Elle Spring Shades

Today is Labor Day in the U.S., which traditionally marks the end of the summer season. Due to my involvement with a particular work project, I'm going to be taking my Labor Day holiday next week instead of being off today, so here I am posting. I've got the spring shades from Elle, which I didn't spot at Kohl's until summer (they were in my early August display post). These colors look summery to me, so I think we can consider them a spring/summer collection and thus I'm not really so late in posting them. Left to right: Crimson Sunset (warm red), Purple Twilight (medium blue-leaning purple), Fuchsia Fusion (cool toned deep pink), Orange Sunrise (bright yellow orange).



These went so nicely together that I swatched them Skittle-style. Crimson Sunset (top) and Orange Sunrise (bottom) were three coats; the other colors were two coats.



At first glance, these all look like cremes, but Crimson Sunset actually has a subtle shimmer. It's most visible in the bottle:



On the nail, even in direct light, which usually makes shimmer pop if it's going to, I couldn't really see much of it.



I couldn't resist having some fun with these colors; on each nail I added diagonal lines of dots with the three other shades, then slicked topcoat on. This worked out best when Orange Sunrise was the background, as that provided the most contrast, but overall it was still a fun look.







Putting these bottles into their temporary homes (boxes of similar colors and finishes slated for further sorting and nail wheel swatches), I noticed that Purple Twilight looked similar to Cover Girl XL Plumped-Up Plum so did a quick on the nail comparison. My verdict: they're dupes in color if not in formula (Elle is a touch thinner but just as pigmented). For the record, top to bottom it's Cover Girl, Elle, Cover Girl, Elle.



This is a decent seasonal collection where all the colors work with at least two of the others. I especially like that they included the bright yellow orange, which is a nice pop of an accent color.

SinfulShine Swatches and Comparisons

Some nail bloggers are great at keeping up with press releases from all the brands. I am not, but one from Sinful's PR firm did catch my eye recently (and by recently I mean last month, which shows you how bad I am at keeping up with things in general). The headline said "SinfulColors Introduces SinfulShine", and I thought that was a little odd, because my Walgreens stores have had the display for months; I included a picture of it in my display post at the end of April. At the time, I called the line "Sinful Shine", with a space, but the press release makes it clear it's "SinfulShine", no space. The defining characteristic of this line appears to be the gloss; the press release talks about "GelTech (TM)" which is "a self-curing polymer formula that delivers the same high shine gloss as an acrylic UV cured gel". I guess that's what makes it worth a dollar more than the regular Sinful line; these are priced at $2.99 versus $1.99 for the regular ones. That's still quite affordable compared to a lot of drugstore lines.

Anway, seeing the press release reminded me that I'd bought some colors to try out, and it was about time I actually did that and shared the swatches. I chose four of the thirty-two colors to sample: Wisp, Alfresco, Man Hunt, and Amazonian.



Wisp is a white creme. It's been a long time since I bought a plain white creme. However, my inventory of my go to white creme, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White, is dwindling. When it was discontinued, I stocked up, but my stock won't last forever. Thus I thought I'd check out this SinfulShine white as possible replacement. My first impression of Wisp is that it looks like a strong candidate. I needed only two coats for full coverage and streaks were not an issue as they often are with light shades. I didn't notice it being super shiny, but I have topcoat for that so it's not an issue (swatch does not have topcoat, as per usual, so you can see the polish in its natural state).



I did a side by side comparison of Wisp to Whirlwind White, and it not only held up, I liked it a touch better because it seemed to be a brighter white. Granted, the SinfulShine may yellow in the bottle slightly with age as the Sally Hansen seems to have done. Left to right (each at two coats): Whirlwind White, Wisp, Whirlwind White, Wisp.



One of the reasons Whirlwind White was a staple in my stash is how nicely it worked for stamping, so I tried Wisp in that capacity, too. I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri Fuchsia Flare for my base color (because it dries fast) and stamped with Wisp (using some plate I did not write down and now have no recollection of which one it was). I think it worked pretty well; there are a few places where the image didn't transfer completely, but it's been so long since I did any stamping I bet that's more down to my technique.



The next color I chose was Alfresco, which Sinful's press release called a sky blue. I'd say it's more of a light cornflower blue. It's got a very subtle shimmer in it. Like Wisp, two coats was enough for full coverage.



The shimmer is a little more visible in low light.



I was of course curious to see how Alfresco compared to my beloved Essie Bikini So Teeny from last summer. They are definitely very close relatives, with Alfresco being a bit darker and having finer and more secretive shimmer. Left to right: Essie (3 coats), SinfulShine (2), Essie, SinfulShine.



I also had a couple fairly recently acquired cornflower blues in my swatching boxes that I pulled out to see how they measured up to Alfresco. Left to right below (all two coats): Elle Ship Shape, SinfulShine Alfresco, Sinful Colors Sail La Vie. All of these have a subtle shimmer. There are slight differences between them, but they're close enough that I bet I could wear them all at once and no one would notice my nails didn't quite match.



My next pick from SinfulShine was Man Hunt, a dusty olive drab with silver shimmer. This was also full coverage in two coats, and the shimmer was much more visible than that in Alfresco.



The base color in Man Hunt reminded me of Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow, so I did a quick comparison even though I knew the shimmer in Man Hunt was too prominent for it to be a dupe (that's okay, Essie Sew Pysched fills that slot). Left to right below: RBL, SinfulShine, RBL, SinfulShine.



The last SinfulShine I have to share today is Amazonia, a dark green flecked shimmer (so yeah, that's three shimmers from this line, each with a different visual texture). I used two coats of this for the swatch.



For the longest time, Sally Hansen Salon Project Runway was my white whale of dark green shimmers (does that even make sense? is Moby Dick only an old person's cultural reference at this point?), so that was my first choice to compare with Amazonia. Left to right below: Sally Hansen (3 coats), SinfulShine (2), Sally Hansen, SinfulShine. Amazonia is a touch darker and more yellow toned and its shimmer is perhaps a bit more coarse, but it might just be close enough to scratch the itch for the super hard to get Project Runway.



On the whole, I liked the SinfulShine colors I tried. I'm not convinced they're glossier than any other polish, though. Perhaps I'll do a wear test on them one of these months, but don't hold your breath waiting.

Elle Imperial Purple and Saturday Night Shimmer

Back before Christmas, I included the Elle nail polish at Kohl's in my display post and said I was waiting to buy some until I could get the price down from $10. Sometime after that, I got a good coupon so picked up some. I've got two today: Imperial Purple and Saturday Night Shimmer.



I chose Imperial Purple because of the coppery highlights I could see in the shimmer.



On the nail, the copper wasn't immediately visible; it just looked like a plummy wine color (not what I call purple, exactly).



At an angle, though, the copper did show up, turning the plummy wine deeper and richer. It's like a really, really subtle duochrome, and I like it a lot.





I also like the glow Imperial Purple has in low light:



Saturday Night Shimmer is a dusty mauve with a purple flash in the shimmer, along the lines of Essie Demure Vixen. I'm not sure what this has to do with Saturday night—it seems quite office approriate, even for a conservative workplace. Saturday night is much more flashy in my head (not in my reality, though; many times that's when Mr. Karen and I do our grocery shopping since the store is never crowded).







The purple flash in the shimmer is on the shy side, but it does show up more in low light.



I had no issues with application. Imperial Purple was two coats and Saturday Night Shimmer was three (no topcoat on either). I don't think I'd pay full price, but on sale and/or with a coupon I can see myself getting more colors.

*****
UPDATE 07-Mar-2013: You can see all the colors on the Kohl's Elle page.

Displays of Many Colors

This week before Christmas is a good time to avoid shopping since places get so crowded, but it's a fine time to catch up with posting some displays that wouldn't fit into my last display post.

First, a first for me—I set foot in an Urban Outfitters store. I had some of their polishes in my stash already, thanks to kind friends and the internet, but I'd never gone to one of their stores because neither of the locations closest to me are on my way to or from any other places I frequent. What got me to make a special trip was seeing swatches of their holos. I found the polish display easily enough; it was facing the front door, about 10 or 15 feet into the store.



The holos weren't in there, though; the holos were piled in a big bowl on the far end of a counter. There are three colors, straightforwardly named Silver Holo, Green Holo, and Pink Holo.



Around a curve from the holos were mini sets for ombre manicures.



I'm in Kohl's stores quite often (they've got one by my office, one by my house, and a couple in between) but not for polish, because if they have any at all, it tends to be gift sets from brands I've never heard of. I was surprised on a recent visit to see a full line display of polish from Elle. I've not heard of that brand, either, though from some poking around online I see it's exclusive to Kohl's and was launched this past April in association with Elle magazine. I didn't buy any because the $10 price tag seemed steep for an impulse buy; I'll wait 'til they're on sale and I have a coupon (which is pretty much my strategy for Kohl's overall).



The top row (left to right): Clear Coat, Snow Day (two slots), Faux Naturel (x2), Petticoat Pink (x2), Preppy Chic (x2), Tutu (x2), and Vintage Charm.

Middle row: Clear Coat (again), Vintage Charm (also again), Go Go Coco, Trouble in Taupe, Oxford Brown, Tropical Blush, Bright Young Thing, Fucshia Fusion, Shock It to Me, Red Carpet Red, Imperial Purple, Curtain Call.

Bottom row: Clear Coat (for the third time), Saturday Night Shimmer, Blush Stroke, In a Fog, Some Like it Lilac, On Location, Riviera Blue, Seaside Chic, Surfer Babe, About Thyme, Dancing Queen, Chain Mail.

When I went back to the CVS that had the Nail HQ display, they'd gotten more stock, so the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure section was more filled in than when I'd first seen it.



Top row: Copper Penny, Golden Rule, Gilty Party, Snow Globe, Hi Ho Silver (though front polish is Gilty Party again; I should have caught and moved that before I took the photo), Clear'd for Takeoff, Debut-tint.

Second row: Sheer Ectasy, Shell We Dance, Mudslide, So Much Fawn, Raisin the Bar, Plum's the Word, Commander in Chic.

Third row: Almost Almond, Sweet Talker, Pink a Card, I Lilac You, Get Juiced, Back to the Fuchsia, Rosy Outlook.

Bottom row: Kook a Mango, Red My Lips, Wine Not, Pat on the Black, Jaded, Water Color, Black and Blue.

The Revlon Brilliant Strength had been pretty well stocked the first time, but this visit I had time to take a closer look.



Top row: Embody, Allure, Enchant, Enamor, Dazzle, Provoke, Magnetize.

Second row: Impress, Entice, Intrigue, Tempt, Mesmerize, Tantalize, Hypnotize.

Third row: Inspire, Inflame, Captivate, Seduce, Enrapture, Fascinate, Beguile.

Last row: Persuade, Enthrall, Dominate.

I also had time to take closer photos of the Nuance Salma Hayek polishes (full display shot if in this post). This row: Blush Peony (times 2), New Primrose, My Favorite (x2), Base Coat (x2), Top Coat (x2).



Next row: Pink Grapefruit, Bare Kiss, Moonflower, Silver Dust, Goldstone, Café Latte, Desert Mist, Dark Earth, Woodsmoke.



Row after that: Honey Blossom, Tiger Lily, Deep Orchid, Rococo Red, Azalea, Cayenne, Orange Poppy, Red Sienna, Rosegold.



Last row: Lilac, Midnight Blackberry, Nightshadow, True Azul, Prickly Pear, Evening Haze, Vapor, Crushed Violet, Black Dahlia.



At a Rite Aid, I saw a bigger display of the new Cover Girl Outlast line than I'd come across before.



Finally, at the Walgreens that sometimes has things other Walgreens don't, I found a display of Nabi scented polish. The display card says Scent Nails, the bottles say Scented Nail, so I'm not sure what exactly these are called. There's a crazy number of colors here; the same scents are used for multiple colors, so there aren't as many scents as colors.



Top row: Blue (green apple scent), Charcoal (candy), Taupe (chocolate), Neon Orange (orange), Milky Sky (lemon), Hot Pink (strawberry), Mustard (pineapple), Teal (watermelon), Mint (green apple), Midnight (cherry).

Second row: Sky (green apple), Cotton Candy (candy), Nude Pink (chocolate), Peach (orange), Pinkle (lemon), Dark Pink (strawberry), Banana (pineapple), Covalt Blue (watermelon), Lime (green apple), Coral (cherry).

Third row: Lavender (green apple), Base Coat (candy), Rose (chocolate), Sweet Orange (orange), Shimmer Peach (lemon), Princess Pink (strawberry), Multi Glitter (watermelon), Wedding Dress (watermelon), Bright Green (green apple), Red (cherry).

Fourth row: Lilac (green apple), White (candy), Mocha (chocolate), Tropical (orange), Angel Pink (lemon), Pink (strawberry), Blue Glitter (watermelon), Grape Juice (watermelon), Baby Blue (green apple), Eggplant (cherry).

Fifth row: Cotton Candy (candy), Black (candy), Natural (chocolate), Tangerine (orange), Blush (strawberry), Sweet Pink (strawberry), Peek a Boo Pink (strawberry), Fuchsia (watermelon), Gold Glitter (watermelon), Real Red (cherry).

Bottom row: Silver (candy), Clear (candy), Mauve (chocolate), Indian Pink (chocolate), Silk Road (candy), Gold (candy), Green Glitter (watermelon), Silver Glitter (watermelon), Purple Glitter (watermelon), Angel Red (cherry).

Apparently there is a 60th color in this line, Pearl, which is candy-scented and a light peach color. (I stumbled across that when I was double checking the color names for the ones my detail photos weren't clear on.)

Whew. That's fewer photos than usual for a display post, but I feel like it's way more colors. Maybe it just seems that way because my brain is tired from thinking about things like a polish called Banana that smells like pineapple.