Super Haul and a Manicure

Hello, hello!  This is my second post in two days...aren't you proud of me?  I spent a good chunk of my day wandering around the city and checking out many of my favorite nail polish bargain bins and boy, oh, boy, did I score!  Here's a montage of my haul:

The center photo on the bottom row is my total haul for the day, 26 polishes in all for right around $46 with tax.  Not too shabby, huh? I'll throw a list of all the polishes at the end of the post if you're interested.  I'll just briefly run over the highlights here.  In case you didn't know, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes are on sale at Walgreen's currently; 2/$5 plus you get 1,000 Balance Rewards points when you buy two.  That's a pretty sweet deal!  You can see the four I picked up today in the bottom left photo above (plus a couple of Wet 'n' Wilds I didn't already own). Additionally, be sure to check out your local TJ Maxx and/or Marshall's cuz I found tons of Orly's on clearance for $2-3, including some Instant Artist nail art polishes.  My TJ's haul is pictured in the bottom right and Marshall's is the top center photo.  I only grabbed the one at Marshall's because I already had the other colors I saw there.  Sally's is running a Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale on their ENTIRE stock of regular and gel polishes.  I picked up the 3 polishes shown in the top left photo for $8.43 with my 15% off Beauty Club coupon...I'm pretty proud of that one ;)  And finally, Dollar Tree had a crap ton of Sinful Colors polishes, although they are in packages rather than free-standing on a shelf.  My score there is shown in the top right photo; they were $1 each, as is everything at the Dollar Tree. 

Now, on to my manicure!  In addition to a cute set of Orly minis I found at TJ Maxx, I also picked up an awesome magnetic glitter polish from Color Club in a set with a top coat for $2 on clearance.  OMG, it's SO sparkly!  The photos don't do justice, but take a look anyway:

I started out with a coat of Charged Up by Color Club.  This polish is a gold holographic glitter polish with magnetic bits. The magnet that came with this polish is a fishnet pattern and I was excited to try it out since I don't have a magnet like this yet.  I learned a helpful trick for magnetic polish awhile ago.  Did you know that you can re-activate the magnetic properties with a non-fast dry top coat?  If your magnetic polish dries too quickly, or if you don't get a good "pull" on your first go, simply apply a coat of top coat or clear polish (anything clear that's not fast dry should work) and re-hover your magnet.  I'm so glad I learned this trick, otherwise I'd have wasted TONS of polish here.  The magnet worked pretty well, but I have a decent amount of curve to my nail, so sometimes the pattern didn't want to cover my nail well.  After redoing several of my nails several times, I just decided to do a sort of gradient on the sides of my nails to blend in where the pattern didn't cover.  I used Orly's Androgynie, a holographic hex and gold microglitter in a clear black base, for the gradient, applied with a sponge.

Over all, I like this manicure.  I do love the Color Club polish, it's pretty darn fantastic and I'm so glad to have it in my collection.  Unfortunately, this binge has brought about a "no buy" for at least a week.  I know a week doesn't sound that long, but, trust me, it'll be a challenge!

Thanks so much for reading!

Polish Haul
~Sally's
     -Finger Paints, Itsy Bitsy Spider and I Spy-Der
     -Nina Ultra Pro, Violet It Ride
~Marshall's
     -Orly, Take a Chance
~Dollar Tree
     -Sinful Colors, Hot Wired, Island Coral, Let's Talk, Savage, Call You Later, Cream Pink, Outrages, and Slate
~Walgreen's
     -Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, Blue Me Away!, Pacific Blue, Breezy Blue, and Green With Envy
     -Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine, Tickled Pink, Lavender Creme
~TJ Maxx
     -Orly, Twilight, Instant Artist Yellow Submarine, Androgynie (mini), Starry-Eyed (mini), Berry Sweet (mini), and Glitz (mini)
     -Color Club, Charged Up w/ Clear Top Coat