Display Dump and Done for a While

Display Dump and Done for a While I don't really know where November went. I kept meaning to post here but didn't. I'm determined to not let the month end without something going up in this space, and as often happens I've got a bunch of display photos that have piled up in my folders, so I'm going to get through those even though some are for Halloween which is old news by now (not surprising since my previous display post was two months ago. That's okay. I've been feeling for a while that this blog is more a historical record than anything.

After I get this up, I'm going to take a break. My nails are in awful shape (maybe from being sick last month or from winter or I don't know) so I haven't swatched anything in ages much less done a manicure with polish. I even went to see family for the Thanksgiving holiday and didn't bother putting on fake nails or anything, just a treatment coat that wore off over the course of the week. I'm not the only one of my nail polish generation that's feeling this way; I've recently seen several destashes on Facebook from ladies I was close to on forums and such back in the day. So a break seems in order. Right now I'm thinking I'll be back in January after all the holiday hubbub, but who knows, I may decide to adorn my stubbies and swatch a holiday collection or something.

Meijer, which I was able to visit on my long weekend in Michigan in September, had Dashing Diva Halloween-themed nail strips and stickers.

 

At Sally Beauty quite recently, I saw a Dashing Diva Malibu Pool Party display with fake nails for both fingers and toes. Not sure if was intended to capitalize on the Barbie movie energy without paying for an official Barbie tie-in or what. Seemed very summer-y regardless.

 

Fred Meyer had a Disney 100 display with nail strips/sticker sets on top, fake nails in the middle, and glittery polish sets at the bottom. These are aimed at kids judging by the size of the nails/strips and the fact that the polish is water-based. I went ahead and got the strips/stickers set anyway, figuring I can use the latter on other polish/strips.

 

I saw some Essence polish at Meijer, what looked to be core colors of their gel line in a bottle I hadn't seen before, with the shade names printed front and center.

 

Essie's fall 2023 offering is the Step Out of Line collection, which I saw at Ulta. Front/bottom section: Step Out of Line (two slots), Meet Me at Midnight (two slots), Full Blast (two slots), Dance 'til Dawn. Back/top section: Underground Ball (two slots), Lights Down Music Up (two slots, sold out).

 

I shared the plant based Essie Love polishes I saw on my England vacation in my last display post. The first (and so far only) time I've seen them at home is at a Fred Meyer, where they hadn't finished putting up the shade labels or price tags yet.

 

I don't remember seeing the Essie Expressive Word on the Street collection before, though the internet tells me it's been around since at least March of this year, so here is it tucked into the core display wall at a CVS in Michigan. Left to right: Send a Message, World as a Canvas, Word on the Street, Spray It to Say It, Outside the Lines, and Unapologetic Icon.

 

Back in the day, Meijer had so much Halloween polish from brands that only showed up then. This past September, there were no pumpkin bottles at all, just this sad Fright Night display (and yes, someone had stolen the cap from one of the bottles).

 

Walmart had a Halloween Esssentials display of fake nails for $2.98 a set before that holiday. In my store (the only place in my little town to get nail stuff), they put them in the beauty section rather than with Halloween stuff. There were six designs: Spookin Spiral (grey, black, and white nails with spiders, spiderwebs, and marble motifs), Spiderella (white nails with black spiders and spiderwebs), Full Moon (black nails with white phases of the moon), Evil Twin (purple/black gradient), Spiders & Sass (black and orange nails with spiderwebs and spiders), and Dark Trails (black and lilac/grey gradient nails with spiderwebs and night sky motifs).

 

Meijer also had a Halloween Essentials fake nails display, but the assortment was slightly different. In addition to the sets in the Walmart one above, this had So I Creep Yeaaa (Pennywise the clown imagery) and Coffin Crawlers (red and white blood spatter). There is also a set misplaced here from another brand (see below).

 

In addition to the Halloween Essentials, Meijer had a smaller display just called Halloween Nails. There was one empty space and one filled with a Halloween Essentials design. The designs that were here (starting top left): Glow and Go (mint, lilac, and black with various creepy imagery), Spooky Vibes (black, white, and mint with stripes, spider webs, and spooky faces), 100% That Witch (orange, black and white with spiders, jack o lanterns, etc.), Fortune Forever (pink, black, and grey with fortune teller theme), Glowy Batty (black and white with bats and moons), FaBOOlous (black, white, lime green with ghosts and blood drips and scars), and Bling & Bones (pearl and black with occult-y imagery).

 

Kiss Halloween nails were lots of places; I first saw them this year at Ulta.

 

Meijer had two displays of the Kiss nails; there was some overlap in the designs.

 

 

CVS had a floor display that had the Kiss Halloween nails plus lashes.

 

The Kiss nails also appeared in one of those pallet-sized displays that Walmart puts in the aisles sometimes. This also had some LA Colors Lavish Nails sets with the Kiss sets on one side of the boxy display.

 

 

These LA Colors Nail Frill press on sets were on another side of the pallet display at Walmart that had the Kiss nails.

 

In mid-October, I happened upon this very picked over LA Colors Bewitched polish display in the soft goods section of Walmart ... hadn't thought to look there for polish earlier in the month. Thank goodness for labels on the display itself, so I could tell that the top two rows had held six shades of glow in the dark polish: Boneyard (white), Hayride (yellow), Screech (blue), Curse (pink), Be Weird (green), and Candycorn (orange). The bottom two rows looked to be core Gel and Diamond Crush colors: Frosting (white), Graphic (purple), Anarchy (black), Vampy (wine), Dream Maker (gold), Fierce (red), Fireball (wine), Wink (pink), Aurora Sky (blue), Shooting Star (silver), Constellation (chacoal), Flashing Lights (blue).

 

Sally Beauty had Morgan Taylor's On My Wish List collection, with regular polish in the front row and Gelish in the back. Left to right: Dew Me a Favor, empty slot for Bad to the Bow (moss green), A Hundred Present Yes, Gift It Your Best, Before My Berry Eyes, and Reddy to Jingle.

 

The most surprising thing I saw in this season of display hunting was a Nails Inc. and Froot Loops cereal collaboration which was sitting there seemingly untouched at Rite Aid a couple weeks ago. Hadn't heard a thing about this, though poking around the internet tells me it was released this past summer, and the polishes are scented. Single shades in front: #FOLLOWYOURNOSE, Toucan Sam Approved, Feeling Fruity, Toucan Play at That Game, and Ce-real Talk. The duo has neon shades: Face the Froot (pink) and Live Life Loopy (yellow).

 

Not all Ulta stores got the Nailtopia Disney 100 collection, which I'd first seen back in April in Illinois. An Ulta I went to in Michigan in September had a fairly well stocked section for them still. Starting with the 5ml minis at the top left: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Piglet again (in the slot for Elsa, which is a darker pink or maybe purple—hard to tell from the little printed swatch), Olaf, Anna, Alice in Wonderland, Cheshire, Simba, Dumbo, and Stitch. Next to those are the 12ml classic cartoon characters: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Pluto, Goofy, Peter Pan (sold out), Tinker Bell. Bottom row has villians on the left: Maleficant, Captain Hook, Scar, Hades, Evil Queen, Ursula, Cruella, and Jafar. Bottom right are the princesses: Cinderella, Belle, Moana, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Tiana, Ariel, and Snow White.

 

At Ulta, I saw the summer 2023 OPI collection, Summer Make the Rules. It was picked over by the time I came across it, and had a couple colors from the Barbie collection shoved in there.

 

I never did see a display for the OPI Barbie movie tie-in collection at any of the Ultas I popped into during my travels. My local(ish) Ulta had a few polish colors and some fake nail sets on the "looks like clearance but everything's still full price" shelf.

 

The three polish colors left were Bon Voyage to Reality, My Job is Beach, and Hi Ken. Some poking around the internet shows me that the six shades not here were shimmers and/or pink.

 

Just when I'd given up on seeing an OPI Barbie display, I ran across one at a Rite Aid. It was missing some of the shades, too, which was not surprising as I saw it in mid-November, well after the movie came out. I was surprised so many of the pinks were still there since those usually sell quickly.

 

Back when I posted about the OPI xPress/On nails I wore on one of my trips earlier this year, 100% That Scorpio, I promised to share the other signs in a future display post. This is that post. When I came across the shelf where these were stocked in the Ulta I first saw them at, some of the signs were missing. Fortunately, I found them mixed in with other designs on an endcap nearby, so I rearranged things so all the zodiac ones were together.

 

Kiss My Aries, Free as a Sagittarius, and Leo AF:

 

Gemini'm a Flirt, OG Aquarius, and Libra on Chic:

 

100% That Scorpio, Pisces the Future, and Can-certified Sweet:

 

Practical Virgo Magic, Taurus-t Me, and Feelin' Capricorn-y:

 

OPI also has horoscope polish, some which share names with the xPress/On nail designs; I saw Big Zodiac Energy at Ulta.

 

Top row: #Virgoals, Taurus-t me, Feelin' Capricorn-y, Pisces the Future, Scorpio Seduction, Aquarius Renegade, and Feelin' Libra-ted. Bottom row: Gemini and I, I Cancer-tainly Shine, The Leo-nly One, Kiss My Aires (two slots), and Big Sagittarius Energy (two slots).

 

I saw OPI Terribly Nice, the holiday collection, at Sally Beauty, with some colors already missing.

 

There was a Cover Girl and Sally Hansen display at Meijer called Spooky Season Looks. The Cover Girl side was all face makeup (remember when they had polish?). The Sally Hansen side touted Eerie-sistible shades and was all core colors, including all the Miracle Gel toppers plus some mostly dark and mysterious Miracle Gel shades and a lot of Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear colors.

 

I didn't document the exact shades in the Eerie-sistable display, but I did get a closeup of the Miracle Gel Toppers in the core section at Meijer, since I'd not seen Glazed in person before. Left to right: Crystal, Moonlit, Sugar, Unicorn, and Glazed.

 

While the Eerie-sistle display didn't have them, Sally Hansen did release new Insta Dri colors ahead of Halloween. I saw the best stocked display at Meijer, with the Trolls collection on top and the Halloween glow in the dark colors below, along with some core colors in the bottom rows. (I later saw the Troll shades at Ulta tucked into the core section, and a smaller display at a Meijer that had all the Trolls and glow in the dark but fewer core shades.)

 

There are eight shades in the Trolls limited edition collection. Top row: Popalicious (two slots), Viva Power, Here We Go Again (two slots), Vacay Island (two slots), Black to Blakc (core color). Bottom row: Hole 'n Fun (two slots), Sisterhood (two slots), Bandtastic (two slots), Mount Rageous, Black to Black (core).

 

There are seven glow in the dark colors. Some of these look like re-releases to me but I haven't done the research. I am proud that I didn't buy any of these, reminding myself I haven't worn the ones I have from previous years in ages and ages. Top row: Trolls duo pack of Popalicious and Viva Power, Be-Witcha Soon, Eerie-sistible, Where My Ghouls At (two slots), Black to Black (core). Bottom row: Bat to the Bone (two slots), Ahead of the Carve (two slots), A Scare is Born (two slots), Fa-boo-lous, The Queen's Velvet (core).

 

I first saw the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel limited edition Gingerbread Kisses collection at Ulta, tucked in a section next to all the core colors. It was already sold out of (or more likely not yet stocked with; this was September) a few of the colors. Left to right: empty slot for Oh My Pearl, empty slot for Baking Spirits Bright, Jack Frosted, Whisk You a Merry Xmas, empty slot for Peppermint to Be, For Goodness Bake, Less Bitter More Glitter, and Dreams Crumb True.

 

At a different Ulta earlier this month, I saw the Gingerbread Kisses even more sold out, but they did have a Holiday Glaze gift pack shelved nearby which contained Peppermint to Be, Whisk You a Merry Christmas, and the Shiny Top Coat, marked "only here" on the packaging.

 

Walgreens had a free standing floor display that had the Gingerbread Kisses colors in it, but they weren't called that; it said "Oh What Fun!" at the top and included some core shades and fake nails as well as the limited edition holiday ones. They had a similar looking set to the Ulta one, but this had Baking Spirits Bright and the Shiny Top Coat.

 

The two gift sets of Insta Dri that were perched atop the Oh What Fun display at Walgreens were core colors. Candy Cane Wishes had ASAP Apple and White on Time. Orna-ment to Be had Powerslide and Clearly Quick.

 

Ulta also had an Insta Dri holiday set, again with core colors. It's called That's a Wrap and contains White on Time, C-hill Out, Powerslide, ASAP Apple, and Back to Black. I saw a picture on the internet of a four-pack set at Target called Ski-son, which had Powerslide, C-hill Out, Glos-sea, and Cinna Snap, but I haven't seen that one in person and likely won't as I try to avoid stores as much as possible during December.

 

I still miss the years when Wet 'n' Wild would give us Halloween polish collections. This year, their display at Walmart had one set of Fantasy Makers fake nails and no polish at all, just face makeup.

 

I was slightly mollified when I went back to that Walmart a week or so later and found a Scooby-Doo x Wet 'n' Wild pallet display that had a three pack of polish. Sure, two of them were cremes, but still the designs on the bottles were cute.

 

 

This might be a new personal best for number of photos in one blog post. I'd like to thank procrastination.

Great Lakes and Other Displays

While I was on hiatus, I took a trip to Wisconsin via Chicagoland and took advantage of being in a more display-rich environment to do some hunting through various aisles to see what nail products I could see. Combine those with the ones I spotted closer to home before and after my trip, and we've got ourselves a display post. (My last one was the day before I went on my latest blogging hiatus.)(And yes, I did mean to get this up last week, but I decided not to stress myself out about that.) I was rather overwhelmed by the Claire's I went to in Wisconsin ... so much stuff in so small a space. Nothing jumped out at me from the polish rack, but I did stop to look at the fake nails. The sign on top of the display unit said they were new "100% vegan faux nails". I don't think that means they're plant-based, just that there aren't any animal products in them. I didn't buy any since they were all longer than I prefer (though could be cut down I'm sure) and were all glue ons when I prefer press on (and yes I do have some sets of press on tabs I can use with glue ons but I have so many sets of fakes already).

 

I also paused at the sets for Claire's caviar nails and velvet nails. I thought these trends were well behind us for a while, but here they are, back again. Life comes at you fast, I guess.

 

I saw something fun at Fred Meyer: a set of Crayola glitter polishes in bottles with pointy caps to look like the ends of crayons. I thought these were super cute, but did not buy them because I know based on past experience that I wouldn't reach for them, I just want to look at the pretty colors. And I can do that with this photo.

 

I feel like I should have seen Ulta Essie (Un)guilty Pleasures for Winter 2022 earlier than I did, but here it is now. The display at Ulta . In front, left to right: Caught in the Rain (times 2), To Me from Me (times 2), (Un)guilty Pleasures (times 2), and Snooze In. In back at the top: No To-Do, Home By 8.

 

The display at Meijer (same as the one I also saw at Fred Meyer) had the same shades, but only five of them were featured on the card next to them.

 

For Valentines 2023, Essie put out the U Wish collection, which I saw at Ulta. Six shades here, all with silver flames/hearts on the caps. In front: U Wish (two slots), License to Thrill (two slots), Burning Love (two slots), Flirt with Freedom. In back: Fuel Your Desire (two slots), No Ex-pectations (two slots).

 

The Essie Spring 2023 collection is Feel the Fizzle. I found it first at Walgreens, then later at Ulta in a slightly different shelf top display. It does look like spring, with all those pretty pastels. Left to right: Ride the Soundwave, Feel the Fizzle (the only non-creme in the collection; looks like a fun topper), Don't Burst My Bubble, In the You-niverse, It's High Time, and You're Scent-sational.

 

A closer look at Feel the Fizzle, which I was sorely tempted to buy even though I'm 99% certain I have something very similar in my collection already.

 

At Ulta, I also saw some new shades in the Essie Gel Couture line, the Fashion Fête collection. Left to right: Hats Off, Fashion Fête, Sundressed to Impress, Brimming with Bubbly, Stilettos on Standby, and Sunday Best.

 

At a Five Below, I saw four shades of Fresh Paint pearly shimmers in a tray with slots for three colors. No display card to tell me if these are a collection and if so what it's called: Hole-some Content, Glazed and Confused, Donut Stop Believing, and Seriously Dough. Maybe a Glazed Donut collection?

 

Walgreens had some fancy Kiss Majestic nail sets I'd not seen before. The set on top is called Lovely Bubbly and the one on the bottom is Your Grace. The package says they're reusable up to three times, which I guess takes a bit of the sting out of the $17.99 price tag if that's true.

 

One of the Ultas I visited had a section with the Nailtopia polishes celebrating Disney 100. Not sure it they were still in the process of stocking it or many had already sold out; I'm guessing the former since popular characters were still there. Here are the full size ones (12ml): Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, (empty spot for Daisy Duck), Pluto, Goofy, Peter Pan, and Tinker Bell (not Tinkerbell). There was an empty section next to this with spots for the minis (5ml) Winnie the Pooh (yellow), Piglet (darker pink), Elsa (lighter pink), Olaf (light blue), Anna (wine), Alice in Wonderland (light blue), Cheshire (purple), Simba (golden yellow), Dumbo (silver), and Stitch (blue).

 

I know I've mentioned it before, but it's still true: I pay was less attention to OPI releases since Ulta starting putting them only in the big white aisle unit. I want standalone displays that show what's in the collection and only that. But I'm not going to get that at Ulta, so here's OPI Me Myself and OPI for spring 2023 in all its backlit, shelved right next to core colors glory.

 

Also in the backlit display at Ulta: some Orly polishes labelled "colors that pop exclusively at Ulta": Connect the Dots, Kitsch You Later, Claim to Fame, Ceci N'est Pas Blanc, Ephemeral (sold out), Touch of Magic, and Just an Illusion.

 

Ulta also had the Orly NASA collection, thank goodness in much better lighting on an endcap. There are four polishes and four nail strip designs featuring photos from the space telescope with an unfortunate name. The display says "only here", but I've since seen these polishes on the Orly website.

 

The polishes: Spirit of Peace, Golden Record, View from L2, Perseverance.

 

The nail strips: Hubble Space Telescope, (the other space telescope), Voyager, Artemis I.

 

I'm not 100% sure the spring-like shades of Poparazzi I saw at CVS in the spot where seasonal shades have been before are new, but I snapped their photo anyway. Left to right: Mermaid Daze, Born Like This, Do You Pink About Me, and Vitamin Sea.

 

The one not too picked over Pretty Woman display I saw at Five Below stores on my trip was called Dramatic Darks. The shade names printed on the display are Forbidden, Firefly, Oh I Say, Ravenous, Deep Winter, and Dark Royalty. Only five of the six were there and I'm not sure if the shades match the names or not (they weren't printed on the bottles and I can't find them on either the Pretty Woman website or Five Below's).

 

In my last display post, I shared the first sets of Sally Hansen Salon Effects Perfect Manicure fake nails I'd seen. There were only two shapes: square and oval. A few days after I'd posted those, I spotted some sets in almond and coffin shapes on a mixed brand display near the front of a Walgreens. Left to right: Needing Space (almond), Meet Me in the Metal (coffin), ASAP Apple (almond; solid color though the pic looks different due to reflections I think). I peeked on the Sally Hansen site and there are other designs/colors available in these shapes; I just haven't seen them in person yet.

 

Deeper into that same Walgreens, I saw more Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure sets nestled in their own section on the core display wall. All of these designs were either square or oval. Top row (square): Get Mod, Pink Clay, Sugar Fix, Block Party, What a Star, Check Please. Bottom row (oval): Buff & Tumble, O-zone You Didn't, Beet Pray Love, Ombre-lievable, Swoop There It Is, Outside the Line.

 

At a different Walgreens, I saw a display with the Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure nails plus some new Insta Dri shades and some Good Kind Pure shades. The nails were mostly the oval and square shapes, with a couple of almond ones mixed in. Based on an empty display section I saw at Ulta, I believe the Insta Dri shades are the Getaway collection: Catch Me If You Clam (orange), Beach You To It (darker orange), Traveling Light (orchid, slot taken here by another shade), Up In the Clouds (light blue), Slow M-ocean (slate blue), Mint Me in St. Louis (turqoise), C-hill Out (dark green), Later Alligator (deep olive green). I'm not sure if the Good Kind Pure shades are a collection or not. My detail photos are fuzzy, but I think these are the shade names based on matching up the blurry text in my photos with the Sally Hansen website: Almond Milk, Cashew Butter, Roasted Chestnut, Sweet As Sugar, Carrot Cake, Natural Red, Blueberry Tart, Matcha Love.

 

At Walmart, I saw an endcap with the Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure nails and Miracle Gel polishes, with an extra InstaDri bit that I wasn't sure belonged there. The nails assortment had all four shapes.

 

The top two rows of Miracle Gel polishes had shades from the Desert Oasis collection, which I only know the name of because it was on the insert section of the core display at an Ulta store (all but two of the shades were sold out or not yet stocked there). Top row: Lookin Fly for a Cacti, Been There Dune That, A Hot Minute, I Don't Desert You, Cactus Makes Perfect. Bottom row: Knowledge is Flower, Desert Reign, Oaseas, Sun-Shower (not part of Desert Oasis), (random yellow in slot for Shock & Mauve, niehter part of Desert Oasis). The other rows were core colors, base and top coat.

 

The InstaDri tray had a few core colors along with the Getaway collection of new shades (that portion shown closer below): Catch Me If You Clam, Beach You To It, Traveling Light (slot empty), Up In the Clouds, Slow M-ocean, Mint Me in St. Louis, C-hill Out, Later Alligator.

 

A different Walmart had the Sally Hansen Perfect Manicure nails incorporated into the regular nail supplies section, including more of the coffin shaped ones than I'd seen before. Left to right: French Twist, Leaf Me Be, What the Shell, Meet Me in the Metal, Hyp-nautical, Onyx-pected (hiding in back).

 

For Easter, Sally Hansen Insta Dri has a Peeps collaboration. I saw this tall freestanding display at Walgreens. It had the Peeps polishes plus some core colors. The Peeps solid colors are textured, specifically "sugar texture".

 

Top left: Peeps and Love set with Peeps Pink Bunny and Peeps Blue Chick. Top right: One Tough Chick set with Peeps Classic Chick and Peeps Cotton Candy. Bottom left: Peeps Purple Bunny, Peeps Party Cake (times 2), Peeps Cotton Candy, and Peeps Marshmallow. Bottom right: Peeps Classic Chick (times 2), Peeps Pink Bunny (times 2), and Peeps Blue Chick.

 

And here are the polishes that got me excited about polish in a way I haven't been in a while: the Salon Perfect Flash collection at Walmart. These are seven reflective glitters and when I saw swatches on Facebook I had to have them. Yes, indies have been doing reflective glitter for a while, but it's so hard to keep up with indies now that I've stopped trying. These mainstreams aren't as complex as most of the indies but they're way more accessible (though I did have to try a few Walmarts before I found them). Left to right: Flashing Lights, News Flash, Dream Gleam, Flash Dance, Make It Flashy, Shine and Dandy, Flash Back. There's also a texture smoothing topcoat called Glitter Gloss. Unlike most polishes I buy and then let sit for ages before I try them, my first pedicure after I bought these was Shine and Dandy, and Make It Flashy is on my toes as I type this. Even though it's winter, I often wear sandals in the house and seeing these polishes catch the light has been quite delightful.

 

Like last summer, I didn't see any seasonal Studio M displays at Meijer on my trip, but there were more "fancies" at the $6.49 price point than I saw back then. I think these are all holos. Left to right (two slots for each color): Constellation Queen, Worlds Apart, Miss Universe, Super Star.

 

Left to right (two slots for each color): Moon Goddess, Meteor Shower, Rocket Man, Space Cadet.

 

Ski season ended yesterday, and I've got a few weeks before I have any significant travel planned, so I'm hoping to do some swatching in this less busy lull, but we'll see if that works out.