Pictures & Swatches: Sally Hansen Summer 2014 Limited Edition Color Destinations Passport to Rio Xtreme Wear Collection

Purchased by Me

If you've been following my coverage of the Sally Hansen Summer 2014 Limited Edition Color Destinations Collections (not to be confused with the Spring 2014 Color Vibrations collections, which I covered a few months back), then you know that these are all beach-themed displays that feature various Sally Hansen nail color lines. Here's a quick summary of the all of the Summer 2014 Color Destinations displays I've covered to date:

• Click here for my review/swatches of the Palm Beach Jellies
• Click here to see the Moroccan Express Insta-Dris
• Click here to see the Bermuda Breeze Diamond Strengths 
• Click here to see the South Beach Shores Salon Effects
• Click here to see the Complete Salon Manicure Limited Edition Summer 2014 shades (which may or may not be part of the Color Destinations Collection)

I believe that in every post above, I mentioned that I was REALLY hoping that Sally Hansen would release an Xtreme Wear line of glitters in this collection, and guess what? THERE IS ONE!

Many, many thanks to reader Meghan (@cupcakecore on Twitter) for being the first to alert me to this collection a few days ago. I immediately went on the hunt for these as soon as Meghan told me about them, and I found them this weekend at Walgreens. So I have tons of pics from Meghan (and some I took myself) to share with you today, plus swatches of the polishes I purchased. So let's get to it:

Sally Hansen Summer 2014 Limited Edition Color Destinations

Passort to Rio Xtreme Wear Collection

(retail: $2.99 each, 0.40 oz)

This polishes in this collection contain all MATTE glitters (no sparkle) in clear bases.

There are eight shades in this display and Meghan was nice enough to share bottles shots of each:

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Fiesta

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Samba

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Tidal Rave

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Carnival

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Beach Ball

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Fruit-ta-ta

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Splash

image credit: Meghan for Nouveau Cheap

Copa-banana

Here are more pics of the display I spotted at Walgreens:

Fiesta, Samba

Samba, Tidal Rave

Carnival, Beach Ball 

Fruit-ta-ta, Splash, Copa-banana

And here are swatches of the four shades I purchased:

Carnival, Splash, Samba, Fruit-ta-ta

 Fruit-ta-ta

In the above photo, I thought I would do a fun glitter gradiant over Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, but you can see that it was a complete FAIL. The clear base is SO thick and goopy that it started to bubble almost instantly, and even after wiping down my brush as best as I could, I couldn't avoid depositing lots of the clear base onto my nails when I was trying to add more glitter to my tips. I didn't even bother with clean-up in the pic above because I immediately removed this to try again:

One coat of Fruit-ta-ta over Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint
(plus top coat)

As you can see, there are still of bubbles here. I even tried to apply a quick-dry top coat, hoping it might minimize the look of the bubbles (wishful thinking) but it didn't. 

Splash

One coat of Splash over Wet n Wild Tickled Pink
(plus top coat)

Ugh. This one bubbled even more, and no amount of top coat could save it. Again, I tried so hard to wipe down my brush without removing all of the glitter, but the clear base is just so thick and goopy, while the glitter is so sparse. This combination means you will always have a lot of clear base and a very small amount of glitter on your brush at any given time. Unless of course you're able to go fishing with your brush and pick up extra glitter, in which case you'll have a flood of clear polish on your brush as well. And we all know that leads to even more bubbling (as well as polish that never dries).

Carnival

One coat of Carnival over China Glaze Mahogany Magic
(plus top coat)

Yep, more bubbles. I don't want to repeat myself, so just read what I wrote above for Splash and you'll get the idea.

Samba

One coat of Samba over Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris
(plus top coat)

You might be thinking, "Finally! No bubbles!" but you would be wrong. There are tons of bubbles here, but you can't see them as well against the black polish. This one bubbled just as much as the others.

Additional thoughts:

In the bottle, these polishes looks like a million bucks. I was so excited when I saw them in person, I wanted to put all eight in my basket, run home and start playing with them immediately. But after spending NINE HOURS playing around with these, I can tell you that I was so frustrated I almost threw one against the wall. Not once was I able to apply any of the four polishes I purchased without seeing major bubbling almost instantaneously.

To make matters worse, the glitter is so sparse while the clear base is so thick and goopy. You MUST do what I like to call "the fish and dab". In other words, you have to fish around and swirl the brush in the bottle multiple times before you get enough glitter on your brush, and then you can't just brush this polish on like a regular polish--you have to dab it strategically for glitter placement. The "fish and dab" isn't a big deal for me (and probably not for you if you're a longtime glitter lover) but what makes it unbearable is when, no matter how hard you try, the base ends up so thick on your nail that it literally never dries (AND it bubbles). I left the last mani above (Samba over a black creme) on my nails for four hours, WITH a quick-dry top coat, and when I ran my finger cross my nail after four hours, it smeared off like I had just painted my nail. And for the record, I tried again without top coat and had the exact same results.

I am very rarely this frustrated with glitter polishes but, unless you have an extreme amount of patience and you're willing to work around bubbles, I would NOT recommend these polishes. This is such an incredible shame, because I was REALLY looking forward to an Xtreme Wear summer glitter collection and I felt like I won the lottery when I found these at Walgreens. I'm so sad, frustrated and disappointed, because these glitter combinations are absolutely beautiful. I really, really hope that I just got a bad batch and that, if you try them, you won't encounter ANY of the issues I described above. My fingers are crossed for you!

Thanks again, Meghan, for alerting me to this collection and for sharing pics with us--I really hope these work out for you if you end up getting any!

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.