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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Sally Hansen Creamy Olive and Siblings

I have so far demonstrated great restraint when faced with the new Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle display and only added one of the colors to my stash, a light sage green called Creamy Olive. I appreciate that they named it something that indicates what it looks like, but I also think "creamy" and "olive" do not belong next to each other, probably because I think food first when faced with the word "olive" and creamed olives just sounds yucky.

This polish isn't yucky; it applied smoothly and took only two coats. As often is the case this time of year, the bubbles you may notice are due to the conditions in which I applied it, not any problem with the polish itself. In my more ridiculous moments, I wonder if Mr. Karen would agree to let me air condition our little garden shed so I could do my swatching out there in the summer. A long extension cord, a window unit, and a saw would be all I'd need. Surely the acetone and other chemical fumes would keep down the spiders and insects that now rule that space.







I chose Creamy Olive from the display because it was the most unusual color of the bunch. What I didn't remember at the time I grabbed was that it's not so unusual in the wider world of recent polish releases. Without looking very hard at all, I found three possible dupes in my stash: Sinful Seaweed, OPI Stranger Tides, and Essie Da Bush.



All of these only needed two coats, so no difference there. In color, well, see for yourself:


Top to bottom: Creamy Olive, Seaweed, Stranger Tides, Da Bush.


There are subtle differences among these, the Essie being a touch more blue being the most noticeable. Seaweed and Creamy Olive are perhaps a tad darker than Stranger Tides, too, but not so you'd really notice unless you were staring hard at them in the right light. If I ever get around to paring down my stash, I'll probably keep the Essie, because that touch of blue makes it a bit more flattering on me, and the Sally Hansen, because I only need one of the less blue trio and I like that bottle the best of them, with its iridescent circles on the label.

When I went to put these bottles back after swatching, I discovered another lightish murky olive hiding in the Helmer: Revlon Moss, one of the minis from the two sets they released this past spring. Since I hadn't yet taken off the other greens, I put Moss on my thumb to see how it compared. Answer: it's darker. Not by much, though.



*****


In other news, I got so many comments on the Graphite vs. Carbonite post that I was inspired to do my first impromptu giveaway. I'd bought an extra bottle of Carbonite thinking I'd make it part of a prize for some future contest but decided not to wait to send it on to a new home. I used random.org to choose a number from 1 to the number of comments, and the winner was Megan from Kitschy Suburbia.

21 comments:

  1. I love all those greens. Boy, do you ever have a lot of nail polish!

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  2. I also thought this would be an original green-until you showed the dupes! It's pretty anyway-and I hope you meant a saw horse-not a saw! I would hate to think of you in a hot shed with a saw! Don't do it KarenD! HAHAHA!

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  3. jaljen, too much polish, some say. :) At some point I'll shrink my stash again like I've done before but when I've no idea.

    Fingers, nope, a saw--to cut a hole in the wall for the air conditioner. (I forgot no one who reads this has seen my little shed with no windows.)

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  4. Love the greens. It's amazing that you have so many similar colors! I love comparisons & yours are among my favorites:)

    Ps. Great idea on the giveaway:) And congrats to the lucky winner!

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  5. I like how this colour looks on you, but I don't think I would like it on myself!
    And wow that's a lot of dupes for it!

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  6. I think you've put me off olives for a while...creamed olives = yucky indeed! And I just bought some garlic stuffed olives on the weekend that I haven't cracked open! Garlic + olives = yummy! (to me anyway!!)

    I passed on these but it was nice to see the swatches!

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  7. Hi. I was able to add date to the posts already:)
    I like this greens and I don't have any green like the ones you showed.

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  8. Great comp!
    Congrats giveaway winner!!!!

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  9. Creamy Olive looks so smooth, clean, and elegant on your nails! I'm a huge fan of this colour since I also love OPI Stranger Tides.
    - Mary

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  10. I have to admit that the name turns me off but the color is rather pretty. I can see it as a base color for nail art. I didn't realize there were so many other pale sage green-ish colors out there! Good to know.

    And YAY!!! You made my day with that Congrats email. :)

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  11. Wow that polish is nice looking:) Then when compared with the rest its still so pretty but I really like the Stranger tides one, soooo pretty!

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  12. YAY Megan!!! Awesome giveaway!

    I have been wanting this color since I first saw this display BUT knew it was close to Stranger Tides. Now I guess I really don't need it but for some reason I still want it. :/ I like greens...a lot!

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  13. I haven't been compelled to buy any of those Sally Hansen's, but this one is pretty. I don't have anything else like that in my collection. Thanks for comparing the other polishes too- I always think that's so interesting. :)

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  14. Thanks for the comparison! I have Seaweed so I think I'm good. A great color!

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  15. Nice comparison. They do look very similar. However, you can tell a difference when you put them side by side.

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  16. Yea, Megan!!!

    I like the color too. And yes, that is excellent resolve to only get one from that display. There are a lot there!

    There is this side at an English Pub we like to eat at. They have 'Mashed Peas'. I love it but my hubs says it looks like baby food. When you mentioned Creamy Olive, it made me think of Mashed Peas.

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  17. despite the slightly odd name creamy olive is quite pretty!

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  18. As always, your comparisons are very helpful!

    This shade is something my mother would love. She's into earth tones lately. I haven't seen that collection from Sally Hansen here. I'll watch out for that. :)

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  19. Wow those really are super similar... but still great greens! How many polishes are in your collection these days anyway?

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.