Clearance Bin Find: China Glaze Hologlam Collection - Swatches & Review

So, today I have my most recent and exciting clearance bin find, three polishes from the China Glaze Hologlam Collection. Well, it wasn't a clearance bin find, per se, more of a clearance table, but tomato, tomatoe. Anyway, I walked into Sally's and there they were, in all of their rainbow glory, for $7.99 a pop. Normally, I wouldn't consider 8 bucks a steal, but I believe these originally retailed for $14, so not so bad. Originally, I grabbed two. They gray holo, appropriately called Galactic Gray, and a dark purple called When Stars Collide. The one I had my eye on, but left in the store was OMG A UFO, a green holo. But the next day, my wonderful boyfriend brought it home and surprised me with it. How sweet is that? Okay, enough with the talk, let me show you some action.

First up is the one I left behind, OMG A UFO. OMG is a kind of army green with a linear holo. The holo effect was pretty good. It wasn't rainbow madness, but it was nice. I would say this one had the weakest holo of the three.

Now for formula. The formula was pretty much the same on all three of these, so I'll just get that out of the way here. These polishes have a big balding/dragging problem. But with some careful application, you can get around it. I suggest slightly thicker coats and a light touch with the brush. Other that that, no complaints. The wear time was good. I think I wore one for about 5 days with minimal tip wear. Also, I used three coats for all three swatches and no top coat.

A quick pause to let you know all of these pictures were taken in direct sunlight to really show off the rainbow effect. Please excuse the changing backgrounds, I was chasing the sun around. 

Moving on, the picture above is of Galactic Gray. I would call Galactic Gray a charcoal type of color. The holo effect in this one was slightly stronger than OMG. 

Last but, of course, not least, is my hands down favorite When Stars Collide. This one is a dark, warm purple and it has the strongest holographic effect of all three I bought. You could even catch some rainbows indoors. I absolutely love this one. Go ahead bask in its glory. 

So, to wrap it up, I really enjoyed wearing these. When I first heard this collection was coming out, I really wanted to get my hands on some. The $14 a bottle slightly turned me off, but still I was willing to pony up the dough. When I walked in to Sally's and saw them on sale, I couldn't believe it. Even with some balding issues, they were well worth the $8 a piece I paid (plus, the one gift from the boyfriend). If you like holos and didn't buy these when they first hit the shelves, I suggest heading to your nearest China Glaze retailer to see if they still have some. Just a heads up, I didn't try any of the lighter colors in the collection, but I hear the holo effect is a little weaker in those.

Thanks for reading! Good luck hitting up the clearance bins!

NOTD: Striped Summer Nails

Hello, out there! Happy Friday to everyone. I've reluctantly accepted that fact that it's summertime down here now. I'm not totally excited about it, like most normal people are. It gets so hot and humid and it drives me crazy. Some days you walk outside and it feels like you're swimming in the air, it's so humid. Bleh. But, I do like some things about summer, like swimming, the longs days, and the bright summer colors. So, to jump start my summer mood, I picked up some nice bright, summer-y polish colors and here's the simple design that resulted.

I started with two coats of Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue from the One Less Lonely Girl collection for the base. I love this polish! It's a great light blue shade, not totally unique, but a color like this is a must in any nail polish collection. Plus, the formula is great and easy to work with.

Then I used Scotch tape to tape off my first line and added the green. (Striping tape would probably have made this easier, but I was out.) For the green, I used L'Oreal New Money from the Colour Riche Trend Setter collection. Another great polish, and it's got one of my favorite brushes. After all my nails were striped and dried, I taped off the second stripe and added the pink. For the pink, I used Sation Holiday Pink. I would call Holiday Pink average, nice hot pink color, nice formula, but nothing really special.

All of these photo's were shot with indoor lighting. Ironically, my summer nails brought summer storms, so I had to make due with no sun. 

I really enjoyed wearing this design. The colors felt very summer-y together, and I like how simple it is. I'm sure this simple striped design has a name, but I don't know it. The double lines remind me of tube socks, so I like to think of it as my tube sock french manicure. =P

Anyway, all the colors I used for this were clearance bin finds. I found Sation Holiday Pink and NOPI "Baby" Blue at TJ Maxx for about $3 each. And L'Oreal New Money was found on sale at a drugstore. Forgive me, I don't remember which one. But you should still be able to find it at most drugstores that carry L'Oreal polish. Holiday Pink is also still available through Sation on their website. As for "Baby" Blue, it appears to be long gone. Unless, you get lucky and find it forgotten somewhere.

Thanks to anyone for reading. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think, or let me know how your nails are dressing up for summer!

Nails Inc Feather Collection - Cornwall - Swatches!

Hello, my poor neglected blog. I've missed you! And I have a confession, I've been naughty. Even though I've been super freaking broke lately, I strayed from the clearance bins and splurged on a new polish from the Nails Inc Feathers Collection.

As you can see up there, my choice was Cornwall, a combination of itty-bitty blue and white bar glitter in a clear base. As you can probably guess from the name, the glitter is meant to give the nails a feather-y look. I don't really know if it looks like feathers, but I definitely think it's a unique (good!) effect. 

When I was getting ready to use this polish, I couldn't decide if I wanted to use it as a full coverage glitter or if I just wanted to use it as a topper, so I kinda cheated and did both! On my ring finger, I used three coats of Cornwall to make it opaque on it's own. On every other finger, I used one coat over L'Oreal's Royalty Reinvented.

Middle Finger with one coat of Cornwall.

Ring Finger with three coats of  Cornwall.

Okay, so now I guess I should get to it and tell you what I actually thought of Cornwall. Formula wise, Cornwall was just okay. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. It was sort of thick and gloopy, which, I suppose, is to be expected from a polish packed so full of glitter. And on my ring finger, when I was adding the second and third coats, the glitter wanted to all clump up at the tip of my nail no matter how long I waited in between coats. It also suffered from the problem all bar glitters suffer from, the dreaded stick-up! But surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. There were only a few rogue pieces sticking up, nothing that couldn't be tamed. 

Now, with all that in mind, I still really liked Cornwall. I'm not usually a huge fan of bar glitter, but I thought Cornwall provided an interesting and unique effect. If it weren't for the formula issues I think I'd prefer it on it's own as a full coverage polish, but because the thickness made it so hard to work with I think I'll mostly be wearing it as a layering polish. I'm not totally in love with this polish, but I do think it's worth picking up if you're looking for something a little different. (And there are three other cute color combos to pick from.)

I picked my bottle up from Sephora for $9.50. 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!

Hard Candy Gummy Green Swatch & Review

Hello out there! Today, for my very first real post, I have a polish from the new line of Hard Candy nail polishes! Just recently, Hard Candy released 45 new polishes in 5 different collections: Crushed Chromes, Itsy Glitzy, Crystal Confetti, Glitteratzi, and Candy Sprinkles. The one I have for you today is called Gummy Green and it's from the Candy Sprinkles collection. Isn't it beautiful?

Gummy Green has black and white glitter in a beautiful light minty green base. The formula of this polish was excellent. I couldn't have asked for anything better. It was easy to work with, the glitter spread very evenly and it even dried quickly! My only little, tiny complaint is that the bottle opening can get a bit clogged, but it's not so bad that it causes major problems. It was a little sheer, so I used 3 coats for the photos. If you use thicker coats, you could probably get away with just two, though. 

All of the photos above were taken in direct sunlight. Below, for good measure, is a shot in the shade. (Please excuse how dry my cuticles look down there.)

Overall, I absolutely love this polish. It has even become a new favorite. Green polish is a personal favorite of mine, and who can resist black and white glitter? Although similar to the Nail's Inc. Sprinkles collection, Hard Candy's Candy Sprinkles collection offers more of a variety of color and glitter combinations. In my opinion, it's definitely worth picking some up. 

From what I understand, all 5 new collections and 45 polishes from Hard Candy are going to be a part of their permanent line-up. Hard Candy polishes are sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. You can find them here on Wal-Mart's website. You can also find them on Hard Candy's site. I didn't pick this one up from the clearance bin, but they sell for only $4.00. The bottle is a bit smaller than most, but I still think it's a great deal!

Let's get to the introductions...

I’m very excited to introduce Clearance Bin Polish! 

Now that that very exciting introduction is out of the way, let me tell you a little bit more about me. About a year or so ago, I decided it was time to kick the nail biting habit. I started to buy myself nail polish as an incentive. And it worked! (It also helped that it tasted so bad when I forgot my nails were painted and started chomping on them.) Anyway, I ended up replacing my nail biting habit with a new one and that is, of course, my polish addiction. 

I ’m sure anyone with a polish addiction knows that that stuff ain’t cheap. I have high end taste, but I definitely do not get a high end pay check. Most of the time, one bottle of nail polish costs more than I make in an hour, but I don’t let that stop me. I scour clearance bins for the best finds. I try the cheaper drugstore polishes looking for polishes with formulas even a girl with high end taste could love.  All in all, I just want to get the most for my hard-earned money! (Don’t we all?)

With Clearance Bin Polish, I may not be able to bring you all the new collections, all the time. (I do splurge sometimes, though. So expect to see those swatches, too.) But I want to bring you all of my best clearance bin finds. Maybe you bought the polish when it was new, and I’ll remind you just how much you love it. (We all have those polishes we forgot in a drawer somewhere. :P) Or maybe you’ll find it in a clearance bin near you! I’ll also bring you reviews of the cheaper drugstore brands, that way you can make sure every dollar is one well spent. 

And if it ends up with me as my only reader, it’ll be a great way to keep track of my ever expanding collection. :)

However it turns out, I’m super stoked to start updating this blog! I’ll have my very first swatch and review up soon. If you made it this far, thank you!