Feels More Like Winter Than Spring Displays

The last few days here in Michigan have been ridiculously cold for this time of year, but the stores are full of spring and summer nail polishes, so that's what I'll be sharing today. I also have a couple of displays I haven't seen here in Michigan but spotted on my recent travels to Canada and Idaho.

Rite Aid has Bonita by Royal Essence You Blue Me Away, which has six colors: Shark Bait, Booty Shaker, You Blue Me Away, Sexy = Me, You Are My Unicorn, and Hostess with the Mostess.



I lost count of how many Sally Beauty stores I visited looking for a fully stocked China Glaze Electric Nights display. This seems to be crazy popular; at some stores, all found was the empty display. This was the best stocked one I found, only missing two of the twelve (unfortunately those two were glitters, which I was most interested in; I eventually found those elsewhere). Bottom row: Home Sweet House Music, Let the Beat Drop (missing), Daisy Know My Name, Can I Get an Untz Untz, DJ Blue My Mind, UV Meant to Be. Top row: Red-y to Rave, Glow with the Flow, Point Me to the Party, Treble Maker, Plur-ple, Violet Vibes.



When I was last out in Idaho, I saw a brand I've never run into before: Dr. Marvey Color Well water-based polish. Left to right: Honeysuckle, Gardenia, Kudzu, Natures Sheer Basecoat, Must Have Sheer Topcoat, Morning Glory, Rose Bush, and Clematis.



On one of my trips to Canada, I spotted the Essence Spring Break display at Shoppers Drug Mart. Surprisingly, I saw it later at an Ulta here in Michigan. There are three polishes from the Effect line included: Baby You're a Firework, Glitz & Glam, and Party in a Bottle.



On a recent visit to Sephora, the Formula X Sea Glass collection display caught my eye. It says the polishes are "infused with tiny particles of shiny volcanic glass" and that they "reach brave new heights in microglitter". Five shades here: Tide, Marine, Starfish, Whirlpool, and Deep End. I bought Tide and Whirlpool the day I saw this; seeing the photo again makes me wish I'd bought the other three colors during the recently ended VIB sale (which I did use to get some of the clearance glitters, so I'll console myself with those).



Five Below put out a new three-piece collection of Funky Fingers with no signage. Based on the names, it's an unauthorized Disney-themed one. Left to right: Wishes, Fantasy Land, Off to Neverland.



Rite Aid has the Julie G Candy Shoppe Colors display. These Buy 2, Get One Free, which initially annoyed me because there appeared to be eight shades, but there are nine, with two of them being purples that are rather close in color. It's sort of awkward to have nine shades in a six-slot display, so I'm not surprised I miscounted the colors.



I lined them up for a group shot: Licorice Twist, Sweet Tooth, Sour Apple, Lemon Drop, Sour Grap, Lollipop, Pixi Stick, Wild Cherry, Candy Shop.



For Mother's Day 2015, L'Oreal has a collection of red polishes. Similar to the Signatures Nudes they did last year, each color is linked with a celebrity, though there are more celebrities here than with the nudes. Left to right: Julianne's Red, Doutzen's Red, Freida's Red, Blake's Red, Zoe's Red, Liya's Red, Eva's Red, Jennifer's Red, and Because You're Worth It Red. I saw this particular display at Rite Aid; I've seen variants at Walgreens and Meijer.



Also from L'Oreal, in a Shoppers Drug Mart in a town in British Columbia I don't recall the name of, I saw the Canadian exclusive collection Red Carpet Muse collection by Jocelyn Teng. The four polishes here are Red Tote, Because You're Worth It, Haute Couture Red, and How Romantic. The exclusive part is the decorated overwraps on the caps; the polish colors are not new.



The first place I spotted the Maybelline 100 Years Full Spectrum Glamour collection was Bed Bath & Beyond. There are only two polishes here: Gold Stunner and Beyond Burgundy. I later saw a shelf top display with this colllection at Rite Aid, which is where I took the detail bottle shot; there are decorative designs on the base of the bottles (only on the front side, though).





Meijer had a Ministry of Beauty display with fake nails, including the Ultra-Reflect ones that I sometimes see photos of in Facebook groups, with people asking what polish to use to get a mani like this. (Answer: no polish in the world that I know of looks like these.) In addition to four or five varieties of the Ultra-Reflect, there are also several "Inspired by" (jade, marble, lazuli, granite), some Dramatica (lot of embellishment and nail art), and a few Textured Foil (more texture than foil)





The first place I saw the OPI Soft Shades collection for this year was Sally Beauty, where it was in a challenging for photos backlit rack. Six colors here: Chiffon My Mind, Petal Soft, Put It in Neutral, Act Your Beige, The Silver's Mine, and Make Light of the Situation.



The latest Sally Girl collection to hit Sally Beauty is Circus Spectacular, which has four microglitter shimmers: Fire Breather, Trapeze Artist, Human Pretzel, and Circus Clown.



Thanks to this display at Walgreens, I now know which shades in this season's Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Runway collection belong in which subcollections (you may recall from my first spring display post that this was a problem with the shelftop display). I can now say with confidence that Desert Tones consists of Tupelo Honey, Sheer Force, Grass is Greener, Blush at Dusk, and Desert Poppy; Sunset Hues has Slice of Sunset, King of Shadows, Teesta Turquoise, Karshmir Valley, and Highray to Heaven; Edgy Neutrals is made up of Marooned, Pale Sand, Indigo Wave, Pink Shell, and Dark Denim. Turns out my instinct to arrange them in shade number order like I did for the pic I used last month was correct. If I were assigning colors to Edgy Neutrals, I wouldn't have gone with the ones Sally Hansen did, but I'm glad to know which ones they picked anyway.



My Bed Bath & Beyond had what I think is the first limited edition collection in the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line, Poolside Paradise. Seven shades here: Pink-a-Colada, Life's a Peach, Morning Sunshine, Dive Bar, Lip Palm, Rum Punch, and Swimsical. I later saw this display at Ulta as well.



I ventured in to Target based on rumors of a SinfulColors glitter, and I found it in this Spring Fever display. All the other shades I'd seen before, but not Fierce Fiesta in the lower right. All the shades in this group (some sold out of this particular display), starting top left: Sail La Vie, Flower Power, 24/7, Petal Be the Day, Navy I Do, Super Nova, Flight to See, Snow Me White, Innocent, Zest of Times, Why Not, Ruby Ruby, Lavender, Thimbleberry, Fierce Fiesta. The Fierce Fiesta bottles have a Piñata Blast label on the handles, which I've not seen before; makes me wonder if it'll show up in a shelf top display with some friends soon.





I saw two SinfulColors displays at Rite Aid which seemed to be a pair. Street Fusion: Tokyo Lights had six polishes (none new colors) and three neon nail applique designs. Polishes here: Daredevil, Hazard, Pull Over, Curry Up, Endless Blue, and Starry Night. Strip designs: Neon Splat, Hot Tips, and Swirl (which is quite angular for something called Swirl).



Street Fusion: Bombay Nights had six polishes (none new) and two nail applique designs. Polishes here: Clear Coat, Skylark, Copper Pot, Super Nova, Ice Blue, and Blue By You. Strips: Foiled Again and Henna I Do.



Just after I snapped these photos, a Rite Aid clerk approached me and asked if I needed help. I said I did not and headed toward another set of shelves. He followed me and said he couldn't allow me to take photos unless I had a note from the office and if I continued, he'd have to ask me to leave. When I was younger, this sort of interaction would have had me blushing from embarrassment and hoping I'd fall through the floor. Older, bolder me just said "okay, I'll stop" and left the store. I can always take photos at the store closer to home, where the manager knows me, knows how much I spend on polish, and once told a clerk who was concerned about my photo taking to let me keep doing it. I did try to find out online how I could get this magical letter, but gave up when all the hits were for their photo printing services. Screw that. I will just buy my polish at a different Rite Aid and if I do get kicked out in future, I'll take it up with corporate then. (I did once get a phone call from corporate when I complained about a store that didn't honor their sale prices during the all nail polish is BOGO50% sale.)

The seasonal Summer Brights polishes have shown up at Rite Aid for another year. It still says "pastel nail colors" on the display despite none of the colors this year being pastels. (At least some of them were last year.) I know they didn't just reuse the same display cards, as last year's had Blue Cross branding on it and this year's does not, despite the bottles looking the same.



I'm hoping spring settles in here to stay soon; until it does I can amuse myself indoors by shopping and taking stealthy photos.