New Year, New Displays

When I posted my last round of display photos, I was looking forward to seeing the Revlon ColorStay relaunch. I have now seen it (or rather, seen them) but before that, I saw some other things—many things, so settle in.

Just before Christmas, my Meijer put out a mini display with five colors of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. They put it in a dark cave of shelf, so it might be hard to see in the photo, but this is labeled "new shades", not limited edition.



Left to right in the bottles, the shades are Good to Grape, Greige Gardens, Cherry Cherry Bang Bang, Hidden Treasure (more about that in a minute), and Bittersweet. (The first two are switched from the order of the swatch ovals on the bottom of the display but I didn't move them because the guy who'd just put out the display was about five feet away from me and we'd chatted about how he'd been drafted to work in health and beauty that morning so I didn't want to be all "oh, no no, these are in the wrong place".)

So about this new Hidden Treasure—Sally, what are you smokin'?! It's bad enough you re-used the name, but to re-use a name that originally belonged to such a special, highly sought after polish as the original flakie Hidden Treasure—that's just wrong. If you like the name so much, why not give us back the flakie? Other companies are doing flakies right now, so surely the raw ingredients are out there.

In fact, Finger Paints has just done a collection of flakies called Special Effects. The first time I saw it, I had to snap a photo with my phone; I'd left my camera at home because I didn't really expect to see these out on Christmas Eve since they weren't slated to be released until January. (Given how much newer my phone is than my camera, I maybe should take all my photos with it, but I'm not as fast with the adjustments on the phone so might be too obvious futzing around in the stores with it.)



I've since seen the Special Effects display again at a different Sally store, this time with a card next to it showing how to apply these over black, which I think is an excellent idea, since if you're not a nail person, you won't necessarily look at the flakies and know what you're getting. There are five different ones here: Flashy (orange/green), Flecked (green/blue), Motley (blue/purple), Asylum (red/blue/orange), and Twisted (blue/green/red/orange).



Another thing I had to take pictures of with my phone was a L'Oreal display at CVS. Now those brushed gold caps in the holiday collection display I saw in November make more sense—it's a re-launch.



There are many, many colors here, way more than I recall being in the line in its most recent iteration before this. They were arranged in four groups: Trend Setter, Iconic Muse, Femme Fatale, and Hopeless Romantic.



Trend Setter has Tweet Me (yellow), Boozy Bunch (orange), Check Me Out (bright pink), Penthouse Pink (pale pink, which doesn't seem too trendy to me), Club Prive (minty teal), and VIP Status (deep greyed green).



Iconic Muse has Violet Vixen (the berry from the holiday display), Paparazzi Pleaser (medium purple), Safari Chic (dusty green), Now You Sea Me (turquoise), Jet Set to Paris (blue), After Hours (navy), Greycian Goddess (grey), Stroke of Midnight (charcoal, from holiday), and Because You're Worth It (gold, from holiday).



Femme Fatale has Tangerine Crush (soft orange), L'Orange (orange), Devil Wears Red (red), He Red My Mind (red), Caught Red-Handed (yep, red), Rendezvous (also red), Red Tote (slightly dark red), Haute Couture Red (very dark red), and Breaking Curfew (vampy plum, last one from the holiday display).



Hopeless Romantic has One Stop Base (clear blue), Top of the Line (clear), I Will (soft white), Satin Sheets (ivory), How Romantic (pale peachy pink), Wishful Pinking (slighty darker peachy pink), Sweet Nothings (peach), I Pink I'm In Love (warm pink), Pink Me Up (pink), Walk on the Beach (palest peach), Versailles Romance (pale orange), Mauvelous (dusty peach, not mauve at all to my eye), Smell the Roses (rose pink), Spice Things Up (orange pink), Charmed I'm Sure (rose gold), Greyt Expectations (pale mauve), Eiffel for You (taupe), Butterfly Kisses (purple pink).

I later saw these new L'Oreals at Meijer, built into the core display in the regular L'Oreal section in the aisle.



Target also had new L'Oreals in an aisle rather than on an end, but their display didn't have all the colors:



What Target did have on an end was Essie. The Luxe Effects we've seen before, plus Play Date (2012 Go Overboard collection), Meet Me at Sunset (2011 Braziliant Collection), Sand Tropez (2011 A French Affair), Smokin' Hot (2010 Winter collection; nice to see this again!), Armed and Ready (2012 Go Overboard collection), and Go Overboard (2012 Go Overboard collection).



The Nicole by OPI Kardashian collection has started showing up at places other than Wal Mart. I've seen them at Ulta (all the colors), Meijer (all the colors), and Target (only some of the colors). I am only going to include one photo, because I am still uncomfortable with the whole idea of this collection. (I did push aside my discomfort long enough to buy some of the colors at Meijer, figuring if I was supporting fame whores by so doing, I was also supporting a Michigan-based retail company and perhaps the two balanced each other out.)



Meijer also had the Valentine's Day display for Studio M, Fall in Love with Color. This is the usual mix of core colors and re-promotes with a few new colors. The one that interested me the most was Fame & Fortune, which looked like a red version of Color Club Covered in Diamonds. Top row, left to right: French Tip, Date Night Red, Slammin Red, Drama Queen, Foil Me Once, Hot Like Lava, All That Razz, Falling in Louvre. Bottom row: Tru Passion, Neon Pink, Neon Pink (again), Pinking of You, Passionately Yours, Fame & Fortune, Dance for France, Clearly in Love.





Meijer is the only place so far that I've seen the Wet 'n' Wild Megalast re-launch displays. Most of these colors are the same sort of classic pinks and reds that dominated the old lineup, but there are a few new shades that looked interesting to me. Top display, left to right: On a Trip, Tropicalia, I Need a Refresh-Mint, Heatwave, Disturbia, Candy-licious, Haze of Love, Wet Cement, I Red a Good Book. Bottom display: Break the Ice, Private Viewing, Sugar Coat, Through the Grapevine, On a Trip, Undercover, I Need a Refresh-Mint, I Red a Good Book, Wet Cement.



Rite Aid had a new City Color display with yet another bottle shape. None of these called to me, though the rose design on the top of the bottle was a nice touch.





Rite Aid also had the saddest thing for a polish hunter to see—a completely empty display of something I'd never seen there before and would have very much liked to have bought: L.A. Girl Glitter Addict. I am hoping that if I go back, more bottles will appear. It could happen—I've seen that sort of thing other places.



Walgreens had a Sally Hansen display with a whole mix of things in it. The center section was stuff I'd seen before: some of the new Salon Effects plus the Smooth and Perfect colors.



On the sides, there were what looked like new colors for other lines. Insta Dri had four: In a Flash, Pumped Up Pink, Vigorous Violet, and Gone Grey.



Four new Xtreme Wears, too: Coral Reef, Pink Satin, Violet Voltage, and Golden-I.



There were eight colors of Diamond Strength that I hadn't seen before, which I thought was odd since in most stores, the newly re-lauched bottles haven't even made it to the core display yet. Top row: Something Blue, Bride to Be, Together Forever, Sweetie Pie. Bottom: Princess Cut, Something New, Heart to Heart, Black Tie.



And now, finally, the Revlon ColorStay re-launch. The old ColorStay line was a favorite of mine, even though the no-basecoat thing made me nervous and the way they made you buy the color in a set with the special topcoat meant there was always topcoat leftover since the colors weren't usually one-coaters. This time around, the colors are more interesting, the topcoat is sold separately, and the is a base coat. I first saw these at Walgreens just after the first of the year; they were at the bottom of a larger ColorStay display with eye makeup taking up most of the space. Colors in the front: Base Coat, Top Coat, Pale Cashmere, Calla Lily, Provence, Passionate Pink, Cafe Pink, Wild Strawberry, Delicious, Sorbet, Buttercup, Marmalade, Red Carpet, Velvet Rope, Fall Mood, Cayenne. In the back: Sequin, Coastal Surf, Indigo Night, Spanish Moss, Stormy Night, French Roast, Rain Forest, Bonsai, Amethyst, Rich Raspberry, Bold Sangria, Stiletto, Blue Slate, Midnight, Bare Bones, Vintage Rose.



Other places I've seen this line at haven't had all the colors. CVS had a display with 28 shades (including the two slots for top coat):



Meijer had a 20-slot display:



Also saw 10 of the colors on an end display at Target. I hope at some point all the stores will get all the colors in the core displays so I can get the ones I want at my convenience (and on sale; these are more expensive than even the Top Speed Revlons).

If you're still reading, congratulations for making through. Given the accelerated pace of retail season, I expect to be back before too long with a bunch of spring displays. Oh, and if you're a completist, go back and read the addendum to yesterday's entry; I found more information on those Milani glitters.