here in the States (Registered Rewards / Extra Bucks). I went to look for GOSH polishes and was happy to find them only to be $6! There was only one that interested me (I almost got Gasoline too, but decided against it).

GOSH Golden Dragon - This polish is nice, but a little brush strokey! It still looks amazing though!



Nothing close to it in my stash, but here it is compared to Zoya Ivanka.


Comparison: GOSH Golden Dragon and Zoya Ivanka

I went to look at the other polishes in SDM, and found out that Essie sells for 11.99 CAD! That's insane and unfair! My poor fellow Canucks :(

Oh, by the way, I've heard that some Duane Reades in the city sell GOSH as well. I'm not sure for how much, but I need to make another trip soon... tough life being a bridge and tunnel girl LOL.