On Vacation

I'll be going (mostly) offline for the next two weeks. Back to blogging the week of June 14th.

Wheel R14: Glitters from Belarus

Belarus has been in the news lately; when I went there for work a couple times five-ish years ago, I just knew it as a former part of the Soviet Union that I was excited and a bit anxious to get a chance to see a small part of. Of course I veered off the program laid out for me by my work and my hosts, taking a few detours on my own to seek out nail polish. I found it was quite possible to buy it even though I spoke only a handful of words of Russian (all but two-ish of which I've forgotten by now). A lot of what I bought was glitters, 20 of which I have on today's Nail Wheel Wednesday.

 

(all have clear topcoat in addition to glitter coats noted below) 1. Novelty Cosmetics 533 (3 coats)
2. Novelty Cosmetics 805 (2)
3. Novelty Cosmetics 807 (2 over a skintone base)
4. Novelty Cosmetics 817 (2 over a skintone base)br /> 5. Novelty Cosmetics 541 (2 over a skintone base on half and black on half)
6. Relouis 421 (2 over a skintone base on half and black on half)
7. Relouis Glitter Collection 01 (2)
8. Relouis Glitter Collection 03 (2) [has tiny silver glitter in it; probably should have put over black]
9. Vivienne Sabo Noctuelle unknown (2 over half black base)
10. LuxVisage Galactic 208 (2)
11. LuxVisage Galactic 207 (2)
12. LuxVisage Galactic 204 (2)
13. LuxVisage Galactic 206 (2)
14. LuxVisage Galactic 212 (2)
15. LuxVisage Galactic 215 (2) [really a microglitter]
16. LuxVisage HiTech 10 (2 over a skintone base)
17. LuxVisage HiTech 25 (2 over a skintone base)
18. LuxVisage HiTech 12 (2 over a skintone base)
19. LuxVisage HiTech 18 (2)
20. LuxVisage HiTech 19 (2)

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 9:

 

10 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A look at the glitter in #15 in direct light:

 

Nails of Some Days: Sally Hansen Troublemaker and Purple Prisms

I truly meant to post at least once or twice last week, but obviously that didn't happen. Instead, I left my house overnight. Not just overnight but for five full days and four nights, going to visit family in western Washington now that we are all vaccinated against COVID. I took my laptop but didn't get it out once, so distracted was I by the novelty of travel after all this time. I am rather concerned that I've forgotten how to do all the things I used to do before shutdown started. Guess I'll just have to work my way back up to whatever my new normal turns out to be. I have been doing my nails and playing with my polish throughout, so that's a good through line. What I have to share today is a manicure I did with Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips in Troublemaker, a deep purple that still reads as purple instead of black, topped with Sally Hansen Salon Gel Polish in Purple Prisms, a glitter topper with silver, silver holo, and purple metallic hexes. I was pleasantly surprised that the gel polish wasn't all goopy as old as it was. It applied fine and cured hard under a gel topcoat. (If the bigger glitters shown on the cap of Purple Prisms were in the bottle, they sure didn't come out on the brush.)

 

 

Here's the glitter sparkling in the sun against a backdrop of one of the few remaining patches of snow up on my mountain.

 

And here it is after five days wear ... I used the gel because I wanted durability and that worked out. Plus no having to carry around nail glue to use if a fake popped off.

 

As I start to get out in the offline world more, posts here might be a bit sporadic for a while as I adjust to a new routine. Seems silly that it should be so hard but this has been a traumatic time and that takes its toll in different ways on different people.

Wheel Q14: Pale Pink Shimmers

Today on Nail Wheel Wednesday I have pink shimmer polishes. Some are so light they might be considered white, and one in particular fooled me in the bottle into thinking it was lighter than it turned out to be on the nail ... that's what I get for not swatching on paper first, but I do want to finish this wheel project before I have to destash to move into assisted living someday so I go right to the wheel now. Some of these are very subtle shimmers indeed, but if I can see shimmer in the bottle, it goes on a shimmer wheel.

 

1. Essence Out of Space Stories Outta Space is the Place (2 coats)
2. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure A Wink of Pink (3)
3. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pink I Wanna Marry You (3)
4. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Hidden Treasure (3) [oh, I remember how annoyed I was when this one came out and SH re-used the name of their much sought after flakie polish]
5. Nails Inc. Hamilton Mews (2)
6. Kiko Velvet Satin 690 Misty Pink (2)
7. Wet 'n' Wild Megalast Stream of Consciousness (3)
8. Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love (3)
9. Kleancolor Love is in the Air (2)
10. Rimmel 60 Seconds Lose Your Lingerie (3)
11. Essence Cinderella Sing Sweet Nightingale (2)
12. Elf Light Pink (3)
13. SinfulColors Kitty Pink (2)
14. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Fancy Diamond (3)
15. Deborah Lippmann Chantilly Lace (3)
16. Essie Soft as Sand (2) [I am not happy that some of my Essie caps are discoloring on their top half like this one]
17. Essie Crush & Blush (3)
18. Essie Just Stiched (2)
19. Miyo Nailed It Princess (3)
20. Illamasqua Pink Raindrops (2) [this has not aged well at all; looking at swatches online that folks did closer to when this came out, it was at one point a much lighter pink with pretty shimmer but you can see here that my bottle has turned into a lumpy mauve mess]

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Day's Displays

With more and more of the people I am closest to getting vaccinated for COVID-19, I'm looking forward to being able to start establishing a new normal soon. Now I'm still in cautious mode, staying close to home for the most part, venturing to the "big" city infrequently and limiting the places I go (still masked and physically distanced) when I get there. Which is a long introduction to why I'm going to do this display post with just what I saw in the handful of stores I went into on the one trip I've taken down to the city since my previous display post at the end of March. In the Before Time, I would have had three or four trips down there in this stretch of time, most of which would have included visits to more stores in a wider area. Still might not have found more things to share, but at least I'd know I'd been able to do a thorough search. A well, I'm glad I can get out at least as much as I have been. I was surprised to see a China Glaze Cali Dreams display snugged up to one side of an aisle at Rite Aid. They've had China Glaze for quite a while now, but I don't recall seeing a seasonal display like this there before. I almost missed this one, since the muted color palette and skinny shape sort of blended into the crowded visual landscape of the beauty aisles.

 

I also found the Essie summer collection at Rite Aid (later spotted it as Ulta and Fred Meyer as well). Left to right: Feelin' Just Lime, Juicy Details, Zest Has Yet to Come, Pucker Up, Get Your Grove On, Tangerine Tease.

 

There was an Impress display with fake nails and fake toenails in matching neons at Walgreens (with some non-neon nails stuffed in there too). Despite my frequent use of fake nails, I've yet to try fake toe nails. One of the reasons I like fake nails is that they protect my real nails, which isn't a very big issue with my toes. Sure, I've cracked a once in a great while stubbing my toe but for the most part there's no issues with splitting and peeling and breaking because I keep them short. And I don't live in a part of the country where I can go for days just wearing sandals, and I feel like fake toe nails would catch on socks. Maybe I should try a set just so I know.

 

The only new thing I spotted at Sally Beauty was the Nails Inc. Color-Changing display, which has six shades of thermal polish: Hotter than Hot, A Hot Minute, Feel the Hotness, Hot Intentions, Because I'm Hot, You're Hot then You're Cold.

 

In the annoying backlit display at Ulta, I saw the relaunched Pacifica line, now in square bottles. Some of the colors looked like carryovers from the old line, some looked new, a few looked interesting. If I catch them on a sale I might try some. If you want to see the colors, best to look on the Ulta website, as I didn't manage to get any clear photos thanks to the backlighting.

 

At Walgreens there was a Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure display touting "fresh shades" but I feel like I'd seen them all before. There was a jumble of colors in here, but the ones across the front row that definitely belonged there were Crystal Blue, Mint Refresh, Pinky Clay, and White Tea (along with nail oil and topcoat).

 

There were new shades in the next Sally Hansen display I came across, the Insta Dri Live Love Loud collection done in conjuction with GLAAD for Pride. Left to right: Va-Va Violet (core, but here with the inclusive Pride flag stripes on the bottle), Along for the Pride, Yaaass Green, Yellow Lady, Love Wins, ASAP Apple (core, sold out here), LGBTQ-utie, Black to Black, core white stuck in slot where Clearly Quick should be.

 

I did pop in very quickly to a second Walgreens and saw a display which had all the Pride colors. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't as good and apparently I was so focused on getting in and out quickly that I didn't get the focus quite right.

 

Despite being a Disney fan, I somehow missed they were coming out with live action movie about Cruella de Vil until someone on Facebook posted about the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Cruella collection. I was so happy to find it at Walgreens. The display says there are 13 colors in the collection, but on closer inspection, some of those are core shades with Cruella printed on the cap.

 

Top row: The DeVil is In the Details, Red Eye (core, sold out), Tipsy Gypsy (core), Get Mod (core), Tidal Wave (core), No to Conformity, Shiny Top Coat.

 

Second row: Onyx-pected (core), Pretty in Punk, Iconic Darling, Luck & Glory, Fame & Fortune (sold out), Greyfitti (core), Matte Top Coat.

 

Third row: Apollo You Anywhere (core, sold out), Quartz and Kisses (core, sold out), Fuchsia Fever (neon collection), Violet Voltage (neon collection), Miami Ice (neon collection), Sugar Fix (core), Shiny Top Coat. The fourth row is all core, and in this display was filled with a jumble of things so I don't have a closeup of that.

 

The manicure shown on the display is definitely interesting, with different styles of nail art mixed together.

 

Fred Meyer had a smaller, more focused display for the Sally Hansen Cruella collection. Interestingly, this said "12 Cruella Collection Shades" rather than the 13 at Walgreens. Front: The DeVil is in the Details, Luck & Glory, Iconic Darling, Fame & Fortune, No to Conformity, Greyfitti (in the slot for Matte Top Coat), Shiny Top Coat. Back: Tidal Wave, Onyx-pected, Red Eye, Get Mod, TuTu the Ballet (core), Greyfitti, Tipsy Gypsy. So this display has TuTu the Ballet with the Cruella cap which Walgreens did not, but Walgreens had Pretty in Punk and Quartz and Kisses.

 

I keep checking the Salon Perfect section at Walmart hoping that somehow the pretty collection I saw people posting last year around the time the pandemic hit will turn up again (it had scattered silver glitter on the caps is what I remember) but I think if it were going to happen it would have by now. I did see these nail art kits ... I feel like I've seen (and maybe shared?) the crystal stamping kit one but don't remember seeing the pearl stamping kit one before.

 

Fred Meyer had a SinfulColors Tulle Temptation display that hadn't been there last time; the only place I've seen these besides Walmart. When I first saw the display, it was missing a couple colors, with those slots filled with random shades, and the shades that were there weren't all in the same order as listed on the display card. I found the missing ones down the aisle in the Essenchills display I shared last time. Restock gone wrong maybe? I went ahead and straightened that all out. Left to right: Hot Pink Tights, Hot and Hazy, Ruby Tutu, Turnt-quoise, Kiss of Cobalt, Veiled in Violet, Sheer-treuse, See Through Citrine, Semi-matte Top Coat.

 

At Walmart, I encountered a big middle of the aisle display with SinfulColors Essenchills and a bunch of core shades, looking a bit of a mess.

 

Around the corner of the display was a shorter side exclaiming Go Off!, which initially excited me because this was where the three LE glitters should be. Sadly, most of the display was jammed with other colors, with one lone bottle of LE glitter (the light blue in the top row). I'm hoping Fred Meyer gets these at some point so I can pick up the other two (one is purple, the other pink).

 

This was the best photo I could manage of the Ulta house brand Trop the Beat limited edition collection: In Pursuit of Passion Fruit, Dragon-licious, Guava Stay Up All Night, Papaya to Dance, Mango Tango, Lei Back & Hula, Seashells & Sand Dollars.

 

My disappointment at the state of SinfulColors at Walmart was somewhat eased by seeing this sidekick from Wet 'n' Wild right next to the picked over Sinful display, with a row of Fantasy Makers polishes with holo silver stars on the caps tucked into the bottom of it. The colors aren't overly exciting but the caps are fun so I bought one of the glitters. Left to right: See You Laser (maybe glow in the dark?), Lemonade Heaven, Faded, Seeing Colors, Stay Hydrated, Watermelon Fest, Lightning in a Bottle, Shakedown.

 

 

I'm planning to start traveling a bit again this summer so perhaps I'll be able to expand my display hunting then. In the meantime it's not like I'm going to run out of polish to try.