A Trio from Ellagee

Polishes provided at a discount for review.

Continuing to work through my backlog of swatches, today I have three polishes from Ellagee, starting with Starlight, a black jelly with gold and olive green microglitter. I used three coats plus topcoat; it didn't really need the topcoat, but I was in the mood for extra shiny.







Gumballs has a mix of neon matte circle glitter in a clear base. I dabbed two coats of it onto a white creme base. The glitter laid nice and flat, so I didn't add topcoat.





So Long and Thanks for All the Fish has a deep navy blue jelly base with scattered holo glitter and silver holo dolphin glitter. I did three coats, fished for dolphins and placed them strategically, then added topcoat.





I like all three of these. Starlight seems perfect for the upcoming autumn season. Gumballs is just fun, great for summer especially. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is like a night sky, with dolphins for added entertainment.

The polishes shown in this entry were provided provided at a discount for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider.

Long Overdue Displays

Due to the backlog of other photos I want to clear, Nail Wheel Wednesday is on hiatus (yes, again), as I had to use Wednesday's blogging time and today's to try and catch up on as many displays as I could I can't believe it's been nearly three months since my last display post; that means this post might be more of a historical document from the start rather than something useful for making a shopping list. This is gonna be a long one, so settle in.

Rite Aid had the Bonita Turq It display, six colors in the little Bonita by Royal Essence bottles: Kissable Fairy, Honey Dew Your Thing, Purr in Purple, Pretty in Pink, Flower Child, and Turq It.



Also at Rite Aid, the Bonita Gel-On display, another no-lamp-needed gel-like line. Shades here: The Best Mint, Brilliant Rose, My Avatar, Blue Water Lily, Lovers & Friends, Sweet Berry Red.



Sally Beauty was the first place I saw China Glaze The Great Outdoors. The display was full, but didn't have all the shades. I know you can find a list and photos of those elsewhere.



I noticed that Ulta has switched out the top of the Essence end cap to have The Gel where the Colour & Go used to be.



Also a little further down in the Essence display, there were four I Heart Trends nudes: I Nude It, Pure Soul, I'm Lost in You, and Nude Sweet Nude. Not the most exciting, and I bet we didn't get all the shades anyway, but I'll take what I can get.



I guess Ulta is the only place to get Essie Cashmere Matte Brights, four not really bright shades with the satin finish the Cashmere Matte collection had. Top row: Soft as Sand, Hip-Tide (with Blanc and No Place Like Chrome taking up the last two slots in the row, I guess to do nail art with). Bottom row: Sea the Sights, Yespadrilles (and the white and silver, which still aren't Cashmere Mattes).



I spotted the Essie Neon 2015 display at a Kroger on my way to Florida at the end of July. I was surprised, since no Kroger by me carries Essie. Six shades here (not all neon): Groove is in the Heart, Coacha'bella, All Access Pass, Make Some Noise, Melody Maker, and Vibrant Vibes.



Essie Fall 2015 arrived first at Ulta in my area. Top row: Leggy Legend, Color Binge, With the Band, In the Lobby, Frock 'n' Roll. Bottom row: Leggy Legend, Bell Bottom Blues, In the Lobby, Frock 'n' Roll.



The latest I've seen from FingerPaints at Sally Beauty is Once in a Wild. Left to right: Amazon Sky, Once in a Wild, Exotic Emerald, Vermillion $ Painting, and Paint the Town Purple (which does not belong in this display). Missing shades are Amethyst Accent and Titian Tint.



Five Below stores have been updating their polish section, the Nail Spot, by adding a semicircular end to the formerly rectangular display area. I'm not sure there's more polish in it than the old, smaller display table, as all the ones I've seen have had most of the backside filled with non-polish items like remover and files and buffers and such.



Unfortunately the Nail Spot updates don't seem to have helped with the inconsistent and confusing signage for new Funky Fingers collections. I've seen the So Fetch cards shoved in bins for so many different shades I'm not sure anyone really officially knows what belongs with them. I think it's these colors: Cupcake Sprinkles (multi color bar glitter), So Fetch (brights/black/white glitter; this one's easy to know it belongs!), Totally Buggin' (reddish pink creme), Rollin' with my Homies (blue/lime/black glitter), As If (purple/pink/white/black glitter), On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (bright pink creme).



Kiss has joined the list of brands with a no-lamp-needed gel line; theirs is called Gel Strong and is, according to the display, a Kmart exclusive. I did find some of the colors online on a couple different websites, so I guess the exclusive was for a limited time.



I would list the colors, but something is seriously wrong with the names. I would have thought they just had the bottles in the wrong slots, but the display has color chips printed next to the names that generally are the same color as the polish in the bottles, so I don't know. I'll just put the photos up and let you decide if Batman should be pink, Tinkerbell blue, Sexy Scarlet green, and so on.











One Walgreens of all the Walgreens I hit when I made my rounds got the Look display, Proud, for summer. Red, white, and blue here: Rockets Red Glare, Broad Stripes and Bright Stars, and Oh Say Can You See.



L'Oreal has released the double-ended Infallible Pro-Last line, with color at one end and a coordinated topcoat at the other. I've seen this at various drugstores, starting with CVS. I also saw some shades in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart, but in the core display rather than this shelftop one. There are 18 shades here, most muggle-friendly pinks and reds. I don't have all the shade names because I just can't with the double-ended bottles; there's no good way to store them unless one takes them apart, and they aggravate me either way. I do know that the blue is called Infinite Sky and the mint is Endless Sea.



Here's the L'Oreal display my 4th of July mani came from: Nautique. I spotted it first at Bed Bath & Beyond but it's a lot more places now. Left to right: Fiery Sunset, Sand Castle, Hit the Waves, High Tide, Yacht Party, and Raise the Flag.



Also at Bed Bath & Beyond, I saw the Maybelline Dare to Go Nude display with makeup and five nail polish shades: In the Blush, Pearl Gem, Mink Lust, Sultry Spice, and Toasted Taupe.



Ulta had OPI Color Paints, the "blendable nail lacquer" collection, aka jellies. Bottom right here is the silver base, Silver Canvas Undercoat. Next to it in the front row, it's Indigo Motif, Pen & Pink, Magenta Muse, and Purple Perspective. Back row has Primarily Yellow, Chromatic Orange, Turquoise Aesthetic, and Landscape Artist.



At one of the nail supply places Julie took me to, I saw a display with four colors of the OPI tinted Nail Envy: Samoan Sand, Bubble Bath, Pink to Envy, and Hawaiian Orchid. Not sure if there are more shades of this strength plus color product or not; I've never seen them before.



OPI's fall collection is Venice, and I saw it first at Sally Beauty. This display was in better shape than the China Glaze, but I still didn't have the patience to grab all the names. My enthusiasm for dozen shade seasonal collections is quite low at the moment.



Orly Color Blast has three more Disney collections out at Walgreens under a Dare to Dream overall theme: Ariel, Mulan, and Pocahontas. Like the Belle and Frozen collections which preceded them, these colors don't appear to have been chosen with particular care to match the characters or the movies.



Ariel is on the left; this has Magical Voice (bright pink, no idea what this has to do with Ariel or her voice), Part of Your World (green, which is the most undersea color here), Hidden Treasures (red, again no clue), Under the Sea (sky blue), and the Gadgets and Gizmos mini kit with Magical Voice (still neon pink), Secret Grotto (light blue green), and Dinglehopper (light orchid).



Mulan is in the middle; this has Be True to Your Heart (red violet), Speak Your Mind (neon purple), Princess Ping (peachy pink), Family Honor (neon yellow), and the Cri-Kee mini kit with Princess Pink, Mushu (blue, for crying out loud, when Mushu is red), and Strength & Discipline (peach/lilac).



Pocahontas is on the right; this has Have Courage (yellow orange), Listen to Your Heart (coral), Living Earth (teal), Follow Your Path (blue), and the Just Around the Riverbend mini kit with Fly Like Flit (orange), Colors of the Wind (black/blue/orange), and Follow Your Heart.



I do like the artwork on this Dare to Dream display, but am disappointed that once again, it appears they've used recycled Orly colors rather than making new ones that really match the characters and movies. For Ariel, where's the flaming orange red of her hair? It's shown on the display artwork. Why isn't the red called Sebastien? Mulan spends most of the movie dressed as a man, in muted colors; where are those here? And no brown at all in Pocahontas is just wrong; the earth and forest she loves are brown and green, and neither are represented here.

At Sally Beauty, I saw an Orly display called Once in a Wild (yes, same name as the FingerPaints collection), which appeared to be all reissues: Pink Chocolate, Nite Owl, and Jealous Much, with a Bus Stop Crimson slipped in though I'm not sure it was meant to be there.



Also on my drive down to Florida, I came across something I haven't seen at home: seasonal shades of Pop-arazzi at CVS, in a sort of hanging pockets thingy on the side of the core display. These summer colors wer under the Flash of Fabulous name. Top to bottom: Flamingo-go, Berry Bon Voyage, Teeny Yellow Bikini, Cut Off Shorts, and Mango Coolada.



I don't recall where I spotted the Sally Hansen Insta Ombre display first; maybe Walgreens. This is a limited edition release of eight glitter polishes: Copper Cap, Cobalt Coat, Layer on Lilac, Scarlet Spark, Gold Grade, Fuchsia-nista, Jade Fade, and Grey-diant. The display also has the new Big Peel Off Base Coat.



Sally Hansen has six limited edition Insta Dri shades in a display called Instant Attitude that I've seen at Rite Aid (shown below) and CVS (that had black plastic base): Tag UR It, Street Cred, Color Me Good, Vandal Eyes, Quick Brick (I swear they've used this name before for a different color), and City Slicker.



I saw a display with new colors of Sally Hansen Miracle Gel at Kmart. I feel like this line hasn't been out long enough for everyone to have tried the old shades but I guess new is the way to market stuff. Bottom row: Rhapsody Red, Tipsy Gypsy, Boho a-Go-Go, Beatnick, Mintage, Fish-teal Braid, Miss Wanderlust. Top row: Cream of the Crop, Tribal Sun, Rythmn & Blue, Totem-ly Yours, Per-Suede, Terra-Coppa, Buffalo Nickel.



I finally found the summer SinfulColors display I was looking for, the shelftop with the Piñata Blast glitters. The Street Fusion Latin Heat display popped up at my Kmart with these shades: Fierce Fiesta, Island Coral, Boom Boom, Mamasita, Dream On, Love Nails, Baila Baila, and Sugar Sugar.



I came across the SinfulColors new Neons display at Walgreens, which got it first as an exclusive but I can't imagine those colors won't get rolled out to other places at some point (maybe they already have; I haven't been shopping as much as I had been). This has six neon shades in opaque bottles (possibly to protect the pigments from light, but it does make it hard to judge the color) plus white and clear. Left to right: The Bright Thing, Vivid a Try, Snow Me White, Top Coat, NeON and ON, Bright Before Your Eyes, and Bright to the Point.



For fall, SinfulColors has Chalk-board Diaries, six satin finish shades displayed with black and white. I saw this at Rite Aid. Left to right: RADiant, Black on Black, Hazed, VIPeach (which is yellow), A-Crush, Truth or Lavendare, Chalk It Up, and Snow Me White.



The summer offerings from Zoya, Island Fun and Paradise Sun, showed up in one big display at Ulta. Top row: Demetria, Nana, Serenity, Talia, Cecilia, and Jace. Bottom row: Aphrodite, May, Isa, Oceane, Selene, and Genesis.



If you're still reading, thank you! Your reward is two last random shots I took when Julie and I were shopping in Florida. There were these 4.5 oz. refill bottles of polish at one of the supply stores; I sometimes joke I have more polish than a salon (not joking) but I don't have bottles this big.



And here's the mysterious Spanish-labeled nail treatments at a Walgreens. Maybe I should request my store carry them.



I surely do not intend to let almost three months pass before my next display post! I need to get out browsing again soon to see what's out there, even though I can't buy nearly as much as I used to.

Not All That Recent NOTDs: Two Purples from Pahlish

Going through my backlog of photos to plan what to post, I found two purple manicures I did during the last couple of months with colors from Pahlish. That's not too surprising considering purple is still my favorite color (though green has been catching up lately), and Pahlish is one of my favorite brands.

Pahlish Madame Leota is first up. This plummy scattered holo shimmer with copper and other flakies was a Bespoke Batch released earlier this year, and I had to have it because it's a) pretty, b) purple, and c) named after a character in Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction.



I can't find my notes about this mani, so can't tell you what base or top coat I used or how many coats this was. Based on past experience with Pahlish, I'd guess it was two.





In the indirect illumination of the lightbox as above, the flakies are more prominent; in direct low room light, as below, the holo comes forward.



In the sun, of course, the holo really pops. I didn't have a chance to capture that until day two of this mani, so you'll see some slight tipwear below.



No tipwear in this outake—hah!



Pahlish Howling Ghosts, another Bespoke Batch, adorned my nails a while later. This one is a soft purple shimmer with gold flakes.



I do have my notes on this mani, so can tell you I laid down Duri Rejuvacoate and Salon Sciences Instant Artificials as a base, did two coats of Howling Ghosts, and topped things off with Diamond Dry.





Here's a look at Howling Ghosts in the sun on day two:



I got a big chip on one nail a couple days later; to camoflage the repair, I added a coat of Sally Hansen Insta Ombre in Layer on Lilac (I just put it on like a regular glitter topper; it does not instantly ombre by itself).



I almost wish I hadn't found these photos in my backlog, as it reminds me that I haven't gotten any new Pahlish lately. I really have to limit myself on even going to the website, as I pretty much always want everything, and neither my budget or my space can accommodate that.