Aptly Named

I've wanted Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure since I first read about it at Talking Makeup last fall. I wasn't the only one--lots of ladies on the nail board were keeping an eye out for. At least one even called Sally Hansen and was told it wasn't going to be a spring release but would come out in the fall. We should have known not to trust Sally on that--it started showing up in stores a few weeks ago. First sightings were in Walgreeens stores in Missouri, and for a while that's the only place it could be found. Then it showed up in Walgreens in a few more states, including Illinois, so I started looking around here. I went to the Walgreens by my house that was the first place I saw the Revlon spring pastels this year. I went to the Walgreens by my office where I'd gotten some of last year's Tracy Reese limited editions. I went to Walgreens I hadn't previously known existed. No luck. Then someone posted on the board that she'd gotten one at Rite Aid, so I stopped at my favorite Rite Aid, the one that I often have good nail polish luck at, and there it was--the full spring Complete Salon display.



Colors are (left to right): Dianthus, Amazing Blaze, Pomegranate, Sunflowers, Lagoon, Sea And Be Seen, Dive Deeper, Silver Lining, Ring My Shell, Bermuda Sand, Iced Coffee, Beachy Keen, Barely There, and Hidden Treasure.

I scooped up the Hidden Treasure and took it home with me, where I found it was very, very similar to something I already had: GOSH Rainbow, which I'd gotten in a swap with a kind person in the UK.



But sometimes things that look alike in the bottle look different on the nail, so I tried each over a very deep plum base (Sally Hansen Complete Salon in Pat on the Black). I couldn't tell them apart:



Top to bottom: Hidden Treasure, Rainbow, Hidden Treasure, Rainbow

Does the fact that they're pretty much identical mean I didn't need Hidden Treasure? From a usage standpoint, yes. From a collecting standpoint, no. I enjoyed the hunt, and am happy to have found the Hidden Treasure. And it remains pretty hidden--I've still not seen it anywhere but the store where I found it, and a lot of people in other states have yet to see it at all. It's not even listed on the Complete Salon Manicure website, neither in the shades list or in the "what's new" section. I think Sally needs to hire some nail boarders to maintain her website.