Mid-October Displays

I thought I'd seen all the Halloween stuff I was going to see by the time I did my Halloween displays post, but in the last couple weeks I've come across a few things that either weren't out before or weren't out in the places I frequent (this past weekend I went farther afield than usual because was feeling nostalgic for the town I used to live in and went down to walk in a park there since the fall colors are beautiful right now). At a Rite Aid, I saw these Pretty Woman Halloween Stiletto Nails. I don't usually pay much attention to fake nails, but the shape of these caughty my eye. There are four designs: black with acid yellow bats, black with silver flames, shiny gold, and black with red flames (or maybe it's blood streaks, hard to tell). I think this is thre first display I've seen from Pretty Woman since the magnetic ones back in February.



At a Walgreens, I saw some other fake nails that made me stop and look: Disney Villains from imPress. I am a huge Disney fan, so had to check these out. There are six styles, two each for Cruella, the Evil Queen, and Maleficent. Cruella gets a red creme for one set and a graphic black/white design for the other (not quite Dalmation spots, though). The Evil Queen's are a dusty purple/green duochrome and black lace on a purple gradient background. Maleficent has deep wine shimmer and purple French tips with silver accents. I was quite tempted by both the Evil Queen looks but it's been years since I wore fakes and I'm not sure I want to open that door again.



Spoiled Gala-ween is, like every other special Spoiled display I've ever seen at CVS, filled with core colors. In this case, it's black and brights: Visually Slimming (black), Kickin' the Habit (purple), Did I Dye It Too Blonde (yellow), Permission to Proceed (green), Jail Bait (orange), and Tip Your Waitress (pink). The display explains this cheerful palette with this text: "I don't do creepy on Halloween, I party in style! While everyone else is looking ghoulish, I make sure I look gorgeous!" I guess that person's "gorgeous" is my "fun and summery".



Another new display that looked more summer than fall to me was the L.A. Girl Brites at Rite Aid. Left to right: Heatwave, Lazer Beam, Glow, Electrocute, Dynamite, Flare Up, Kryptonite, Flash Freeze.



All the pink stuff around is more timely, tied into Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I'm at best conflicted about BCAM. My mom is a two-time breast cancer survivor, so the cause hits close to home, but so many companies put out pink ribbon products without making it clear how much they're donating to which organizations and whether my purchase affects that donation or not that it starts to make my head hurt. (The Think Before You Pink site explains this all better than I could.) If I like a pink ribbon polish, I'll buy it, but I'll do my part to fight cancer by giving money directly to organizations I think are doing the most good on the prevention, detection, and cure fronts; merely raising awareness is nowhere near enough. Okay, I'm done ranting; let's look at the displays.

Walgreens had a more organized version of Esssie We're in it Together than the ones I'd seen previously at Ulta (see this display post for those). Left to right: Good Morning Hope, Check Up, We're in it Together, and I Am Strong.



Right next to that was a bigger version, with double slots for the lighter pinks.



Ulta had Piggy Polish Pink is the New Heart, with two slots for the glitter polish of the same name and one slot of Pink for Yourself, a bright pink creme.



Ulta also had China Glaze United in Purpose. This particular display had Heart of the Matter, United, Faith, Live Love Laugh, and Exquisite, but other ones I've seen at other Ultas (and various Sally Beauty locations) have had a different assortment. As far as I know, there are 12 shades in all in the the collection; the ones missing from this photo are Angels Breath, Hopeful, Pearls of Wisdom, Dare to be Bare, Hello Gorgeous, Beauty Within, and Always a Lady.



At Sally I saw but only got one blurry photo of an Orly Pretty in Pink display which had four core shades (not the three new glitters).



At Rite Aid, they had Revlon Giving Beautiful, which included six core pink polishes: Angelic, Fuchsia Fever, Pink Chiffon, Sheer Pink, Sweet Tart, Popular.



Magnetics are the new crack, continuing to show up long after it seems like we've already seen every color and design we could want. Revlon has Star Attraction, which is five "magnetic style" colors, all with a star magnet on the cap, thus the names: Starry Eyed (blue), Star Watch (green), Reality Star (copper), Star Crush (plum), and Pop Star (charcoal). I spotted these at CVS.



At Rite Aid, I spotted Sinful Colors Sinfully Magnetic Snakeskin, which is mostly the same colors as the original release of Sinfully Magnetic last month, just with a fishnet magnet instead of a star, plus one new color (Snake it Out). Left to right: Force Field, Charge it Up, It's Electric, Stuck on You, Polar Opposites, Snake it Out, Captivate Me, and Magnetism.



Also in the magnetic arena, not a display but a single Sally Hansen polish I came across in a Walgreens. It had a more colorful overwrap on the cap that any Sally Hansen Magnetic I've ever seen, and was a color I didn't recognize, Marble Foil. Even though it was purple and I didn't have it, I didn't buy it because it had clearly been opened. The only place on the web I've been able to find any reference to this color is CVS.com, so I guess I'll check the core display next time I'm in a CVS to see if the stores have this. The CVS site is missing Polar Purple, so maybe this Marble Foil is replacing that in the core line? With Sally Hansen, one never knows; this color doesn't show up on their site.



Some things I saw from Sally Hansen that didn't confuse me were the Salon Gel Polish and Insta Gel Strips displays, as these products have been shown on the Sally Hansen Facebook page. I saw the displays at Bed Bath & Beyond. The Salon Gel Polish one had starter kits with these shades: Shell We Dance, Red My Lips, and Wine Not.



There was an Insta Gel Strips display with starter kits in the same three colors:



There was also an Insta Gel Strips display with starter kits in Shell We Dance and Red My Lips, along with strips only boxes in other colors and designs: Hi Ho Silver, Ruby Doo, Walk the Catwalk, Faux Real, Amazing Lace, Perfect Poison, Pinkies Up, and Bonus Check.



I get great wear from the regular Sally Hansen strips, usually longer than my attention span for any one look, so I'm not super excited about spending $25 to $30 on a starter kit and then $12 to $15 on strips each time after that just to extend wear time even longer, but I admit I am curious.

The L'Oreal Project Runway Electric Fantasie limited edition displays have also hit stores. At Walgreens, I saw an all in one display on an endcap.



At Ulta, I saw four mini displays stacked on a free standing shelf unit.



I have also seen the mini displays at Rite Aid, sometimes stacked near each other, sometimes spread out on different sides of a shelf unit. The four mini-collections within Electric Fantasie each have two nail polishes and one design of nail stickers. The Wise Mystic has The Mystic's Future (bright plum shimmer) and The Mystic's Fortune (deep blue shimmer) with nail stickers in a lacy design in black, blue, and fuchsia. The Seductive Temptress features The Temptress' Touch (lime shimmer) and The Temptress' Power (tan with lime shimmer) plus stickers in a green/brown/yellow snakeskin design. The Enchanted Queen has The Queen's Ambition (silver glitter in black) and The Queen's Might (pinky red shimmer) with stickers in red/black/white with card suit symbols. The Artsy Muse includes The Muse's Attitude (deep green shimmer) and The Muse's Inspiration (orange shimmer) along with stickers in black/white with a harlequin halfmoon look.

The nail stickers in Electric Fantasie were the first I've seen from L'Oreal. Revlon has some new strips out, too. The Nail Art Style Strips display says they're real nail polish, so I'm assuming they're similar to Sally Hansen Salon Effects. They're priced about the same. Eight designs here: Fashion Hound (orange/black houndstooth), Wild One (black/yellow zebra), Jungle Gem (black/green leopard), Eye Candy (silver/purple gradient), Lips & Tips (red/black lipstick), Marble Arts (blue/orange/purple/yellow marble), Flaming Fishnets (red/black fishnet), Splatter Paint (black/blue spatter). I will try these, but am trying very hard to hold out for a sale (they weren't included in the one that was going on at CVS when I spotted these; I love that I can use the scanner machine to find that out before I get to the register).



You may recall I had a couple of Christmas/winter holiday displays in Halloween post. Well, I've since run across a few more. Sinful is offering Holiday Shimmers (most of which are glitters, and most of which looked new to me). Left to right: Frenzy (repromote), Superstar, Queen of Beauty (repromote), Ice Dream, Nova, Dazzle, Faceted, Winter Wonder.



Revlon's holiday makeup display includes four glitter polishes: Midnight Sparkle, Brilliant Bordeaux, Sequins, and Ruby Ribbon (not the same as the matte shimmer of the same name).



L'Oreal had three glitter polishes in their holiday display: Sparklicious, Fancy Me, and The Bigger the Better.



At the rate Christmas stuff is rolling into stores, I expect I'll have more holiday polish displays to share well before U.S. Thanksgiving near the end of next month. My head may explode from all the glitter.