Dare to Compare | Milani Vivid Violet vs Milani Purple Martin

Happy Wednesday! Today’s nail polish comparison is going to be an interesting one because we are looking at two polishes from the same brand. I own two Milani polishes from past limited edition collections, and I noticed that they look quite similar in the bottle. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try them both and see if they are exact duplicates. Let me show you these polishes individually and side-by-side.

Milani – Vivid Violet Milani – Vivid Violet First up is Vivid Violet from the Gold Label collection released in January 2014. Vivid Violet has a great formula that applies smoothly and is opaque in two coats. I love this purple shade, because it’s somewhere between a true purple and a pastel.

Milani – Purple Martin Milani – Purple MartinNext up is Purple Martin from the Fantastical Plumage collection that was released in August 2013. Purple Martin has the same great formula of Vivid Violet, and applies smoothly in two coats. I love how this shade of purple looks with my skin tone!

Milani Vivid Violet vs Milani Purple Martin Milani Vivid Violet vs Milani Purple MartinHere is a look at Vivid Violet and Purple Martin side-by-side. Can you tell the difference between these polishes? I certainly cannot! These appear to be the exact same polish. In fact, I’m pretty sure Vivid Violet is just Purple Martin rebottled. I think this is very interesting, especially considering both of these are Milani polishes from limited edition collections. On the one hand, this is great that if you missed a limited edition polish, it becomes available again. However, I also feel disappointed that we don’t always get new and exciting polishes in every release.

All in all, I’m glad I tested out these polishes to find out about exact duplicates. I’m going to be keeping Purple Martin in my collection, since I really love the Fantastical Plumage collection as a whole. I definitely want to hear from you in the comments. Do you think brands should rebottle nail polishes and pass them off as different shades? I fully recognize that it’s not possible to constantly come out with unique shades, but I would like some transparency. I’m sure this is something that happens all the time, but goes unnoticed because most of us don’t own every polish from a brand. Share your thoughts with me on this topic, as I think we can have a great discussion!

The products in this post were provided for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information. 

2 thoughts on “Dare to Compare | Milani Vivid Violet vs Milani Purple Martin

  1. When first skimming thru to see the comparison, I thought it was all pix of the same polish, til I noticed one shiny cap and the other matte! It’s a great color, but I don’t see why they need to rename an existing shade, just use the same name and repromote like Sinful does? Heck, Sinful does it backwards since they keep the same name and change the polish! Then you have to hunt down multiple versions of the same polish name. It’s all a little aggravating, when you’re a serious collector!

    1. Haha, yes Sally Hansen does that, too! The brand will use the same name but change the polish formula. I wouldn’t mind either way so long as the brand is transparent.

Comments are closed.