Store Report

Something amazing happened on my way home from work last night—I stopped at one of my favorite strip malls for nail polish hunting, went into TJ Maxx, Sally Beauty, Dollar Tree, and Ulta, yet did not buy anything. I sure didn't expect that. Very strange; who knew I could exercise such self-control?

What I did do was snap pictures of two displays at Ulta which I hadn't seen before. On a low shelf on an end in the drugstore makeup section, I came across an LA Splash Nail Art Glitter display. When I bent down to get a closer look, I saw it had a drawer at the bottom that slid out to reveal a nail wheel showing the glitters in both full nail and funky French looks.



There were 18 different colors of glitter, and each pot cost $3.99. That seemed steep to me, but it would since the only glitter I've bought so far has been at Dollar Tree (six colors for $1) and JoAnn (where I pretty much always have a 40% off coupon to use). Also in the display: a clear red base coat that reminded me of Maybelline Berry Water and something they called "glitter top coat" but I couldn't see any glitter in it; maybe they meant "top coat for glitter" or maybe the glitter was just hiding from me, as I did notice tiny scattered glitter bits above the tips on the funky French examples on the nail wheel. I was a bit confused by the way it says "3 Easy Steps" at the top and then shows 4 pictures, but I don't tend to follow instructions anyway so no matter. If these glitters had been on sale, I might have picked up a few, as I thought they were very pretty. A little flashy for my everyday life, maybe, what with the holo hex glitter winking out from them, but fun for a change of pace.





I also saw the Orly Plastix display for the first time. Being an Orly lover, I was very, very tempted by these. I had the purple one in my hand more than once, ready to head to the cash register, and expect it will call me back to buy it before too long, even though I don't have a coupon and they aren't on sale. I'm very curious to see what this finish will look like on the nail; I've only seen a few swatches and some have looked shiny and some have looked satin, so I'm not sure what to expect.



Looking at the picture again, I'm guessing I'll end up with more than just the purple. The teal is whispering to me, for sure. And the red. And if I get those three, I can't leave the orange, there, can I? It's this sort of rationalization that's filling my Helmers.