Can I just take a minute to talk about how much I love the vintage China Glaze bottles? Something about that ridged cap and wonderfully 90s logo is just so dang delightful to me. I mean, look at it. How could you not love that design? (This isn't my photo, btw... it's from an OG nail blog called Polished Claws Up!)
Anyway. So I've been poking around the internet for these old CG polishes (how do you think I stumbled across that amazing listing?) when I found something that's got me completely puzzled, but weirdly hopeful.
It's a website called CacheBeauty, and it looks like they're a salon supply store selling all kinds of stuff, seemingly specializing in hair products. If you want cutting shears, styling capes, or even barber poles, this is the place to go. However, they seem to have a small section dedicated to nail stuff. And they only sell one brand of polish - China Glaze, of course. But here's the catch. When you click on the name of each polish, it shows you either a swatch or a picture of the bottle. And some of them have the vintage style bottles.
Pardon my French, but
HOLY SH*T.
So this is what you see when you click on that link. Just let it sink in. I didn't alter this photo in any way, folks, I promise.
Anyway. As is so graciously highlighted in neon green, there is a color chart available. I took a look at that and it seems only to have the newer colors (and when I say "newer", I'm talking about "not in the vintage bottle". I'm sure they're all old as heck). But some of the colors listed, such as no. 108 "The Rush" as seen at the bottom of the pic, are not listed there. I could not find a swatch of that particular color anywhere online. But when you click the underlined blue text...
I'm having a hard time believing that there's just some beauty supply warehouse out in Arkansas (that's where CacheBeauty is located) just full of vintage CG polishes. But at the same time, it all makes sense. Here's why:
- I'm getting the sense that CacheBeauty doesn't do a whole lot of business, so all the old polishes remain unsold. This is also reflected in the site's old-school aesthetic.
- They don't specialize in nail care, so it wouldn't be anyone's go-to place for polish. This leaves much of its stock to remain.
- The fact that all of the polishes do not appear to be vintage is also promising. If every single polish was vintage, I'd be a little suspicious that something fishy was afoot. But the fact that only 5 out of what must be at least 100 colors seems to be vintage... well, I think I can believe that.
- The vintage nail polish market is not a popular one. There's no reason for them to lie about selling out-of-date nail polish when the general public isn't interested in that. If they were doing that, they'd also probably hike up the price. As you can see, they currently have it set to $5.50 a bottle, which is pretty average for a bottle of nail polish and actually a little less than what CG tends to go for in stores these days.
Doing some more research, it turns out that 4 out of 5 listed colors are part of an unnamed skydiving-themed collection released sometime before 2000. One of the colors is called Cloud Nine, and upon googling this color I was met with a frosty white that looked nothing like the pink creme shown on CacheBeauty. Turns out, there were two polishes called Cloud Nine, with one being released in this vintage collection. This matches the one on CacheBeauty. We can now confirm that they are definitely selling vintage polish.
Oh... my... gosh...
A CacheBeauty order is most definitely, well... in order. Y'all have no idea how excited I am over this discovery! Maybe at some point I could buy more polishes and re-sell them (at a fair price, of course) to other polish enthusiasts who are searching for vintage CG! I really shouldn't be getting ahead of myself in case CacheBeauty is just a big scam, but oh boy... I can't help myself!
However this story turns out, there will be a follow-up, I promise. Until next time...
P.S. I also realized that the red polish in the center of the second photo is for sale under the name Flying Dragon. It seems China Glaze has released a few colors under this name, but I'm wondering if it's another Cloud Nine situation...
P.P.S. I'm pretty sure I was incorrect about the Flying Dragon thing. However, I think #119 Mink Frost might be vintage too. I've looked up this color and I only found one photo of a new-style bottle, but even that is not 100% confirmed to be Mink Frost. All other photos are of vintage bottles. Upon doing further research, Mink Frost was released alongside Chinchilla Vanilla (which is offered on CacheBeauty with a vintage bottle) in the 1999 Winter Coats collection. So it's safe to say that that one is vintage too (and even if it's not, that's fine because it's a beautiful color). I won't be able to buy these polishes until after Christmas, so I should really stop obsessing over them until then.
Also, the new total of the polishes would be $33, without shipping. Yeah, I was wrong about shipping. It's super expensive no matter what! The cheapest options are $9.95, and priority shipping is $24.95... ugh! I would only go with priority because who knows how long it'll take if I just choose regular mail? It could take a week or two, and I'm an impatient girl! Decisions, decisions...
P.P.P.S. I remembered that I've got a couple checks that are being cashed, and I got a belated birthday
card with another check in it for quite a chunk of money! You know what that means...
I just can't stop obsessing over these colors. That's a little-known fact about me... I tend to obsess a bit when I really like something. Of course nail polish in general is my main obsession, but sometimes it'll stem off into smaller offshoots. For example, Revlon Street Wear was (and still is, to an extent) an example of that. Obviously, it's currently China Glaze and the CacheBeauty collection. I gotta get my hands on it, specifically Sundiver. I'm also interested in The Rush, Breathless, and Cloud Nine simply because of how little information there is about them on the web. We know vaguely when they were released and what they look like in the bottle. No pictures aside from the ones on the listing, swatches, no exact release year... nothing. I want to be the first to figure out just what these polishes are and document it on the web. That being said, I should have all my money cashed by Saturday and will purchase it shortly after. I think I'll be going with 3-day UPS shipping because I figure either way, I’m gonna be spending extra on shipping. Why not just put that extra money to good use? I promise this is the last addition to this loooooong post. I’ll be back fairly soon with those colors.
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