Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Glam Is A Lie

EDIT: Forgot to add that I did send Sally Hansen a letter on December 18th and as of today have not received a response. I will give them a couple more weeks to address the issue and then I'm taking this crap back to the store. :)

I was out shopping one day and something caught my eye as I was walking past the cosmetics department: bright, colorful boxes full of Sally Hansen nail products. I immediately went over to inspect. "Hmm, six great nail colors, two treatments and some tools, eh? Looks awesome! I have to have this!"

Since the set was $9.99, I decided I could wait to get it- it didn't seem to be in danger of selling out- the shelves were packed with these Sally Hansen Nail Glam party things.

I came home and asked the ladies on Makeup Alley's Nail Board if they had seen these, and they warned me that there was nothing good inside. I had a hard time believing that there was nothing good inside this bright, colorful, fun-looking box of polish, but now I know that I was wrong. Very wrong.

I couldn't get this kit out of my head, and I ended up buying four of them- two of the large, and two of the small.

Just look at this box! How could I pass this up?! I needed this! The box says:

Sally Hansen Nail Glam Party Pack
13 Amazing Nail Essentials
Get Great Stuff!
Your Party Pack Includes:
6 Great Nail Colors
2 Nail Treatments
5 Manicure Tools
____________________
13 Amazing Nail Essentials

Glam party! Amazing nail essentials! GET GREAT STUFF! Six great nail colors!! How could this be anything but awesome?

I mean, look up close at what the lady on the package is wearing:
Blue, hot pink, red, purple and silver 'skittles'! Wow, this is just the coolest nail gift set ever!!!

But I must have been a naughty girl this year, because all I got in my stocking was a big fat lump of FAIL:


WTF?!!!!! What the hell is this?!?! Where are the bright cheerful colors advertised on the front of the box? WHY WOULD YOU PLAY THIS CRUEL JOKE ON ME, SALLY HANSEN?! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?!?!?!

Look at this! Out of the six "GREAT NAIL COLORS" I was supposed to get (oops, left one out of this picture! It was a duplicate and it's pictured below), this one was completely clear:
No, you're not imagining this. That bottle of clear nail polish clearly says Sally Hansen Nail Color on the front. Yes, Nail Color. What color is this, exactly?

But, hey, it's not all bad! Look! I got one of those amazing Sally Hansen Fire Opal Nail Glazes!



...NOT!

Seriously, what kind of a sick, demented joke is this? Putting clear nail polish inside a Fire Opal polish bottle. Some sadistic bastard must have created these nail sets. "They think they're getting a Fire Opal Nail Glaze but it's really just clear polish in a clever disguise! Muahahahahaaa!!! "

This just pisses me off. I try not to get too worked up over nail polish, but come ON! WTF IS THIS SHIT?!?! ARE THEY SERIOUS?!?!?! Does the package not clearly say, "Get Great Stuff!"? Does it not say, "Nail Glam Party Pack"? I don't know what kind of party they had in mind... a wake? Whatever party they're having, I'm glad I wasn't invited.

How about we take a little peek at what the other sets had inside.

Like I said, I got two of each kit. This is the second large kit. Let's see here, we have pale pink (duplicate from the first set), clear inside a Fire Opal bottle, yet another clear, ugly mauve, ugly coral, boring ugly mauve red in a square bottle (also a duplicate from the first set).

Here's one of the smaller kits:

Oh, this one is a Nail Glam Salon. How special.

I think this salon probably won't be in business very long. Two sheer pinks and a red. Tres chic, no?

What's even worse is that none of the bottles even have labels:



They're all completely blank. No shade names. Nothing. You aren't even allowed to know the name of the ugly colors you got in your kit.

It's like they just took whatever leftover bottles they had sitting around and filled them with the lamest polishes they could think of. Instead of just throwing out what they couldn't sell, they packaged it up in a deceptive little package and sold it for $10! Genius! Make them think they're getting what's advertised and then watch the disappointment on their gullible faces as they open the box only to find clear, pink and mauve!

I have always thought favorably of Sally Hansen. They consistently make some of the most beautiful and creative polishes of all. I have so many awesome Sally Hansen polishes. Nail Prisms, Fire Opal and Star Opal Nail Glaze, Magical Nail Makeup, Salon, Lacquer Shine, Xtreme Wear Hard As Nails, Chromes, I could go on and on. How could a company that has made such incredible and unique products sell such a horrible and deceptive box of garbage? It's not like they have a shortage of good polish to put in those boxes! At least give me one out of six! If I got one good polish out of one of those boxes, maybe just one Magical, a Prism, or even just a color that's not pink, mauve or red, I would be a happy girl. But no. Nothing. At all.

I wouldn't have a problem with these Nail Glam sets if they weren't so deceptive. The box is bright and colorful, decorated with blocks of vibrant colors. The model is clearly seen wearing several different shades of polish. The box even says,"Nail Glam" and "Get Great Stuff!". It is false advertising, plain and simple. If the box had said, "Boring Pink and Mauve Nail Salon" or "Grandma Gertrude's Ladylike and Uninteresting Nail Party Kit" or "Polishes We Put In The Wrong Bottle And Can't Sell Because They're Defective Super Awesome Happy Fun Time Value Kit" I wouldn't be complaining. But I am complaining because that's not what it says on the box. The box is bright pink and blue and says Nail Glam Party Kit. It's a lie.


I have no tolerance for false advertisement. The consumer gets screwed enough as it is even without false advertising. This really gets my panties in a bunch. Bright packaging. Model with cool polish. Claims of "glam" and "great" product. Clear nail polish being sold as a color. Fire Opal bottle filled with clear polish. Am I over-reacting? Should I not be upset about this? This is deceptive and dishonest! Of course I should be upset about this!

So, I suppose this is my warning to you, my fellow nail junkie. Beware of false advertising or anything that seems to good to be true.


Tee hee.... Had to do it.

56 comments:

  1. Good for you! That kind of shoddy product should only be found in a dollar store. I hope their Marketing team see this blog and wise up.

    I know I definetely won't be purchasing their products for a while.

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  2. Return them! I would. Bring them back to the store. That is just wrong. I normally don't like to return but when it is blatent false advertising like this...no problem. Poof on them

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  3. And sometimes we complaint about people opening pkgs at stores. Well this is probably one of the reasons why.

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  4. I would return them and write to the company. If you tell them you are a nail polish blogger and normally love their products and do FREE ADVERTISING for them all the time, then they might listen. That's ridiculous of them to put that crap out!

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  5. I agree with Vampy. You have some ill blogger-power steez, Scrang! You should be saying, "Fear me, Sally Hansen! Fear my wrath!!"

    When I read your twitter about this incident, I didn't realize how serious it was. Dang. You got got... along with countless other women/girls/hip mamas/super cool g'mas.

    I am officially boycotting SH. I thought the Tracy Reese for SH Fall 2008 was good stuff... but such a deceiving stunt like this makes me too mad.

    Geez... even the Bratz manicure set was straight-forward and showed the colors. (don't ask how I know that)

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  6. I totally agree that you should return all of them and write the company. That is just straight up HORSESHIT!!!! (pardon me-- but I mean it! It IS!)

    Love,
    KimmyD

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  7. Sorry, but this too funny. And why does shiz always seems to happen to you? I hope your cash back on these lemons.

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  8. I bought the smaller salon set box, and all I got was 2 bottles of drippy, clear, beigey colors. I was sooooo disappointed. Darn you Sally Hansen, I wanted, I expected color. Im glad I only wasted $5 and not more.....

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  9. I am so glad I didn't buy this! I almost got sucked in until somone told me you get some lame pinks, reds, and clear. That's bad enough, but to have the nerve to put clear polish in the Fire Opal bottle is just plain false advertising! I think you're right. It's like they took all the rejects and poor sellers and threw them together in a kit. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the clear in a Fire Opal bottle was some sort of manufacturing mistake, and they just found a creative way to "fix" it.

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  10. Just a quick response to Natasha's dollar store comment: I have actually seen better nail stuff in dollar stores than this. My local dollar tree gets two packs of discontinued Covergirl and Revlon colors. They're nice colors too. Someone on a forum told me they found Covergirl's "crackle" polishes at their local Dollar Tree.

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  11. I agree with Vampy Varnish! Return them, send them a detailed former-fan letter, and continue warning people about the fraudulent fun they promised.

    I almost bought these as fun stocking gifts for my friends because I thought the colors were fun, I would have been so embarrassed had I not decided to get the Zoya cubes instead.

    BTW Scrangie, I really appreciate how you cover every polish from low to high end and your pictures are fabulous.

    Happy new year!

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  12. Send this story to Consumerist.com!!! Return that crap & spread this news as far & wide as you can. Big name companies will only listen if you make a big enough stink that they lose money.

    I am so glad I didn't buy this kit. I was so close, too. Glad I didn't waste $10. That's just ridiculous, I absolutely HATE when companies do this kind of shit. "Hmm, we have all these bottles of rejects & manufacturing oopsies, what do we do with them?" "Put 'em in a stocking stuffer kit & make it FUN!" Did they honestly think that even ONE woman would open this up, see the 'colors', & NOT be angry??? It boggles the mind!

    The box is blatant false advertising. Clear is not a "color". I probably won't buy any more Sally Hansen products anymore after reading about this, their stuff is overpriced & they always discontinue everything I like anyway(Hello- Nail Prismz & Magic Nail Makeup! I HATE YOU SALLY!!! Bitch!).

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  13. I was at Rite Aid with my niece the morning of Thanksgiving. She found the kit and handed it to me thinking it would be something I would like. I told her I thought it was really weird they didn't list the color names on the box. I was afraid that 1) it would contain dupes of colors I owned 2) it would be a nightmare like you described. You couldn't even franken anything cool with what came in those kits. *two well manicured middle fingers raised*.

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  14. MASSIVE FAIL!!!! Dying to see if they get back to you or not.

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  15. That is just total crap! I am sorry. I have always thought of SH as a "safe" brand. I'm glad you warned us about this - I'd have bought one, too!

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  16. I'm so sorry that happened to you -- it's insulting, misleading, fraudulent and many, many other well-chosen, but not so nice words. But I gotta say it -- I gotta -- I laughed my ass off as I read this. I mean "Polishes We Put In The Wrong Bottle And Can't Sell Because They're Defective Super Awesome Happy Fun Time Value Kit"? OMG I was trying to read that to someone else and couldn't get through it without laughing! And I was in a piss-poor mood, too. So sorry for the anger, but thanks for the laughs!

    nivipa

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  17. My mother and I bought the same thing ....we bought 3. We were very sad at the lie. Even that orange bottle that turned out to be a mucus color wasn't QUITE as disappointing as the supposed "implements"

    COME ON 2 SETS OF TOE SEPERATORS??!! *

    We were in denial...but seeing this reminds me once again about our rip off. This was a very cheap, mean and misleading product. They shouldn't show gorgeous colors on the box and then give people sheer, boring colors *especially the mucuosy white color*. Thank you Scrangie for calling them on this rip-off!!!!!

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  18. I'm sorry, I wrote that last comment. Our boxes had two pairs of toe seperators *which we don't use*, a giant pink cuticle pusher a rough pink nail board, and a small pairs of nail clippers *supposedly five implemnts*. I'm happy that you didn't get two pairs of toe seperators like we did. Can two pairs of toe seperators even be considered 2 implements? We got the crappiest of the crap, I suppose. I am happy they gave you a pair of toenail clippers in your's. We both were disappointed in our "glam" boxes. We didn't even have the heart to give the third to our sister.

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  19. Yep...@ least your square bottle had a COLOR, my mom's is clear....and the the organge-y fire opal bottles had this weird bronze color.

    ITA with it being like grandma colors, I only liked a couple colors, and only as sheers...bunch of clear.

    It did however give me a chance to try two new basecoats, one of which I like. And I did buy them for half off... still, I don't like that SH did that.

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  20. I'm proud you wrote the letter and sent it. Bait and switch is wrong.
    Happy New Year!

    Scott

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  21. I hafta laugh at myself for buying this. My justification: 6 Sally Hansen colors for only $10?

    I laugh at the yellowish clear polish. I was so disappointed I at least wanted the clear yellow to leave a yellow cast on my nails. Now that is desperation! I actually WANTED yellowed nails. I DO NOT CONSIDER CLEAR A COLOR!! I wanted that gorgeous purple portrayed on the box. There is actually a nice picture on the box with the model sporting a full set of red cute short nails....too bad that red wasn't included >_<

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  22. What!?!?! This pisses me OFF!
    Seriously, It is false advertising! Return them and complain to Sally Hansen, because this is just so wrong! I mean SH is a great polish brand, WTF are they doing something like this!? Gaaah!

    Happy New Year Scrangie!:)
    And happy new polish year, (because this was from last year:P, you know)

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  23. AHAHAHA The new names you thought up are awesome!! XD Yeah, though, I remember when you posted about this at MUA, and thank you for informing us because I almost bought one too! They should be flogged for this! It's like the opposite of Dollar Tree finds. Where Dollar Tree has like, polishes that didn't sell, but some are awesome, and they repackaged them, these just suck. Sorry hon!

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  24. That is so sad... Pinks and mauves... Well, I hope you get an answer from SH soon, explaining this...

    Happy New Year! Hope lots of good polishes comes in your way in 2009!

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  25. lmao at the commentor who said, "i actually wanted yellowed nails!!" lololol

    personally, i NEVER, EVER, EVER believe any sort of "fun pack" without opening it. ever. i don't mean to be nasty, but what were you thinking not opening the thing before purchasing??

    craving a surprise? i guess if you own every nail color known to man, you need a taste of the unexpected now and then ;) :)

    definitely write a letter. personally i llllooove strongly worded letters... and i bet youre very good at them!

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  26. I'm sorry that this happened to you and I know that you are upset but I can't stop laughing at your descriptions. That must be the funniest post I've read in a long time!

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  27. That was AWESOME!! Thank you for calling Sally out. I've got a few beefs with Sally Hansen, but this takes the cake! I'll be anxious to see the response,if they actually make one.

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  28. I am shocked and saddened by the load of crap that Sally Hansen is selling here. What a bunch of BS!!!!

    Well, Here is hoping your 2009 is filled with much joy, sparkly polishes and success is getting SH to recall these party packs from hell!

    Happy New Year!

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  29. Go get 'em, Scrangie! Send them flaming emails and letters until they respond. How in the HELL could a company do that crap? Clear is NOT A COLOR! They should have labeled that box Sally Hansen Nail Snooze Lame Pack. Damn them. Damn them straight to nail polish hell!

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  30. I am so glad you posted this. I almost bought this during one of my occasional (okay, frequent) drugstore nail polish trips. I thought the box looked interesting, but decided against it because I had promised myself to buy only buy the particular polishes (the L'Oreal winter whites; still can't find them) I was looking for. I find that kind of deception so despicable; I was assuming they would have a color from their Lacquer Shine line due to the colorful box. That's worse than most of the stuff I've seen at the Dollar Tree and Big Lots, shame shame Sally Hansen!

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  31. Scrangie,
    I almost fell for the same scam.
    In my neighborhood Rite-Aid on Christmas Eve, I was checking out the "50% markdown" aisle, and these mani sets were 50% off.

    I stood there in the aisle with the box in my hand for a long time, but my intuition was roiling:
    if these were legit, why hide the bottles/colors of the nail enamel?
    Why not display them in a see-thru plastic case so the consumer would know what she was getting?

    I put it down, and walked away, trusting my gut.

    Either Sally Hansen took a cheap route to find a quick way to eliminate their inventory of polishes that weren't selling....

    OR (my best guess), a re-seller bought up the Sally Hansen old inventory (with a caveat from the Sally Hansen company to use the Sally Hansen name in marketing)and repackaged them as a 'manicure bonus salon kit' as a Christmas gimmick...

    But this is poor publicity for Sally Hansen, who gets a large market share from the drugstore industry.

    I think you'll hear from Sally Hansen after there is a lawsuit or setttlement between the Sally Hansen company and whatever low rent re-seller bought up the inventory.

    Sally Hansen has a mainstream name and a reputation in the beauty industry to maintain.

    I thank you for broadcasting the scam to the Nail enamel fanatics, but wait and see....

    I believe the Nail Care trend is an exploding market, and this will be taken care of.... the industry loves you, and all of us who spend a lot of cash and time on our addiction.

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  32. LOL @ "Grandma Gertrude's Ladylike and Uninteresting Nail Party Kit". That is the most pathetic piece of trash I've ever seen.

    I saw this at my local grocery concern-- the only reason I didn't buy was because the bottles and the colors the model was wearing didn't appeal to me. I certainly would not have guessed all that was inside was a bunch of clears and crappy mauves. FAIL.

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  33. I got one of the big ones when they went to half price after Christmas. It was pretty much the same experience you had, including the clear. Clear!? Come on! I might have been ok spending $5 on this had even one thing been cool, but alas, even the treatments were lame.

    Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect an answer back from SH. I sent them an e-mail a while ago asking where I could find the Salon LEs and never got a response. Consensus is that their CS is total crap.

    But your post made me LOL (a lot of other readers too) which brought some good out of a crappy situation. ;-)

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  34. Something didn't seem right about these to me. There wasn't even a little peephole to try to glimpse a few colors. Obviously we know why now. What a rip. Rock on for sending them the letter. I'd return them now- don't even bother waiting.

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  35. I bought one of these thinking it would be something special and got crap as well. The one I bought was the $10 kit (the larger one) and it included everything in the exact same colors as you have shown. I'm so upset by this.

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  36. Well...even if one wanted to take a peek, they couldn't with this product without completely ruining the packaging. The stuff was actually taped into a little brown box inside the big colorful box. I really should have known better...it was way to good to be true. What was insulting was the slip of paper that came with the "party pack". It was a suggestion to host a nail party with these "colors" and "tools". I bought the large pack...I was one of those stuck with two pairs of toe separators as mentioned above.
    Actually, I remember buying a party pack like this from Sally Hansen a couple of years ago and the pack was MUCH better *the tools and colors*. Of, course that was when there wasn't a nail craze...so maybe the marketers knew that there were polish fiends out there susceptible enough to pounce on this "offer" with products that were inferior to past party packs. Unfortunately....on the package there is a ** on the part that says "six GREAT nail colors". On the bottom footnote it says *colors vary by kit* I guess they were trying to cover their butts anticipating customer dissatisfaction? However, looks to me as though we ALL got conned by the sheer pinks, ugly mauves, yellowish clears, and lame tools.

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  37. LMAO!! I'm still laughing at "The Glam is a lie..."

    (THE CAKE IS A LIE!!)

    They should have used a nice nanna pic on the box, rather than that model. Would have been more fitting.

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  38. I was at Kmart today, over here in Australia, saw this kit on display and started laughing, remembering this post. And get this, they wanted $25 for it over here!!!!

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  39. This looks like the mastermind of some guy who was hired in the Marketing Department via some nepotistic relationship at SH, no?

    At least you are ready for Bingo night!

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  40. That really sucks! I'm so glad you shared this with us though. I saw these at the drugstore too and I was wondering what exactly was in them, as it didn't seem like you could peek into the box before purchasing. I hope you get a response from SH.

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  41. WoW! I cant believe it. Everytime I am at my local drugstore, which is really quite often, I have wanted to pick this up not even knowing what was included. Seeing the bright bold colors on the box I've always thought that was what I'd be getting if I bought it. I've always thought about picking up the large box but thought I'd wait for a sale 50%-75%off before doing so. I really love Sally Hansen products but man this is just so shoddy of them. Hope they reply back to you soon and you will share what they said. You should return it.

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  42. Yes, you totally right! It is false advertising and very disappointing on there part! I hope your letter was very nasty.....

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  43. Whoors!!!!!!!! That is total crap! I've not seen these but I would have been tempted to buy it too.

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  44. LMFAO! Major fail.

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  46. Oh my god you are hilarious

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  47. Yeah, I boycotted Sally Hansen about a year ago when I tried their Complete Care 4-in-1 Moisturizing Treatment and their Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier... and they DAMAGED MY NAILS!!! They peeled uncontrollably! Something my nails have never done before! I'm back to Barielle and 10 long strong healthy nails!

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  48. It's December 2009 and they are STILL creating and selling their little "Glam Scam" packages! I bought one 2 days after this last Thanksgiving!!! I do believe it is their way of ridding old polish and tools! I guess your letter didn't work :(((

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  49. I had picked up that exact stupid box and put it right back down because there was no way for me to SEE the polishes I was getting. For 10$ I better know what I am getting.

    I am so so glad you made this blog entry and that clear polish in a opal bottle is total shit. Horrible horrible rip off. I hope they see this and at least feel a tinge of embarrassment.

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  50. I tracked this post down becuase i saw one at big lots for $4. i bought it to see what was inside, 2 fast trying top coats that smelled HORRIBLE! toe seperators, two nail clippers, an emery board and a bag with COTTON BALLS, scrangie, cotton balls are NOT tools! i got a mauve, clear in an insta dri bottle, a beigy manilla envelope color, a shimmery white thinner than water, a red with NO BRUSH and some pinkish reddish coral disaster.

    so i returned it 2 minutes later.

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  51. I stumbled across your blog after googling "Sally Hansen Nail Glam" after I opened the one I bought this afternoon.

    Yes, they're back.

    Yes, they still suck hardcore.

    I had never purchased one before but for a $10 price tag I was guaranteed "5 GREAT Nail Colors, 2 Treatments, 4 Manicure Tools". This time the footnote at the bottom says "CONTAINS" and proceeds to list 5 nail enamels and 6 awesome, great, love them all products varying from base coats to drying drops. Nowhere does it say MAY contain or contents VARY. Anycrappynailpolish, like I said I googled this "glam" pack after finding that mine contained...

    1 orange nail color pen, opened and dried out
    1 very odd gold/clear polish, runs like water
    2 bottles of a line that was discontinued in '06
    1 Insta-Dri, gorgeous pink bottle, awful BLUE polish inside!
    1 Super Shine, the ONLY product listed after "CONTAINS" that was actually in the box aside from the polishes.

    The rest of my GLAM (awful surprise) pack:

    1 plastic cuticle pusher
    1 toe separator (yes, just 1.. not a pair, just 1)
    2 itsy-bitsy-smaller-than-my-infant-daughter's nail clippers
    1 emery board

    WHAT?! The marketing genius behind these used the wrong adjective. Glam should be replaced with junk, possibly surprise, or hell, "Surprise Junk Party Pack".

    These are back for 2010 holiday season and I learned my lesson today. Stay away, far away!

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  52. OMG, these things seem to come back year after year! I posted about one I got recently (I so could have put that $10 towards better polish!) and someone's comment led me to this post. If only I'd read this first... at least I got a bright orange inta-dri and a decent blue nail pen. But, they put in 2 pairs of toe separators - each counting as a "tool". Crazy people!

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  53. You had me laughing so hard!!! Great, awesome, rant! LMFAO!

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  54. So so awful... did you EVER hear back from them? The glam is, as you say, a lie!

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  55. Sometimes when I have a frustrating day, I come back and read this post because it makes me laugh so much. Your writing is amazing! My favorite line: "Oh, this one is a Nail Glam Salon. How special." Cracks me up!

    Thank you for writing this review. Not only did it warn me away from these Lies of Glam, it brightens my day a few times a year.

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