Polish-Shopping

Polish-Shopping is a dreadful thing!

I have to buy most of my polishes online since the great brands like China Glaze, OPI (still not sure if OPI is really that great - I mean you, Tickle my France-y!), Orly, Essie, Nfu Oh and so on are not available in local stores around here. You may find Essie - but at a price that makes me laugh and think "it would be advisable to order that stuff online" - even if I have to figure in the shipping fees from e.g. USA to Europe + additional fees if the value of goods is too high (which it quickly is). The polishes in my local stores are mostly boring. Sheers, french, reds. A blue is already something special, the only two brands being a bit bolder are P2 and Essence - the good is that these two are really cheap and I don't feel guilty when buying them.

Since I'm a penny pincher - not in the sense of not buying stuff if I want it but in the sense of getting the most out of the money spent - I usually wind up in ordering as much as the postal fees allow. For example: You can buy up to 9 bottles of polish for a shipping fee of 18$ - of course I will order 9 bottles. Everything else would be silly, right? And I'll always have enough polishes on my wishlist to find 9 polishes!

But ordering 9 bottles of polish seems very lavish and my boyfriend won't understand why I need 9 more polishes because I already have enough for the next 10 years and don't get me started on my mom who'll even throw in a "Is it really advisable to order stuff from abroad?". But it is just total me: I always want more. More BPALs, more polishes, more water colors, more hairsticks, more books, more more more. I cut back on other stuff to afford something else.

Anyway, I try to avoid getting to the point that I allow myself to order online because I know that I'll spent more money than I should - excused by "if I pay the postal fees it's better to get one polish more than one polish less". But the yearning for more polishes is still there so I'll go into local stores, watching out for cheap polishes, having in mind which ones I would buy if I'd order online. But of course I only find boring ones in the stores - and still I buy some of them, thinking "better than nothing and hey, they are cheap!", bringing home more polishes which makes it harder to argue for another online-order while at the ssme time having spent already a part of the money I would have spent online - because the "hey, they are cheap" leads to "what the heck, this one looks almost interesting, even if I know that I won't be really wearing it" (I'm looking at you, P2 Happy) - meaning: I end up with more than one polish for sure!

Well, that's what happens if I'm in a local store with local cheap brands ... but what happens if I finally get to a store that has great brands I usually won't get?! Total mayhem!

Let's go back to last monday. I was in another country, in a great store called "Sokos" and well ... they had Gosh, Make Up Store (didn't know that one at all), Wet'N'Wild, even OPI, the usual suspects like YSL, Dior and so on and of course local brands like Lumene (but let me tell you: Don't buy Lumene at "Sokos"! I got mine from "Anttila" and "Vapaa Valinta" where they are much cheaper).

The moment I realized the options I went nuts. First I crept through all the aisles, critically watched by all the sales women there - I can understand them, I had this treacherous glow in the eyes which means either I'm going to spend a lot of money soon or I'm trying to shoplift. So they came twice to ask if they could help me but I just smiled and declined - and went on scanning everything in their displays before making any decisions. Well okay, one bottle jumped right away into my shopping basket: Make Up Store SIW. A light blue holographic polish!! How could I resist?! I even ignored that this would be the most expansive bottle of polish I bought until now (yes, until now, because lets face it: If I'd see a Chanel Particulière I'd grab it right away, never telling my sweetheart how much I paid for it).

And somehow - over 3 days - I bought 10 new polishes. And I paid much more for them than I would have paid for one online order, because I fell into the "wow, once I can see the polish live before ordering it! That is so great!" mode. Okay, I got polishes I can't order online, that's true. But still ... perhaps it would have been better to place one online order and ignore the local stores.

To sum it up: If you are used to online shopping like I am - beware of local stores! Try to avoid them! The sight of a filled nail polish rack will be too much for you and after some hours you wonder how this could happen (but since I wrote that I bought the poilshes in a period of three days it is obvious that even this phase of remorse does not last long for me).

But to give you at least an idea of some of the polishes I bought - here are some pictures:

This is the Make Up Store SIW - the picture didn't capture the blue hue but believe me: It's not silver (but they had a silver one ... I think there were 5 holographic colors but somehow I only wanted this babyblue one - partly because of the price and I thought "if the quality is good I can get another one in 4 months" - because then I'll travel there again).

Gosh Rainbow - I can't remember why I was thinking that flakies are not really my style. What was wrong with me?!

This one is Lumene Magic Night - Taikayö. It's a lilac base which contains pink glitter and small blue/pink flakies - grow you silly thumbnail, grow, I want to wear this one to work! :o) (for this picture the sun came out! Such a nice moment - and I have to say it: I don't want anymore snow! I want summer!)

Well, these are 3 out of the 10 polishes I bought - you'll see the others in time ;o)

Do you have these shopping problems as well? Should I join a help group?