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.