PUPA Deep Ruby VS Zoay Jem

Recently I bought a new addition to my collection - PUPA Deep Ruby. I saw it in a store and I knew I had to have it. When I arrived home, I realized I had something similar to it but I was surprised to see that it was quite a perfect dupe for the lovely Zoya Jem.

In the bottle PUPA looked kind of a deep burgundy, so that what "deceived" me. I remembered that Zoya Jem is more purple, but that was a deceiveing memory because I forgot that Zoya didn't look the same on the nails as in the bottle.

Zoya Jem and PUPA Deep Ruby are surprisingly identical, the only difference I could see is that Zoya Jem has little flakes as PUPA has only shimmer. The shimmer is golden, red and blue.

In the bottle it look kind of burgundy, deep plum color, and on the nails (in direct sun light) they look more purple. The color is defiantly gorgeous, rich and beautiful.

Zoya Jem & PUPA Deep Ruby

Zoya Jem

PUPA Deep Ruby 619

I really couldn't see the difference when I applied them on the nails, they look identically to me. In the bottle there is some difference but on the nails, the same!

I did see a bit more of blue shimmer in PUPA but it's a slight difference.

As for application and formula, PUPA was a delight! I like the long thin brush, and it was SO opaque in one coat that I could leave it like that (actually for this swatch I applied two coats but on the right hand I used one coat only. Shh... don't tell anyone). When I applied it I said to myself outloud "What a rich color!" lol so that's how great it was!

As for Zoya, it needed two generous coats for good coverage. It's formula is thinner but also good.

Another difference I've noticed while I applied them, is that the base color of both polishes was different - I'm not sure how to explain this but Zoya was more red toned, and PUPA was blue toned, which is pretty weird considering the result is the same (I can see this clearly if I raise my hand against the light, so I can see that the distal edge has a different color).

The last thing - PUPA was a bit more shiny and Zoya was kind of dull, before I applied the top coat (Poshe), but once with a top coat - Zoya sparkled a bit more in the sun and showed it's flakes.

Overall I like them both, I can't decide which I like better because they are so similar. I can say that if someone else would have made this comparison before me, I probably wouldn't buy PUPA as well because I already had Zoya and I'm not a big fan of identical dupes, but I could live with them both. I'm thinking that PUPA might be better for traveling and such, because it's small and convenient. But I swear - I do LOVE them both! :)

direct sun

shade