Sally Beauty BOGO Free Polish sale and swatch!

Early Tuesday morning, I received an awesome surprise in my email: Sally Beauty Supply is having a 3-day sale on nail polishes!  From Tuesday, Feb 25 - Thursday, Feb 27, if you buy any polish (excluding OPI), you get another polish free!

There's no coupon necessary, just show the cashier this ad or use the promo code when checking out online.

I headed to my local Sally Beauty Supply store to browse the new China Glaze spring line, but they didn't have any colors that sparked my interest.  Instead, I chose a textured polish by China Glaze "Sand Dolla Makes You Holla" and one polish that almost completes my collection, "Luxe and Lush" from the China Glaze Hunger Games line.

 Luxe and Lush (left) and Sand Dolla Makes You Holla (right)

As my only other brand of textured polish besides Zoya PixieDust, I was interested to see how I'd react to China Glaze's take on the textured gimmick.

Cover Girl "Hunger Games" polish swatches

"Tawny Flame" value packs with "Black Heat" and "Seared Bronze" Glosstini polishes

Browsing the clearance section in Walmart, I happened upon these Cover Girl Hunger Games polish value packs.  Each included one of the Glosstini polishes and 16 nail art stickers, themed "Flamed Out" for the fire design on the decals.

The movie "Catching Fire" released in theaters November of last year, but the polishes can still be found on drugstore shelves today, three months later.  This is a huge contrast from the polish release by China Glaze for the first Hunger Games movie.  The much larger polishes sold out well before the film went to DVD.

I had been eyeing these polishes since I'm a sucker for movie-inspired collections, but I couldn't justify the $4.99 retail price tag for 3.5 mL of product.  The China Glaze polishes came with 14 mL of product for $6.99. 

However, the Walmart clearance find definitely swayed me to finally buy from the Cover Girl Capitol Collection.  The glosstini at $4.99 plus the nail decals (retail at $9.99) all for the price of... $3! 

 Cover Girl Catching Fire glosstini "Seared Bronze" next to China Glaze Hunger Games "Smoke and Ashes"

But enough about prices, time for some swatch fun!

Comparison: Glitter bomb polishes

 

From left to right: 

Selena Gomez for Nicole by OPI "Confetti Fun" (retail $8.50)

Ulta "Pinata-Yada" (retail $6)

Sinful Colors "Pride" (retail $1.99)

Multi-color glitter toppers turn your fingers into a party!  I picked up "Pride" from my local Walgreens only to go home and realize that I had two other glitter toppers similar to it.  Of course, I did not return it.

A girl can't have too many glitter toppers, right?

Swatch: Essie "Find Me an Oasis"

From the Essie 2014 Resort Fling collection, I got my hands on soft blue, #857 Find Me an Oasis.  It caught my eye when the preview pictures first released, and I immediately scooped it up when I saw the display case at CVS.

Described by Essie as a "refreshing, ice blue."

Cool waters. glittering beaches. This refreshing ice blue is everything you need to quench your thirst for paradise.

After 3 coats, the color popped against my skin.  In a season of warm nudes, this pale blue is truly a refreshing contrast to all the tans and taupes.

Application was a nightmare, however.  I somewhat got the color to even by 3 coats, but it still looked streaky and uneven.  Some fingers got bubbles when it dried.

Essie polishes are hit or miss with me.  "Find Me an Oasis" is no exception.  But despite the application issues, I do adore this polish.  The color is gorgeous on, and a nice polish to wear while transitioning from winter to spring.  I can't wait to pick up the others in the line.

Essie retails at $8.50 and 3 Free (DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde free).

Comparison Post: b&w toppers

 An easy way to spruce up any solid nail color is to add a glitter topper.  But not all glitter toppers are created equal.

I had to compare Hard Candy's "Black Tie Optional" (#651, retail $4)  from the Crystal Confetti line of their nail polishes to Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear nail color in "Strobe Flash" (#510, limited edition).

I purchased "Black Tie Optional" a while ago when Hard Candy revamped their polish line.  I had a wonderful experience with this topper, but it's been several months since I've used it, and the clear goop that suspends the glitter has evaporated down, which makes me sad.  This polish is not good for storing long-term.

After Christmas, I managed to find the entire limited edition Fall 2013 Xtreme Wear glitter toppers on sale at Target for $1.05 each and picked up the whole line because I am a polish hoarder.  Despite the clearance find, I was not impressed with the Sally Hansen topper.

The Hard Candy topper adorns my thumb, pointer, and ring finger.  The glitter application is dense after 2 coats, and includes more micro-glitter and bar-glitter.

The Sally Hansen topper is on my middle and pinky finger, 2 coats.  There is much less micro-glitters and application is sparse.  I dabbed the brush on a paper towel before applying and had to fish for the larger pieces of glitter.  I really was not impressed.

Kind of a cookies-n-creme color scheme.  Delicious!

Big Lots Polish Haul

Last Saturday, I raided my local Big Lots when they advertised 20% off your entire purchase with their rewards card.  I bagged 5 Sephora OPI polishes (Big Lots retail $1.80 each) and 2 Revlon Colorstay polishes (Big Lots retail $1.50 each).  Not a bad haul!

The first polish I had to swatch was the beige neutral by Revlon, since neutrals are all the rage right now.

 

February Sally Beauty Sales

Sally Beauty Supply has some exciting sales for the month of February!

All month long, the entire stock of the newly-formulated FingerPaints nail polishes are BOGO free!  It excludes their gel polishes, but not their latest collections like the "Rock My World" metallic textures and holo-flakey line.  Retail for FingerPaints polish is $5.29, but save further by joining the Sally Beauty Club.

Visit your local Sally Beauty by finding a store nearest you - Sally Beauty store locator

We may be a few days into February, and a few days into Sally's Deal of the Day sales, but I am patiently waiting for a specific day in these promotions...

Monday brings discounted China Glaze polishes - nearly 40% off!

China Glaze is one of my favorite polish brands, so I am excited to add to my collection.  To see what daily deals are running until the 14th, click here - Sally Beauty Daily Deals