First Display Post of 2015

I should make a keyboard shortcut that types "it's been too long since my last display post" because it always seems to be the case. Since mid-December of last year, I've seen lots of stuff, including a few things in Idaho over holiday break (though not as many as sometimes, since I was up on the mountain most days, where there is no nail polish for sale at all, and only in the little town nearby, where there is no chain drugstore much less something like an Ulta).

When there were no new Bonita displays at Rite Aid for the winter holiday season, I wondered if they'd dropped the brand, but apparently they did not, as three collections have popped up there recently. Fabulously Diva has six shades in the pleasingly square bottled Salon line: Dream Wonderland, Made to Envy, Royal Wishes, Fantasy Flowers, True Diva, and Prima Donna. These are all metallics or shimmers.



The other two Bonita displays I've seen are both the smaller Bonita by Royal Essence bottles. (I last remember seeing this line in the You Mint a Lot to Me display from last summer; I didn't buy any of those because they were cremes, and I'm not starting up with a new bottle style for cremes in colors I no doubt already have.) The first display looks rather Valentine-y; it's called I Flippin' Love It and has three cremes and three glitters: Santa Kissed My Mom (Christmas leftover repurposed for Valentine's, maybe?), I Could Care Less (augh! that's not how the phrase goes—though maybe it is now, given that the battle to keep "literally" from being interchangeable with "figuratively" has been lost), Caitlyn's Kisses, It's Showtime, Hostess With the Mostest, and I Flippin' Love It.



The other Bonita by Royal Essence display is Greetings Earthlings and has six metallic-looking colors: Sea Me, Penny for Your Thoughts, Truth Fairy, Bond Jail Bond, #hashtag, and Greatings Earthlings (yeah, that's how it's spelled on the display color swatch).



China Glaze Road Trip collection showed up at Ulta. Their displays tend to confuse me; the collection has twelve shades, so why make a display that has a pop up section that only fits ten? Colors are: Trip of a Lime Time (lime creme), My Way or the Highway (teal creme), License & Registration Pls (blue creme), Wanderlust (lilac shimmer), Pack Lightly (peach shimmer), Sun's Up Top Down (yellow shimmer), Pop the Trunk (orange creme), I Brake for Color (pinkish red creme), More to Explore (light orange creme), Boho Blues (periwinkle creme), Dashboard Dreamer (light blue shimmer), Pinking Out the Window (coral pink creme).



Seeing what Essence trend edition is at Fred Meyer is something I look forward to every time I head to the Pacific Northwest. This time I was a bit frustrated, as the Aquatix display was there, but only one of the polishes was left, the least Karen-appealing one (Pearls Are a Girl's Best Friend). There were a couple colors from Dark Romance shoved in there, so I consoled myself with the purple one, Dark Night Starlight, leaving the gold Gothic Gold there because I'm trying to have more self control when it comes to polish.



It's been ages since Ulta had any Essence trend edition displays. They did slip some Essence Effect polishes into the little endcap display they have: Baby You're a Firework, Glitz & Glam, Party in a Bottle, Party Crasher, Laser Show, and Blue Jeaned.



I got excited when I spotted Essie Cashmere Matte in one of the CVS stores with a Nail HQ, since I hadn't spotted this collection anywhere else yet (and also it's nice to see a Nail HQ get updated, since some stores have already started abandoning the concept, filling whole sides with makeup instead). There were even new strips on the Nail HQ with color names: Wrap Me Up, Just Stitched, All Eyes on Nudes, Comfy in Cashmere, and Coat Couture were the six for Cashmere Matte, and all the slots were full.



My excitement turned to annoyance when I saw that the slot for All Eyes on Nudes was filled with Cocktails & Coconuts, and I could not find any of the right shade anywhere in rest of the section.



FingerPaints' January offering at Sally Beauty is Bright Lights Big City. Six shades here, in a new style display I haven't seen from the brand before that has a mirrored base for the front row: Paint the Town Purple, What a Night, In the City Lookin' Pretty, Hey Mr. DJ, Dance Floor Diva, Urban Lights.



In addition to the Bright Lights Big City display, I also saw one with the new FingerPaints core colors that I thought weren't due out until February; this was at a Sally store I'm not sure I've ever been in before (though I have driven by it on my way to a quilt store). There are six shades, all glittery: Daubigny's Garden, Such a Fake, Still Life Strawberry, Th-ink Outside the Box, Violaceous Vase, and Gotta Be Kitsch-ing Me.



L.A. Girl has some cute nail art kits with mini polishes and tools included. Fred Meyer out in Idaho had three kinds: Gold Studs, Animal, and Graffiti.



Back home in Michigan at Rite Aid, I saw a display with four kits: Glitter Bling, Gold Studs, Ice Cream, and Micro Beads.



The L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey display has gotten a lot of attention around the online nail communities. I first saw it at Fred Meyer in Idaho. If I'd realized how rare it was going to be to happen upon an untouched one, I probably would have bought them all, but I didn't since I had to get on a plane to get home. I have since seen it at a couple of Rite Aids, but never this well stocked. Shades are: Aux Chandelles, Masked Affair (the holo that's causing all the commotion), Caution Please, Totally D'Accord, Bad Bad Grey, Power Potion, Grey Corset, and Miss Grey.



The Black to Black Maybelline Color Show display, which I've only seen at Bed Bath & Beyond so far, has five variations on black, all with a different finish: Patent Black (shiny creme), Blackdust (glitter topper), Smoky Black (sheer topper), Black Matte (matte), and Corrupted Black (texture).



Since having good luck at Kmart at the end of last year, I've added it back into my display hunting rounds, and was rewarded with this Milani Fierce Foil display (I did also see this out west, but it was picked over, and at Meijer later). Six colors here: Milan, Rome, Florence, Venice, Capri, and Sardinia.



I liked the looks of the Milani Color Statement display I saw at Fred Meyer and also Meijer once I was home, but all of the shades in it were ones I'd already seen in the core display at CVS.



I later saw that same Color Statement display at KMart, with one surprising exception: the bottles in the KMart display had colored discs on the top of their caps to match the polish. That's a very handy detail for those of us who store polish in drawers since these cylindrical bottles don't show their polish when viewed from the top. Not too long after I saw that, I came across a Color Statement display at Walgreens with the same bottle feature (and a few more core colors than the arched display).



There are new shades from Nicole by OPI: Keep Your Gray Job, Count to Tan, Who Are You Calling a Shrimp, and In Sync with Pink. I saw these at Fred Meyer first, then at CVS back here at home.



Meijer also had a Nicole by OPI display. It had the four colors from the new shades display plus some others. Top row: Count to Tan, Personally Speaking, Who Are You Calling a Shrimp, At Least I Pink So, In Sync with Pink. Second row: Get a Mauve On, Feeling Grapeful (sold out), Marooned in Paradise, Pick of the Glitter, and Profoundly Purple. Third row: Simply Sub-lime, Mermaid for Each Other, Teal Me Something New, Keep Your Gray Job, A Heart of Gold. Three of these (Feeling Grapeful, Personally Speaking, and Marooned in Paradise) were CVS exclusives when they first came out.



I saw the OPI Fifty Shades of Grey collection first at Sally Beauty. Six colors here: Embrace the Grey, Shine for Me, Cement the Deal, Romantically Involved, My Silk Tie, and Dark Side of the Mood. I later saw this collection at Ulta.



There was a big endcap Rimmel display at Walgreens with five new 60 Seconds shades tucked in the lower right corner: Mind the Gap Victoria, District-ly Come Dancing, Picadilly Line, Central Love Heart, and Round and Round in Circles.





Sally Hansen has been releasing a lot of new core colors. Meijer had a display of some more Insta Dri shades (not the same ones as in the display with the fabric nail strips that I shared last time): Orange Zest, Quick Fire, Cocoa a Go Go, Black to Black (yeah, the same name as that Maybelline collection), Show Steel-er, Cherry Fast, Plummet, and Navy Fleet.



There are ten new colors in the Sally Hansen Triple Shine Line; I saw them at Walgreens in a display with 14 slots. Top Coat filled out one of those, but there were three empties left. Some stores spread out the colors to try and disguise that and some like this one just left them be. Front row: Peach Party, Make a Splash, Water Lily, Wet Suit, Seas the Day, Shark Bait, Top Coat. Back: Shelling Secrets, Redflection, Deep End, Watt's New.



Walgreens had a corner display for Sally Hansen, with all the new Insta Dri shades (from the display above and the one from last time), the new Complete Salon Manicure colors (from my November display post), the new 18K gold treatments and Gel Shine topcoat (as seen in separate display last time), plus eight new Xtreme Wear colors I hadn't seen before: Bare It All, Tickled Pink, All Bright, Giant Peach, Babe Blue, Big Teal, Jam Packed, and Mauve Over.



After I saw that corner display at Walgreens, I found a Xtreme Wear and Salon Effects shelftop at Ulta, with those same Xtreme Wear colors and four new designs of Salon Effects: Pitter Pattern (black/white allover geometric), Cat Call (black/white/multi animal print), Get the Point (pink/black geometric), and Crowd Surfer (silver/turquoise microglitter gradient). I was happy to see these strips in the box packaging rather than the flat packs that all the recent LE designs have been in, both because I can get two manis out of the boxed ones and because I take that to mean they're not abandoning the product line just yet.



I also saw a display with limited edition Insta Dri colors at Bed Bath & Beyond (because apparently Sally Hansen does not think 14 new core shades of Insta Dri is a big enough temptation): Enchantment, Berry Magical, Grape Escape, Vanished, Poison Ivy, and Royal Reign.



One of my Walgreens stores put out the SinfulColors Valentine's display Flirt with Hearts just before Christmas. So far I've only seen it at that one store, but I'm sure it'll start popping up at others soon since the Valentine's candy and decor sections are busting out all over. The big attraction here is the glitter topper called Love Sprinkles, which has white heart glitter plus white and pale pink hexes. The other colors in the display are core or repromotes: Decadent, 24/7, Daredevil, Rise & Shine, GoGo Girl, Dream On, and Pinky Glitter.



That same Walgreens also had another SinfulColors display called What's Hot and touting the "Walgreens' exclusive colors". (since it was before Christmas, these were on the top shelf, so it was hard to get good photos; my apologies.) For the first time in my memory, the display lists what colors are in it—well, not quite, since it lists nine shades and there are ten slots, one of which has Clear Coat in it. I'm not sure what's up with the "exclusive" bit, since I've seen most of these shades before and at other places. Colors are: Skylark, Green Ocean (which looks different than I remember it), Gold Medal, Ruby Glisten, Pink Smart (new), Feel the Vibe, Calypso, Tempest, Berry Charm, and the previously mentioned Clear Coat.



KMart came through for me again with three SinfulColors displays I have yet to see anywhere else (not my closest KMart store, unfortunately, but one in a not even contiguous suburb that I went to on a whim after dropping Mr. K off at the airport over the weekend). Kiss Me I'm Stylish is this year's version of the annual St. Patrick's Day display. The exciting part this year is the glitter on the left side, Shamrockin'. The other shades are core/repromotes: Green Ocean, Mint Apple, All About You, Snow Me White, Happy Ending, Innocent. No Irish Green? What's up with that?



SinfulColors Citrus Twist is a "Spring Fever" display with three new shimmery jelly toppers, seen on the left hand side: Ring the Belini, Zest of Times, and Horizon Shine. Remaining shades are core/repromotes to use as bases under the toppers: Why Not, Innocent, Feel the Vibe, Let's Meet (the creme version), and Thimbleberry.



The other "Spring Fever" display from SinfulColors that I saw is Flight Patterns, with three opalescent toppers (again on the left hand side): Flight to See, Sheer Flight, and Prized Plume. Other shades here: Navy I Do (which I don't remember seeing before though it doesn't have an especially high shade number), Savage, Let's Talk, Nail Junkie, Gold Medal.



Wet 'n' Wild is rolling out a new bottle shape for the Wild Shine line. I've seen various displays, all with the bottles labelled "new", even on the colors which are carryovers from the old bottle shape. The first time I saw them, it was in this Walgreens sidekick display which had one new color, Putting on Airs (the blue in the bottom center).



I saw a small shelftop display with the new bottles at Rite Aid; that had four colors plus base and top coats. CVS had a bigger shelftop display with more colors, and some Walgreens had a double-sided spinning free standing display which seemed to have all the same colors as the bigger CVS display. I say "bigger CVS display" because there's also a smaller one, with pinks, red, and white in it, aimed at the Valentine's Day market I suppose. I'm not bothering to share those since the biggest variety of shades I saw was in a sidekick at KMart. Top row: Clear Nail Protector, Protective Base Coat, Matte Top Coat (yay! it survived the line refresh), French White Creme, Tickled Pink, She Sells (new), You Soy (new), Ready to Propose (new), Kaleidoscope. Second row: D'Oh (new), Blazed, Nuclear War (new), Grasping at Strawberries (new), Red Red, Dreamy Poppy, Lavender Creme (old shade, still not lavender), Casting Call, Sparked. Bottom row: Putting on Airs (new), Bijou Blue, Be More Pacific (new), Do Pass Go (new), Black Creme, Burgundy Frost, Grape Minds Think Alike (new), Who Is Ultra Violet (new), Metallica. (Note that the "new" next to shades is my best guess.)



Okay, that's plenty of shopping for now. I am still on the hunt for a proper Essie Cashmere Matte display, and hoping that L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey shows up more places, as I know a lot of ladies want Masked Affair (I've seen Facebook and Instagram posts with eight, ten, or more bottles snapped up by one person in places where the display is more widely distributed; great for them, and anyone who wins/buys a bottle from them if they do a giveaway/sale, but not so great for other folks in those areas who find the display only to see no Masked Affair left). I can't think of anything else I'm waiting for right now, though of course more spring colors will be rolling out soon.