One Day's Displays

With more and more of the people I am closest to getting vaccinated for COVID-19, I'm looking forward to being able to start establishing a new normal soon. Now I'm still in cautious mode, staying close to home for the most part, venturing to the "big" city infrequently and limiting the places I go (still masked and physically distanced) when I get there. Which is a long introduction to why I'm going to do this display post with just what I saw in the handful of stores I went into on the one trip I've taken down to the city since my previous display post at the end of March. In the Before Time, I would have had three or four trips down there in this stretch of time, most of which would have included visits to more stores in a wider area. Still might not have found more things to share, but at least I'd know I'd been able to do a thorough search. A well, I'm glad I can get out at least as much as I have been. I was surprised to see a China Glaze Cali Dreams display snugged up to one side of an aisle at Rite Aid. They've had China Glaze for quite a while now, but I don't recall seeing a seasonal display like this there before. I almost missed this one, since the muted color palette and skinny shape sort of blended into the crowded visual landscape of the beauty aisles.

 

I also found the Essie summer collection at Rite Aid (later spotted it as Ulta and Fred Meyer as well). Left to right: Feelin' Just Lime, Juicy Details, Zest Has Yet to Come, Pucker Up, Get Your Grove On, Tangerine Tease.

 

There was an Impress display with fake nails and fake toenails in matching neons at Walgreens (with some non-neon nails stuffed in there too). Despite my frequent use of fake nails, I've yet to try fake toe nails. One of the reasons I like fake nails is that they protect my real nails, which isn't a very big issue with my toes. Sure, I've cracked a once in a great while stubbing my toe but for the most part there's no issues with splitting and peeling and breaking because I keep them short. And I don't live in a part of the country where I can go for days just wearing sandals, and I feel like fake toe nails would catch on socks. Maybe I should try a set just so I know.

 

The only new thing I spotted at Sally Beauty was the Nails Inc. Color-Changing display, which has six shades of thermal polish: Hotter than Hot, A Hot Minute, Feel the Hotness, Hot Intentions, Because I'm Hot, You're Hot then You're Cold.

 

In the annoying backlit display at Ulta, I saw the relaunched Pacifica line, now in square bottles. Some of the colors looked like carryovers from the old line, some looked new, a few looked interesting. If I catch them on a sale I might try some. If you want to see the colors, best to look on the Ulta website, as I didn't manage to get any clear photos thanks to the backlighting.

 

At Walgreens there was a Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure display touting "fresh shades" but I feel like I'd seen them all before. There was a jumble of colors in here, but the ones across the front row that definitely belonged there were Crystal Blue, Mint Refresh, Pinky Clay, and White Tea (along with nail oil and topcoat).

 

There were new shades in the next Sally Hansen display I came across, the Insta Dri Live Love Loud collection done in conjuction with GLAAD for Pride. Left to right: Va-Va Violet (core, but here with the inclusive Pride flag stripes on the bottle), Along for the Pride, Yaaass Green, Yellow Lady, Love Wins, ASAP Apple (core, sold out here), LGBTQ-utie, Black to Black, core white stuck in slot where Clearly Quick should be.

 

I did pop in very quickly to a second Walgreens and saw a display which had all the Pride colors. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't as good and apparently I was so focused on getting in and out quickly that I didn't get the focus quite right.

 

Despite being a Disney fan, I somehow missed they were coming out with live action movie about Cruella de Vil until someone on Facebook posted about the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Cruella collection. I was so happy to find it at Walgreens. The display says there are 13 colors in the collection, but on closer inspection, some of those are core shades with Cruella printed on the cap.

 

Top row: The DeVil is In the Details, Red Eye (core, sold out), Tipsy Gypsy (core), Get Mod (core), Tidal Wave (core), No to Conformity, Shiny Top Coat.

 

Second row: Onyx-pected (core), Pretty in Punk, Iconic Darling, Luck & Glory, Fame & Fortune (sold out), Greyfitti (core), Matte Top Coat.

 

Third row: Apollo You Anywhere (core, sold out), Quartz and Kisses (core, sold out), Fuchsia Fever (neon collection), Violet Voltage (neon collection), Miami Ice (neon collection), Sugar Fix (core), Shiny Top Coat. The fourth row is all core, and in this display was filled with a jumble of things so I don't have a closeup of that.

 

The manicure shown on the display is definitely interesting, with different styles of nail art mixed together.

 

Fred Meyer had a smaller, more focused display for the Sally Hansen Cruella collection. Interestingly, this said "12 Cruella Collection Shades" rather than the 13 at Walgreens. Front: The DeVil is in the Details, Luck & Glory, Iconic Darling, Fame & Fortune, No to Conformity, Greyfitti (in the slot for Matte Top Coat), Shiny Top Coat. Back: Tidal Wave, Onyx-pected, Red Eye, Get Mod, TuTu the Ballet (core), Greyfitti, Tipsy Gypsy. So this display has TuTu the Ballet with the Cruella cap which Walgreens did not, but Walgreens had Pretty in Punk and Quartz and Kisses.

 

I keep checking the Salon Perfect section at Walmart hoping that somehow the pretty collection I saw people posting last year around the time the pandemic hit will turn up again (it had scattered silver glitter on the caps is what I remember) but I think if it were going to happen it would have by now. I did see these nail art kits ... I feel like I've seen (and maybe shared?) the crystal stamping kit one but don't remember seeing the pearl stamping kit one before.

 

Fred Meyer had a SinfulColors Tulle Temptation display that hadn't been there last time; the only place I've seen these besides Walmart. When I first saw the display, it was missing a couple colors, with those slots filled with random shades, and the shades that were there weren't all in the same order as listed on the display card. I found the missing ones down the aisle in the Essenchills display I shared last time. Restock gone wrong maybe? I went ahead and straightened that all out. Left to right: Hot Pink Tights, Hot and Hazy, Ruby Tutu, Turnt-quoise, Kiss of Cobalt, Veiled in Violet, Sheer-treuse, See Through Citrine, Semi-matte Top Coat.

 

At Walmart, I encountered a big middle of the aisle display with SinfulColors Essenchills and a bunch of core shades, looking a bit of a mess.

 

Around the corner of the display was a shorter side exclaiming Go Off!, which initially excited me because this was where the three LE glitters should be. Sadly, most of the display was jammed with other colors, with one lone bottle of LE glitter (the light blue in the top row). I'm hoping Fred Meyer gets these at some point so I can pick up the other two (one is purple, the other pink).

 

This was the best photo I could manage of the Ulta house brand Trop the Beat limited edition collection: In Pursuit of Passion Fruit, Dragon-licious, Guava Stay Up All Night, Papaya to Dance, Mango Tango, Lei Back & Hula, Seashells & Sand Dollars.

 

My disappointment at the state of SinfulColors at Walmart was somewhat eased by seeing this sidekick from Wet 'n' Wild right next to the picked over Sinful display, with a row of Fantasy Makers polishes with holo silver stars on the caps tucked into the bottom of it. The colors aren't overly exciting but the caps are fun so I bought one of the glitters. Left to right: See You Laser (maybe glow in the dark?), Lemonade Heaven, Faded, Seeing Colors, Stay Hydrated, Watermelon Fest, Lightning in a Bottle, Shakedown.

 

 

I'm planning to start traveling a bit again this summer so perhaps I'll be able to expand my display hunting then. In the meantime it's not like I'm going to run out of polish to try.

Pacifica Holos

The first product I tried from Pacifica was their matte top coat, which wasn't all that matte. Once in a while some shades in the display at Ulta would catch my eye but I always passed because I didn't have any compelling reason to get involved with yet another brand. That changed when on my one visit to Ulta since the pandemic, I saw that most (all?) of the Pacifica nail section was on clearance, so I grabbed a few, two of which were holos: Rainbow Gloss Top Coat and Milky Way Crystal Gloss Top Coat.

 

Because it said it was a top coat right on the bottle, I put a creme base on before I tried the Rainbow Gloss, namely Sally Hansen Insta Dri Island Punch, a dusty orchid. I did one coat of the Rainbow Gloss on top of that. In the lightbox, it added some silvery shimmer but not really any rainbows to speak of.

 

 

In direct light, some scattered rainbows showed up.

 

 

In sunlight, as one might expect, more colors were evident.

 

 

I experimented and added a second coat of Rainbow Gloss to just my index finger. This definitely upped the rainbow effect but also greyed out the base color more than one coat had.

 

I tried Rainbow Gloss over more base shades. Top to bottom, one coat of Rainbow Gloss over Sally Hansen Insta Dri Razzle Dazzle Rose, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Island Punch (kept one nail the same for comparison's sake), Essie All The Wave, and L'Oreal She's So Matte. Here's how that looked in the lightbox:

 

And in direct light:

 

And in sunlight:

 

Moving on to Milky Way, while this also said it was a top coat right on the bottle, it looked more pigmented, so I tried it both on its own and over other colors. Top to bottom: Milky Way alone (two coats), over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Out for Oxblood, Sally Hansen Insta Dri Vivid Violet, and L'Oreal She's So Matte. You can see the base makes only a slight difference in the overall look with this one; I'm going to argue that it's not really a top coat since it can be worn on its own just fine without any nail line showing.

 

Above shot was indirect light, below is direct indoor light:

 

In sunlight, Milky Way really showed off.

 

 

I did a side by side comparison of both of these Pacifica holos, both over Sally Hansen Island Punch. Two fingers on the left are topped with Rainbow Gloss; the two on the right with Milky Way. You can see clearly here how pigmented the base of Milky Way is.

 

I'd lost the sun at this point, but here's the comparison in direct light.

 

While Ulta doesn't seem to carry these anymore, both look like they're available on the Pacifica website. They're $14 versus $9 for the non-holos in the line (all are 12ml bottles). They're both decent polishes with a fairly good holo payoff in the sun, but if you're going to spend $14 and have to order online, I'd go for an indie brand. Starlight Polish, for instance, has three different holo toppers with varying levels of intensity, and they're less than $14 for 15 ml.

Matte Topcoat Comparisons, Part 13

First it was the return of Nail Wheel Wednesday; today it's the return of the very sporadic matte topcoat comparison series. The competitors today are the returning favorite OPI ($10/15ml), Pacifica Matte 7 Free Top Coat (from Ulta; $9/12ml), Bliss Go to the Matte (purchased at Kohls; $12/15ml), and Essence Nail Art Satin Matt Top Coat ($2.99/8ml; I got mine at Fred Meyer but have also seen at Ulta).



As per usual, I applied these over a black creme and let them dry. Top to bottom and left to right in the same order at the bottles above.





The OPI, even this old bottle I'm still using, continues to perform like a champion. It's matte. Perfectly so. The Pacifica didn't level well and was more satin than matte. The Bliss was similar to the Pacifica, maybe a tiny bit better on the leveling and matte scales. The Essence has satin in its name, so I didn't expect this to be very matte, and it was not; however, it was slightly more matte than the Pacifica and Bliss, and a lot cheaper.

TL;DR The OPI is a better matte topcoat than any of the three newest ones to join my stash.


Links to all the episodes in this series (so far):

Part 1: OPI, Barielle, China Glaze, Sinful Colors, Butter London, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
Part 2: Revlon, NYC, Essie, Claire's
Part 3: OPI, Essie, GOSH, Cult Nails, Icing, Ulta, Fing'rs
Part 4: Orly, Salon Perfect, OPI, Sally Girl
Part 5: OPI, elf, L'Oreal
Part 6: Nicole by OPI, OPI, Sally Hansen, Formula X for Sephora, Deborah Lippmann, Dolce & Gabbana, Nails Inc., Nina Ultra Pro, Illamasqua
Part 7: Fresh Paint, OPI, CK One, Wet 'n' Wild
Part 8: Glitter Guilty, Rescue Beauty Lounge, H & M, Kleancolor, Wet 'n' Wild, OPI.
Part 9: Paul & Joe, OPI, Wet 'n' Wild
Part 10: Dr.'s Remedy, Zoya, Hollish, OPI.
Part 11:Julie G, Pop-arazzi, Pure Ice, OPI.
Part 12:Jin Soon, Morgan Taylor, Girly Bits, Colour Prevails, Wet 'n' Wild.