Dusty Drugstore Find

In the comments on my last entry, shortwidenails asked "How often do you go to Rite Aid? Twice a week?" The answer, as is often the case, is, "it depends". Times like now, when there's a lot of new stuff coming out, I'll stop more often at more stores. Last week, I was probably in at least three CVSs, three Meijers, four Rite Aids, and maybe six Walgreens (because I was hoping to find the new Sally Hansen Complete Salons on sale there). One of the positive things about my long commute through suburbia is that I drive by a lot of retail outlets. Some routes are better than others; the one that goes past a Sally's, an Ulta, a Dollar Tree, and a CVS within about two blocks has been quite dangerous to my budget. When I get really busy at work or am saving up for a vacation or am just overwhelmed by how many untrieds I have, I won't even stop to browse anywhere for a week or two at a time (though I will always go down the beauty aisle at the grocery store, even though the last time I found anything good there was ages and ages ago). Every now and then, I'll go on a polish hunting safari when Mr. Karen is out of town, hitting stores outside of my usual stomping grounds. It was on just such an expedition last weekend that I found the beauty I have to share today: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Night Lights, a charcoal grey holo.

I'm not sure how old this one is; it's got a white cap, so it's definitely not current. I found it on a bottom shelf, packaged in a gift set with two lipglosses; the box was in somewhat shabby condition, like it'd been unearthed from some dusty storage area and just tossed in the Sally Hansen section. I debated for about half a minute before the "you've never seen this polish before and you like SH and holos" side of my brain won out over the "you barely remember to wear the lip glosses you already have" side, and I took it to the register.

I first swatched it on its own; at three coats, it pretty much reached bottle color, though there was still a hint of visible nail line. I barely noticed the VNL, though, because even indoors the holo sparkled.





Outdoors in the sunshine there was even more rainbow sparkling.







I then tried one coat of Night Lights over two coats of Borghese Notte Black. Here's the combination indoors:





And outdoors in the sun:





The layered look was definitely darker, but seemed more silver-y and less sparkly to me. Next time I think I'll do two coats of Night Lights over black (or maybe another dark base—forest green, maybe).