SinfulColors Tricked Out Treats Spooky Candy-Inspired Polish

With Halloween tomorrow, I had to jump today's polishes ahead in my swatching queue: they're the two limited edition jelly glitters from the SinfulColors Tricked Out Treats Halloween display, Sour Apple Killer and Twisted Toffee.

 

Sour Apple Killer has a lime green jelly base with white skull and crossbones shaped glitters. I swatched it on its own; three coats was enough to convince me I wasn't going to wear this one by itself, as the green leans yellow enough that it looked like my nails were stained. Getting the glitter out of the bottle proved to be tedious, which is why there are so few of them in evidence on my nails. (Awkward bottle pose thanks to having to loosen the cap to get the sticker to face front then trying not to bump it out of that position as I held the bottle. Why I didn't think to just peel the sticker off and reapply I do not know.)

 

 

I would have played with layering Sour Apple Killer regardless, but seeing how little I liked it on its own, I was extra interested in trying it over a couple different bases. I put Lit-terally, the green shimmer from the SinfulColors 2019 Neon collection on all my digits except for my ring finger, which got SinfulColors About Last Night, a shimmery gold from the Vanessa Hudgens Festival collection from 2018. Then I added one coat of Sour Apple Killer. This I like so much more. The shimmer shines through the jelly base of the glitter, subtly in the case of Lit-terally and more assertively with About Last Night.

 

 

Twisted Toffee is a brownish orange jelly base with the same skull and crossbones glitters as Sour Apple Killer. I swatched it on its own at three coats, again having to fish for the glitter. Pro: does look like toffee. Con: I do not think translucent toffee looks good on my nails.

 

 

Of course I layered it. The base colors I used were SinfulColors About Last Night (on my index finger) and Hot Toffee, a warm brown creme from the new core colors released in 2019, on my other digits. Then I topped those with one coat of Twisted Toffee. As with Sour Apple Killer, I liked Twisted Toffee better as a topper.

 

 

If I were wearing either of these in a full mani, I'd have to break out the thick topcoat as the glitters are a bit wide for my c-curve, I think they'd catch on things if not smoothed over. I'm not sure I will wear them in a full mani, at least not with the glitter, which I think is a weird shape that most people won't recognize (I've seen them called "floating babies"--hah!). Without the glitters, though, they're nice layering jellies.

Wheel Q13: Glitters from CrowsToes

Today for Nail Wheel Wednesday I've got a whole bunch of glitters from CrowsToes Nail Color, all from back in what I think of as the golden age of indies when there was lots of glitter around. These particular polishes are from the early 2010s if I recall correctly; I sort of lost touch with the brand around 2013 or so (they shut down entirely in 2018). I know lots of folks think now is the golden age of indies, but for me it's too much now ... too many brands to keep track of, too many boxes and collabs and such that I always feel like I'm missing something, too hard to know who's a crap person that I don't want to spend money with. I'm still buying indies, of course, mostly from brands where I've met the maker or I have friends who have, but it doesn't feel quite as fun as it did back when the indie world was smaller. Of course, nothing feels quite as fun these days, what with the pandemic and political climate in my country.

 

(all have clear topcoat added to glitter coats noted below) 1. CrowsToes Bone Daddy (2 coats over 1/2 black base)
2. CrowsToes Bunny Slope (1 coat over 1/2 black, 1/2 tan base)
3. CrowsToes Maxxed Out (2)
4. CrowsToes Thing (2)
5. CrowsToes Umm No He Went to the Pawn Shop (2)
6. CrowsToes Milquetoast (2)
7. CrowsToes Her Goose Got Cooked (2)
8. CrowsToes Heart Shaped Box of Horse*!@#! (2)
9. CrowsToes Shoot the Butterfly (3)
10. CrowsToes VooDoo (2) [wish I'd put a dark base under this so the little holo could pop]
11. CrowsToes Hell Hath No Fury (2)
12. CrowsToes Holly and Hellfire (2)
13. CrowsToes Morticia (2)
14. CrowsToes Wonder Woman (2)
15. CrowsToes Making Christmas (2)
16. CrowsToes Last Call at the Crow Bar (2)
17. CrowsToes Triple Black Diamond (2)
18. CrowsToes Tangled Web (2)
19. CrowsToes A Christmas Crow (2)
20. CrowsToes HeratBreaker (2)
[this was a group custom]
Bottles 1 through 5:

 

 

6 through 10:

 

 

11 through 15:

 

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next State Over Displays

I'd hoped to get down to the "big" city again to hunt for nail polish again by now, but between isolation malaise and winter weather (we got our first snow here a couple weeks ago and the most recent storm dropped six inches that's still out there blowing around), it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon, so I'm going to go ahead and share what I saw when Mr. K and I packed our Lysol disinfectant spray and braved a long weekend roadtrip a couple weeks after my last display post last month. We only did this so we could visit his mom while the weather was still warm enough to take advantage of the outdoor visiting her assisted living facility was allowing (as it was, we all wore coats the whole time). We hadn't seen her in person since before the pandemic was declared. One morning while Mr. K had some bonding time with our nephews, I had some bonding time with the stores in that part of western Washington state. I'd only ever seen Ella + Mila at Target before, so was surprised to see a full endcap of it at Walgreens. The top shelf had base, treatments, and topcoat, while the other two shelves had color polish, mostly cremes, mostly shades that would be conservative office appropriate.

 

Essie has a Halloween display that I saw at Fred Meyer, but it's all re-promotes: Licorice, Yes I Canyon, Forever Yummy, Wicked, Blanc, and Gadget-Free.

 

At Walgreens, there was a Halloween-themed display that combined makeup from Maybelline with polish from Essie—core shades Wicked, Bordeaux, and Licorice.

 

Walgreens also had a display with the new (maybe limited edition) Expressie colors that was better stocked than the one from Fredy Meyer I shared last display post. Top row: Clock In, On to the Next, Speed of Life, Energized & Wise, Fueled Up. Second row: So Matcha Energy, Re-charge to Take Charge (sold out), Expresso Double Shot, In the Fast Lane, and High Energy Low Stress. (Bottom row is regular line fall collection.) I resisted these at the time thinking surely I had close enough matches for these cremes, but now I'm looking at that pale yellow and wondering. Must stay strong.

 

Rite Aid was still setting up their Halloween aisle when I stopped in, so I'm not sure if the lack of pumpkin polishes was temporary (I never did see them last year), but they did have the Kiss Perfectly Wicked display with limited edition fake nail sets (and glue), as well as a Kiss Dare to Be Bold display which had Impress nail sets and Kiss stickers and strips.

 

 

Fred Meyer had the shelf top display for the Sally Hansen Insta Dri Sour Patch Kids Halloween collection that I shared from Walgreens last display post. This didn't have the Wags exclusive blue, and the green was sold out. There were two of the white glitter topper, and I almost bought one because a) they were on sale and b) I have visions of snowstorm/snowglobe nail art, but then I got back in touch with the reality that I am not going to do enough of that sort of nail art to need a backup bottle.

 

The display I most wanted to find was the big Halloween one at Walmart with the LE SinfulColors, and there it was in the store nearest the hotel we stayed in, and looking pretty unmolested. There are only two new colors here (in the top left cubby): Sour Apple Killer (#2724) and Twisted Toffee (#2725).

 

 

This is a four-sided display. The side opposite the SinfulColors polishes was filled with LA Colors, all re-promotes as far as I could see, with shades from Color Craze Gel Glow (glow in the dark), Color Craze Gel, Color Last (a new addition compared to last year), Mermaid Magic, and Unicorn Sparkle.

 

A third side was all fake nails, with a few brands represented: SinfulColors, Kiss, Impress, and LA Colors.

 

There were three SinfulColors Claws designs: long almonds with bats on Halloween colors, medium squares with claws ripping through a brown plaid background, and medium ovals with green and black monsters and webs. The Kiss and Impress designs including the same ones that were in the Rite Aid displays as well as some others; the LA Colors weren't seasonal at all.

 

The fourth side was fake lashes and spray on haircolor, and I didn't even take a photo of that. Fred Meyer had a shelftop display for SinfulColors Halloween called Tricked Out Treats. It was mostly core colors, but did have slots for the two LE polishes and two of the Claws designs (the green polish was gone by the time I spotted this one).

 

Fred Meyer also had a display for SinfulColors Fast & Fierce. This has limited edition "cherry-inspired shades by Bebe Rexha" in the Quick Bliss line. This particular display was a bit of a mess, but it did have one of the two LE colors, Speedster, which is the red with the silver to black gradient cap on the right side. The other LE that should be here is Vvvroom, a lilac shimmer. (There's also Fast Ride, a purple shimmer, that came out at the same time, but that is an online exclusive available only in sets with the three new ones and three previously released Quick Bliss shades.)

 

In the core nail polish section at Walmart, there were four non-Halloween designs of SinfulColors Claws.

 

I popped into one of the popup Spirit of Halloween stores that appear in empty storefronts this time of year; they had a selection of their own brand of fake nail designs tucked into the makeup section.

 

There was a tall and skinny Fantasy Makers (from Wet 'n' Wild) display sitting in an aisle at Fred Meyer. Way down at the bottom were a few WildShine core colors, and a Fantasy Makers glow in the dark topcoat in the same style bottle. It's something, but nothing like the LE polish collections they used to do for Halloween.

 

 

I didn't see any intriguing seasonal displays at Sally Beauty, but did see a new-to-me line in the big polish wall: Naturalism by FP (FingerPaints, I assume). I was the only customer in the store and was being fairly closely supervised, so I didn't get a good shot of all the colors, but they'll be easy to spot when you go in as the caps look like wood. This looks to be their entry into the "plant origin" market that Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure and Nailtopia are also going for. Maybe on my next trip it'll be busier and I can snap photos to my heart's content.

 

That's all for now. Can't be sure when I'll have more displays to share, but I have been ordering plenty of polish online so there'll be no shortage of swatches provided I can keep myself motivated.

Polished for Days Birch and Woodnote

Today I've got two flakies from Polished for Days that feel perfect for autumn (which we are currently having where I live maybe half the time, with the other days being winter, complete with snow): Birch and Woodnote.

 

Birch has a grey base that's been filled up with orange/green shifty flakes and tiny sparkling holo flakes.

 

Birch can absolutely be worn on its own, but you know me ... if I can layer, I'm gonna layer. So I did three coats of Birch on my index finger and on the other digits did one coat of Birch over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Green, a deep slightly greyed teal creme. The layered nails also got topcoat, though it didn't make a huge difference as Birch is fairly shiny and well behaved.

 

 

 

It was dark out when I swatched Birch, so I don't know how it looks in the sun. I do know it looks fabulous in a different way under the warm direct light of my desk lamp. The larger shifty flakes yield center stage to the tiny holo ones but don't disappear entirely, still hanging around to add interest.

 

 

Woodnote has a reddish violet base seasoned heavily with gold/orange/green shifty flakes plus a dash of silvery holo flakes added as well. This is less densely packed than Birch, but no less pretty.

 

I took the same approach with Woodnote as I did with Birch: my index finger is three coats of Woodnote alone and the other fingers are one coat of Woodnote over Essie Mrs. Always-Right, a browned rose creme.

 

 

 

The shift in this is quite noticeable even in indirect light; it goes from gold/orange to almost completely green with just a slight change in angle.

 

Under the desk lamp, Woodnote went golden.

 

Both of these beauties were still available on the Polished for Days site last I checked a couple days ago. Birch is from last year's Woodland Holiday collection, while Woodnote is from the more recent Enchanted Woods collection.