Friday, September 28, 2012

2012 Halloween Displays

As promised last week, today I've got Halloween polish displays to share. Some of these aren't explicitly Halloween but rather hint at it by being all witchy and stuff. A few aren't Halloween-related in any way, but we'll get to those later. Much later, as there are a lot of things to see before we reach that point. Right now, let's take a tour of what's available for this most nail polish-y of holidays, Halloween.

Having the Fantasy Makers by Wet 'n' Wild appear in stores is as much a sign that fall is here as seeing the leaves change colors. The tombstone bottles are back again this year as part of various displays, most of which also include other makeup items. I've seen these at Meijer, Rite Aid, Ulta, and CVS here in Michigan and Jewel Osco in Illinois. I've seen four colors of tombstones this year so far: Go With the Glow (glow in the dark), Once Upon a Time (mixed red glitter in a black base), Rest in Pieces (small purple glitter in a black base), and Nail in the Coffin (tiny orange and silver glitter in a black base). All of these look familiar to me, either from prior year tombstones or other Wet 'n' Wild lines.







Fantasy Makers also has nail strips, called Wicked Nails. The two with flames on them seem the most costume-y, perfect for a she-devil; the others are stars and zebra and lace.



In their year 'round Megalast line, Wet 'n' Wild has Pick Your Poison, a display with six shimmers. I first saw this out west at Fred Meyer at the end of August but it's now showing up at some CVS stores here in Michigan. Shades are: Poison Ivy (deep green), Deadly Dose (gold), Toxic Apple (deep blurple), Root of All Evil (royal blue), Venomous Vixen (charcoal), and Lethal Injection (burgundy).



Walgreens had a Fantasy Makers display that mashed together a whole bunch of stuff. Because this was in full view of the counter where the sales associate was standing and I'm still a little rattled from the "corporate policy" scolding I got for taking pictures in Chicago, I didn't feel I could be as obvious about taking photos as I wanted, so I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot. The polishes in the section below are mostly core shades from the Wild Shine and FastDry lines, but the six limited edition Megalast from the Pick Your Poison collection are here too.



The next shelf down had the Wicked Nails strips plus a couple of nail color kits I've not seen anywhere else. One is Crackle, with a black creme and three mini bottles of crack in turquoise, red, and silver. The other is Neon, with black plus minis of yellow, green, and purple.



Fright Night is another brand that only comes around for Halloween. Their coffin bottles are back; I didn't see any new colors for this year. There are also nail wraps, which I've seen displayed both with the polishes and on their own. Meijer is the only place I've spotted the polishes; the nail wraps I've seen at Meijer, Ulta, and Jewel Osco.





Kiss has Halloween designs for their Nail Dress strips; I've seen this display at Meijer and Rite Aid.



And of course it wouldn't be Halloween without pumpkin polishes, which come out under the Phantom Frights banner, though the bottles aren't labeled that way. Instead of jumbling the pumpkins all together in bins, this year Meijer has them in actual displays, one filled with glow in the dark colors, one with black light, and one with glitter. Some of these shades look like repeats from prior years and some look new; I haven't yet taken the time to figure out exactly which ones I need to buy.







Rite Aid and Jewel Osco have the pumpkins in smaller displays, some with a section for double ended black and glitter polish duos.





Some of the pumpkin glitter colors are available in a set of plain mini bottles (there's also a set of cremes that seem more summery but maybe they're meant to be bases for the glitters).



I've seen two different displays of the Disco Lights polishes, one Halloween themed as Phantom Frights and one not. These are glow in the dark polishes which have a color changing blinking light in the bottle that turns on and off with a push button in the cap. I like pretty lights as much as most people, but I do not get why I'd want one in my nail polish bottle. Are kids today going out and doing manicures on the dance floor? I'm puzzled.





Rite Aid has some products from Hedy's under the Spooktacular Nail label: two nail art kits that are labelled "Rite Aid exclusive" and some nail jellies.





CVS has a display of Confetti polishes called Be Witching. Like with the Show Your Spirit one I shared last time, I've got no idea what exactly is supposed to be in here, which are re-named core colors, or really what's up with this at all. This particular display had these non-core color names which might have been core colors in disguise: Witches Brew (purple), Boogiman Blues (turquoise), Cat Eyes (lime), Sugar Plums (plum). It also had these core colors: Silver Slippers, The Red Carpet, Conga Line (orange), Black Tie, Wedding White, and Dressed to the 9's (wine). I saw a very picked over display at another store that had a light grey shimmer called Full Moon, which looked just like Raid the Field from the Show Your Spirit Display. I might have to stop buying this brand just on the grounds that they confuse me too much.



NYC's Halloween offering is Sweet & Devilish, which I spotted at Rite Aid. Three polishes here: Enchanted (white shimmer with gold glitter), Haunted (black with gold glitter), and Demon Glow top coat (which I assume is a black light topper).



Meijer was the first place I saw Sweetly Sinister from Revlon. This has nail art stencils of spiders, mustaches (or really weird bats), skull and crossbones, stars, hearts, and bows. There are also four polish colors: Haunted Heart (orange), Black Magic, Wicked Star (green), and Spooky Skull (white).



When I saw Sweetly Sinister at CVS some days later, the stencils were still in the boxes they'd been shipped in. I thought this was wrong, so I unboxed them.



Ulta had Orly Spellbound, which has Liquid Vinyl, their ubiquitous black creme, and three new glitters: Monster Mash (green), Right Amount of Evil (bright orange), and R.I.P. (dark orange in black).



Ulta also had the So So Skullicious sets from OPI, which contain nail decals and four mini polishes: Hi Pumpkin (orange), A Rose from the Dead (pink), Mourning Glory (black), and Candlelight (yellow).



Still wandering around Ulta, I saw China Glaze Wicked. Six colors: Roguish Red (orange), Make a Spectacle (iridescent glitter), Glitter Goblin (orange/multi), Cast a Spell (olive), Bizzare Blurple, and Immortal (grey).



The nearby display of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow (a perennial) was all wonky; the card was too big for the base and I could not fix it.



Piggy Polish Eat Drink & Be Scary has Easy Come Easy Glow (orange), Lightmare (black/orange glitter), and Nocture-Nail (glow in the dark).



I spotted Sinful Bewitched at Walgreens. This had two nail art colors and four polish colors: Courtney Orange (old), Pumpkin Spice (new, I think; gold and red glitter), Black on Black (old), Let's Talk (old; purple).



Sinful Take a Bite, which I also saw at Walgreens, is all old colors. Four slots are taken up by black Crackle, two by Irish Green, and one each by Sugar Sugar (red) and Cloud 9 (orange).



Sally Hansen has a Halloween Collection of the Salon Effect strips. How Corny (candy corn on white), Batty for You (black bats on bright purple), and Patch-o-Lanterns (orange jack o'lantern faces on black) are new. Numbskull (black skulls and bones on white) and Spun for You (black spiderwebs on silver) are returnees from last year.



My Rite Aid has not gotten the Halloween Salon Effects, but they do have the Holiday Collection. Meaning winter holidays. Most of these are wearable right now, though. Left to right: Snow Way (light blue snowflakes on white), Checkin' It Twice (silver/black houndstooth), Shiny New Year (rose glitter gradient), Simply D-Vine (black vines on gold), and Holi-Daze (silver glitter gradient).



CVS had the winter holiday Salon Effects, too, in one of those tall narrow cardboard floor displays that I am always afraid I'm going to knock over if I breathe on them too hard. This had two slots for the houndstooth design, plus the six Lustre Shine colors (still no sign of the last two), and a bottom row with three of the Gem Crush colors (not pictured).



Not to be outdone in the rushing toward winter category, Meijer has put out the Christmas collection of Kardashian Kolor from Nicole by OPI (maybe that should be the Krismas collection). Six shades here: Keeping Up with Santa (deep red shimmer), A Gold Winter's Night (gold and pink glitter with green and blue string glitter), Here We Kome A-Karoling (deep purple shimmer), Kardashing Through the Snow (red, green, blue, gold, and silver glitter), Deck the Dolls (deep turquoise shimmer), and All is Glam All is Bright (silver, orange, and blue glitter).



And now you'll need to excuse me, because my head hurts from having to type "Kome A-Karoling". I had planned to post my Halloween-themed giveaway today, but it's already so late here that I'm going to save that for Monday. Depending on when you started reading this entry, it might already be Monday, in which case you won't have to wait long if at all.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Indie Glitter Explosion

I've bought so many indie polishes over the last several months that I realized I wasn't going to be able to swatch all of them anytime soon, so I decided to do a sampler post, choosing one polish from each brand I came to in my swatching box (okay, one of my swatching boxes; there are newer boxes I'll deal with later).

First up, I have Between Two Worlds from Fanchromatic Nails, an etsy shop that offers "polish for the geek in you". I am not the right flavor of geek to get all the references in the polish names, but I know pretty polish when I see it. Between Two Worlds is a blue-leaning slightly dusty medium purple with a glitter mix that is mostly silver, green, and brown. I used three coats plus topcoat for this swatch. You may notice a few bubbles; those are from the topcoat (and my impatience in not taking the time to thin the ancient bottle I was using).







Next up I have Dark Parades from Pahlish. This is a dark purple jelly packed with so much glitter and shimmer I can't even attempt listing all the colors I see. The base pulls very blue on me for some reason; I've seen other people's swatches of this that are much more a true purple. Regardless, it's a gorgeous glitterfest. I used two thick coats plus topcoat.









It was hard to pick just one polish to feature from the collection that Happy Hands did inspired by the television show Arrested Development. I picked Tricks Are Something a Whore Does For Money ... Or Candy, which may hold the record for longest name in my stash. This is a super blingy combination of silver, gold, green, and holographic glitters. I used three thin coats plus topcoat; there is a hint of visible nail line but I barely noticed since I was so entranced by the sparkle and shine and stars.







For my last dip into the indie glitter pool on this particular day, I have Coffeeshop Politics from Polish Revolution. This is mix of mostly warm toned glitters in a clear base. I see pink and wine and copper plus silver and holographic pieces. Because this does have a clear base, I put it over Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, using three coats of Coffeeshop Politics plus topcoat over the black. (I unfortunately don't have a good photo of the front label, but you can see what they look like on her etsy page.)








These particular polishes may not be in stock in these shops right now, but I'm pretty sure if you like glitter there will be something there to intrigue you, if not right this minute, then whenever each of them restocks.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Wheel D4: Blue Shimmers

Blue is due for the spotlight on Nail Wheel Wednesday, and this wheel has a range from light through dusty to dark.



1. Studio M On the Hunt (3 coats) [such a pretty golden shimmer here]
2. Maybelline Express Finish Lilac Haze (3) [I guess this was named for the purpley shimmer]
3. Maybelline Express Finish Pluto Pearl (3)
4. Ulta Professional Something Blue (3) [why they don't do shades like this in full sizes is beyond me]
5. Butter London Lady Muck (3) [would have been 2 coats if I hadn't bumped the wheel before it was dry]
6. Maybelline Express FinishMatte Blue (3)
7. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Icing (3)
8. Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Embellish Frost (4) [not as brushstrokey as the name would imply]
9. China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea (2)
10. Maybelline Express Finish Stone Washed (2)
11. Nicole by OPI Blue Jeans (4) [one of the colors that convinced me to let these saggy bottles into my stash]
12. LA Girl Sapphire (4) [seems like this should be 3, but my notes say four and don't have any indication I dinged it and had to add another coat to fix]
13. China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic (2)
14. Maybelline Express Finish New Year's Blues (3) [I think of this as my downmarket version of Essie Starry Starry Night]
15. BB Couture for Men Anthony (2)
16. Catrice Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans (2)
17. Sinful See You Soon (2)
18. Nicole by OPI Blues in the Night (3)
19. OPI Unripened (3)
20. Sinful What's Your Name (3)

Bottles 1 through 5:


6 through 10:


11 through 15:


16 through 20:
















The 17 through 20 range seems ripe for destashing, but they're not the same, they're similar, and I'm sure most of you understand how that goes. If I were forced to choose only ten from this wheel to keep, I'd go with 1, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 19. Then I'd try to grab 13 (and maybe 10 as well) when whomever was forcing me to choose was distracted by something else.