This is the majority of the polishes that featured in my upcoming post back in July…I had expected them to be here sooner than this but they’ve finally arrived thank goodness.  Before I go into the polishes, I just want to say for the record that I ordered all of these from Nail Etc and had the worst experience and certainly won’t be using their website again.  If you don’t plan on shopping with them, skip ahead, the polishes are fabulous.  But the issues I’ve had:

1. Took exactly a month for my parcel to arrive.  Anything I’ve previously received from California has taken roughly 10 days max to arrive – the parcel didn’t even dispatch for 4 days after I got the shipping notification.
2. It also got stuck in customs because my $200 polish haul was declared as a gift of nail care products worth $30…suspicious much?  I would have paid less than $1 an item which would be easy to see if the parcel was xrayed.  The package wasn’t opened but I’m sure it was the reason it got stuck in customs.  As Australia doesn’t charge tax on anything imported upto $1000, this wasn’t even necessary.  I understand this is useful for other countries where they have a lower import tax level so I did want to pass that info for those of you wanting to avoid import taxes on hauls if you choose to use Nail Etc., not just my frustration.
3. I’m pretty positive one bottle of OPI polish is a fake – I’m going to put a post up about it some time this week.  Want to know how to spot a fake?  Ebay Australia actually have a guide to spotting fake OPIs which is great.  You can read it here.
4. The polishes I wanted most out of all of this was Essie’s Braziliant collection – I looked at mine this morning to find that my bottle of Braziliant had been substituted with Vermillionaire without contacting me.
5. One item – Essie’s Matte About You top coat must have been out of stock, I got a random refund from them in early August and it’s not in the box but I never got any communication to tell me that.  My shipped order notification says that it shipped with everything else.
6. Their customer service is terrible.  I contacted them once to ask when they were getting the Braziliant collection and it took 4 days to get a one line reply telling me it would be there soon.  Then again a week ago I contacted them to say my parcel hadn’t arrived and ask for a tracking number, this time it took them 5 days to reply with another one liner (that didn’t make sense) and the tracking number the day after the parcel had arrived.  I don’t think I have it in me to complain one of my polishes is wrong now too.

The Complete Haul

L-R Essie Vermillionaire, Meet Me At Sunset, Too Too Hot, Super Bossa Nova, Smooth Sailing, Absolutely Shore

 

L-R China Glaze Cha Cha Cha, Blue Iguana, Senorita Bonita, 108 Degrees, Papaya Punch

L-R China Glaze White Cap, Below Deck, Starboard, Life Preserver and Ahoy!

 

L-R Zoya Charla and Sooki

L-R OPI Hot and Spicy, La Paz-itiviely Hot

I mainly bought this for the cosmetic bag as its super cute and the perfect size for polishes for when I travel.

L-R OPI Start to Finish (15ml), Pedicure by OPI samples of Massage, Soften and Smooth (30ml each), OPI Expert Touch Nail Polish Remover (30ml)

Again same here, I bought this set to take away with me when I travel for work.  I’m curious about the Pedicure by OPI range too and enjoy a good sample :)

Contents of OPI Summer Pedicure Special Pack

L-R OPI Avojuice Coconut Melon, Cran & Berry, Jasmine, Raspberry Violet, Crisp Apple, Mango

Lots more yummy sample size products!  Ive already tried Coconut Melon and it is fabulous, leaving my hands very soft and only taking a minute or two to sink in but maybe a little too heavily scented for my taste.

L-R Seche Vite Top Coat, 3 x CND Solar Oil (3.7ml each), Poshe Super Fast Drying Top Coat

I ordered a standard sized CND Solar Oil but I guess they were sold out as I received 4 sample sized bottles instead – I gave one away to my mum.

OPI Expert Touch Lint Free Nail Wipes – 200 Pack

These were on clearance for $2.50 so I figured I would try them out and see if they’re worth the extra effort to obtain over normal cotton wool pads.

So as you can see, I did stretch my $200 tax return a long way with Nail Etc which was the primary reason I picked their website as their prices were quite low and they also carry a wide range of polishes – the only brands I wanted that they don’t carry were Nubar and Misa.  In the future I would say it’s highly unlikely I would buy from them again based on my poor experience and the fact that they don’t accept Paypal so if there are any disputes, there isn’t Paypal as a backup.  I paid $44 for shipping all of this.  They have a scale on their website and you pay dependent on the number of bottles you purchase.  For a small purchase, their international shipping is quite expensive (starting at $5 for one bottle!) however it improves quite considerably once you break the 10 bottle barrier.  On average I paid between $4-$7 per bottle of polish plus shipping and I also found a 10% discount voucher which allowed me to buy the Zoya polishes as an afterthought.

I have a couple more small packages due soon so I look forward to having plenty to show you in upcoming posts now rather than having to raid my stash.  Now time to go and pick what to wear first!