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.

Orly Holo Jellies and Friends

Despite having a goal to continue buying less polish than I did in my stash expansion heyday, I'm still signed up for all sorts of brand newsletters and text alerts, including Orly's. I saw they were having a sale and went to look and noticed it included the shades from the Holo Jellies collection released this past summer. No better time then for me to share swatches of the bottles I bought a while back, along with two glitter toppers I ordered at the same time. Left to right: Party Animal, As If, Peace Out, Chill Pill, Like Totally, and Dancing Queen.

 

I first Skittled the Holo Jellies, doing three coats plus topcoat. They're not quite opaque at three coats, but close enough. All have a generous helping of silver holo glitter in a jelly base. As If is a soft orange. Peace Out is lime green. Chill Pill is a blue between turquoise and sky. Like Totally is purple, such a pretty purple, not too red and not too blue. I like these; the formula is good, with the jelly base being buildable, not too opaque so it hides the glitter.

 

 

 

I then reached for the glitter toppers, grouping them each with the Holo Jellies shade(s) they were most compatible with. Party Animal has pink, orange, and yellow matte hex glitter in various sizes plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. I layered one coat of it over As If, finishing with clear topcoat.

 

 

 

Dancing Queen has lime, purple, and sky blue matte hex glitter plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. It seems made for the remaining shades of Holo Jellies. I did a gradient over a creme base that matched my skintone, then Peace Out on my middle finger, Chill Pill on my ring, and Like Totally on my pinky, topping the three non-gradient nails with one coat of Dancing Queen plus clear topcoat. This whole look made me happy. I really should take the time to do manis like this again because they do make me smile.

 

 

 

I don't regret getting these at all despite having more polish than probably all the nail salons in town put together. They're mood lifters for me. And I'm proud of myself for resisting the plain jellies that Orly came out with sometime after Holo Jellies. Maybe I don't have exactly those shades of blue, pink, and yellow in exactly that consistency, but I do have blue, pink, and yellow jellies in my stash. If you don't, those are also in the sale going on now on the Orly website. Five dollars a bottle is a deal. Dancing Queen and Party Animal are available still at full price. I'd pay it because I'm a fool for glitter still, even though the nail world has mostly moved on to other things for now.

Orly x Kelli Marissa Witching Hour

I have slowed my stash expansion quite a bit from the dizzying heights they once reached, yet I do still have my weaknesses. When an online ad for the new Orly and Kelli Marissa Halloween collaboration came across my screen with three glitter toppers, I pondered for just a while before ordering the whole set, glitters and jellies both. They came in a nicely decorated box with skulls and snakes and other spookiness.

 

As you might have guessed from the dimensions of the box, there are six shades here. Left to right: Wild Card, Mystic Jelly, Spellbound, Oasis Jelly, Wing It, Smoke Jelly.

 

 

I started with Oasis Jelly, a deep blue-leaning teal. At three coats, it's pretty much opaque, though definitely still squishy.

 

 

I used one coat of Wing It on top of Oasis then added clear topcoat. Wing It has black hex glitters, black bat glitters, and small silver and gold glitter in a clear base. The bats did mostly come out of the bottle on their own.

 

 

I thought the bats got a bit lost against the darkish teal, so I also tried Wing It over Orly Pink Chocolate. The bats did pop more against that dusty rose base.

 

 

Mystic Jelly, a cool vibrant purple, was up next. I used three coats of this jelly as well, and it seemed just slightly less opaque but equally squishy. Also shiny even without topcoat.

 

 

I topped Mystic with Spellbound, which has black, white, and orange satin hexes plus tiny silver holo glitter in a clear base. I did one thick coat of the glitter and didn't think it needed topcoat.

 

 

Smoke Jelly came next. Three coats of this one as well, and it was opaque and squishy and shiny.

 

 

Wild Card finally got its turn over Smoke. This is a clear base with black, lime, and vibrant purple hex glitters in various sizes.

 

 

Obviously the black glitter in Wild Card got lost on Smoke, so I tried it over Orly Color Blast Mulberry Madness.

 

 

I did also try Smoke over this last combination, to see if this would work for jelly sandwiches. If one is careful and does a thin coat over the glitter it could work, but there are other jellies better suited to the task, I think.

 

This is a fine collection overall. I love the glitters, can see using Wing It year round, just putting the bats back in the bottle. I do with the jellies were slightly less opaque so they were more versatile, but I have others I can use for sandwiches and other layering.