Wheel G9: Textures from Foreign Brands

This edition of Nail Wheel Wednesday features textured polishes from brands that aren't typically seen in the U.S. I admit Essence is a bit of cheat, since it is at Ulta and Fred Meyer, but not all of the Essence textures on this wheel were available in the U.S. Some I got in Belarus, some in Canada, some in swaps. A few of these, though from textured collections, are really more just glitters being their naturally bumpy selves, but that's okay. This is a nail polish blog, not a deposition. :)



(all two coats)

1. Essence Colour & Go Sparkle Sand Effect My Lucky Star
2. Essence Colour & Go Sparkle Sand Effect Hey Nude
3. Essence Colour & Go Sparkle Sand Effect Hello Rosy
4. Essence Colour & Go Sparkle Sand Effect Me & My Lover
5. Essence Effect Sparkling Sugar Baby You're a Firework
6. Essence Effect Sparkling Sugar Underwater Love
7. Essence Effect Metal Sugar Skyfall
8. Essence Effect Jeans Sugar Blue-Jeaned
9. Essence Aquatix The Ocean Sand Under Water Love
10. Essence Aquatix The Caribbean Sand Aquatix Bay
11. Essence Superheroes Sand Effect The Incredible
12. Essence Beach Cruisers The Sparkling Sand Keep Calm and Go to the Beach
13. Essence Beach Cruisers The Sparkling Sand
14. Luxvisage Sahara 55
15. Luxvisage Sahara 67
16. Luxvisage Sahara 65
17. Luxvisage Sahara 60
18. Luxvisage Sahara 58
19. IsaDora Sugar Crush Ocean Crush
20. Dance Legend Sahara Crystal 20


Bottles 1 through 4:



5 through 8:


9 through 13:



14 through 18:



19 and 20:

Minsk Haul the Second

Yep, still catching up. Today I have polishes from my second trip to Belarus last September, the one that I included in my Geographically Diverse Displays post this past fall.

I wanted to buy most of the Catrice colors I saw, but narrowed it down to just four so I could get other brands, too. Left to right: PLUMdogMillionaire, Stardust, Berry Potter & Plumbledore, Kitch Me If You Can.



I got two Eveline miniMAX shades, 413 and 402. I had a few others from the brand in my stash from swaps, but none from this line.



MILV was a new-to-me brand; I got three of them: 27, 36, and 73.



Two LuxVisage colors jumped into my basket: 508 and 138.



Did I say two LuxVisage? I meant six. I also grabbed two from the Flirt line, 306 and 307, and two Defile, 104 and 105.



No, wait, I meant nine LuxVisage, as I also got three from the Sahara textured line, colors I hadn't picked up on my previous trip: 60, 58, and 59.



Okay, really I meant 14 LuxVisage, because I decided I also needed to add to my Hi Tech and Galactic purchases from the earlier visit. Numbers on these are 25, 215, 207, 204, and 208.



I'd gotten two Belor Design polishes on my spring trip, but neither were in the Podium Gel Effect line, so I got two of those, 119 and 120.



I added to my Novelty Cosmetics collection with three more of the Mix Beads & Sticks glitters: 807, 815, and 817.



I also got four more Novelty Cosmetics from I guess the core line, as they had no special labels on the handles: 532, 530, 533, and 156. These and the three above cost the equivalent of US$1.75.



Max Factor Glossfinity isn't a line I've ever seen in the States, so I got two pretty green ones: Vivacious Lime and Aqua Marine.



Another two Dona Mirelle polishes came home with me to join their peers already in my stash: Opti Grow Magnet in MG15 and
Matt Color in M21.



I got two more of what I had been calling the R Crown brand but have since learned is Relouis. Judging by the design on the caps, these are crackle polishes, and heaven knows I have more than enough of those, but I didn't have any from Belarus, and these looked like pretty shimmers if they weren't actually crackles. I had to look at these closely to verify that they really did say "Graffi collection" on them, not "Graffiti".



Essence of course I have plenty of, but the selection I can easily get at home is limited, so I grabbed some ones I hadn't seen before, including this half dozen Colour & Go shades: Hey Nude (which I wore for a full mani last year), Be My Lucky Star, Galactic Glam, Headphones On, Over the Rainbow, and Purple Sugar.



Also got a trio of other Essence: Effect Metal Sugar in Skyfall, Beach Cruisers I Heart Summer Break, and Holo Jewels Bejeweled.



All the polishes above were in open displays, so I could just grab what I liked and go to the checkout. These last couple groups were in the mall kiosks behind glass, which meant getting my hands on them was more complicated. Thank goodness for having charades experience and a digital camera; using both of those things I managed to communicate what I wanted and in which colors. I chose three Golden Rose Carnival shades: 12, 11, and 13.



Five Dance Legends came home with me: Lumos 1019 and 1018, Rio 15, Sahara Crystal 20 and 17.



So far I've only had time to play with a fraction of these. I used the two Podium Gel Effect polishes as a base for the LuxVisage Hi Tech bar glitter (that one was only US$1.59). I'm still not 100% comforatable with bar glitter but it is definitely interesting to look at. It was two coats of the cremes (the darker was nearly a one-coater) plus two of the glitter (some dabbing was required) plus clear topcoat.



I did LuxVisage Defile 105 as a base for Golden Rose Carnival 12, leaving an accent nail un-glittered.



I did two textures next, LuxVisage Sahara in 60 with 58 on an accent nail. I liked 58, the gold, better than the purple, which surprised me.



Adding topcoat made me like the purple more, but the gold got pretty, too, and it was more glittery than the purple.



I forgot about my slight disappointment at the purple texture when I got the Dona Mirelle Matt Color 21 on my nails. I love this.



Much as I wanted to keep admiring the matte blue, I also wanted to try one of the Dance Legends, so I added the Rio glitter on top of the matte. It was flat enough that I didn't need to add topcoat. It totally took that sophisticated blue into the fun zone.



I don't want to say the visit I bought all these polishes on was my last trip to Belarus, though I fear it may have been. I'd love to go back, but it doesn't seem like work will be sending me again, and I'm not sure how or when I'd go about getting there as a tourist. I'll put that on the increasingly long list of things I'll look into after I retire.

Geographically Diverse Displays

As promised yesterday, today I have displays I came across in my recent travels, starting with Houston, where I was glad to be able to meet up with my friend Mel, who writes Delicious Color. She very kindly indulged my desire to go to an HEB store. The main thing I saw there that I can't get here were the Orchid polishes, of which there were multiple displays (and a sale going on, so I picked up several colors to bring home with me).

All About the Bling had Funky Monkey, Wine-O, Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, High Maintenance, You Can't Afford Me, Hot Mess, He Loves Me I Love Him Not, and Bling It On.



Top Picks contained Lone Star Blue, Cougarville, Black Tie Affair, Go Bananas, Orange You Glad I'm Here, The Teal Thing, Sugar and Spice and Nothing Nice, and Steel Guitar.



Show Your Team Spirit had You Complete Me Top Coat, Orange You Glad You're From Texas, I Bleed Maroon, Grass Stains, MVP, Playmaker, Coin Toss, and Black Tie Affair.



Many Shades of Blue held Robin's Egg, The Teal Thing, Off the Deep End, Teal Me A Secret, Royal Engagement, Starry Night, Lone Star Blue, and When Lightning Strikes.



Oui Bit French was comprised of Love at First White, Glass of Bubbly, I Met Him in Prism, Bedazzled, Pretty in Pink, French Kiss, Barely There, and Mother of Pearl.



HEB also had Minnie and Hello Kitty polish in bottles with elaborate tops which I'd never seen anywhere else before. Despite the adorableness of the bottles, I didn't buy any because it said it was non-toxic and peelable, which generally means the polish is for play, not for a grown up to wear for a full mani and expect it to hold up.



Not even a week after I got home from Houston, I left for my return trip to Minsk. As before, most of my time was spent working or sleeping, and this time I had a male colleague traveling with me, but I still managed to make some time for nail polish shopping. The stock in the places I looked at last time was pretty similar to what I saw on my last visit, though there were enough new things to pique my interest. A couple of the mall kiosks had glittery Golden Rose colors:









Given the disappearance of the old version of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue stateside, I got a little thrill when I saw a bottle in the mall in Minsk:



On my last visit, the Dance Legend colors I saw were pretty much limited to plain cremes and shimmers but this time there were some glitters and textures on offer:







I was pleased with myself that I managed to buy some of the Golden Rose and some of the Dance Legend from the kiosks even though neither of the ladies I had to talk to spoke English, and I don't speak or read Russian—there was a lot of pointing and pantomiming painting my nails, and I even took photos at one place so I could point at those. Happy as that made me, I was equally thrilled to find a cosmetics store with open stock that I hadn't been to on my last trip even though it was fairly close to the hotel. At first I thought it was a perfume store, since that's what I could mostly see as I walked by one night.



Something made me look more closely, though, and you can imagine how my heart beat faster when I saw a big Essence display, right out in an aisle where anyone could look at and pick up the polish regardless of any language barrier.



The store was closed for the day but you can bet I took a photo of the sign on the door so I'd know when to go back (fortunately hours are posted in numerals same as here so I knew what they meant, though it got a little confusing when places had different schedules on different days of the week). And go back I did, to find a veritable jackpot of polish. The Essence display I'd spied through the window turned out to have a whole second side to it, with even more Colour & Go colors, some Nail Art toppers, and a sadly picked over Beach Cruisers display.



I was in such a frenzy that I failed to take a photo of that whole first side, but I did get this detail shot with the Nail Candies and Cracking colors.



I was in a frenzy because everywhere I turned, there was more polish, most of it brands I hadn't seen (or hadn't seen up close) before, like the Podium Gel Effect by BelorDesign.



I think maybe something got lost in translation with the Happy Nails Trend Color line, as I saw only pinks and red and mauves, which are classic colors, not so much trendy, but maybe the other shades had sold out already.



I have seen Rimmel polish before, of course, but not the Brit Manicure line.



Max Factor hasn't sold polish in the States in I don't know how long, but there were plenty of shades in this Glossfinity display in Minsk.



I have never ever seen a Catrice display in person before, despite having many of their colors thanks to kind laides who have swapped with me over the years. Faced with this bounty, my brain nearly shorted out; it was a struggle to decide which I could take home with me given how many other pretties I also wanted.



It did help somewhat that the featured collection was Une, Deux, Trois, which is all cremes in shades I feel I have an excess of already.



There was a huge Eveline display with both a Colour Instant line of polish and one called miniMAX in amongst a lot of other makeup; to the left you can see part of a bowl of polishes which is where the LuxVisage colors were (I shared some of those in the display post from my previous trip and in swatches during Texture Week).



Finally, there was a spinning rack with polishes and nail art decals from MILV, another new-to-me brand.





I have no idea what the sales associates at the register thought of me buying so much nail stuff at this last store—we didn't share enough common words to discuss it, which maybe is for the best. They seemed amused, if anything, which is fine by me. I did buy some more typcial souvenirs on my trip, like chocolate and handcrafted items, but the bulk of my spending was on polish, which I do hope to swatch at some point, though I can't promise it will be soon.