Man I Love Finding A Deal

Saturday kicked my butt. Badly.

Sunday wasn't as bad, but still busy. I did manage to get a manicure in, but no picture.

Instead I will share with you what I did get:

Yeesh, bad lighting. I know better than to trust my point and shoot's auto mode. This is a little haul from the Ross right next to my gym. I can't believe the steals in beauty products you can get. I got two sets of Color Club polishes. The top set is the Electro Candy collection. The colors are insanely bright. Some flat neons and some with a beautiful shimmer. I will definitely have to swatch these.

The bottom set is from the Rebel Debutante collection. Soft cremes, no shimmer to be seen in the bottles. Nothing terribly exciting, but I ask you, could YOU pass up SIX bottles of polish for $7.99? See, I knew you couldn't.

Oddly enough (or maybe I'm just a n00b) but the bottles that came in the packaged set do not have labels on the bottom of each bottom with names. Kind of lame, but in no way a deal breaker. When I post swatch pics, I will label each one.

Lastly, I was able to find a Nailtek set which included a bottle of Nailtek II, for soft peeling nails, a bottle of Speed 10 polish drying drops, and a bottle of hand cream. I have used Nailtek products in the past with great results. So for $8.99 for all three products, I knew I had found another steal. However, some of the claims on the back of the products are amazing claims. We'll see if the stand up to their promises.

Not pictured, but equally as exciting, I bought a bottle of CHI Enviroflex Hairspray for $7.99. The bottle was dented and didn't have a cap, but I would have done those things to the bottle myself anyway. About a $5 savings.

I have also been using L'oreal's Sulfate Free hair care system for a while. I like the results I get, but I also get restless. Plus, per ounce, it get's quite expensive. The cheapest place I can find this stuff is my local Bed, Bath and Beyond for $5.99 for a 8.5 ounce bottle.

While at Ross I found some Big, Sexy Hair products. I am familiar with the brand, and have used the hairspray, but was never impressed. Lately I have been on a more "natural product" kick, which prompted my switch in haircare to sulfate-free products. I decided to skip out on the Big, Sexy Hair products, but decided to give Healthy, Sexy Hair a try. Though it isn't sulfate-free, it's claims are what I want, "Smooths hair cuticle and detangles. Helps prevent damage and enhance shine. Preserves color." Seems achievable. I was able to get a 33.8 ounce bottle for $9.99 - again $5 cheaper than prices listed online.

L'oreal Sulfate-free shampoo: 71 cents/ounce

Healthy, Sexy Hair: 30 cents/ounce

Like I said, I love finding a deal. :-)

First Beauty Related Blog Post!

(LOL, a font to choose for blogging is Webdings. Can anyone actually read Webdings? If you can, you're my hero!)

I finally have time to sit down and write a beauty related blog! That seems to be what always happens, I start a blog only to have it fall by the wayside because of life, jobs, school, etc. Anyway, this is not a complain post. This is a NAIL OF THE DAY POST!

As most other nail blogs have posted, the new Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color polishes are amazing. I have passed by these time and time again because of the eye-catching sparkly colors.

But each time I saw them I kept passing them up because of my first experience with Sally Hansen HD polish. I first bought SH HD when launched about 2 years ago. I picked up Hi-Def because it so closely resembled the polish that Elphaba from the musical Wicked wears in costume. (I will fill you in on my healthy obssesion with Wicked and the Wicked Witch of the West another time.) When I first applied this polish, I was not pleased. It took more than four coats for an even coverage. The polish was thick and difficult to work with. It ruined my manicure, even though the green nails would be the last thing people would be looking at on me. (Again, I will tell you about Wicked and myself another time.)

So with my past experience, I was weary. However, after reading other nail blogger's reviews and seeing their swatches, my willpower during my last trip to CVS was not strong enough. Being partial to the non-traditional nail polish colors, I had to pick up these beauties:

(Pictured from left to right: #13 Resolution, #14 Spectrum, #15 DVD)

These are so pretty, I didn't know which on to try first. I decided upon DVD because...I was wearing a purple shirt today, hee hee. I used Nail-Tek Foundation II as a base coat, 3 coats of polish (though are still some bald spots that can be seen in the pictures, 4 coats would have been best, but I did this manicure during my 30 minute lunch) and topped with Seche Vite. The polish applied fairly easily, a bit on the thicker side. A single coat of DVD could be used as a glitter top coat in layering. Maybe I will try that sometime. Drying time was pretty fast between coats. Lastly, the Sally Hansen website says that this polish acutally contains liquid cyrstal particles. That at least sounds cool.

Anyhow for your viewing pleasure and consideration, Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in DVD:

Under florescent lighting

Florescent Lighting^

With Flash^

In bright sun

Yeah, I picked a great first polish to blog about. Purples are notoriously difficult to photograph in respects of color accuracy. All these pictures are acurate. The polish shines differently in different lights. The purple is cool toned, but photographs almost blue. When the polish is looked at on it's own, some might call it blue. But when set next to a true blue color, it is obviously purple. It even photographs as steely silver. So if you decide to buy this polish completely based upon my review, plan on getting a multi-dimensional purple. Another note: in some pictures, the polish appears to have a gritty or grainy finish. It does have a bit of grittiness to it, but under a thick top coat dries completely smooth. The grit is what adds to the dimension of the polish.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. :-)