Thursday, August 20, 2009

Hard-to-Find Finds that Have Been Found!

In the last few weeks I have managed to acquire some polishes that I have been wanting that are semi-hard to very hard to find. It is very exciting, I think, to see pictures of hard to find polishes online and then plot to get them! It just adds yet another element of awesomeness to this already awesome hobby.

The following polishes are all only slightly hard to find to wildly hard to find. Maybe it will inspire you to hunt for some yourself!


Claire's - Goldmine ... Opaque gold with small silver holographic glitter and large hexagonal holographic glitter. This one is at the not-really-hard-to-find end of the spectrum. It was a bit difficult for me because the Claire's by me in Chicago never has anything good so I bought this when I was in NY, so I guess you could say I had to travel 800 miles for this polish!! But really it makes the list because it fulfilled a need for a gorgeous, discontinued, HTF CND polish: VIP Status. It's been on my wishlist, with no chance of finding it in sight, and when I asked the wonderful Scrangie about the new LA Girls Rockstar polish: Live On Stage and if it looks like VIP Status, she said to try Claire's - Goldmine. And of course, she did not let me down! It is perfect!!! You know what it reminds me of (besides having my fingers dipped in gold and diamonds) is my birthday! Last year I wanted really over-the-top gold nails for my birthday to go with some hot new gold pumps I had gotten and I didn't really find anything to fit the bill. Well this is it, and my next birthday is right around the corner! (September!) So, guess what I'll be wearing...

Lippmann Collection - Superstar ... You really feel like a superstar wearing this! It always gets noticed. It is so yummy and unique! We need more glitters like this! This is a polish I really wanted once I discovered it, and I discovered it after the holidays when it could no longer be found. But thank the polish gods above because they brought it back!! It's so wonderful when that happens. The only problem that makes this a hard-to-find is that it is only available in the Anniversary Collection that I posted here. So if you want it, you have to want them all! But at least it is available. Whew!



Massini - Purple Medallion ... This is one of the most gorgeous polishes (if not the most) I have ever put on my nails. The color is incredible and the sparkle is insane. This gets the award for most distracting polish ever. The color is this gorgeous magenta-purple-berry and I just love it. And the glitter appears to be purple glitter AND holo glitter. This is readily available at Meijer's stores. The only problem with that is that Meijer is only in 6 midwest states, making this a hard-to-get-your-hands-on.


China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle ... This is another fabulous limited edition holiday polish that is being re-released for this holiday season! So if you haven't been able to find it, don't worry! It is coming back! And if you don't have it, you should really jump after this one! It is very beautiful. I think that the picture above shows the glitter decently, but doesn't really exemplify how gorgeous the green is. It is even greener than this pic shows. It is just more emerald and glowy. I saw China Glaze tweet on Twitter yesterday "What is your favorite China Glaze polish?" and I said this one.


Essie - Raspberry Goji ... This makes the HTF cut because you can't buy it at all. I had to win this one in a JELL-O/Essie nail polish giveaway! I had entered it months ago online and you had to answer a question like "If you were JELL-O what would be your name?" And then about a week and half ago I received this in my mailbox! Pretty cool!


L'Oreal Star Magnets - Prune ... This one I had to go to Ebay for. I had to try one of these crazy magnetic polishes. you paint your nail, and while it is still wet, you hold it up to the magnet that is attached to the bottle, and it makes a star pattern! And then it dries like that! What?
That is amazing! I bought it from a seller in England. This polish had to cross the pond to get to me! That is not cool, L'Oreal! Why, OH WHY?!! would you not release these in the US? I can't take it. I am going to go write a letter to L'Oreal right now to demand the release of these in the States, and I suggest if you want to see these you do too. I just lent mine to a friend and we were discussing it yesterday that if they showed up in stores, we would buy every single color. I wouldn't even look and ponder "oh that one is okay, I like that one..." no. I would BUY THEM ALL! Even our boyfriends like them! They immediately noticed them on our nails and said "That is REALLY cool." Fun for all!


China Glaze - Groovy Green ... I saw this one posted recently on All Lacquered Up in the ALU archives segment. In her post, Michelle mentions that although it is an older color it can still be found online. Well, after her post if they were available, they aren't anymore! It made me want it even more. In almost no time at all though, I was lucky enough to find a lovely lady trying to unload some polishes and was able to purchase it. It is a beautiful pastel, mint green that is thin (I had to use 3 coats) but also has this jelly-ish finish to it too. Very cool.


Essie - Ruby Slippers ... My pride and joy. I wanted and wanted and wished and wished. No polish has ever made me so crazy. I tried to avoid buying this one on Ebay for a while. I tried desperately to swap for it to no avail though, and finally had to give in to the ways of Ebay. I did get if for a reasonable price (I think) considering how hard to find it is and how badly I wanted it. I used three coats to get good glitter coverage. The reason I wanted it so badly is because this is not a typical red-with-red-glitter polish. It is red with a gold, orange, yellow, red glitter. It is not like any other I have seen, and it made me go absolutley crazy! But it's okay because I have her now.


OPI- What's Dune ... This one I bought from another lovely lady trying to unload some polishes. I had originally only purchased it for the purpose of swapping if for Ruby Slipppers. But, I didn't know what I was getting, and before it got to me I saw Steph's swatches of this color, along with the rest of this collection, and realized I was going to have to keep it for myself! It is a delicate silvery color with a slight hint of pink. I really like it just like that, but what put's it over the top is that it is a very fine holo. B-E-A-UTIFUL! This was released in OPI's 2003 summer collection, so it is pretty hard to find.


Hard Candy - Tantrum ... Hard Candy no longer makes nail polish. I think they may have gone out of business. And that just made me want a Hard Candy polish! I really would have probably taken any, but I did have my eye on this one on Ebay, and before I caved and bought it, I was able to get it from the same person who sold me What's Dune. It's is a lovely, shimmery, iridescent green, that reminds me of dragonflies. Check out the manicure I did with it layered over black:

(close -up)


China Glaze - Cat's Eye ... Or the cat's me-ow! This one was on my wishlist for a while, and definitely not in my sights. Until the nicest gift ever came in my mailbox: this baby, from the best fellow blogger on earth, Brooke. Brooke posted this one on her site and I commented that I loved it and was looking for it, and she decided that it would have a better home here in Chicago. I couldn't believe it. This was the best of the hard-to-finds to receive, hands down. I love it. It is this amazing metallic, olive-gold (you know I love gold!) and it just looks so classy and antique. It really is an antique! Check out this bottle:
It amazes me. I don't have any China Glaze polishes that have this old style writing on the bottle. And the top has "CG" instead of the more modern China Glaze oval thing logo. Incredible. I love to look back at Brooke's pictures of this one now and think that the very same bottle that was on her nails, is now on my nails! Jeez polish is great. I can't believe I have this! Thank you again, Brooke. :c)

Now if I could just find Starry Starry Night....

11 comments:

  1. These are all gorgeous, but I am really curious about that magnetic polish. It looks so cool, I wish they had those here!

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  2. What an awesome post! Thankyou for sharing. I love getting hold of an HTF polish - it must be like when men catch a really big fish! I remember the day I got my OPI Route Beer Float and it was like Xmas.

    I didn't realise Emerald Sparkle was HTF - there are a fair few floating about on UK Ebay.

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  3. See, now I KNOW Cat's Eye is in a much better place :) lol

    Enjoy it girlfriend :)

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  4. I thought I read somewhere that Hard Candy was collaborating with Walmart to sell their products.

    Not sure if they'll re-vamp the line or offer all the old faves...

    HTH! =]

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  5. I also read that last night about Hard Candy being re-released at Walmart! Very excited to hear it myself, as I've seen some gorgeous swatches of Hard Candy.
    I am also dying to get my hands on Essie Ruby Slippers, and I know the only way I'll do it is to get on Evil Bay and order it.
    I could have sworn I saw What's Dune somewhere on some etailer site VERY recently. As I am inlove with your swatches, I guess I'll be looking for it to buy it!
    Can't WAIT for the China Glaze holiday collection to be released. Definitely snagging Emerald Sparkle!
    Congrats on getting all your HTF!! This was a lovely post.

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  6. How wonderful to get your hearts desire in nail polish. The Ruby Slippers is really gorgeous! I have China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. I also had to buy Superstar with the other two polishes. I've never bought from ebay. Maybe I'll try it sometime.

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  7. glad you find all these great HTF polish :-)
    check out ALU blog to see the new colors of hard candy... I didn't see there anything like this tantrum though - this one is really special!

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  8. Magnetic polish=amazing! Your commitment to finding such nice polishes=INSPIRING! Thank you:)

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  9. I'm so glad to see all these gorgeous polishes you've managed to lay your hands on ! They are all so special and beautiful !!

    And I think I can now say in confidence that glitter gold is so you....lol !

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  10. Oh, I have one of the L'oreal Star Magnets, but I think I have "Red". Some of these polishes are really to die for, especially Goldmine, Emerald Sparkle and Ruby Slippers. :D

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  11. gildedangel - They are so cool! They need to be everywhere!!

    Helen - Thank you and you're welcome! I really love HTF! Emerald Sparkle is mildly hard to find. all the usual e-tailers that carry ChG have the rest of that holiday collection except for ES so I think it's sort of a HTF

    Brooke - I will take good care of it! Thank you!
    :C)

    wixology - They are! Right after I saw these comments I saw ALU's post about it!! I am so excited!

    Nicole - I am going to be calling Wal-Mart everyday next month to see if they have them!!
    You will most likely have to go to evilbay for Ruby Slippers. I tried so hard to find it anywhere else and was unsuccessful. But it is worth it!! I am glad you like the post and swatches!! TY!!

    Lucy - Don't you just love Superstar!? It is the best. There are a ton of great ebay sellers. I haven't had any issues getting polishes off of ebay. I have done it a lot!

    Inbal - Thank you! I am sooo excited for those Hard Candy's!!! Tantrum is special. It makes me think of dragonflies and fairies!

    alexas - Isn't science something?! Magnetic polish? How incredible. Inspiring?! Thank you!!

    tuli - I am glad you like them! Thank you, girl!! HAHA! It is soooo me!

    Alexlyndra - I need more star magnets!! Goldmine ES and RS are definitely some of my absolute favorites!!

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