REVIEW + SKITTLE SWATCHES: Blue Cross Holiday Lights Polishes & Candy Shop Polish Set

I stopped at Rite Aid at the end of my Black Friday run and while I was there, I noticed that they had put out a new Holiday Lights nail polish display and it had the two colors I couldn't find before (I had previously picked up the 3 Nouveau Cheap posted about here).  So I picked up those two colors and it turned out they were buy 1 get 1 50% off!  That was pretty cool.  Always nice to save money unexpectedly, haha.  And in addition, I also found the Candy Shop set also mentioned in that Nouveau Cheap post, and I decided to get that too because I'm loving milky glitter polishes a lot lately and I wanted to compare them for you.  Warning: picture heavy post ahead!  :)

bought the middle polish and right end polish this time around!

So as you can see the five full size polishes I have look almost exactly like the set, with the exception of the last polish on the right and the fact that the glitter in the full size hot pink polish (middle) is not multi-colored.  Now for some comparisons of the three that do look like dupes!

this is the one that's supposed to be a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, I think

The pinks are the same for the most part, but I did feel like the glitter was denser in Lollipop than in its full size counterpart.  Now the blue is a different story.  They're not the exact same polish, at least in my set the blues are different.  I feel like Blueberry Swirl leans more green than its full-size counterpart, and the glitter is denser and easier to apply, though still quite sparse compared to the pinks.  As you can see in the swatch below, the glitter from the full-size blue polish did not want to come out at all.

I used 3 coats for the colored glitters and 2 coats for the holo and flakie

some close ups:

You can better see what I mean about Blueberry Swirl (left) being more green in this swatch!

I wonder why they decided to make this smell like a chocolate cupcake?

I did not have the same problem with the flakie eating my base color, like Nouveau Cheap did here.  I wonder if it could be that there are batches that were mixed differently? Or maybe it could be the polish used as a base.  Who knows?  I used 2 coats of the flakie over 2 coats of China Glaze VIII.  The flakies are sparse, but the small multi-chrome round glitter still gives it a pretty effect.  I think this is best layered over dark polish, so that the colors in the flakie and glitter can show up more.  The holographic glitter on the other hand looks good over light or dark polish.

The brushes are not much different.  The handle on the mini polishes are obviously smaller, but the brush is a little longer and a little thinner.  That difference didn't really affect application for me, though.

Overall, these applied pretty well and had nice glitter payoff, with the exception of the blue.  I've only seen these at Rite Aid, with the full-size polishes priced at $4.99 each and the Candy Shop set, which is scented, retailing for $5.99.  The Candy Shop ones kinda do smell like what they are labeled as...very sweet smelling!  I definitely recommend the Candy Shop set over the full-size polishes because you get more colors for less and Blueberry Swirl performs better than full-size blue (I wish the full-size ones had names!  It would sound less awkward when writing about them, lol.)  Blueberry Swirl is actually probably one of my faves from the set!  As for that flakie, I think you could pass due to the sparseness of the flakes.  You really have to fish them out and dab them on the nail if you want more coverage.  I think there are better ones out there!