First Day of Spring Displays

It's time once again to go polish shopping, as a whole month has passed since my last display post.

My Ulta has had no standalone Essence displays in ages, so I was surprised to see New in Town there. This was mostly makeup, but did have a holo topcoat, Shake Me I'm Pretty (which I shook one bottle of and put it back in the display before I snapped this shot), and Gel-Look Plumping topcoat (for XXXL volume).



The Essie Spring collection is Flowerista. It has six shades in it, but it was the four-color display I saw first at Walgreens. Shades here: Petal Pushers, Flowerista, Garden Variety, and Blossom Dandy.



A different Walgreens had the full six-color display, with Picked Perfect and Perennial Chic added to the above quartet.



Walgreens was the first place I saw the Essie Bridal 2015 collection, with six shades (not all of them pastels, which I heartily support even though I wore pale nails for my wedding): Brides No Grooms, Tying the Knotie, Hubby for Dessert, Brides to Be, Worth the Wait, and Happy Wife Happy Life. There's also a four-shade display for this collection; that one is missing Worth the Wait and Happy Wife Happy Life. As a special touch, these have a tone on tone white lace design printed on the caps; it's very subtle and a very pretty detail.



The latest FingerPaints collection at Sally Beauty is Picnic in the Park. Six shades here, including two glitter toppers: One in a Melon, Grassy Knoll (I'm just old enough that this name makes me think of tragedy and is not something I'd use for fun spring/summer beauty collection), You're So Antsy, Frosty Lemonade, Sweet Spring, Picnic Blanket.



Fresh Paint (exclusive to Five Below stores) has a new Once Upon a Time collection, which is made up of four semi-matte shimmers: Glass Slipper, Belle of the Ball, Enchanted, and Hakuna Matata. The display cards in the bins say this is a Funky Fingers collection, but it obviously is not.



There are new Funky Fingers colors, too. A pair of seashore-themed glitters showed up first. Scattered Sea Shells has a lot of white matte glitter in various sizes with a sprinkling of yellow, light blue, and pink glitter as well. Broken Sea Glass has light blue, white, lime, and purple glitter. Both of these have clear bases.



A little while after the seashore glitters appeared, bright colors with iridescent glitter started showing up. I saw pictures of them on Facebook before I saw them in person; based on the names, people started calling them the Grease collection. Some stores got only two or three shades at first but eventually most got the full lineup of five. While I was stalking my local Five Below looking for these, I happened upon a section being restocked and glimpsed a planogram that called these the You Are the One That I Want collection; they're now on the Five Below website simply called the Neon Glitter collection. I've yet to see any signage in any store about them, though maybe that's still on its way since most stores don't even have the bins next to each other yet (I had to relocate one myself before I took the shot below). Left to right: Pink Ladies, Greased Lightnin', Hand Jive, Beauty School Dropout, and T'birds.



Well, here's an oops—I should have gotten the Incoco Emerald City display I saw at Walgreens into a post before St. Patrick's Day. It's got six holiday-themed designs of nail polish strips: Emerald City (green/gold glitter on black), Kiss Me I'm Irish (shamrocks on white), Luck O' the Irish (shamrocks on gold), Green With Envy (green plaid), Happy Go Lucky (green/gold stripes), and Pot of Gold (gold/green glitter).



When I was in Wisconsin for my conference earlier this month, I happened upon a nail supply that had Morgan Taylor, which I hadn't seen in a store since I was in Las Vegas in 2013. They had the Cinderella display, but had it filled with random colors. I felt compelled to Google which shades belonged there and put things to rights (because they did have the Cinderella colors, just all jumbled in with the regular stock).

Here's what it looked like when I arrived, with (starting front left) Gotta Have Hue, Wonder Woman, All Dolled Up, Ahead of the Game, Party at the Palace (amazing, that actually belongs here), Shock Therapy, Mint Chocolate Chip, Go for the Glow, My Carriage Awaits (okay, this is legit), Hot Hot Tamale, Take the Lead, and New Kicks on the Block.



And when I left, all better, with only the collection colors in there, and the middle row with one of each shade: Party at the Palace, Ella of a Girl, If the Slipper Fits, My Carriage Awaits, Watch Your Step Sister, and Best Ball Gown Ever.



Nicole by OPI has Coca-Cola collection in stores now, at least in CVS stores, where I've seen it at a few different locations. Starting from the front, Always a Classic Coca-Cola (red shimmer), DC Lover (silver/red microglitter), Zero is My Hero (deep burgundy shimmer), In Grape Demand (red violet creme), The Look is Orange (orange creme), Seriously Citrus (blue/green/white glitter).



Last time I did a display post, I was on the lookout for the Orly spring collection, and I'm happy to say it did turn up at my Sally Beauty and then at my Ulta. It's called Sugar High and has six shades: Sweet Dreams, Frosting, Key Lime Twist, Cake Pop, Candy Shop, and Plum Sugar.



Above was the Ulta display; the one at Sally was more petite:



The other new Orly out in stores is the Color Blast Frozen collection at Walgreens.



There are three sections to this. Snow Queen's Spring has Snow Queen, Ice-Solated, Coronation Ball, Frozen, Watch Out or Elsa, and Winter Blush. (I've noticed that different stores set up the display in various ways, so the Elsa faces pop up in different spots in different stores.)



The Arendelle Spring section has a more vibrant assortment of shades: In Summer, Olaf You a Lot, Warm Hugs, Free Spirit, Kristoff He Goes, A Happy Puddle.



The Duo Kit section has four different pairs of polishes, with one taken from each side: Ice-Solated and Warm Hugs, Winter Blush and A Happy Puddle, Coronation Ball and Olaf You a Lot, Frozen and Free Spirit.



I have to say that Anna gets a raw deal here. Elsa is everywhere on these displays, with the only sign of Anna I could find being that the pairs of polishes say "Sister Duo" on the boxes. Looking at the polish names, Free Spirit is the only one that seems like it might reference Anna, while Olaf the snowman gets four colors. If I were Anna, I'd be peeved. I'm also feeling a bit put out that most of these colors look like ones I've already seen from Orly, though not necessarily in the Color Blast line. I suspect that Frozen is a renamed Color Blast Sky Blue Color Flip (which I suspect is a renamed Orly Angel Rain). Coronation Ball looks like Pixie Powder. Could Kristoff He Goes be Orly Teal Unreal resurrected? I think so. Olaf You a Lot could be Orly Pink Waterfall. And so on. Given that these Frozen colors are $6.99 for 11 ml, they're on the pricey side for drugstore polish, too. (The $10.99 for the duos is a slightly better value.) I wonder if there's an Anna-centric collection in the works, the better to continue to cash in on Frozen-mania. If so, I hope there are more unique colors in that one. I'd definitely include some greens to tie in with her ball gown, for instance.



There are four polish colors in the Revlon Sahara Escape collection for Spring 2015: Wild Flower, Sizzling Coral, Ethereal, and Serene. The latter two have shade numbers as well as names, which might mean they're new core rather than limited edition, but I'm not sure.



I am at my most steathly when I'm taking photos of Sally Girl polishes at Sally Beauty, because those suckers are right next to the cash register. This month, they've got Sweet Candy Dreams, a collection of four colors with a "soft touch effect", by which they seem to mean rubber/wax finish. Left to right (not that you'd know it from the display, which only has shade numbers printed on it): Gummy Bear, Candy Coated, Grape Taffy, Lemon Drop.



Sally Hansen continues to try to overwhelm me with new stuff. In the last few weeks, I've seen four new displays from them, starting with this one with eight limited edition Insta Dri colors, which I've seen at Walgreens and Rite Aid: Express Way, Fast Lane, Cruisin', License to Dri, Rush Hour, Green Light, High Speed, and Rev'd Up.



Next up in the Sally Hansen parade is the Complete Salon Manicure Runway Collection display with fifteen (!) limited edition shades, which I've seen at Meijer and CVS and Rite Aid. These are arranged in three groups: Edgy Neutrals, Sunset Hues, and Desert Tones. The problem is I'm not sure which colors go in which groups as every time I see this display, the colors are in different rows, and the display doesn't have shades listed on the rows, just along the front. After seeing a half dozen or so variations, I decided to put them in shade number order for their official photo. Front row: Marooned, Pale Sand, Indigo Wave, Pink Shell, Dark Denim. Second row: Slice of Sunset, King of Shadows, Teesta Turquoise, Karshmir Valley, Highray to Heaven. Back row: Tupelo Honey, Sheer Force, Grass is Greener, Blush at Dusk, Desert Poppy. I don't think that shade number order makes perfect sense with the three themes, though some of the colors seem to be in a reasonable spot: Dark Denim as an Edgy Neutral, Slice of Sunset and King of Shadows in Sunset Hues (the latter more based on the name), Desert Poppy in Desert Hues.



In addition to the Runway Collection, there are more limited edition Complete Salon Manicure colors in the Bridal Collection display I saw at Bed Bath & Beyond. Shades here: Aisle Be Yours, Bride 'n' Joy, Bridal Bling, I Do Blue, At the Altar, Tie the Knot, and Perfect Pair.



There are limited edition Xtreme Wear colors, too, in a Rave About Color display (I saw it at Rite Aid): Groove-y, Shake Shake, Hustle Up, Shimmy Shimmy, Funky Flare, Pop Chart, Boogie Woogie, and Get Down. There of these appear to be microglitter/shimmer toppers.



As if the special displays weren't enough, I happened to look at the core display for Sally Hansen at CVS and found not only the four new Salon Effect designs that had been in a display with new Xtreme Wear shades earlier this year, but four other new ones as well. Nice. Left to right: Pitter Pattern, Geome-trick, Cat Call, Get the Point, Giving Lip, Stripe Out, Crowd Surfer, and Amazing Lace.



When I swatched the three Opalescent toppers from SinfulColors, I'd only seen them in a display called Flight Patterns at KMart, but they've now turned up in a display called Color Burst at Walgreens. I found it odd that while the three toppers were the same, the other shades in the lineup only partly overlapped the other display. Colors here: Savage, Sheer Flight, Prized Plume, Let Me Go, Folly, Gold Medal, Flight to See, Bali Mist.



Speaking of SinfulColors displays with different names and varying lineups, Walgreens has Bloom Blast with the three milky glitter toppers (which were in About Blooming Time at KMart). The lineup here: Standing Bloom Only, Petal Be the Day, Energetic Red, Sail La Vie, Tempest, Flower Power, Island Coral, and Glass Pink.



If you're looking for the newest SinfulColors at your Walgreens and not seeing them on the shelves in front, look around for this sidekick, which has Bloom Blast, Citrus Twist, and Color Burst all mashed together with I'm not sure what all core colors.



Meijer has the Studio M Spring is In the Air display, which is mostly colors we've seen from the brand before, but there are three new ones (new to me, anyway, and I've been collecting since the brand was called Massini). Top row: Buttercup (new), East Austin (times 2), Covered in Diamonds, Blue-Ming (x2), Vintage Couture, Punked. Middle row: Frenzy (x2), Sweet Tooth (new), Neon Caution, Blushing Rose, Poetic Hues, Total Wow (x2). Bottom row: Robin's Egg (new), Hydrangea Kiss, Who's That Girl (x2; so glad they aren't still calling this Whose That Girl), Tru Passion (x2), Age of Aquarius.



So far, the only place I've seen the Wet 'n' Wild Silver Lake display is Wisconsin, when I was there for my conference. This has six limited edition MegaLast colors: Stream of Conciousness, A Latte Love, Warm Filter, Tree Hugger, Wear Skinny Jeans, and Reject the Mainstream. Apparently this is a hipster-themed collection, though I'm not sure what the connection is between pastels and hipsters—perhaps becuase I am too mainstream to get it?



Believe it or, not these aren't all of the displays I've seen recently; I have more to share, but since they are of the new and new to me core line variety, I'll save them for another post, which hope to get up next week sometime.