Nails of 2021

Nails of 2021 I looked back at the writing I did here this year and see only a few nails of the day posts. I wasn't suprised; my photo folders are stuffed with pictures I've taken but not posted, and most of those are NOTD looks. Between polish swatching/play sessions, I've almost always been wearing fake nails or nail strips from my stash because those are so easy (and the fakes are so protective). To kick off this year, I thought I'd share some of last year's NOTD, lest all those photos go to waste. Back in the day, when Meijer carried MOB (Ministry of Beauty) fake nails for a short time, I scooped up multiple sets when they went on clearance and wore several of those in 2021, including these blue Ultra-Reflect ones, sibling of the orchid ones I wore in 2015 and reviewed .

 

I wore several different sets of Maybelline Nail Falsies (most of those grabbed on clearance, too), including the Keep It Red reverse french set. I first wore this brand of fakes back in 2013.

 

Not all of my looks came from stash, though. I bought a set of the imPress Color nails that I first saw at Walgreens early last year. I tried a shimmery shade called Peanut Pink when my nails were in a shorties stage that these imPress would cover. These have the adhesive already applied to the nail which is easier than having to use separate tabs. I got good wear from them, too. I liked them so well, I bought and wore a couple more sets over the course of the year (Paralyzed Pink and Taupe Prize). They're good basics if the length works for you.

 

I wore L'Oreal Colour Riche Press-On Nails for the first time last year. I bought them in Canada back when going to Canada was still a thing that was possible (I think it is again, with proof of vaccination and a PCR test, but testing is such a mess right now I don't need to burden that system so I can go see what nail polish is a Shoppers Drug Mart). These fit my nails well though the length was on the short side so had to wait until I had a break that made me cut down my natural nails. The adhesive tabs were good and I got about 10 days of wear from this set.

 

I wore these Kiss Gel Fantasy medium length ones at Easter time because the colors reminded me of a bowl of candy, those pastel mints specifically.

 

I liked the wear I got from the one set of SinfulColors Claws I wore last year, these beige with slightly see through red tips, though this shape left the corners of my natural nails exposed so that wasn't great from a protection angle.

 

I tried Clutch Nails for the first time last year, having bought them at Target on impulse when I was there looking for something else. I got the Natural Nude set, and immediately after putting them on, cut them shorter so they felt more natural. These are glue ons, and I had a lot of trouble with nails just popping off and having to be reglued. That can happen with adhesive tabs, too, though those often get loose first so I have a warning.

 

My Halloween look was a pink and black set with spiders from Magic Press.

 

One issue I had with fake nails this year was some of the plastics would change color from my hair dye (it's been blue for a while now). I use semi-permanent dye, and when it's fresh, there's a fair bit of excess dye that comes off. Look how the pink and taupe (from another set I wore) went grey just from me having my fingers in my hair to braid it. This doesn't happen with all sets and fortunately the color change is even rather than streaky when it does happen.

 

I did a couple different sets of Fing'rs Prints nail when my own were short enough. I wore the plaid and black Rock Rebel ones around Thanksgiving.

 

I finished out the year in a couple Christmas sets, including this red and green glitter from Kiss.

 

At the moment, my nails just have a treatment base on them, as I couldn't decide what I wanted for the new year. Happy 2022 everyone! May we all have more joy this year.

NOTD Round Up

The last time I did a nails of the day post was back in April. Depsite all that time passing, catching up on my NOTD looks isn't going to be difficult, as I've worn something other than a treatment coat exactly three times since that last post. I've been swatching right along, yes, but when it comes to doing a full manicure, I've been slacking. I blame pandemic malaise. I'm not seeing any of my friends who expect me to have interesting nails so I haven't bothered. After a swatching session, I'll usually just slick on a treatment and call it good. Still, I did make at least a little effort a few times in the last several months.

I used a set of Incoco nail polish strips called Sweet Surprise from back when they sold seasonal designs at Walgreens. These have a pale pink base scattered with tiny silver glitter, square silver holo glitter, and multi-colored bar glitter. I added Sally Hansen Insta Gel UV topcoat to them and wore them for two weeks (they didn't look great at the end but like I said, not many people see me these days).







I mentioned back in April that I'd decided to lay off the fake nails for a while in light of all the handwashing. Well, I've now decided to go back to them. I feel like I can get my hands clean enough while wearing them, and since I so seldom go out of my safe zone, most days I don't have to wash my hands any more than I did pre-pandemic when I wore fakes quite a lot of the time. I kicked off this new regime with a set of Fing'rs Prints called Simply Chic. This artsy French design with silver tips adorned with swoops of black and white creme and silver glitter isn't my usual style but I figured there's no better time to experiment than during isolation. I did not take that experiment so far as to use the rhinestone charms in the set; maybe another time. After I got them all on, I noticed that the swoops on my index fingers were going in the opposite direction from my other nails ... I'd failed to notice that the sizes were in pairs, one in each orientation, and had switched the ones for my index fingers. Oh well. These lasted a week before the grow out at the base annoyed me. They stuck pretty darn well; I'd wear this brand more if they came in a longer length.





I followed that set of fakes with another, this time one from NailBliss MagicPress that I'd grabbed from the clearance section at Sally Beauty. Hot Stuff has medium pink plain nails with silver glitter accents (not my idea of "hot" but okay). I wore these for two weeks, sticking them back on with a thick treatment polish when they fell off. They looked pretty ratty by the end, with a wide gap at the base and worn edges on the tips, but that's pandemic times I guess.





The ski resort I call my home did open for summer season, with distancing and other precautions in place, so Mr. K and I have been riding the chairlift up and hiking the trails at the top a lot of days. That's helped my state of mind, for sure.



As I type this, I'm back to just clear treatment on my nails, though I have some sets of fakes nearby and am pondering which one to put on.

Fake Nails Galore

My nails have taken a beating over the last few months as we've been unpacking and moving furniture around and such. In an effort to not have to look at the poor damaged things and protect them at the same time, I've turned to fake nails quite a lot. Fortunately, I have a stash of those as well, most picked up at clerance prices.

Maybelline Color Show Nail Falsies in the Foil Fusion design were the first ones I grabbed, figuring I'd better wear these short fakes while my own nails were still short. (Some of the Nail Falsies are short and square, some long and oval.) These have a white base with silver streaks at the tip. I rubbed off some of the silver filing the remnants of a tab off some of the tips, which was unfortunate; I can't decide if that was more or less unfortunate than seeing the remnants of the tabs I didn't file off so completely. The base curve of these is a pretty good fit for my own nails, though the width of some of them was too generous.



The oddest thing about these nails is the base plastic was not white, as one would expect, but black. This meant that tipwear looked really obvious. Here's my right hand after six days; I was able to touch up with a silver chrome polish, but it didn't stick to the plastic very well, so that would wear off, too. The good news is the fakes did protect my real nails from impact, and since I was wearing a treatment polish under the fakes it was like a spa week for my digits. The adhesive tabs that come with the Nail Falsies are on the thick side, which isn't idea since they lift the fake off the real nail more than a thinner tab, but they do hold pretty darn well unless they get very wet, in which case they get soft and the nails start to slide around. (I did a full review of this line way back in 2013, so I'll stop nattering on about them now.)



For my next fake look, I chose some lilac imPress Gel Manicure nails I'd gotten on clearance (I think from Walgreens, but I'm not entirely sure on that). I hadn't used this brand before, so was interested to see how it compared to the ones I had. This design is called Funky Town, which seems wrong; lilac with accents in delicate white plus faint silvery glitter seems more fairy than funky.



These came with a "prep pad" (wipe saturated with alcohol to clean the nails) and a tiny file, pictured here with my nails adorned in Sally Hansen Age Growth Miracle, the discontinued treatment I decided to lay down under the fakes this time.



The adhesive for these is already on the nails, covered with easily removed plastic, so you don't have to deal with separate sticky tabs.



These were easy to apply and stayed on quite well, which was good since there were no spare adhesive tabs to sitck them back on like with the Maybelline ones. I wore them for a full week with none popping off. I didn't love the shape of these; they were a bit wide, with the curve at the base of the nails not rounded enough to match my own base, and they weren't long enough, especially since they were "oval edition" and the curve for the oval started too soon, leaving my own nail showing on the sides in a way they hadn't with the more squared Maybellines. I also didn't like that color of the accent nails didn't quite match the plain ones but wasn't far off enough to look intentionally mismatched.





Fing'rs Prints in the Rock Rebel design came next; these were marked down at Rite Aid. I didn't get a picture of the package as I put these on in the car just before heading in to a party. (I got some other designs, so maybe I'll remember to take their picture before applying.) Like the imPress, these nails were pre-glued; unlike them, the sticky stuff wasn't covered in plastic, so it was hard to try them on for size before sticking them down. These fit my nails pretty well as far as the curve at the base and overall width; the only fit issue was length on some of my digits.



I only wore these for a day, so I'm not sure of their long term durability. I have some doubts based on how some of the nails cracked and broke when I was removing them.



I know press-on nails are looked down on in some circles, but I don't care. They're fast to apply, don't make me wait for dry time, cover up my torn up real nails, and protect my tips when I jam my hand into things, which I seem to do with alarming regularity. Yeah, they can look fake, sometimes really fake. So what? When I do a manicure with liquid polish, I don't do it with the aim to fool people into thinking my nails are really that color, so no reason I should worry about my false nails not looking real, either.

Halloween and Other Displays

I had some Halloween content from Sally Hansen and SinfulColors in my last display post (and some from Bonita way back in July), but today I have lots more, along with some non-spooky collections.

Bonita got their Halloween collection out a few months ago, but they also have a fall collection, Colorful Palette, out now. There are eight art-themed shades: Florence, Dali's Memory, Ballet Rehearsal, The Kiss, Monet's Garden, Da Vinci Code, Rembrandt's Muse, and Starry Night.



It'd been a while since I saw any new Color Club in stores, but recently the Seven Deadly Sins display has turned up at Bed Bath & Beyond. Shades here: Friends with Benefits, Under Your Spell, Fierce, Indulge Me, You're So Vain, Obsessed, and Dirty Money. This display is not clear, but I believe these are textured polishes.



Five Below had some DC Comics Girls polishes, which all come with capes. I just wish they hadn't included a pink; none of the pictured super heroes appear to have pink in their costumes, so the pink feels super stereotypical to me.



Fantasy Makers by Wet 'n' Wild is back with tombstone shaped polishes; this year they have skulls printed on the caps. I saw this display at Meijer. The 2014 shades are Ghouls Rush In (hot pink), Goosebump Suit (orange), Glo' Money Glo' Problems (glow in the dark), Roach Busters (lime), Witch Black, and Queen of Envy (green).



There's also a sidekick Fantasy Makers display with the tombstone polishes, holo glitter, and other makeup. The one below was at Meijer; there's a taller version I've seen at Walgreens



Fantasy Makers has fake nails designs for the holiday, too, in six designs: Queen of the Dead (colorful Day of the Dead skulls), Wildcat (tan/black leopard print), Devilish Queen (French mani with delicate blood spatter), Rock Starlet (bright stripes), Seeing Stars (galaxy), and Vampy Vixen (deep red). Some of these would be quite wearable post-Halloween.



There is no shortage of fake nails for Halloween at Meijer; they also had the Fing'rsPrints display of Ghoulish Glam designs. I was tempted by the spiders on lilac, but the nails looked a bit small for my hands.



The latest Fresh Paint collection at Five Below is called Karma. Four shades here: Lotus Begin, There's No Place Like Om, Yoga'nna Love It, and Namaste You Go.



Ulta had the Fright Night Claw Polish display. This year there are some new colors, which is good, but the coffin shaped bottles from prior years are gone, which does not delight me. Colors are Ghouls Night Out (microglitter), Howlin' for You, I'm Here for the Boos (glow in the dark), Gettin' Witchy with It, Where My Witches At, and Creepin' It Real. The bright orange, green, and purple are not colors I've seen before in the Claw Polish line.



These same colors/bottles also showed up at Meijer in a sidekick display along with other "costume accessories".



Fright Night has fake nails for Halloween, too; this display with six designs was at Meijer. Left to right: Blood Spatter Spider Webs, Vampire Bite, French Pirate, Blood Ooze, and Rise of the Dead. Spider Webs and Rise of the Dead are new; the others are repromotes from 2013.



Funky Fingers (available at Five Below) has a glow in the dark glitter collection out called Supernatural. These are priced at 2 for $5 rather than the 3 for $5 of the regular Funky Fingers. There are five shades here: Dia de Muertos, Pumpkin King, Oogie Boogie, Ghouls Night Out, and #Boo2U.



At Walgreens, I saw the Kiss Fashion Yourself Frightful display with four imPress fake nail sets, a set of Nail Tattoos transfers, four Nail Dress strip designs, and a set of Nail Artist stickers.



Later, I saw a display at Meijer with just the Halloween imPress designs, including a fifth one that wasn't in the combined display.



Meijer also had a separate display with the four Nail Dress designs, the Nail Tattoos, and the Nail Artist stickers, as well as two designs of Eye Tattoos.



Back to the imPress, CVS had a display with six Halloween designs.



In addition to all the Halloween stuff, Kiss also has nail art kits in the Disney Good vs. Evil display at Walgreens. There are four kits, two "good" (blue/pink, princess themed) and two "evil" (purple/black, queen themed).



I shared the tall Maybelline Fashion Rocks endcap display last month, but now some smaller shelftop displays are showing up at Meijer and other stores. This one had the I Got You Beige, Plum as You Are, and Greyz in Love limited edition polishes; I'm not sure where Fashionably Slate was, as there didn't even seem to be a spot for it.



One of the things I was looking for as of my last display post was the Milani Bedazzle display, and I did find it at Walgreens not too long after that. One of the eyeliners was already gone by the time I saw it, but all three Color Statement polishes were still there: Enchanted Sapphire, Enchanted Garnet, and Enchanted Emerald.



I'd never heard of the Miss Elegant Touch brand until I saw their Candy Dip display at Ulta. This has sets with double sided stickers and three pots of loose glitter, touted at "the fastest way to glitter nails" and "quick to remove". Colorways: Bubblegum (pink), Peppermint (blue), Lemon Sherbet (orange and yellow), Liquorice (gold/silver/charcoal), Blueberry Crumble (purple). According to the boxes, there are 18 stickers included, so not quite two manis worth, though there appears to glitter for much more than that. The illustrations on the display don't cover removal or why it's so quick; maybe they mean for you to peel the stickers off your nails.



The Fall Into Color display from Nicole by OPI, which I've seen at Ulta and CVS, has four shades in it: Berry the Hatchet (berry pink creme), Die He Wink at Me (periwinkle creme), Poised for Turquoise (medium teal creme), and Dazzling with Talent (Charcoal/holo microglitter). I believe these are new core colors.



At Rite Aid, I saw the NYC New York Color Fashion Queen display, which seems to be more Christmas/New Year's colors than Halloween. There are nine limited edition polishes here, the first six of them glitters: Rule the City, NY Princess, Fashion Queen, Blue Majesty, Queen's Jewels, Ruby Queen, Royal Chic, Crown Gold, and Queen of the City.



No Halloween season would be complete without pumpkin polishes, and they have once again arrived. Meijer was the first place I spotted any of the Phantom Frights displays, and I was surprised to see a new shape for the pumpkin bottles. Instead of being smooth round balls, this year they have vertical ridges like real pumpkins.



Other than the bottle shape, the big news in pumpkin polish this year are the skull and crossbones shaped glitters: black/white, hot pink/purple, and blue/pink.



In the other Phantom Frights display they had at Meijer, there were nail polishes with jeweled caps, either a jack o'lantern or a skull and crossbones design (with various polish colors).





Rite Aid has Phantom Frights displays, too—one for glow in the dark pumpkins, one for glitter and creme pumpkins, and one for the crystal cap polishes and other makeup items. Annoyingly, they're priced a dollar higher than at Meijer.





One thing Rite Aid has that I haven't seen at Meijer are the glitter shaker polishes in the center of the photo above. These have nail polish in the bottom and a snap top container of loose glitter on the top of the cap.

Walmart had the Spooktacular Style endcap display up the last time I visited. It's got Salon Perfect and Pure Ice in it, but the Salon Perfect is eyelashes, not polishes, and none of the Pure Ice colors looked new (there was a glow in the dark that I wasn't sure I'd seen before, but it looked no different than any other glow in the dark polish I have).



Bed Bath & Beyond was the first place I saw the SinfulColors No Text Red display, which has one shade, No Text Red, and topcoat. The idea behind this seems to be to paint your thumbs with red to remind you not to text while driving.



Walgreens appears to be the only place to find the Wet 'n' Wild Enchanting Halloween Looks display. This has both MegaLast and Mega Rocks polishes in it, though many are core shades being repromoted. In the Daring Downtown section, the LE polish shades are MegaLast Strobe Light Stunner (silver) and Happy Hour Hop (purple). In Haute Hollywood, LE polishes are Mega Rock Rising Star (gold/rose) and MegaLast Pot of Gold (gold). Eastside Enigma has two LEs: MegaLast Power Outage (black) and Roadwork (pewter). Venice Vixen polish LE is MegaLast Pleasure Pier (bright blue).



Finally, and I pulled these out of alphabetical order because I'd really rather deal with just one holiday at time, I have three Christmas/winter holiday displays I saw I Rite Aid in the last few days. The first one I spotted was SinfulShine Shining Lights. Unlike the NYC display, which is probably also for Christmas, this display can't even claim plausible deniability because not only does it have red and green, it has a Christmas tree lights motif. The big news here is a) Rite Aid has never had SinfulShine before (I've read it's been showing up at some Walmart stores and disappearing from Walgreens, too) and b) this display has the much sought after Prosecco. Shades here: Go Glossy, Rise & Shinier, Prosecco, Most Sinful, Amazonian, Mirror Mirror, Devious, and Wisp. None of these are new shades, though previously Prosecco had only been available in the somewhat hard to find Shining Bright Off the Runway display at Walgreens. I wonder if Prosecco was a late addition to Shining Lights, as the display card shows a gold and there is no gold in the actual bottle lineup.



The next Christmas display I came across is SinfulColors Holi-Dazzled (more red and green, plus a Christmas tree and Santa hat). The lineup: Sugar Sugar, Decadent, Let's Talk, Hottie, Out of this World, Twilight Twinkles, Pine Away, and Galax-Sea. Twilight Twinkles and Galax-Sea are new; the others are all core or repromotes.



The SinfulColors Holiday Wishes display has snowflakes and presents and a gold and blue theme. Colors here: Gilded, Gold Medal, All About You, Cinderella, Ice Blue, Endless Blue, Super Star, and Ice Dream. None of these are new, but Ice Blue was previously limited release so I didn't have it already and was happy to get it.



And now you know everything I know about nail polish displays around here at the moment. See anything you'd like me to grab for a future giveaway?