Color Club Copy Coats Scented Topcoat Collection Spring 2012 Swatches and Review

Color Club is really on a roll with all these scented nail polishes they've been doing recently. First, there was Wicked Sweet from summer 2011, then there was the Scent-suous Holiday collection that just came out a couple months ago. Now we have Color Club Copy Coats; six scented clear topcoats for adding fragrance to any manicure.

The colors are: Parallel Universe, Dead Ringer, Mimic, Duplicity, Replica and Copycat.

Each Copycoat topcoat has a different scent and is slightly tinted. They're all practically clear, but over certain colors, you can definitely see a bit of a tint.


Here's one coat of Dead Ringer, which has a yellow tint, over a three-day-old (excuse the chips and cracks) China Glaze Aquadelic manicure. It's not significantly different looking with the Copycoat topcoat, but it definitely has a yellow glaze added to it.



I did two coats of these over white to show you how much tint you can expect. Parallel Universe, Duplicity, Replica and Copycat, two coats each over white.

A little closer. Copycat, Replica, Duplicity and Parallel Universe, two coats each over white.

These topcoats aren't quick-dry on their own, so I wouldn't recommend using them over wet polish as it'll make them take longer to dry. Since these are not quick-dry, they make excellent refresher topcoats because they won't peel, shrink or chip when applied over dry polish. They're very glossy and are perfect for adding the shine back to a day-old manicure.

The scents in these aren't as strong as I had anticipated. They're subtle enough that you only smell them if you bring your hands close to your nose, plus the scents are so subtle that they only last about a day before they disappear completely. This is not necessarily a bad thing; persistent, strong scents on my hands can be annoying and headache-inducing. These give you the novelty of having scented nails without it being overbearing to the point where you get irritated with how strong they are.

These scents all smell pretty familiar to me, and they're called "Copycats," so I did a little comparing with the notes and descriptions, and I think I've narrowed down what scents these are supposed to imitate.

Mimic = YSL Parisienne
Duplicity = Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue
Dead Ringer = Marc Jacobs Daisy
Parallel Universe = Burberry Brit
Replica = Marc Jacobs Lola
Copycat = Burberry Classic

I could be wrong, as none of them smell exactly the same as the originals, but I also think something gets lost when translating them into nail polish form, so who knows. They do smell similar and the listed notes match up, so those are my best guesses.

I think this is a pretty cool product to have if one of these fragrances is your signature scent or just one that you wear often. You can match your topcoat to your perfume! None of the scents really appeal to me all that much in nail polish form (they all have a bit of an 'air freshener' smell as topcoats), but scented topcoat is always more interesting than unscented topcoat, so I still like them.

Also, I can't type the word Mimic without thinking of this:

What I liked:

• They look pretty all lined up in their square bottles.
• They're not too strong.
• The scent is gone by the next day.
• Good refresher topcoats; they don't shrink or peel.
• Very shiny.
• Scented things are cool.

What I didn't like:

• The slight tint in these can alter your polish color. Not by much, but it still happens.
• The scents smell dull and air-freshener-esque in nail polish form. Not bright and lively like the Wicked Sweet or Scent-suous Holiday scents.
• They're not quick dry, so I can't use them as my usual topcoat.

The Color Club Copy Coats Scented Topcoat Collection is available now, though the only place I've seen them so far is on Color Club's online store where they retail for $8 each.

(This was sent for review.)