The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector

If you're anything like me, you hate the idea of parting with your nail polishes, even if they may have icky chemicals in them but the thought of missing out on the Zoya nail polish promotion is equally as upsetting. So, therefore I bring you... *cue dramatic music* The Case Of The (Missing) Polish Collector!

Sorry, I'm dealing with an awful sinus infection and thus I probably make no sense. Either way, you all love me so you put up with my silliness.

Anyway, yesterday I went to The Dollar Tree and Big Lots. I don't usually go to Big Lots because it's not in the best area of town and I try not to go there after dark. Thanks to summer, I get a few more hours of sunlight in which to go bargain shopping. Anyway, while I'm not a fan of being wasteful (money and otherwise), I don't see how I could possibly part with many barely used polishes that I likely paid a pretty penny for (my initial plan was to use up - hahahaha so not happening - 6 polishes - the minimum - for the trade in). Nor do I generally like the idea of buying polishes solely to swap them out, but desperate times call for desperate measures people.

Enter my solution:

On the left we have a lovely set from Big Lots containing 4 polishes and an emery board from Markwins for $2 and on the right we have a 4 East Cosmetics french manicure set from Dollar Tree for $1. The first set comes out to $.50 per polish sans emery board and the Dollar Tree set comes out to $.33 per polish.

Here's the deal I gave myself. Before sending these off to be disposed of, I said I would give them a fair shot. If they were crap, fine. If not, I would keep them.

The set from Big Lots contained a rather unremarkable pale pink with shimmer, a red that nearly painted itself (opaque in nearly 1 coat - I used 2 for all these swatches), a silver that left bald spots while trying to add coats and a nice shimmer charcoal color. I'm tempted to keep both the red and charcoal. What do you think?

Note: I didn't swatch the clear
Wow, well these are definitely going to Zoya. Streaky messes, the lot of them. This was 3 coats for each. The white looks like I tried to paint glue on my nails, am I right?

If you're interested in these sets, the Big Lots had a bunch of these near their Mother's Day display (lots of bath stuff too).