Nearly End of April Displays

In the not quite two weeks since my last display post, I've come across pretty much all the collections I was hoping would show up soon, plus many I had either not heard about yet or had heard about and completely forgotten until I saw them in person. Let's just dive right in, shall we?

If I'd had to guess where I'd first see the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength limited edition display for this prom/wedding season, I wouldn't have said Ulta, but that's where it was. Eight colors here: Opulent Opal, Diamond Jubilee, Fancy Diamond, Brilliant Cut, Sparkling Jewel, Flawless Pink, Gold Setting, and Rock'n Wedding. In an unusual fit of self control, I didn't buy any of these when I saw it because I didn't have a coupon and they weren't on sale. When I went back with my coupon, some of the colors I wanted most (the four that look like good layering polishes) were gone, and I haven't yet seen the display anywhere else. It had best turn up is all I've got to say about that.



Continuing to stroll the aisles of Ulta, I saw Orly Mega Pixel FX, six glitters with a "Multi-dimensional 3D formula". Also known as "texture", so I plan to have swatches of these next week. Left to right: Rose Pixel, Aqua Pixel, Silver Pixel, Black Pixel, Plum Pixel, Pink Pixel.



Of course the Orly polishes weren't the only texture at Ulta. OPI The Bond Girls gives us six more options of Liquid Sand (in a couple of display variations): Solitaire, Pussy Galore, Tiffany Case, Vesper, Honey Rider, and Jinx. These too will show up in swatches here next week.





China Glaze has texture, too—they're calling it Texture, which is refreshingly plain speaking. Six shades of non-glittery but gritty polish here: Unrefined, Bump & Grind, In the Rough, Itty Bitty & Gritty, Toe-tally Textured, and Of Coarse. If you guessed there'll be swatches of these next week, you're right.



It's not all texture in the current displays, though. Orly has The Original French Manicure, which is a staple for them. This particular display has the new bottle design with matte gold rubber caps for the French Manicure colors; FX as you saw above are blue, while the regular colors are black. The shades here are White Tips, Pink Nude, Rose-Colored Glasses, and Bare Rose.



Tucked into a section of the Essence endcap, I spotted the Nude Glam polishes: Cotton Candy, Peach & Cream, Iced Strawberry Cream, and Café Olé. There was also Gel-look Topcoat, which I've gotten in a swap but never seen in at Ulta before.



Piggy Polish had a display called Message in a Bottle last year about this time; here's a new one, with a different photo and different colors. The toe rings from last year are gone, but the inspirational quotes wrapped around the handles are there. Colors left to right: Sand It Over, Teal We Meet Again, Yellow There.



There was also another new Piggy Polish Display, Finger Fireworks, which I assume is their big summer effort. Five colors here: You Stroll My Heart, That's Shine With Me, Finger Festival, Ivy Leaf in You, Pool Aid.



Of course my eye was drawn to that glitter in the middle of Finger Fireworks, but my interest turned to annoyance when I saw yet again that it was a blatant re-label from Piggy, with the new shade name just stuck over the old one. On the plus side, if you've always wanted the scattered holo version of Sunshine on Snowflakes, it looks like this is your chance. At least one of the other colors was a relabel, too, but I didn't investigate further since I'd already been bad enough using my thumbnail to lift off the label on the glitter.



I shared the Hologlam display from Sally Beauty last time, but wanted to go ahead and share the version my Ulta just got in, too. It's the same display but the bottles have silver caps, as I expected.



Ulta had also put out the Essie Wedding 2013 collection. Four colors here: Using My Maiden Name, Meet Me at the Altar, My Better Half, No Baggage Please.



I was hoping Ulta would have Essie Neons for 2013, too, but they did not. Rite Aid a display of them, but only the four-color version, not the full six. This smaller group has these shades: Saturday Disco Fever, Bottle Service, DJ Play That Song, and Shake Your $$ Maker. The two that aren't here: Boom Boom Room (pink, lighter than Bottle Service) and Bouncer It's Me (blue).



The L'Oreal summer display I'd been searching for, Miss Candy, popped up about the same time at both Rite Aid and Walgreens. There are two variations, one with eye shadows and lip glosses and one with just the polishes and nail stickers. The polishes area all jellies (or "gellies", as L'Oreal spells it on the display).



Polish colors below, left to right: Jolly Lolly, Mango Mamma, Bananarama Love, Crème de Mint, Lilac Coolers, Bubble Trouble, Berry Nice. The Nail Lingerie stikcers are called Gellie Drops (white swirls), Berry Bubbly (blue), and Princess Sprinkles (pink).



A few days later, the polishes showed up at CVS in a freestanding floor display that also had a bunch of other products in it, including sunscreen and haircolor.



The Maybelline Color Show limited edition Summer 2013 was another display I'd been looking for that showed up at Rite Aid shortly after my last display post. There are eight colors here in a fairly narrow range of hues: Azure Seas (turquoise), Sandstorm (tan), Mint Mist (light green), Bare Escape (light grey), Poolside (light blue), Pacific Blues (bright blue), Urban Utopia (bright teal), Midnight Swim (dark blue).



I was surprised to see a different Maybelline Summer 2013 display at Ulta (it later turned up at a CVS, too). I shouldn't have been, since Maybelline often does more than one display for their seasonal collections and split the nail polish between them. The second display had two more polishes in the same color palette: Canary Cool (ivory) and Turquoise Paradise (light turquoise). It also has lip color, mascara, and eyeshadow (two shades of Color Tattoo, which seem to sell out pretty quickly).



The Julie G Frosted Gum Drops was the last display I'd been hunting for. I got impatient waiting for it to show up and ordered the polishes online after Sparkled Beauty told me about a deal on a full set. They hadn't arrived by the time I saw the display, so I was tempted to just get one to try while I was waiting, but I was strong and resisted. I am hoping I will be able to swatch the ones from my online order in time to get them into texture week next week. The colors are: Crushed Candy, Sugar Rush, Rock Candy, Hot Cinnamon, Tangerine Dream, and Blueberry Fizz.



Just because I'd found all the display I'd been looking didn't mean I stopped looking for more, of course. And there was more to find, for sure. Rite Aid had Summer Brights from Blue Cross. This says "pastel nail colors" on it, but the shades are not all pastel; there's a bright orange red shimmer, for instance. The color distribution of these is much more consistent store to store than the Mardi Gras glitters from Blue Cross that I shared last time. Like those, these have no shade names.



Both Rite Aid and Walgreens had Kiss Nail Dress limited edition designs by Katie Cazorla (from the Nail Files reality show). The RA display is the one shown here; the Wags one was only four slots wide. There are six designs here; they may have names, but it was just numbers printed on the front of the package where I could see them.



Revlon has limited edition strips out, too, and again I saw them at both Rite Aid and Walgreens in different displays. The collection is called Wild Flowers, and the tag line says "Nail Appliques with 3D Jewels". Their first collection of strips didn't have 3D jewels, so that's new for them. There are eight designs: Floral Fatale (hot pink/black/white), Bow-quet(blue/turquoise/red/lime), Brocade Garden (pink/green/white), Vintage Vibe (orange/yellow/blue), Hyper Floral (yellow/blue/green/white), Psychedelic (pink/purple/blue/yellow), Python & Petals (white/black/dark yellow), About a Pearl (ivory/white/peach).



At Walgreens, the Revlon strips are in a spinner display:



Walgreens has actually had an almost crazy amount of new displays recently, none of which I've seen anywhere else yet. There's Revlon Haute Tropics, a pedicure-focused display with eight limited edition colors in the classic Revlon bottles as well as pumice and toenail clippers. The shades are: Cabana Queen, Plunge Pool, Lagoon Afternoon, Coast is Clear, Belize Please, Hello Bali, Secluded Beach, and Mai Tai Ask.



Another thing I've only seen at Walgreens (at least so far) is a brand I've never heard of: Tea. The Bouquet Collection has six shades of scented nail enamel: Cherry Blossom, Vanilla Petals, Lavender Sugar, Peony Paradise, Mint Leaf, and Pink Rose.



Sinful Colors has four different displays at some of my Walgreens. I'll start with the one I found the least interesting, as it only had repromotes in it I've already seen (granted some haven't been out in a couple years): Sure Bet. I've seen this at a few different locations and in no case was it completely stocked with what I think are the right colors, so I went with the photo that had the best lighting on the display card. Left to right: Beverly Hills, Let's Talk, Why Not, Big Daddy, Let's Meet, Exotic Green, Gogo Girl, Mint Apple. The one that doesn't belong is Mint Apple, that should be Lavender (which is really more of a dusty periwinkle, but whatever).



Sinful Colors Bare Necessities has some repromotes in it, too, but it also has new colors. Left to right: Poudre (new, at least to the the U.S.), Social Ladder, Bare, Tutu, Heartfelt (new), Easy Going, Glass Pink, Cupids Arrow (new, missing apostrophe in name).



Sinful Colors Diamond Lust is notable for several reasons: they're chunky glitters (most of which have diamond shapes in them), they have matte silver caps (something I don't recall seeing from Sinful before), and they're priced at $2.99 (a dollar more than regular Sinful). The price is still a great value (compare it to the $4.99 for the Tea polish right next to it, for instance) but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel like a big increase. Eight shades: Watch It Shine, Queen of Deco, Rags to Riches, Scene Stealer, I Dream in Jewels, Gemtastic, Shine on Me, Crystal Clear.



I've also seen these in a sidekick display that has five rows of these glitters and one of topcoat (with the same matte silver cap; I neglected to see if it was special somehow otherwise).



Even though the display says "intense 3D effects", I'm not going to swatch them for texture week, because I've already got more than enough planned. I am planning to buy them all, though. Just look at Crystal Clear:



As if all that weren't enough to look at from Sinful, there's a whole new line exclusive to Walgreens called Sinful Shine. The 32 shades have shiny silver caps and are priced at $2.99.



Leftmost column, top to bottom: Steel Reserve, Royal Flush, Nouveau Purple, Rendevous, Mardi Gras, Sailor's Delight, Bottoms Up, Most Sinful.

Second column: My Kryptonite, Amazonian, Man Hunt, At Sea, VIP, In the Limelight, Spitfire, Rebel.

Third column: Blue Suede Shoes, Devious, Set the Mood, Tan Lines, I'm Blushing, Yours Truly (spelled Your's Truly on the label, which I cannot condone), Skinny Dipping, Break Away.

Rightmost column: All the Rage, Pragmatic, Alfresco, Bananappeal, Come Hither, Picante, Dark Room, Wisp.

Okay, we're in the home stretch now—just two more displays from Meijer to go. First up is Ruby Wing, which you may remember from my post the other day. (The display has neither of the colors I swatched for some reason.) This is one of those displays that looks like it has more colors than it really does because some shades are repeated. Top row: Desert Valley, Tide, Mystic, Sweet Rose, Zen Garden, Myth, Eclipse, Birdie, Lagoon, Sand Dune. Middle row: Horizon, Cypress, Wild Flower, Gypsy, Moonstone, Fate, Festival, Meadow, then it starts repeating from Desert Valley.



The Studio M summer collection this year is called Shine Bright. It's got a lot of the colors that have been in prior summer releases and some core colors, but there are a handful of ones I haven't seen before from this brand.



Top row: Green With Envy (new), Neon Greenlight, Glitter Envy (2 slots), Orange Hot (2 slots), Glitter Solar, Neon Pink.

Second row: Neon Pink (2 more slots), Glitter Astral, Perfectly Pink (new), Grape Escape, Age of Aquarius (new), Infusion (2 slots).

Third row: Thunderbolt, Feeling Fruity (new), Glitter Twinkle, Psychedelic Scene, Power Pink (2 slots), Lightening Blue, Glitter Outer Space.

Bottom row: Orange Sunset (2 slots), Singin' the Blues (new), Frenzy, Energy Star, Jackie Oh! (new), Peace Out Purple (2 slots).

Well, that was a crazy lot of photos, wasn't it? Now if the weather would get even a fraction as hot as some of these summer colors, I'd be happy—it actually snowed for a while yesterday afternoon here. I have no use for snow once ski season has ended.