Tuesday, May 4, 2010

I Won't Spend More Than 10! Part One

One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to share affordable nail polish with everyone. As a personal choice and financial choice I will not pay more than $10 on nail polish. I have nothing against higher end brands and I definitely encourage anyone who wants to purchase a higher end brand to go for it! However, I know many of us are living in a day in age where we need to save our money, but saving money doesn't mean you can't still have fun and enjoy great products!

The next 3 days I'm going to showcase the drugstore brands I'm familiar with including their pros and cons. All the brands I'll be featuring will be between $1-$10. Today I'll start with the lower end ($1-$3), tomorrow will be moderate end ($3-$6)and Friday will be higher end ($7-10). My pros and cons on these brands are purely my opinion, so I do not mean to offend if I may find something I don't like in product you love. Also, the price ranges I came up are averages based off of stores and e-tailers. You will sometimes see these products for more or less in other places. The bottles I'll be showing are not necessarily favorites just ones I picked out to use for the pictures. I hope with these next few posts I can help shed some light on drugstore brands, give you shopping ideas, and help keep more money in your pocket!

International Readers: See bottom of post. I would love some help from you. :)


Low End $1-$3


Frankens


Featured Colors: Red Giant, Firecracker, Mythical Forest, & London Fog
Price: $1+
Pros:
- Most creative & less expensive option
-Create your own colors using colors in bottles you already have, mixing makeup pigments/glitters in clear polish, and etc.
Cons:
-Polishes this way can become goopy make sure put some silver balls (BB pellets found at Walmart) so the polish can mix properly. Also nail polish thinner can help thin out the polishes.

E.L.F.


Featured Color: Coral
Price: $1
Where to buy: E.L.F website, some Targets, and K-Marts
Pros:
-Price
-Many colors are similar to core line colors of other drugstore brands
Cons:
-Not a wide color selection

Wet N' Wild

Featured Colors: Wild Orchid, Caribbean Frost, Quartz of Course
Price: $1-$2
Where to buy: Walgreens, KMart, some Walmarts, and some grocery stores
Pros:
-Recently have introduced innovative and trendy colors
-Typically have BOGO free or BOGO 1/2 sales often depending on the store
-Usually introduce different collections for seasons
-Wide color selection
Cons:
-Some bottles are duds with brush problems
-Polishes do have the tendency to thicken up (can be fixed with nail thinner)
-Some colors are not the most exciting

NYC


Featured Colors: Fuchsia Shock Creme, Times Square Tangerine Creme, Canal Street
Price: $1-$2
Where to buy: CVS, Target, Walmart, some grocery stores
Pros:
-Price
-New York Color minute line dries quickly
-Basic line has some colors that could be dupes to other more expensive drugstore core line brands
-Typically have BOGO free or BOGO 1/2 sales often depending on the store
Cons:
-Probably the least imaginative as far as color selection goes
-Polishes tend to be on the thicker side
-Polish names are misleading some things labeled as cremes are not true cremes

Pure Ice

Featured Colors: All Nighter, Splash, Spit Fire, Celestial Frost
Price: $2
Where to buy:
Walmart
Pros:
-Wide selection of colors, finishes, and pretty shimmer/glitter top coats
-Good application
-Price
Cons:
-Only can be found in one store
-As far as I know they don't introduce new collections so you're not really sure if you're getting a newer color or one that has been there for awhile.

Sinful Colors

Featured Colors: What's Your Name, Sagitta, Boogie Nights, Cream Pink
Price: $2
Where to buy: Walgreens
Pros:
-Wide range of colors,finishes, and fun top coats
-On occasion are either BOGO 1/2 off or BOGO free depending on time of year
-Most colors are always readily available and easy to find
Cons:
-Some of their colors can be very similar to each other
-Some colors are bit stinky especially the glittery ones
-This is purely personal, but the naming of some their colors I find a bit odd and don't really relate to the colors at all


Enjoy your day!





Attn: International readers! I'd love for you participate in this to. I'd love if you'd share in the comments some affordable products in your country that are equal to or less than $10 in your currency. If you have a brand to share please just let me know the brand, what country you are from, price (in your currency), and where you can purchase the item. On Saturday I will gather up all the posts I get from international readers on their products and use that as a special international affordable products post for that day.

14 comments:

  1. Great post. I too have told myself I refuse to pay more than 7 dollars for a bottle of polish. However, I caved when I found Hidden Treasure. I think that's it though. Because I can even find OPI DS polishes for 6 dollars. I have yet to try a high end brand, and I don't know if I ever will, but until then, I'm completely content with all my "cheaper" polishes. =D

    ~Nailstah (nailstah.blogspot.com)

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  2. I'm the same Anstah it is rare that I spend more than $7 on a polish. I have very few polishes in the $7-$10 range. I also haven't tried any high end brands. I think that's the great thing about nail polish is you can really find star polishes within any brand.

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  3. This is a great post! I have WnW Wild Orchid, but i've never worn it. I got it about 2 years or so ago though! I recently got two new WnW polishes though from their new Shine display, they're really lovely cremes!

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  4. I'm loving your blog. :) This is great that you are reviewing reasonably priced polishes. Most of mine that I buy are between 24 cents and $3.50. I have spent $5 on a few and just today I did buy that SH Hidden Treasure for $6.50 even though I don't think I like it. LOL.
    Can't wait for more,
    Susie

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  5. Caitlin- WnW has done a great job at re-vamping their brand. They have been making products that are very similar the stuff we would pay more $$ for with great results.

    susies- Thank you so much. I really appreciate that comment. How do you get nail polish for 24 cents?!?!? You must divulge your secret! Aw, I'm sorry you don't like Hidden Treasure. I think it's the hype about it that makes us get all act all impulsive. That is one i genuinely wanted though and I'm happy with it. There are others I bought on impulse that I wish I hadn't.

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  6. Rite Aid was having a CLEARANCE sale last week on WnW and I got three for 24 cents each. :)
    I just went upstairs and tried it after I wrote to you. I put it over my manicure and it is pretty cool. I think it would look better over something other than this China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy but not too bad. :)
    Susie

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  7. Awww dang! We don't have Rite Aid here poo :(. Oh well.

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  8. Hey Steph,

    Here I am at your request with the Australian brands. There aren't a lot here in Brisbane that you can pick up for under $10. I think the cheapest here are Ulta3 polishes with retail for $2 in most chemists. Colour range is good, nothing too inspired. Application is good and their clear polishes are great for adding glitters and pigments to. Then BYS which ranges from $4-10 which you can pick up at Cosmetics Plus and some chemists (not many though. Polish range is better there. They keep an eye on everseas trends and have follower suite with Mattes and Chromes in the last few months. LA Girl polishes sell here at Grab for around $8 each, I've never tried them cause they look really dodgy and I don't rally buy anything from Grab on principal because the stores are pretty crappy. You can pick up Rimmel polishes for $7-10 at Priceline. Occasionally you can pick up a Revlon for $5 at discount cosmetic places and chemists in the bargain bins, but the colours usually suck. They are the ones left that no one else wanted to pay full price for. I think that's all for here in Brisbane, but perhaps the Melbourne or Sydney readers might have some for you?

    Bec

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  9. Thank you so much for posting that Bec! I was getting worried I wouldn't hear anything from any international readers!

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  10. Great topic and I appreciate that your breaking down the pros/cons of each brand - Excellent! :) Keep them coming.

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  11. I decided something similar - not to pay more than 4€ for a polish (around 5 USD). But it's a lot harder than for you. I'm from Slovenia, and even the brands that are cheap in the US are pricey here:(

    We do have a few brands that are cheap and good. The first is Essence (http://www.essence.eu/), I believe you can buy them in the US too. The average nail polish price is 1,5€ (1,9 USD). And their quality is quite good!

    We also have Miss sporty (http://www.miss-sporty.co.uk/) for about 2€ per bottle, but their quality is so-so.

    Another of the cheap-end polishes is S-He, it's a brand from the european drugstore chain DM. Their nail polishes are around 2€ a bottle and the quality is great.

    We also have some almost no-name polishes for around 1€, like Joy, Vollare etc. They don't have websites :)

    These are some of the really low end polishes. You can get some more known polishes for a reasonable price too, like Maybelline, Manhattan and alike.

    That's sort of it for our country. I'm jealous :))

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  12. Thank you so much lumpika for adding this!

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  13. I decided something similar - not to pay more than 4€ for a polish (around 5 USD). But it's a lot harder than for you. I'm from Slovenia, and even the brands that are cheap in the US are pricey here:(

    We do have a few brands that are cheap and good. The first is Essence (http://www.essence.eu/), I believe you can buy them in the US too. The average nail polish price is 1,5€ (1,9 USD). And their quality is quite good!

    We also have Miss sporty (http://www.miss-sporty.co.uk/) for about 2€ per bottle, but their quality is so-so.

    Another of the cheap-end polishes is S-He, it's a brand from the european drugstore chain DM. Their nail polishes are around 2€ a bottle and the quality is great.

    We also have some almost no-name polishes for around 1€, like Joy, Vollare etc. They don't have websites :)

    These are some of the really low end polishes. You can get some more known polishes for a reasonable price too, like Maybelline, Manhattan and alike.

    That's sort of it for our country. I'm jealous :))

    ReplyDelete

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