Vintage nail polish.

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In my recent reorganization of my collection I realized I have quite an extensive amount of polish from the mid 1990's.  I have seen posts on this forum for discontinued products but nothing specifically for nail polish. 

What nail polishes do you still have that are now considered vintage?  Have you purchased any on Ebay?  Is there any that you are dying to get your hands on?  I have seen a few blogs dedicated to those real regrets like when you threw away your original Hard Candy Beetle.  Are there any you can't believe you got rid of and wish you had back?

I have so many but my favorites are my Revlon Streetwear collection because they helped create the polish monster I have become.  I still have these.

(Warning pic heavy, I haven't figured out the hidden pics option yet)  Also the water mark on the swatches is from my own blog (I only posted about these and one more set of polishes I own)



From left to right: Splash, Charming, Diamond Girl, Moody and Midnight



From left to right: Toad, Grass Stain, Confetti, Hologram, Gun Metal and Tar



From left to right: Tar, Hologram and Confetti



From left to right: Midnight, Toad, Grass Stain and Gun Metal



From left to right: Moody, Diamond Girl, Charming and Splash

All swatches are 2 coats with no topcoat.  I do notice when I have these on my color wheels or any other artificial nail they actually have a white chalky film over top of them.  All my Revlon do.  I used to have one called Nightmare which was similar to Hologram but with black glitter in it as well. I have seen these go on Ebay for upwards of $25.00.  I have back ups of Splash and Charming (which are the ones pictured here).  I love the names!  Moody and Grass Stain actually have some sparkle to them which I don't remember.  Confetti appears to have a tinted base but that could be due to age. 

I have more to add later!

 
I loved Streetwear! Especially Toad and Hologram. Ah, memories. The ones I miss are the WnW in the cylindrical bottles: the silver-blue, dark shimmery green, and dark shimmery blue. Also some of the Crystalline polishes. There were a lot of good ones back then: the Fing'rs teddy bears/cats, the Bonne Bell scented ones (silver glitter smelled like chocolate), Jane cosmetics... I will still always love Tinkerbell peel-offs. Polishes today look the same, but they somehow just don't FEEL the same.

 
I miss the Hard Candy polishes from back before they revamped and they were still sold at Sephora. I don't remember the name of it, but a sparkly emerald green one was my first "high end" cosmetics purchase, as well as the first thing I ever bought from Sephora. I still have the polish somewhere (or whats left of it) and I still have the ring that came with it (which I may or may not still wear from time to time
icon_redface.gif
). Also, I miss those old WnW polishes too, purely for nostalgia. They were cheap and they were sold at the only store we had in my hometown that sold makeup, so I had bunches when I was a kid! I loved the "midnight" ones, was that what they were called? The ones that were blue/black, green/black, and so on. I feel like they were called midnight blue and midnight green....that was a long time ago...

 
Originally Posted by Christa W /img/forum/go_quote.gif

In my recent reorganization of my collection I realized I have quite an extensive amount of polish from the mid 1990's.  I have seen posts on this forum for discontinued products but nothing specifically for nail polish. 

What nail polishes do you still have that are now considered vintage?  Have you purchased any on Ebay?  Is there any that you are dying to get your hands on?  I have seen a few blogs dedicated to those real regrets like when you threw away your original Hard Candy Beetle.  Are there any you can't believe you got rid of and wish you had back?

I have so many but my favorites are my Revlon Streetwear collection because they helped create the polish monster I have become.  I still have these.

(Warning pic heavy, I haven't figured out the hidden pics option yet)  Also the water mark on the swatches is from my own blog (I only posted about these and one more set of polishes I own)



From left to right: Splash, Charming, Diamond Girl, Moody and Midnight



From left to right: Toad, Grass Stain, Confetti, Hologram, Gun Metal and Tar



From left to right: Tar, Hologram and Confetti



From left to right: Midnight, Toad, Grass Stain and Gun Metal



From left to right: Moody, Diamond Girl, Charming and Splash

All swatches are 2 coats with no topcoat.  I do notice when I have these on my color wheels or any other artificial nail they actually have a white chalky film over top of them.  All my Revlon do.  I used to have one called Nightmare which was similar to Hologram but with black glitter in it as well. I have seen these go on Ebay for upwards of $25.00.  I have back ups of Splash and Charming (which are the ones pictured here).  I love the names!  Moody and Grass Stain actually have some sparkle to them which I don't remember.  Confetti appears to have a tinted base but that could be due to age. 

I have more to add later!
I had a couple of those! I don't remember the colors (although Toad seems SUPER familiar to me) but I remember having those bottles.

 
Originally Posted by saycrackagain /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I loved Streetwear! Especially Toad and Hologram. Ah, memories.

The ones I miss are the WnW in the cylindrical bottles: the silver-blue, dark shimmery green, and dark shimmery blue. Also some of the Crystalline polishes. There were a lot of good ones back then: the Fing'rs teddy bears/cats, the Bonne Bell scented ones (silver glitter smelled like chocolate), Jane cosmetics... I will still always love Tinkerbell peel-offs. Polishes today look the same, but they somehow just don't FEEL the same.
Do you mean these bottles?



These are the only 2 older Wet n Wild I have.



Here are the 2 Jane I have left.  Voltage and Chocoholic.  As you can see my Voltage is almost gone.  It applied so smooth.  I wish I had another few bottles of it stored away.

 
My greatest regret is not getting more of the Urban Decay line when it was available back in the day.  I bought 2 of them Gangrene and Gash. 



The cap broke on Gangrene although it was getting low and now it's more of a memory.  It was my favorite green ever.   I have a bit of Gash left but would only use for super special occasions.  I have never found another red quite like it.  I am not a fan of reds but if I wear them I want it to be this. They really need to bring back this line.  The names were awesome.  The formula was fantastic. 

 
Here are a few of my gems. 



I can't seem to find much information online about this company.  These are all scented.  From left to right: Banana, Strawberry and Bubble Gum.  Banana and Bubble Gum are a bit thick and slightly streaky.  Strawberry is a great formula and has some silver flakes in it.  All 3 smell awesome. 





These are supposed to change color in the sun.  The formula on both is pretty bad and back in 1998 or whenever I bought them, I never got them to work.  I even tried leaving the bottles outside.  Maybe I should try now I live in the Sunshine state. 



These polishes were pretty awesome back in their time.  My blue cap broke and it's a hot mess so I haven't used that one in ages but I still use the other one when I do a massive glitter.  It actually has some of it's own glitter very tiny in the polish and works as you might think, once dry when you can peel the polish right off.  By now, it's been thinned and stored for 15+ years so one coat doesn't really work well and 2 is almost too much.  It takes forever to dry and has a tendency to allow the polish to come off in one piece when you don't want it to.  I love it though.  Once it's gone I will probably do the glue method.



My favorite top coats ever.  Left to right: Blue Water, Love Bites and Snow Globe.  Blue Water was made to act as a color changing top coat.  It gave a blue hue to anything it went over.  The formula is a bit goopy and weird to be honest but I used to rock the hell out of some Blue Water french mani's.  Since it's so sheer and tinted it gave such a weird but cool look.  Love Bites is ridiculously difficult to apply.  I have recently thinned it out and finally got about 3 hearts out of the bottle but when I first got it I think it was better.  My super favorite though is Snow Globe.  It's dries matte and is an irregular shaped white glitter that literally looks like snow.  It was pretty dried up until about a month ago so I can't wait to try it with my Bundle Monster Holiday stamping plates to make it look like falling snow.  I have a matte top coat from this era too but it's pretty terrible.



My last odd ball gem is my L'Oreal french tip set.  This one is in French Tip Bleu and Sheer Bleu.  I remember there being a green and pink I believe.  I wore this as my french mani in my wedding in 2000.  The marriage didn't last but I still have some of this left.  I should search this out too and see if there is any out there for sale.  I will try and find pictures of my hands so show how amazing it really was.  There isn't much left which makes me sad.  My only issue was after thinning it the blue sheer got a bit bubbly but nothing I couldn't deal with.

 
I mean these bottles: (picture from Rebecca's blog, not my own!) that green in the middle was my favorite.
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Originally Posted by saycrackagain /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I mean these bottles: (picture from Rebecca's blog, not my own!) that green in the middle was my favorite.

OMG I just looked at her swatches that green is so pretty!

 
WOW  your nail polish is all in super great condition if you can use it still. My sister and I have a box from high school that's already dried out (5? 6 ? years ago).

 
Originally Posted by Kyuu /img/forum/go_quote.gif

WOW  your nail polish is all in super great condition if you can use it still. My sister and I have a box from high school that's already dried out (5? 6 ? years ago).
There's only a few that are not salvageable.  Those are the ones with broken caps mostly.  I've never been without a bottle of thinner though and have always revived any that were near death.  Some are just too empty to even make another manicure but I keep them so I know what I had and try to find dupes.

 
Originally Posted by Christa W /img/forum/go_quote.gif


There's only a few that are not salvageable.  Those are the ones with broken caps mostly.  I've never been without a bottle of thinner though and have always revived any that were near death.  Some are just too empty to even make another manicure but I keep them so I know what I had and try to find dupes.
Hm okay. Maybe i'll try that then. I do have thinner, but they just all seem in... rather sad condition!

 
Here's a few more goodies. 





All black label OPI given to me recently from my boyfriend's mom.  I think 2 are from the early 00's and 2 are from the mid to late 90's also if I read the OPI list correctly. 



These were all from a kiosk in the mall.  I can't remember what it was called but I researched the company recently and found it it's from Townley Cosmetics.  From left to right: Hot Rod, Greena, Jelly Bean, Volcano, Blue Gold and Alice Copper.  Volcano is one of my all time favorite nail polishes ever.



Left to right: Greena, Alice Copper and Hot Rod



Left to right: Blue Gold, Jelly Bean and Volcano



Cover girl parfait line.  From left to right: Mint Sorbet, Lemon Freeze, Blue Parfait and Peaches & Cream.  These still apply very well. 



I can still get these on Ebay if I wanted to and I think I will grab duplicates one of these days.  My favorite is the first one UV Fusion.  Formula on all 3 is great.  From left to right: UV Fusion, Lens L'Orange, Paparazzi Purple and Wild Blue.  I have the lipstick still of Paparazzi Purple and Wild Blue as well.  Max Factor is of course still sold overseas. 

 
Originally Posted by saycrackagain /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I mean these bottles: (picture from Rebecca's blog, not my own!) that green in the middle was my favorite.

I actually have one of those bottles (a blue polish). It no longer has the label but it has the color sticker and WnW confirmed for me it was one of their polishes.

 
These are all from 1997.  Maybellene Express Finish. Clockwise from top left:  Mocha, Sunset Prisms, Spice Tea, Jaded Blues, Sheer Satin Slip, Ride The Wave, Plushed Plum, Coral Heat



These are also from '97-'98... most of the labels have worn off.  Clockwise from top left:  Orly Wine, Revlon Iced Mauve, Sunsplash and Berry Bloom.  Loreal Jet Set Shuttle, Move Out and Orly Pink Nude.  The berry bloom and move out are 2 of my favourite colours ever that I will never be able to get again.  :sadpants:



OPI Shanghai Shimer...I'm thinking 2002-2004-ish.





I still use all of these from time to time.  They all apply fine although a couple stink to the high heavens.  I gave Smokin' in Havana to my daughter and several other OPI and Orlys but I forget the names.  I also gave away a bunch of old Maybelline, Loreal, Covergirl, Almay, Avon and Revlon polishes to my nieces as well that I would give blood to get back!  Especially the Almays.  They were gorgeous colours!

 
Mine too.  They don't do that on the nail, just on the swatch sticks.

Quote: Originally Posted by Christa W /img/forum/go_quote.gif

 I do notice when I have these on my color wheels or any other artificial nail they actually have a white chalky film over top of them.  All my Revlon do. 

 
I love seeing how the bottle designs have changed! 



Here's one of my 10 Sinful vintage polishes.  I don't know why I didn't photograph the others.



These still have some serious shine although the all seem to have faded over the years.  The one on the right has some pretty holos.  I hated the bottles though, so easy to tip over. 



I got lazy with the rest of them and just posted pics of the caps too!  I swear this is it!!!  This is all the vintage I have.



























 
Originally Posted by DonnaD /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Mine too.  They don't do that on the nail, just on the swatch sticks.
Oh thank God I thought I was crazy!

 
I have a bunch of the pre-Walmart Hard Candy nail polishes from back in the day. I'll post pics when I get home. They used to be one of my favorite brands. Does anyone remember the Hard Candy eyeshadows quads in the silver case? I think I still have a few of those too. I'm the worst makeup hoarder!

 
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I've never really thought of these as "vintage" before, but here's some Revlon polishes I've had since the late 90s/early 00s. I remember the old Wet n Wild polished fondly. My mom would paint my nails with the glitter polished when i was little. I thought it was the coolest thimg ever.
 

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