Ode to Dollar Tree

I am really excited about a buy I made last week. I went to the Dollar Tree, one of my favorite money saving stores on the planet, and found the beauty aisle chock full of Maybelline nail polish two-packs. I bought three:


Cool, huh? A nice selection of discontinued (but still fabulous)red, pink, and neutral Maybelline nail polish. As soon as I got home, I put on Maybelline Forever Strong + Iron in Wonder Melon. This looks like opaque hot pink crème in the bottle, but applies like a reddish-pink jelly. I usually don’t like the nail line to be visible, but the shine on this is outrageous, so I will forgive that.

Indoor with flash

It actually applied really smoothly with little to no unevenness - I could have left it at one coat for a sheer red-pink. This is one coat of Seche Ridge Filler, three coats of Wonder Melon, and one coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Topcoat. Love it! I had no obvious tipwear when I took it off two days later.

Natural light

I want to talk about the Dollar Tree for a minute. Ok, a lot of what they sell is junk. BUT...sometimes you can find a gem, especially in the beauty department! It's totally YMMV (your mileage may vary), but I find that if I check "my" Dollar Tree around twice a month, I will almost always walk away with a fabulous deal on name brand items, perhaps that have been discontinued, reformulated, or had a packaging change.

Interesting things that have been found at local Dollar Tree Stores:

1. My mom bought four glass coffee cups which were exactly the same ones she had bought previously at Bed, Bath, and Beyond the year before. Same brand and everything. Back then they were around $4.00 a piece. 75% off, score!

2. My boyfriend bought a fabulous leather Griffin brand iPhone case, exactly the type he was looking for. I really don't know prices of things like that (my cell phone is from 2004!) but I think it would easily have retailed for $10.00.

3. Cousins found Hanes undershirts for little boys, still in the sealed plastic package.

4. I bought a 3 pack of Gilligan and O'Malley socks made out of bamboo. I was a little confused by the bamboo, but I know Gilligan and O'Malley as a decent brand sold at Target, so I bought them. Very comfy, it turns out, and totally worth 33 cents a pair!

5. One of my favorite Dollar Tree finds: Fresh Step Litter Box Wipes! These are around $4.00 at Target, and I use them every time I clean out my little stinker's box. Needless to say, I stocked up. Speaking of pets, I've seen plenty of pet clothes that are normally sold at Wal Mart. Check around the change of seasons!

6. I've bought so much makeup at the Dollar Tree. Two-for-a-dollar Maybelline nail polishes are just the tip of the iceberg! In the past I've found Physicians Formula concealer, eyeshadow, and bronzer. There is usually a small selection of lipstick and lipgloss made by Almay and Revlon. I've also seen Cover Girl and Maybelline items. I hit the jackpot one day - I found Nivea and Vaseline body lotions that had an older bottle design. I also bought one of my favorite L'Oreal nail polishes at the Dollar Tree: Martini Olive (pictured below).