End of April Displays

What's this? Two display posts in one month? Yep. Even though it hasn't been quite two weeks since my last batch of display photos, I have found a fair few new things when I've been out an about recently. Probably it helps that I've been out and about more since skiing has been pretty much over since I got back from my trip; I have done a few weekend days but that's it (and now it seems like it's really truly over for the season even though there's still some snow around). I figured I'd go ahead and share the photos now before I get too many more built up in my folders.

Sally Beauty had a display of Bitzy Neon colors. I think these are all core colors: Funky Melon (neon glitter), Haute Mama (purple), Ole (orange), Candy Shop (pink), Spring Fling (green).



Butter London has a new collection of Glazen nail lacquers out at Ulta. Bling on the Nails contains six shades: Mermaid, Oil Slick, Prism, Unicorn, Blaze, and Enchanted.



I can't recall if I've seen CND Vinylux at Walgreens before, but two different stores had the spring collection, Chic Shock. Four shades here: Candied, Taffy, Jellied, and Gummi. The mini set has all but Gummi and includes top coat.



I'd been seeing online that people were finding Color Club holos at Walmart, but still was surprised to see a sidekick display at the store in my little town. (I'm even more surprised in retrospect now that I've been to other stores in the bigger cities and they didn't have any Color Club polishes at all.) The top two rows are mood polishes (thermals): Total Meltdown (sold out), All Fired Up, Rays the Bar (sold out), Happy Go Lucky, Getting Warmer, Enlightened, Cold Shoulder, Go With the Flow, Temp-er Tantrum, So Chill, Diva Fan, and Serene Green (sold out). The middle two rows are matte neons (convenient, since matte pigment is naturally neon): Chalk It Up, Schoolyard Crush, Out of Your League, Study Buddy, Don't Toy with Me, All Dolled Up, Cliff Notes, Having a Ball, Party Teal Dawn, No Curfew, Play Date, Friendly Competition. The bottom two rows are the holos: Don't Harp on It, Star Light Star Bright, Enchanted, Supernatural (sold out), Spell It Out, Crystal Baller, Sidewalk Psychic, Trick of the Trade, Hello Holo, What's Your Sign, Bewitched, It's a Mystery.



One Sally Beauty I went to had a large display of Dashing Diva MagicPress fake nails. Most were for fingers but several sets were for toes. There was a good variety of designs and finishes.



It was only a tip from a friend that led me to find the Essence Galaxy Nails polishes at Ulta. They're not in a separate display but rather in small section in the core display in the makeup aisle. Left to right: Outta Space is the Place, Across the Universe, Space Glam, Intergalactic Adventure, We Will Spock You.



Rite Aid had the Essie Seaglass Shimmer collection before any other store in my area. Six shades here: World Is Your Oyster, Don't Be Salty, Coral Coast, At Sea Level, You Me & The Sea, High Tides & Dives. The display also has Gel Setter base/top coat.



I went to several Sally Beauty stores and never saw a display for the Finger Paints Fantasy collection that had all six colors in it. The one below did have five: Fantasy World, Over the Rainbow, and In the Clouds (front row); Legendary Lore and Fairy Tale (back row). The missing one is Lost in Wonderland, a mauve-y pink shimmer.



I was happy to see Incoco strips at Walgreens. It's a smaller display than I'd seen at Ulta recently but still nice to know I've got another source for strips at least for now.



The Kiss Girls Just Wanna Have Fun display has three sets of nail art stickers: Jewel Accents (silver/rhinestone), Accent Stickers (brights), and Be Linked (sky and flower line art).



NW Beauty is the first and so far only place in my area that has the OPI Grease collection. There's the big display with regular finishes and a smaller one with leather-like finishes; there's also a set of four minis. (There was also a display for the OPI Infite Shine line but that was right at the register and never got a clear shot at it; that had the same shades as the big display here, and there was a mini set with different colors than the regular line.) Big display, front: Don't Cry Over Spilled Milkshakes, Meet a Boy Cute As Can Be, Summer Lovin' Having a Blast, Was It All Just a Dream, Teal Me More Teal Me More, Chills Are Multiplying. Big display, back: Frenchie Likes to Kiss, Pink Ladies Rule the School, Hopelessly Devoted to OPI, You're the Shade That I Want, Tell Me About It Stud, Danny & Sandy 4 Ever. Small display: Rydell Forever, Electryfyin' Pink, Grease Is the Word. The mini kits have Don't Cry Over Spilled Milkshakes, Was It All Just a Dream, Pink Ladies Rule the School, and You're the Shade That I Want.



Walgreens had another mixed assortment of OPI colors: Step Right Up, Tiramisu for TWo, Coney Island Cotton Candy, Pinking of You, You're Such a Budapest, Aphrodite's Pink Nightie, Significant Other Color, She's a Bad Muffuletta, California Raspberry, Blue My Mind.



One of the Walmart stores that didn't have the Color Club did have a Pure Ice sidekick display, Natural Wonder. I'm not sure which of these shades are core and which aren't. Top row: Goldie Locks, Happy Hour, Home Run, Flirt Alert, Spitfire, Shore Bet, I Got a Confection (x2), Free Fall. Second row: Bikini, Feisty, I Got a Confection (x2), Absolutely Mauvelous, Twinkle, Outrageous, Shore Bet (x2). Third row: Shore Bet, Sweet Serenity, Satin Ribbon (x2), Wear Red (x2), After Hours, Rumors (x2). Bottom row: Risk Taker (x2), Shell Pink, Girly Girl (x2), Peony (x2), Purple Traitor, Stone Cold.



I shared the big sidekick display of SinfulColors Indie Sol last time; this time I have the small shelf top which just has the new colors. I spotted this at Rite Aid. Front: Jelly Ellie, Sunglasses at Night, We're in Tents. Back: Rave New World, Positive Vibez, Sundown Getdown.



Now I need to get to swatching.

LA Colors Color Last Metallic Finish

Now that my Kmart has closed, I've been stopping in Walmart more than I used to, and that's where I picked up a couple of the shades from the LA Colors Color Last Metallic Finish line, Amethyst and Emerald.



First up is Emerald, which is more of a teal color to my eyes. The formula on this was good; I used two coats and didn't have any patchiness that sometimes happens with metallics.





Amethyst was equally easy to apply; it was a two-coater as well. The color is





Before I took off Amethyst, I added some dots of Emerald for nails I imagine a mermaid might wear.



Given the opacity of these, I wanted to try stamping with one of them. For a base, I put on Kiko strips in Apple Red (which they call Ready-to-Go Patch Nail Lacquer). I'm sorry to say I don't remember which of my swap partners I got those from back in the day. I stamped with Amethyst using Double Moon plate dm-2, then added topcoat. I didn't use latex or any masking product so cleanup was a bit of an issue, what with the little silver flecks from the metallic getting all over everywhere, and also my smearing some of the red base attempting to clean up with acetone. As for the stamping, it worked well but has a speckled look due to the purple particles in the stamping polish not contrasting as much with the red base as the silver particles did.





I liked these. For $1.98 each, I may get more of the colors. In addition to these two, there's a white, a champagne, a pink, a red, a silver, and a black.

Wheel J10: Glitters from Finger Paints

I was so glad to be back to blogging last week that I barged right in on a Wednesday without a nail wheel. This week, I've got one. These glitters are all from Finger Paints, a mix of older ones and newer. This is the first wheel I've done since I had to switch cameras, and I'm noticing the focus works a bit differently than the older one. It's not bad, just different.



(all two coats plus topcoat unless noted otherwise below)

1. Finger Paints Th-ink Outside the Box (over skintone base) [the bigger glitters stayed in the bottle and I didn't feel like fishing for them]
2. Finger Paints You're So Antsy (1 coat, over skintone base)
3. Finger Paints Santa's Little Topper (over skintone base) ][[the red glitter in this has bled considerably, as you can see comparing it to the first two polishes which are on the same base]
4. Finger Paints Ka-Pow
5. Finger Paints Kozmotology
6. Finger Paints Three's a Party
7. Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat (1 coat, over black base)
8. Finger Paints Santa's Magic
9. Finger Paints Be Merry & Sparkle
10. Finger Paints Fun-fetti
11. Finger Paints You Gotta Be Kitsch-ing Me
12. Finger Paints Tangled in Tinsel [looks to be the same as number 11]
13. Finger Paints Tinsel & Tidings
14. Finger Paints In the City Looking Pretty
15. Finger Paints I'm So Enameled By You (3 coats)
16. Finger Paints Off to Collage (over half black base)
17. Finger Paints Dance Floor Diva
18. Finger Paints Van Gogh's Violet
19. Finger Paints Fishin' for Fun
20. Finger Paints Still Life Strawberry


Bottles 1 through 5:



6 through 10:


11 through 15:



16 through 20:

NOTD: Essie TLC and Sally Hansen Salon K-Design Diamond

I had a different post planned for today, but unfortunately lost my camera this past Friday with some display and swatch photos on it that I hadn't yet downloaded. I've looked everywhere I can think of and checked several businesses near where I think it went missing to see if it had been turned in, but no luck. I think it's really gone. I felt really down about it that day and the next day but am sort of okay with it now. At least I only lost a little more than one day's pictures. At least I didn't lose something more difficult to replace. I can redo the swatches. I can hunt down those displays again (though they'll have fewer polishes in them). I did already retake some non-polish photos I lost with the camera. It'll be okay.

I do have photos today, though, ones I took of my nails of the day after I dug out my backup camera (which I'd gotten as a service award gift from my former employer) and bought a memory card for it. This is the first manicure I've done in ages which is more than just treatment or treatment covered in strips or fake nails. There's nothing wrong with any of those things, of course; I'm just happy to be breaking out of my rut.

This manicure did start with treatment, though, because my nails are still in bad shape from the rigors of winter. It is a new to me product, though, so that's still sort of rut-busting. I found some shades of Essie Treat Love & Color on clearance at a Walgreens, so picked up the super pale purple Laven-dearly. It's a one-step product, so I just did two coats and called it good. It's designed to be sheer, so it self levels pretty well even at two coats, though I did see some issues on the two of my nails that are naturally more ridged, as I haven't been buffing them down lately so as not to risk weakening them further. I have been buffing down my peelies when I just can't bear to lose more length, and this sheer formula didn't cover that quite as well as I'd hoped.



This does have some very fine, subtle pink shimmer in it, but I didn't manage to get it to show up in any of the photos I took.



After a couple days with just the TLC, I decided to add one of the Sally Hansen Salon K-Design nail art stickers I'd picked up from that display. I thought the silver holo of the Diamond design would go well with the pale purple.



The directions seemed straightforward:



Inside the package there are two folded strips with eight decal sections a piece (the sections are perforated):



The directions in step 2 don't explicitly say to remove the decal from the plastic backing, but you've got to in order to free the very thin decal to put it on the nail.



Because these aren't see through and the black area around the design is rather wide, I had trouble judging where to place the decal. On my first nail, one of the segments extended beyond the end of nail, so I had to lift it off with a manicure stick and move it to a better location.



After that struggle, I hit on the idea of trimming one end of the decal so it would better match the curve at the base of my nail, which made it easier to put in the right place. I found it easiest to do the trim before I peeled the decal off the plastic backing.



Peeling the background off was generally pretty easy. I had a few individual shards either get stuck in the background or have the sticky layer separate from the holo foil layer but was able to remedy by trimming my own shapes from the margin left around the black section on the strips.

I used one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Flash topcoat to seal these; that seemed sufficient to smooth over the decal shapes.

I was pretty happy with the finished look, though the gaps between segments were wider than I'd like.



The rainbow colors sparking off the holo were good in indirect light as above, but were better in direct light (below).



I wore this look for what is probably my last day of skiing this past Sunday, and it was warm and sunny enough that I took my gloves off a few times to admire the colors.





After a couple days of wearing these, I was rethinking the single layer of topcoat, as some of the decal sections were lifting (sometimes entirely, sometimes just the foil, leaving the sticky layer to pick up lint—not a good look). The worst were ones that were close to the edges of my nails, so when I use the leftovers for accent nails, I'll take care to place them so they are farther away from my tips and sides if I can. Of course it doesn't help that my peelies are still a factor, and that's not the decals' fault.



I didn't realize until I was putting this post together that the Korean nail artist who popularized these looks had been discussing collaborating with Sally Hansen before these products came out but was not part of creating them nor was she compensated in any way for inspiring these products. There's more on the controversy over on Racked. Now that I do know, I probably won't buy more of these kits, but I will use up the ones I already have.

Mostly Michigan and Illinois Displays

It's only been about a month since my last display post; now I am back from my travels with more display photos. I took a few of these pictures in my usual stomping grounds, some in the Portland area where I spent a long weekend before Mr. K and I left on our road trip, none at all on the drive from Idaho to Illinois, then the rest in Illinois and Michigan, where I spent the bulk of my time away.

The one CVS I managed to visit while in CVS country seemed to be in the middle of redoing their cosmetics section when I was there, but they did have some things I hadn't seen before, like the Beauty 360 no-light gel polish in the core display wall. Top row: Taupe, High Shine Top Coat, Adhesive Base Coat, Pearl Shimmer, Rose Shimmer (x2), Silver Shimmer, Dazzle. Second row: Cotton, White Peach, Blush, Salmon, Sunset, Unicorn, Cotton Candy, Apricot. Third row: Mushroom, Mocha, Taupe (evidently that one in the top row didn't belong there), Fig, Plum, Pebble, Slate, Midnight. Fourth row: Sea Foam, Forget-me-not, Hyacinth, Lilacs, Magenta, Spruce, Indigo, Eggplant. Last row: Dahlia, Rose, Gerber Daisy, Tangerine, Salmon, Hot Pink, Raspberry, Flamingo.



I had to go to a few Ulta stores before I found one that had the whole Butter London Pantone Color of the Year 2018 collection. This is six purples: Ultra Violet (the color of the year), Purple Reign, Hydrangea, Iced Lavender, Misty Lilac, and Mauvelous. All are fashion size, priced at $10.



A couple display posts ago, I shared a shelf top Caption display from Ulta. This time, I have a bigger Caption end cap from another Ulta. The left side has Sugar kits (dense glitter), nail polish, and Tipsies (fake nails). Center section contains Ombre kits (i.e. gradient), Art Screens (stamping plates), Slickpour colors (gel powders), SlickPour starter kit, and an LED light (cut off in my pic). On the right, Sugar kits (same ones as on left), nail polish (different colors), and mini polish kits.



The single bottle polishes are 10ml and priced at $9.95, which seems a bit high to me (but it is less than the Butter London fashion size per ounce). Left side colors—top row: C'mon Now, Sorry I'm Not Sorry, Talk is Cheap, Crazy & Like It; middle: Me First, Happy Disaster, What Goes Around, Feel the Yes; bottom: Hello You Fine Thing, Oh No She Didn't, Look Don't Touch, Rewind Repeat.



Right side polishes—top row: Base Coat, Top Coat, Rough Tough and In the Buff, Heaven Help Me; middle: Kill It With Kindness, OCD Proud, Drinks on Me, XXOO Kissy Face; bottom: Yeah What She Said, Not Your Baby, Ditch Him, She's Pistol.



I'd seen the fake nails part of China Glaze Chic Physique as of my previous display post; I finally came across the polishes at Sally Beauty, though it seemed some colors were already gone.



I saw a big CND Vinylux section in CVS. Some new shades were featured near the top. I'd seen the Glacial Illusion ones at Rite Aids near home, but the Nightspell ones were new to me (detail pic below).



Nightspell colors, left to right: Berry Boudoir, Hypnotic Dreams, Viridian Veil, Lilac Eclipse.



I shared a couple versions of Essie Bon Boy-age displays last time; Meijer had another variation that had not just the spring shades but some of the Wild Nudes and two different top coats.



I didn't get to as many Five Below stores on my trip as I'd hoped to, but I did find a few new things. Left to right: Fresh Paint Stranger Things, Funky Fingers Unicorn Dust, Fresh Paint Eleven. There was one Fresh Paint I'd hope to see but didn't, a mauve-y shimmer called The Upside Down. Maybe I'll have better luck next visit, or maybe it'll be long gone by then. Hard to tell with Five Below sometimes.



The Five Below I did get to also had a display of thermals. One shade I'd seen before and already had but a couple were new to me. Left to right: Blue Lagoon (new), Mai Tai (new), Wander-Dusk. I'm not sure if there were other shades that were sold out before I got there.



Fred Meyer had the Kiss Fantasy Collection of fake nails. This had some Glam Fantasy designs and some Jewel Fantasy.



The Revlon Holochrome colors have made it into the core display, at least at one Walgreens store.



I'd seen the new collection of Sally Hansen Insta Dri Crayola shades popping up on Facebook groups, but it took a couple weeks before I came across a display with them at Fred Meyer. This Spring Fling shelf top unit has the six Crayola pastel colors as well as some core shades. Crayola, left to right in front section: Sky Blue, Sea Green, Canary, Melon, Cotton Candy, Wisteria. Core, left to right in back: Petal Pusher, Peach Buzz, ASAP Apple, Make it Snappy, Pink Blink, Just in Wine.



Please note that these are "Intented for Adult Use Only":



On my travels, I saw a sidekick of Insta Dri at Meijer with the new Crayola colors, some of last year's Crayola colors, and some core shades.



Right next to the Crayola display at Fred Meyer, I saw something else new from Sally Hansen: a Salon K-Design display with core colors of Complete Salon Manicure paired with nail art stickers designed to give the look of stained glass (in green/iridescent or silver/holo) or gold wire. The polish shades are (left to right): Off-the-Shoulder, Blush Against the World, Rose to the Occasion, Gilty Party, Shell We Dance, and Hooked on Onyx. The sticker designs are (top to bottom): Glass, Diamond, and Wire. I thought it was interesting that these were right near the Kiss fake nails (see above) with a similar stained glass effect.





Over in the land of Meijer, they had an end cap with four Sally Hansen displays with colors I've seen in other display formats. Top is All-In-One & One for All, which includes the limited edition Complete Salon Manicure colors by Madeline Poole. Next one down is My One and Only, which seems to be all core colors of Complete Salon Manicure. Third section has the Miracle Gel Color Filters with core colors to put them on. Bottom shelf is Romantic Rendevous, with core shades of Miracle Gel.



Also at Meijer, they had a sidekick display for Sally Hansen Color Therapy I Treat Myself, which wasn't as specifically Valentines-y as the shelftop version I saw at Fred Meyer.



The polish shades here aren't anything new, but what I hadn't seen before was the Perfect Manicure Kit, which has a metal file, clippers, 2-way buffer, cuticle pusher/trimmer, and case. I'm sure these have been around; I just haven't seen them in a display before.



Good ol' SinfulColors has some more new shades out. I found them in the Indie Sol display at Meijer. I didn't have the time or patience to figure out what all was supposed to be in there, as every store seemed to have a slightly different lineup (probably due to customers messing them up), but I think I did find all the new shades. They're in the second row here (detail pic below).



Left to right: Positive Vibez (two slots), Sundown Getdown (x2), Sunglasses at Night (x2), Rave New World, We're In Tents (x2), Jelly Ellie.



Of course I was looking forward to seeing what Studio M I could find at Meijer. I only saw this A Dream Come True sidekick at one store of all the ones I visited; I think it may be a straggler from early spring (I don't think it's winter because it doesn't have the polishes I saw swatched back then). Most of these appear to be old/core colors, which calms me down about feeling I've missed a bunch of new stuff. Top row: Ice Cold (slot empty, but a core color), Total Wow, Surprise Party (gone), Neon Glow, Bubblegum, Disco Ball (new?), Blue-Ming (gone), Off the Deep End (gone). Middle row: Gold Dust (new?), A Star is Born (gone), Vintage Vamp, Blue Lagoon, Frenzy, Magic Attraction, Who's That Girl, Belle of the Ball (gone). Botton row: Girl's Night Out, French Tip, Gold Glitter, Power Pink, Sex Symbol, Wicker Park, Sweet Tooth, East Austin.



I saw the Studio M Live on the Wild Side display at several Meijer stores; I'm guessing this is for summer, due to all the brights. Top row: Cheetah Glitter (new?), Neon Glow, Blue Funk, Off the Deep End, Air of Mystery, Thunderbolt, Orange Hot, French Tip. Middle: Total Wow, Highlight of My Day, Darkest Black, All The Razz, Lightning Blue, Slammin Red, Girl's Night Out, Vintage Vamp. Bottom: Blue Lagoon, Disco Ball, Island Hopping, Purple Medallion, Purple Crush, Nightlife (new?), Volcanic, Energy Star.



The more expensive Studio M polishes, which were $4.99 when I first saw them last spring, are now $6.49, and there's a whole new lineup of colors. These new ones are thermals (and don't have the silver caps the earlier fancy ones did, so it's easier to pick one up and not realize it's over twice the price of regular Studio M). The stock in the display was so mixed up that I had to pull them out to see what all there was. Left to right: Gloom & Doom, Just Chillin', Relaxed to the Max, Totally Jelly, Smitten Kitten, Serenity Now, Happy as a Clam, Warm & Fuzzy. I bought none of them, as I'm annoyed at the price point. Sure, I'll pay $5 for thermals at Five Below, but $6.49 for Studio M seems like too much.



Over the years, I've seen RK polishes (aka Ruby Kisses; these are branded RK HD), but only in beauty supply stores. This trip, I saw them at CVS, tucked into the sides of a larger RK cosmetics endcap.



Right side polishes—top row: High Shine Top Coat, S'mores Lover, Shades of Gray, Marshmallow, Call Me Belle; second row: High Shine Top Coat, Spirited Away, Cafe Bleu, Chances of Clouds, Lavender in My Dream; third row: High Shine Top Coat, Lemon Sorbet, Orange Popsicle, Bubble Gum, Strawberry Shortcake; bottom row: High Shine Top Coat, Taro Bubble, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cotton Candy, Golden State of Mind.



Left side—top row: High Shine Top Coat, Hot Pink Obsession, Electric Purple, Hot Pink Pants, Spicy Apricot; second row: High Shine Top Coat, Blues Gone Wild, Pitch Black Darkness, Whiter Than White, Beyond Sexy Redness; third row: High Shine Top Coat, She A Goldigger, Mickey Mouse Me, Poison Apple, Into the Future; bottom row: High Shine Top Coat, Hot & Sexy, Sandy Beach, Carousel, Truffle Flakes.



Ulta has entered the no-light gel space with their Ulta brand Gel Shine Nail Lacquer, which like other no-light gel lines has its own top coat to be paired with the colors. Top row: Top Coat, Snow White, Extra Whip, I Love You a Latte, Freshwater Pearl, Baby Doll, Encore Pink, Venus, Rosé All Day, Super Mauve. Middle row: Top Coat, Girl Boss, Vintage Violet, Pink Marble, Fuchsiamania, Squad Goals, Sunset Bronze, Raspberry Cocktail, Showgirl, Eye Popping Poppy, Wildfire, Gypsy Lady. Bottom row: Top Coat, Saturdaze, Violet Rain, Mint Condition, Island Vibes, Cloud Nine, Singin' the Blues, Neutral Party, #Mood, Steel the Show, Starry Night, Black Magic. Some of these are noted as being a "fan fave", which confused me as I'd never seen these before, and the display also says "new", so maybe they mean these colors were fan faves in the non-gel line, or maybe the "fan fave" tags are predictions.



Now that ski season is over (well, maybe—I hope to get in one or two more days if the resorts south of here reopen for weekends later this month), I intend to do more swatching. I left for Illinois and Michigan with three nail polishes and came back with 28. Yep. I did that. And that was after I picked up 12 new polishes on my Portland weekend trip. Obviously I'm no good at stash reduction. Best I can aim for is slowing the rate of growth!