Finding love in unexpected places- OPI Sand-erella

What a great morning! I just had to share a little joy and excitement.

Earlier this week I searched for nail polish on Craiglist’s list. More often than not, this usually just results in a ton of results for at home manicurists and pictures of their work (I will spare you from those!). This week though, I found an advertisement with the headline, “Nail Polish – Hundreds To Chose From”. How can that not catch my attention?!? I opened up the ad and read on; They were selling nail polish for 50 cents a bottle- there was a small picture of the display, but nothing could really be identified. Now, hundreds was certainly an exaggeration, but when I showed the ad to a friend, she pointed out that quite a few bottles were OPI, so I had to take a look.

The placing selling the polish was a little hole in the wall with a hodgepodge of items obviously collected from yard sales, so I quickly made my way to the display from the posting. Initially, there was a little let down; The bottles were used, most of them extremely dried out, and there weren’t as many OPI bottles as I had hoped. Despite being disappointed, I started fondling the bottles, looking for some magic. Then, I spotted it- it was purple, and had a hint of holo… I flipped over the bottle to read the name and I couldn’t believe it, in black letters it read, “Sand-erella”. I got a little lightheaded, grabbed a few more bottles that looked interesting, though none as interesting as Sand-erella, paid, and once in the car, called a friend who would understand why I was squealing like a mad woman.

At home, I gained my composure just long enough to snap a few pictures to share. Here are the before pictures….

Bottle shots

                                               

 The black label

 Ewwy gooey

 If you don’t know the magic of nail polish thinner, you must hunt some down immediately. You can easily find it at Sally Beauty Supply, and their store brand, Beauty Secrets, only runs $4 a bottle. Nail polish does NOT expire! Most of the time when people claim their polish “expired”, is has only separated (which is usually fixed by a good shake), or thickened. If thickened, you can add some polish thinner and it’s good as new. Start with a few drops, shake, check the consistency and repeat until you have reached the desired result.  Going back to my dear Sand-erella, it was thick and gooey, but I added a liberal amount of thinner and shook it like crazy. After I heard the balls come free (again, where is your mind going?) and start to agitate the polish, I knew it wouldn’t be long before Sand-erella would once again be usable.

Sand-erella meet thinner- you will quickly become good, good friends

After a decent amount of thinner and some shaking, look what we got…

After some love!

Yes, a perfectly good bottle of OPI Sand-erella, full right up to the line below OPI, for only 50 cents! You never know where your next great find will come from, so keep your eyes open!

Where are some of the more random places you’ve searched for nail polish?

What has been your most amazing polish find?