Cover Girl Quartet

Back in February, I included some new Cover Girl shades in a display post; sometime after that, I happened upon a BOGO50% sale on them during a weak moment, which is how I ended up with not just the three new colors but a fourth from one of the Star Wars displays, because of course I couldn't buy three polishes during a BOGO sale, and buying only two of the three new ones was also not possible. So my mini Cover Girl haul consisted of this quartet: Camel, Rose Gold, Mink, and Diva After Dark.



I quite like these bottles; the square shape stores efficiently and the bulky overcap comes off to make using them easier.



I started with Camel, an old gold shimmer. The pro: it's quite opaque, nearly a one-coater, though I used two. The con: brushstrokes.



I tried topping it with Wet 'n' Wild's matte topcoat to see if that would help. Not really. It softened them a bit but I could still see them too well for my taste.



Rose Gold was up next. I used two coats of this one, which is what the name says, rose gold, and while this shimmer it did show brushstrokes, they were less prominent than with Camel. This has more glowiness to the shimmer, which helps diffuse the light, I think. On my index finger, where I was more careful to not let my strokes waver near the tip, the finish looked pretty good on this. On my other fingers, you can see some swerves.



I was able to disguise most of the swerves and strokes by adding a matte topcoat, OPI this time, and then a shiny one (Beauty Secrets). The color is almost mannequin hands on me, so might be something I turn to when I want a shiny but not flashy manicure. I'm trying to envision when that might be in my current life; maybe if I have to go to court for something or apply in person for a loan or something official like that.



Mink, the third new color, has a flecked finish and is more sheer than the first two. I'd describe the color as a cool gold. I used three coats, and brushstrokes were not an issue at all.





That Mink needed three coats made me think it mighat also work as a layering polish, and that turned out to be the case. It worked great over both Rose Gold and Camel to camoflage the brushstrokes while not changing the color too much. Top to bottom below: Rose Gold alone, Rose Gold with one coat of Mink, Camel alone, Camel topped with one coat of Mink. I like the Camel/Mink combination on me much better than Camel by itself, regardless of brushstrokes.





The last polish, Diva After Dark, is a black with silver shimmer. I used two coats, and it was plenty shiny on its own. I picked this from all the Star Wars ones because it seemed the most like space. It's a core color; I'm still not sure what the limited edition shades were for this movie tie-in. Nothing that grabbed my eye, anyway.





I'm a drugstore girl at heart. I love some indie polishes, but I grew up on mass market colors, and really like the instant gratification of going into a store and coming out with new polish for a good price.

Winter and Holiday Displays

We in southeastern Michigan had our first snowstorm of the season this past weekend, so it feels like a good time to share the winter and holiday displays that have been showing up at stores.

This first display isn't marketed as a holiday collection, but the colors read like one to me. It's the Bonita Forget Me Not display as seen at Rite Aid. Six shades: Golden Girl, Tinman's Brew, Mo' Money, Do the Flamingo, You're My Lobster, Forget-Me-Not.



The Bonita Holiday Helpers set, also at Rite Aid, is clearly meant for Christmas. It's got four polishes (green, red, silver glitter, and white) and Christmas nail stickers for $4.99.



I saw the Bonita Holiday Helpers set at Kmart as well, but they had something Rite Aid didn't: this year's Jolly Nails set from Bonita. It's a different mix of colors than the one I swatched from last year.



Kmart also had a Bonita set called Color Star that looked more summery than wintery, but there it was, newly displayed in the same area as the holiday stuff.



I saw the Butter London Invite Only mini set at Ulta. It's labeled limited edition, and the shades don't look familiar to me, but as every holiday season, I'll need to study the Butter London site to see which shades appear in other gift sets before I make a decision about what to buy. Colors in this one are: Pash, Vapour, Lock In, Peep Hole, Glad Rags, and OTT.



The China Glaze Cheers collection for the holidays showed up at my Ulta. As sometimes is the case with China Glaze, the bottles were arranged randomly in slots with no labels, so it wasn't possible to be sure how many shades there are supposed to be just by looking. Thank goodness for the internet, which tells me there are twelve colors: Coal Hands Warm Heart (charcoal glitter), Don't Get Elfed Up (green shimmer), Soiree I Didn't Do It (green glitter), Mix and Mingle (purple creme), Brand Spankin' New Year (purple glitter), Better Not Pout (berry shimmer), Winter Down for What (red creme), Peppermint to Be (ruby shimmer), Ugly Sweater Party (red glitter), Son of a Nutcracker (orange shimmer), Bring on the Bubbly (gold glitter), Break the Ice (silver gitter).



I've seen several different Cover Girl displays tied into the new Star Wars movie, some of which have nail polish in them, some of which polishes have Star Wars stickers on the caps. They don't seem to be marked clearly with which shades are limited edition and which are repromoted existing shades. I saw these first two at CVS. The one on the left has topcoat (no Star Wars sticker on the cap) and Red Revenge (stickered). The one on the right has Smokey Taupe (no sticker) and Speed of Light (sticker). I don't know if the non-stickered slots were supposed to have other colors that sold out or what.



These next two Cover Girl Star Wars displays were at Rite Aid; all the polishes had Star Wars stickers. The polish colors in the one below are Golden Opportunity and Diva After Dark.



This next one has Emerald Blaze and Snow Storm.



A different Rite Aid had two other Star Wars displays. This first, which I assume is Light Side, had Speed of Light polish and Top Coat.



The Dark Side had Red Revenge and Nemesis polishes.



I saw this small Cover Girl Star Wars display at Bed Bath & Beyond. The only polish shade here was Red Revenge.



A couple Essense displays popped up at Ulta. The first, Happy Girls Are Pretty, had the I Heart Trends nude colors that were already in the regular endcap: I Nude It, I'm Lost in You, Pure Soul, and Nude Sweet Nude.



The second Essence display, which didn't seem to have a name, had four I Heart Pastels polishes: So Lucky, Sweet at First Sight, Bubble Bath, and Do Nuts.



The Essie Winter 2015 collection appeared first at my Ulta. Six shades here: Apres-Chic (silver), Peak Show (pink), Virgin Snow (lilac), Altitude Attitude (red), Shall We Chalet (slightly darker red), and Haute Tub (black). I've seen this collection as well in the Nail HQ at a CVS that still has one (the store closest to my house has pretty much gutted theirs). There's also a four shade display I've seen at some Rite Aid stores; that lacks Peak Show and Altitude Attitude.



The only place I've seen Essie LuxEffects for Holiday 2015 so far is Ulta. This is a four-shade collection of glitters in clear bases. Left to right: Tassel Shaker (two slots), Frilling Me Softly (one), Fringe Factor (two), and Fashion Flares (one).



Walgreens has an LA Colors Color Craze Diamonique nail art kit with a five mini polishes, a mini top coat, a wheel of rhinestones, and a "pick & place" tool. Not bad for only $5.



Ulta has the OPI holiday collection Starlight. The full collection is 18 shades, which is about a dozen more than I can pay attention to at any one time. There are apparently three variations of the small six-color display; my store had the shimmers and glitters one. Left to right: No More Mr. Night Sky, Two Wrongs Don't Make A Meteorite, Press * For Silver, Infrared-y To Glow, Let Your Love Shine, and Ce-less-tial is More.



The big display at my Ulta had 13 shades, with Ce-less-tial is More being in both this and the small display. Top row: Guys & Galaxies (two slots), Love Is In My Cards (three), Ro-man-ce On the Moon (two), I'm in the Moon for Love (two), Base Coat. Middle row: Ce-less-tial is More (two slots), Cosmo with a Twist (two), Give Me Space (two), The Center of the You-niverse (two), Top Coat (two). Bottom row: I Drive a SuperNova (two slots), Super Star Status (two), By the Light of the Moon (two), Is This Star Taken (two), Comet Closer (two).



Meijer had a new Orly Color Blast display. The top row has two different 3-piece kits: After Midnight (Teal Pink Gloss Glitter, Multicolored Gloss Glitter, Deep Purple Gloss Glitter) and City Lights (Silver Multicolored Gloss Glitter, Hot Pink Gloss Glitter, Navy Blue Gloss Glitter). The bottom row has individual bottles: Glitz and Glam, Price of Fame, The In Crowd, Blvd of Dreams, Baby Pink Creme, Amethyst Color Flip, Champagne Gloss Glitter, Pearly Pink Neon, Fluorescent Fuchsia Neon, True Neon Pink, Pink Coral 3D Glitter, Green Color Flip, Rose Chrome Foil, Pink Luxe Shimmer, Plum/Gold Color Flip, and Star Tours. These names are an odd mix of nondescriptive, very descriptive, and inaccurately descriptive.



Rite Aid has three holiday displays from Ornaments. The first has crystal topped polishes with Santa and Christmas tree designs on the caps, ice cream polishes (because ice cream is cold like snow? I don't know), nail art polishes, and candy cane handled lip gloss (I think it's gloss anyway).



The second Ornaments display has two sets of mini polishes and a trio of lip glosses.



The third Ornaments display has the snowmen polishes we've come to know and love at this time of year. I didn't see any eye catching new colors; I think some are new to snowmen bottles, but not new colors/finishes overall.



This is the first holiday season the Pop-arazzi brand has been around; their holiday offering as seen as CVS is a 15-shade set of minis. The colors all seem to be core, but the bottles sure are cute. Shade names: So Cheeky, Frosted Fairy Tale, Kiss Ya Later, Spice is Nice, Info Red, Pretty in Pearls, Hit the Goldmine, Cinn-Ya-Mon, Star Shine, Glam Factory, The Hue is Blue, Sapphire Desire, Money Honey, Orchid Crush, Down the Runway.



The Rimmel Royal Plush limited edition holiday collection display includes five Love Glitter polishes: All Glittered Up (red/blue/silver), Tinsel Toes (gold/silver/blue/copper), A Crush on You (blue/green), Queen of Bling (gold), and Mistletoe Mischief (gold/copper). All of these appear to have shredded glitter flakes in a clear base; I haven't bought any yet because I really am trying to reform my free spending stash enhancement ways. I've seen this display only at Meijer and KMart so far.



Sally Hansen has released six holiday gift packs in the Miracle Gel line. Each has a colored polish and a top coat. Polish shades are: For the Thrill (glittery gold), Game of Chromes (metallic shimmery gold), Ruby Shimmers (glittery red), Mad Women (shimmery pinkish red), In a Flurry (glittery silver blue), Combustealble (shimmery greenish blue). I spotted the display below at Bed Bath & Beyond, but later saw the same shades in a sidekick display at a CVS.



The SinfulColors Glitz and Garlands display for holiday 2015 has been at my Rite Aid since the end of September, but I've been pretending not to see it because I'm still cranky about how early the Christmas retail machinery cranks up. Left to right: Blue by You, Red Eye, Queen of Beauty, Snow Me White, Call You Later, Pine Away, Gilded, Holiday Rebel. I believe all are repromotes or core shades.



The SinfulColors holiday display The Finishing Touch is at Walgreens. This has some new colors, though many core and repromotes, too. Top row: Snow Me White, Decadent, Gold Medal, Flake Out (new), Ruby Glisten, Flake Out (new), Holiday Rebel, Green Ocean. Second row: Ice Dream, Pride, Purple Heart, Top Coat, Sugar Sugar, It's a Wrap (new), Ice Dream, Sugar Sugar. Third row: Casablanca, Silver Crush (new), It's a Wrap (new), Top Coat, Holiday Rebel, Black on Black, Silver Crush (new), Touch of Class (new). Fourth row: Star Studded (new), Steel My Heart (new), Out of This World, Velvet Ribbon (new), Star Studded (new), Sugar Sugar, Velvet Ribbon (new), Twilight Twinkles (new). Fifth row: Gogo Girl, Flake Out (new), Top Coat, Gogo Girl, Sugar Sugar, Green Ocean, Gold Medal, Ruby Glisten. Bottom row: Supernova, Gilded, Red Eye, Pine Away, Blue By You, Snow Me White, Gilded, Red Eye.



At what I've come to think of as "the good CVS" even though it's Nail HQ is usually a mess, I saw the Wet 'n' Wild We're the Wild Cats display with six limited edition ColorIcon shades: Where My Ho Ho Hos At, Los Feliz Navidad, Bring the 'Pagne, Holiday Spirits and Wine, Naughty and Iced, Garnet My Heel Broke.



Zoya Matte Velvet for Holiday 2015 showed up at my Ulta in a timely manner; they seem to be getting much better about getting this brand in than they used to be. Left to right: Aspen, Sue, Amal, Iris, Yves, Honor.



Ulta also had Zoya Sugar Plum Surprise, which I hadn't really heard anything about. Three shades: Renee, Marjorie, and Cindy.



I haven't seen Studio M or FingerPaints holiday displays yet; they're probably out there but I don't hit stores quite as often as when I had to be in the car every day for work. Hope what I did see at least gives you some idea what to look for if you're in the US and planning to do some Thanksgiving weekend shopping.

End of May Displays

Only a couple weeks have passed since my last display post but I have enough new photos collected to fill another one, so let's get to browsing.

Rite Aid had a Bonita Salon display for The Getaway Collection: Kyoto's Cherry Blossoms, Ibiza Nightlife, Bora Bora Coast, Santorini's Ocean, Cocktails in Aruba, and Golden Florence. (They also had the Sweet Ever After collection that I shared last display post and had previously only seen at Kmart.)



Last display post I shared a Cover Girl display with three bright polishes in it; I saw a different one with a trio of classic colors at a different Meijer. Shades here are: Speed of Light, Red Revenge, and Nemesis.



An endcap at Walgreens was like a mash up of the two shelf top Cover Girl displays. It had all six of the (I assume new core) polish colors: Mutant, Red Revenge, Nemesis, Fury, Nuclear, Speed of Light.







Rite Aid had a four-shade display for Essie Summer 2015. It has Chillato, Peach Side Babe, Sunset Sneaks, and Pret-a-surfer. The two missing colors compared to the full display from Ulta I shared last time are Private Weekend and Salt Water Happy. (Yes, I failed to turn Pret-a-surfer around so it'd match the bottle orientation of the other colors, and yes, I regret that.)



My CVS had all six shades of Essie Summer 2015, tucked in a narrow display I stumbled across next to the false eyelashes.



I've made several forays to Five Below since my last display post; my role as a mule (aka International Unicorn Relocation Specialist) for the Five Below Group Buys group on Facebook demands it. Without a tip from another member of that group, I would probably have overlooked the two newest Fresh Paint colors, Shake It Off and Blank Space, as they were slipped into the bins with no signage to indicate they were new or part of a collection, and they're not especially eye catching. I can only imagine there will be two or three more colors with names inspired by Taylor Swift that will pop up soon. Shake It Off is a light dusty rose creme, and Blank Space is a pale greige creme.



Also at Five Below, I saw the two additional new solar polish colors for this summer that I was on the lookout for as of my last display post. Comet Mebrois the blue in the front of this bin; Pluto 4ever is the light orange in back.



While looking for the solars, I came across a new Funky Fingers patriotic glitter topper, 'Murica.



Also just dumped in random bins, there were two other new Funky Fingers that would appear, based on their names, to be from the same collection as the three Disney-themed ones that appeared in stores back in April. Still no signage indicating what the collection might officially be called, and these two new ones weren't even but in bins next to each other, much less next to the first three. Celebration (which shares a name with the town Disney built in Florida near Walt Disney World) is an orange shimmer. Mad Tea Party (a ride in both Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California) is a pink and lilac glitter topper. I find it frustrating that if I'd only procrastinated about swatching the first three (Wishes, Off to Neverland, and Fantasy Land) I could do the whole collection at once. Unless there are even more coming, that is; with Funky Fingers, who the heck knows.





Up near the register in the store I first spotted them in but later found in the regular polish bins were two scented glitter toppers, Alex's Lemonade and Alex's Pink Lemonade, a tie in with the same children's cancer charity that Five Below has done polishes with in previous years (including at least two others called Alex's Lemonade).





I thought new solars, a new holiday glitter topper, two charity glitter toppers, and a mysterious Disney collection should be enough Funky Fingers for a while, but no, just the other day I spotted three more colors I'd not seen before, all with cat-themed names and no signage about what the collection might be. I'm undecided if I should swatch these now and risk more showing up later or what. Cat-a-tonic is a purple creme, Check Meowt is a purpley pink creme, and Hiss and Makeup is a peachy pink shimmer.



At CVS, the Milani endcap had a small display for the Dolci Bronze collection tucked into one side. There was one Color Statement polish here, not surprisingly called Dolci.



Walgreens had a new Orly Color Blast display themed around Disney's Belle of Beauty and the Beast. There are two different sets of four minis for $14.99 and six medium size bottles (they're only 11 ml, not the 15 ml I consider the standard for full size) for $6.99 each.



The mini set on the left contains Enchanted Rose, Magic Mirror, Lumiere's Light, and Positively Primeval Gaston. The bottles in the center are (left to right in front row) Enchanted Rose, Break the Spell, Crazy Old Maurice, Tea with Mrs. Potts, Nose in a Book, and Positively Primeval Gaston. The mini set on the right has Bonjour, Belle of the Ball, Be Our Guest, and Nose in a Book.



As a Disney fan, this collection annoys me. The color palette seems quite similar to the Frozen collection from this past spring, dominated by pink, blue, purple, and peach. This assortment of shades seems to have even less to do with the movie than the Frozen ones did. Where is the yellow of Belle's ballgown? Only on display and the packaging, not in the polish. The polish called Belle of the Ball is pink. Pink! That's not right. Belle does have a pink dress, but her ballgown is yellow. There was a yellow polish in the Frozen collection, so I know they can make Color Blast in that sort of shade. The peach for Gaston—what's that about? His skin color? A rich red like his tunic would have been a much better choice. Light teal for Maurice? Nope. That needed to be white for his hair or at the very least a warm tone like his clothing in the movie. I just can't with this collection. Nose in a Book is probably the most fitting shade; Belle does wear a blue dress while reading in the movie. As random as the other colors are for the theme, that was probably accidental.

Last display post I shared a shelf top display with the Sally Hansen Beachside Astrologer collection that I saw at KMart. This has since also shown up at CVS and Walgreens in a endcap display which also includes other products, among them six of the newer Complete Salon Manicure core colors: Hello Pretty, Orchid Me Not, Mardi Grape, Scalet Lacquer, Greenlight, and Blue Chip.



At Walgreens, I found the Sally Hansen Pearl Crush display I'd been searching for. If the Sally Hansen folks have to keep introducing new lines, and it's clear that they do, I'm glad they've at least used this same rectangular bottle sytle for a lot of the recent ones; that makes for much less chaotic Helmer drawers. There are eight shades of pearly glitters here: Oy-ster It Up, She Sells, Lady Crab, Rainbow Fish, Shell & Tell, Mer-mint, Silver Scallop, and Clam Digger.



Also from Sally Hansen, I saw a Color Xpression display with new shades of Xtreme Wear plus new Big Kwik Dry Top Coat. I spotted these first at Walgreens and later at CVS (where the display had a black base). Left to right: Bare Hug, La Vida Polka, Sun Spots, Dabbler, Green Thumb, Pin-k Point, Royal Hue, and Orchid Around.



I've pretty much stopped going to Walmart because it's generally a wasted trip what with the random way the stores are stocked and the huge mess the beauty section often devolves into thanks to feral customers, but I did stop into one the other day since it was right on my way to somewhere else. I found the Salon Perfect Neon Pop display. It was picked over and all the limited edition colors were gone, but I did appreciate that there were two solid pieces of advice printed on the display: "Neons dry matte—use top coat for a glossy look" and "Apply a white base coat for even brighter neons". True and true.



In my last display post, I shared a SinfulColors Spring Fever display at Meijer that had some of the spring toppers as well as the summer Graffiti Bomb and Piñata Blast ones in among a jumble of other colors. At a different Meijer recently, I saw a similar assortment of shades with a Street Fusion display card. It was something of a mess, and I just walked away after a quick snap and scan rather than trying to figure out if there was anything new in there since I already had all the toppers.



I found a much better organized SinfulColors sidekick at Walgreens. This was called Street Fusion: Tokyo Lights, but had a different product assortment from the shelf top display with the same name I saw at Rite Aid a while back, including some new polish colors. Top row: 24/7, Decadent, Ruby Ruby, Decadent, Keira Blue (new, x2), Pink Ansen (new, x2). Second row: Bright Lucite (new, x2), Mint Tropics (new, x2), Fuji Fuji (new, x2), Mamasita (new, x2, seen in other displays too). Third row: Rise & Shine, Hazard, Sky Tree (new, x2), Jolt (x2), Lavender (x2). Fourth row: Pink Happy Thoughts (x2), Baila Baila (new, x2, seen in other displays too), Vacation Time (with empty slot next to it, maybe should also be Vacation Time?), Pride, clear Coat. Bottom row: Fierce Fiesta (new, x2, seen in other displays too), Curry Up (x2), Cherry Blossom (new, x2), Otaku Anime (new, x2).



When I did my last display post, I was concerned I'd already missed the Studio M summer display due to some random bottles that were sitting on an endcap at my Meijer store. I hadn't missed it (though I still don't know where those two endcap colors came from, as they're not in this display). The Colors That Pop display has the usual assortment of core colors, repromotes, and shades never seen before in a Studio M bottle (though most are familiar from the Color Club brand, which shares a corporate parent with Studio M). Top row: Blue Lagoon (new), Lust, Purple Crush (new), Neon Glow (new), Hot Zone, Volcanic, Girl's Night Out (new), Paradise (new). Second row: Power Pink, Neon Pink, All That Razz, Glitter Twinkle, Bright Night, Lightening Blue, Age of Aquarius, Energy Star. Third row: Sparkle and Soar, Orange Sunset, Orange Hot, Psychedelic Scene, Neon Caution, Lemon Drop (new), Jade, Neon Greenlight. Fourth row: Youthquake, Lovin' It, East Austin, Perfectly Pink, Hot Zone, Wing Fling, Peace Out Purple, Grape Escape. Fifth row: Neon Greenlight, Glitter Envy, Abyss, Glitter Outer Space, Blue Funk, Blue Lagoon (new), Lust, Purple Crush (new). Sixth row: Wham Pow, Glitter Solar, Jackie Oh, Neon Pink, Infusion, Glitter Astral, Vintage Vamp, Frenzy. Seventh row: Neon Caution, Glitter Envy, Energy Star, Blue-ming, Evolution, Total Wow, Blue Funk, Grape Escape. Eigth row: Orange Hot, Lovin' It, Paradise (new), East Austin, Girl's Night Out (new), Power Pink, All That Razz, Punked. Bottom row: Perfectly Pink, Neon Pink, Neon Glow (new), Power Pack, Wicker Park, Frenzy, Total Wow, Lightening Blue.



Ulta had an adorable set of Ulta brand mini polishes in bright summer colors packaged in a little clear-sided paint can. I have had this in my hands on a couple of occasions but so far have managed to put it back down, telling myself surely I have cremes in these colors already.





Things I am looking for for my next display post: Sally Hansen Instant Ombre glitters (which have already annoyed me with that name but which I will undoubtedly buy anyway) and the still elusive shelf top SinfulColors display with the Piñata Blast glitters. I have seen photos of these so I know they exist, they just haven't turned up anywhere I've been yet.