Thursday, January 22, 2015

Ciate Bargain Finds

In the same rounds of shopping that netted me the OPI finds I shared a couple weeks ago, I came across some Ciate polishes at discount prices. The biggest find was the Mini Mani Month advent calendar from I think 2013. This was the last one in the store; it had been opened and some of the little doors ripped off inside, but all the polishes seemed to be there, so I brought it home.



The contents were shown on back of box (of course this didn't keep folks from opening—maybe it was that mystery polish, but that wasn't one of the doors that was ripped off, so I don't know):



I picked a trio of the minis to play with: Party Shoes, Encore, and Snow Globe.



Encore is an orange red creme; I put two coats on as a base. The formula was very smooth. On my middle finger, I added two coats of Party Shoes, which has gold and iridescent glitter in a clear base. On my ring finger, I layered one coat of Party Shoes then one of Snow Globe, which is a shredded iridescent glitter. My pinky got two coats of Snow Globe on top of Encore. All fingers got clear topcoat.





One of the minis was a pastel peach shimmer that reminded me very strongly of the sort of polish I lived in during my conservative phase in the mid-80s, when I was working as an accountant just out of college and trying very hard to be a proper, respectable grownup. (I got over pretty much all of that eventually.) For old times' sake, I put on three coats of this one, called Members Only. Looking at it closely, it's got some tiny coppery flecks that might have been just too flashy for my buttoned up former self, but current me looks at it and finds it incredibly subdued.





The mystery full size polish in the set was Serendipity, which has a clear base filled with small wood rose glitter. I wasn't sure how opaque it would be, so I put it on top of Members Only, doing two coats of Serendipity plus clear topcoat.





I won't pay full price for Ciate because I'm still miffed about how they handled the caviar manicure issue (The PolishAholic did a great post on it back in the day), but at TJ Maxx/Marshalls prices, I will. I do like the bottles, how they nestle together so nicely, and a lot of the formulas are quite good (Snow Globe was harder to work with, but shredded glitters tend to be that way).

9 comments:

  1. Great find! I know I paid full price for this when it came out :-O

    So did not know about that whole stink with them! Just goes to show you eh. Shooting themselves in the foot....

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  2. really good bargain, I love Ciate polishes very much :)

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  3. Great finds are irresistible LOL - even if it's Ciate ;)

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  4. This box seems amazing! Great variety of products!

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  5. Great find! I won't pay full price because... wow... expensive! lol Discount is always different, though. ;)

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  6. Funny about that, remembering things. I won't buy Ciate either because of that caviar issue, there are too many other brands I'd rather support. That said, I really like Members Only! I crave a palate cleanser every once in a while and this one looks pretty.

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  7. I had not heard about that caviar manicure issue with Ciaté! I don't usually buy from that brand very often anyway since they're pretty overpriced here in Sweden I think... so not much harm done there! Pretty manicure nonetheless!

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  8. What a marvellous find dear Karen!!!... Where I live I don't find nothing similar to this one, what a shame!!! =(
    Thanks for sharing =) Kisses
    Marghe

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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.