Displays I've Been Saving Up

Since my previous display post back in early May, I've been doing some travelling again, with a couple trips to western Washington to visit family (I'm on a second one in two months as I type this), a quick weekend in Portland, and two weeks road tripping around Idaho, along with a few day trips down to the city. I am not quite as dedicated as before to going into all the locations of all the stores to look for polish displays but do try to get to a good variety of places to see what I can see. I saw a China Glaze Havana Nights display at Sally Beauty but because of the type of display it was I have no idea what was missing or if what was there was even what should be. I know, I've made this complaint before. I'll probably make it again.

 

I almost missed the Essie Let It Ripple collection at Fred Meyer because its display card was missing. Fortunately, a few of the shimmers were eye catching enough to pull my eye in their direction. Left to right: Earn Your Tidal, Tide of Your Life, Cliff Hanger, In the Cab-ana, Wetsuited Up, and Good Vibrations.

 

Fred Meyer had new shades of Essie Expressie as well. This had slots for: Multi-Player Moves, No Time to Pause (sold out), Thumb-Surfing, Remote Friends, Ahead of the Game(r) (sold out), Don't Glitch Get Better, Take Controller, Leveled Up, Virtual Velocity, and Beat the Clock (sold out).

 

I also saw the Essie Ferris of Them All collection at Fred Meyer. Nine shades here: Air Spun Fun, Ice Cream and Shout, Amuse Me, All Fun & Games, Ferris of Them All, Win Me Over, Let It Slide, and Main Attraction.

 

Rounding out the Essie finds at Fred Meyer, there was a display of Essie Gel Couture with six shades: First Fitting, Inside Scoop, Gallery Glam, Museum Muse, Behind the Glass, and Steel the Show. From what I can see online, Gallery Glam, Museum Muse, and Behind the Glass are the Museum Muse collection; the others are repromotes.

 

I had to visit three different Ulta stores to find a display for the Essie Tie-Dye collection Give It a Swirl (only at Ulta. This has Blanc from the core collection plus three limited edtion shimmers— Don't Get It Twisted (pink), Give It a Swirl (lilac), and All Tie-Dyed Up (sky blue)—plus Gel Setter Top Coat. There are directions on the display for creating nail art, plus a brush that was free with purchase of a polish.

 

 

When I was in Portland, I found a CVS; hadn't been in one of those in a long time. They had a display of imPress fake nails by Kiss, including some limited edition sets done in collaboration with Jess Conte, who is apparently a "content creator and musician".

 

In the core display section at Fred Meyer, I spotted the LA Color Glitter Vibes collection, which I don't recall seeing before (I usually remember glitter): Highkey, Pure Blush, Golden Glow, Pink Bling, City Girl, Purple-razzi, Drippin', and Finesse.

 

Not a display, but the endcap at Walmart with clearance items and random stuff people just decided to set down there had the only bottle of LA color Neon Jelly that I've seen in the wild. I looked everywhere to see if this bottle's display was still around but didn not find it. This blue is called Razzle Berry; there are seven other shades in the line, available on the LA Colors website.

 

There was an LBK display at Walgreens, a place I've not seen the brand before. This was Rockin' the Neon Palooza. There are nine bright shades here; I moved the bottles around so the right hand section was complete and filled with the colors that matched the names printed on the display. Front: Party Time, Funkadelic, Laser Lemon. Middle: Peace, Hot to Trot, Purple Haze. Back: Rave, Lime & Coconut, Pinkalooza.

 

I didn't see the Morgan Taylor Feel the Vibes display at Sally Beauty until it was mostly sold out, but fortunately they had a swatch card. Slots left to right: All Day All Night, Spin Me Around, Into the Lime-light, Orange Crush Blush, It's My Moment, Keepin' It Cool.

 

 

A Fred Meyer in Washington was the first place I saw the Nailtopia brand outside of an Ulta. It was just a single shelftop display with a fraction of the shades in the big core display at Ulta, but I was still happy to see it. This had slots for these shades: When the Night Falls, Blank Slate, Nailed It (the slot for which had what looked like a base coat in it, which was odd since there was no slot for base coat, so I wonder if there was another display I missed), Nails on Fleek (empty), Bali Baby, Kissin' in the Rain, Tira-Miss-You, Mocho Loco, Sol Glow, Tropinail, and Ruby Slippers (empty).

 

At a Fred Meyer closer to home in Idaho, the mystery of the Nailtopia base coat was resolved: this store had two shelf displays, one of which did have a slot for base coat. Top display, left to right: Started from the Bottom (base coat), Top of Your Game (top coat), So Fresh So Clean, Do or FiDi, Juice Cleanse, Yacht Week, Forest Hills (empty), Run Now Wine Later (empty), Smokey Road, Jomo (empty), Hawaiin Blues. Bottom display is same as at the other Fred Meyer above.

 

I am always happy when I see new OPI collections at Walgreens because the displays are so straightforward; one slot for each color, with an indication of what the shade looks like if it's sold out. So nice compared to the backlit cluttered jumble that usually faces me when I go to Ulta. In this case, Walgreens had the Malibu collection. Fron row: From Dusk Til Dune, Coastal Sand-tuary, El Mat-adoring You, Endless Sun-ner, Cliffside Karaoke, Bonfire Seranade. Back row: Marigolden Hour, PCH Love Song, Strawberry Waves Forever (empty), The Sound of Vibrance, Pear-adise Cove, Mali-blue Shore.

 

They had the same display for OPI Malibu at Sally Beauty, with a different one missing, plus a nail wheel (rectangle, I guess) with all the polishes swatched.

 

Here's the Ulta endcap for OPI Malibu. The bottles are mostly gone, but they at least did have the lineup pictured, and I did like the dotted rainbow heart.

 

It had been so long since I'd been in a CVS that this was the first time I saw the new Poparazzi bottles. They still have the polka dotted caps, but they're cylindrical now. I didn't document the whole lineup because I didn't want to push my luck taking photos.

 

 

Some time back, I swatched two Pop Beauty polishes I got out of the clearance bins at Walgreens. I noted I'd never seen the brand there and was puzzled. Well, I came across a Walgreens that had a display for Pop Beauty. Mostly empty, but still, evidence of what sort of thing I missed at that other store when I wasn't going out much. There are slots here for (starting top left): Lightshow, Zing-C, So Bomb, Watermelon Wow, POM POM, Wine O'Clock, Pastel Fleur, Passion Punch, ZZZ Pink, Purple AF,l Black Cherry, Marshmallow, Pirouette Pink, Hint of Mint, Be Green, Aqua Shot, and Blue Cosmos.

 

I shared a Sally Hansen Cruella collection display last time, but that one wasn't accompanied by these polish and topcoat sets with eye catching art on the box like these I saw at Ulta.

 

Ulta also came through with some Sally Hansen Insta Dri Pride variations that I hadn't seen or shared before. I think the box sets of six polishes are Ulta exclusives. One has the six colors of the familiar Pride flag (ASAP Apple, Love Wins, Yellow Lady, Yaaasss Green, Along for the Pride, and Va-Va Violet); the other has light blue (Jet Setter), pink (Pink Blink), dark blue (Along for the Pride), purple (Va-Va Violet), yellow (Yellow Lady), and white (White on Time) to use to make stripes to match the flags for transgender pride, asexual pride, and nonbinary pride as shown on the box.

 

Walgreens had a Sally Hansen Miracle Gel display called Neon Summer. Top row (these were labeled as limited edition): Feelin' Grape, Chill Out (sold out), Flash of Bright, Sun-shine On, Squeeze the Day, and Floresc-Pink. Second row (re-promotes): Miami Ice, Violet Voltage, Fuchsica Fever, Peach Please, Lemon Chilo (sold out, I seem to recall this used to be called Lemonchillo, all one word, two l's).

 

At Fred Meyer I saw the display for Sally Hansen Miracle Gel It Takes Two, which has color at one end and top coat at the other. Yes, this is more space efficient than carrying two full size bottles around but I've learned my lesson with these double ended deals and won't be buying any. There's no good way to store them that doesn't risk getting polish on the threads, for one thing. Polish shades: Quartz & Kisses, Saturn It Up, Sundown Socialite, Can't Beet Royalty, Rain-Glow, Once Chiffon a Time, Hyp-nautical, Sugar Fix, Get Mod, and Onyx Perfected. All paired with Shiny Top Coat. I also saw these in a free standing display at Walgreens, with full size Miracle Gel bottles below them (and maybe Cover Girl makeup on the other side? I didn't get a good photo of that one as I was in that store to pick up a prescription for my mother in law so wasn't supposed to be dawdling in the makeup aisle).

 

None of the Walmarts in my area had the collection that came out earlier this year which had some glitters in it (or if they did, I missed it), but one store did get the Color Your Way display which has brights for summer. The top section of this has the One-Step Gel Pen in various colors; these look like the next generation of the Sally Hansen Color Quick and Nicole by OPI Nic's Sticks. A USB compatible gel-curing lamp is below the nail polish pens. The bottom section has sets with fake nails for one's fingers and a matching mini bottle of polish for one's toes, which other than the matching is pretty much the combination I've been sporting in my life for quite a while now.

 

 

At Ulta, I saw a mostly empty display of Scratch nail wraps. I was thinking about buying one to try then saw the directions called for using a non-quick dry top coat on them, and that's not my jam.

 

SinfulColors distribution continues to be frustrating. I did see the Vacay Vibes display at Fred Meyer, but it only had three new (maybe limited edition?) shades mixed with Quick Bliss colors we've seen before. Left to right in front: Dragon Fruitie (new), Juicy, Colada Mama (new), Hit the Spot, Mushy Gushy Mango (new), Flushed. I was too discouraged to document the rest of the bottles. Apparently the only place to get the whole collection of six colors is Walmart, maybe only online as a set. I want to buy individually in the store; I don't need another pink creme like Dragon Fruitie, even if it is scented.

 

On the road, I visited a Walmart that had a whole endcap of SinfulColors, with eight SinfulColors Claws artificial nail sets right at the top, including some I'd not seen before. I might have gotten some but I just hate having to find an employee to unlock them. I'm sure they've done the math and found the sales they lose out on this way aren't as valuable as the stock they lose to theft. At least I hope they have.

 

Somewhere in my travels, I visited an Ulta that didn't have the backlist polish display unit, so was able to get this much better photo of the Ulta Gel Shine Trop the Beat collection than I shared last display post. Left to right: In Pursuit of Passion Fruit, Dragon-licious, Guava Stay Up All Night, Papaya to Dance, Mango Tango, Lei Back & Hula, Seashells & Sand Dollars.

 

At a different, regrettably backlit, Ulta, I saw the 90s Please collection (which doesn't say limited edition so may just be a grouping of core colors): Goal Getter, Facts (though now that I look at this bottle, seems it might be Finesse in Fact's slot), Party Like a Patriot, Finesse (sold out), Americana, #Mood, Black Magic.

 

Wet 'n' Wild is continuing to release stuff under the Fantasy Makers line even when it's not Halloween. This time it was some artificial nail sets I saw at Walmart, in a sidekick with general beauty products like applicators. Left to right: Wild Gal (solid black with black/white animal print accent nails), Feeling Myself (solid deep pink with lighter pink glitter accents), Sunset Spirit (peach iridiscent with coral/gold glitter accents), In a Daze (three colors of glitter: purple, magenta, and peach). These sets have glue included with them.

 

Okay, that's it for this display post. I'm hoping to have more next month, as I am planning some more travel, though of course the Delta variant may affect those plans. Yes, I'm vaccinated, but so many in my area are not (most by choice, not because they can't for legitimate medical reasons).

Wheel L6: Glitters from Pop, Cult Nails, Piggy Polish, and Accessorize

(all have one layer of topcoat over the glitter coats noted below; some could use more topcoat, or at least a thicker topcoat)

1. Pop Beauty Gold Glitz (4 coats)
2. Pop Beauty Aquatic Glitz (3)
3. Pop Beauty Lavender Glitz (4) [I wish this had the holo glitter like the first two]
4. Pop Beauty Violet Glitz (3)
5. Pop Beauty Twinkle (2)
6. Pop Beauty Pink Glitz (2) [not that pink; I had to double check that I hadn't mixed up the names of 5 and 6]
7. Pop Beauty Xmas (1) [with a name like Xmas, I'd expect some green in here, but at least they didn't do the obvious and call it Ruby Slippers]
8. Cult Nails Captivated (2)
9. Cult Nails Living Water (2)
10. Cult Nails Hypnotize Me (2)
11. Cult Nails Always Winning (2) [shimmer and glitter don't usually work together as well as they do here]
12. Piggy Polish Teal It Like It Is (2)
13. Piggy Polish Among the Stars (3)
14. Piggy Polish Confetti (2)
15. Piggy Polish Beach Break (2)
16. Piggy Polish Just Called to Sleigh Hello (3)
17. Accessorize 33 Crystal Shimmer (2)
18. Accessorize unknown mini (2)
19. Accessorize unknown mini (2) [in the bottle, it seemed more like a microglitter; out of it, it seems like it belongs on a shimmer wheel]
20. Accessorize unknown mini (2) [I'd buy a full size of this one]


Bottles 1 through 4:


5 through 7:


8 through 11:


12 through 16:


17 through 20:

Sin City Haul

I tend to avoid doing haul posts. There are a few reasons for that, including I only have so much time to devote to blogging and if I do haul posts more often, that means fewer swatches and comparisons, and swatches and comparisons are my way to justify the hauling in the first place. I also feel like posting bottle shots without swatches is being sort of a tease, since with my backlog and tendency to get distracted by whatever's new and shiny some bottles have to wait a very very long time for their moment in the spotlight. Today, though, I am doing a haul post, because a) the shopping excursions in Las Vegas were very fruitful and b) more than one person commented that they'd like to see the haul when I asked on my July 5th entry if anyone would (that mani used a couple of the polishes I bought in Sin City).

I actually bought so much polish in Las Vegas that I shipped a box home; I was worried my suitcase would be overweight if I didn't, and the excess baggage fee would be more than it cost to send the extra weight back via the USPS. I did pack some polishes in my suitcase, too, but most of them went into a medium size priority mail box. The kind that opens on the end is just the right size for polish boxes to fit into, and lots of the places we shopped gave us those boxes with our purchases. Having them made it much faster to pack up, too. Rather than having to wrap each bottle in bubble wrap, I just needed to shove enough bubble wrap into the top of the box to keep the bottles from rattling. Then I put the boxes into plastic bags to contain any leaks and slid those into the priority mail box. I didn't have quite enough polish boxes, so I did have to bubble wrap a few bottles individually.



As I mentioned in my post about this lacquer lovers weekend, one of the attractions of Las Vegas was the ABC Store (stores, actually, but we only went to one of the locations). I bought way more Island Girl polishes there than I had when I was in Hawaii, the natural habitat for Island Girl. The fact that they were buy 2, get 1 free certainly encouraged me.

Left to right below: Island Girl Surfing Safari, Waikiki Surf, Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Sunset, Island Coast, Island Volcano. The first two are the ones I used in my patriotic mani I posted about last week. Hawaiian Islands I got because I couldn't think of any yellow orange star glitter polish already in my stash. I waffled on Hawaiian Sunset, but it made it to the cash register with me because I wanted one of the shades where the star glitters were almost submerged in the base color (I think there were three or four like that) and this was the most purple plus the name made me think of the beautiful sunsets I saw when I was there in Hawaii. The last two I also waffled on—I didn't have multi glitters in these particular base colors already, but they'd be easy enough to make, but it's been ages since I had time to franken, so might as well buy them.



Below: Island Girl Island Heat, Island Paradise, Island Sunset, Hawaiian Sun, Island Color, Island Sun. The first three I got because they are appealingly indie-esque. Hawaiian Sun and Island Color because I was curious how they compared to ones already in my stash (Sinful Deep Red Ocean and one of the Mardi Gras ones Rite Aid had this summer). Island Sun because it's an interesting shredded glitter in some of my favorite colors.



Here's a closeup of Island Sun:



There was a Walgreens right across the street from our hotel. Note that in Las Vegas, "right across the street" can still be a hike, but we were not daunted by the journey down one long driveway, across a small stree, up an escalator, across a pedestrian bridge over the Strip, through part of the Palazzo building, and down another escalator because there was lots of polish to be seen. This was one of the fancy Walgreens with an expanded beauty section like that one in Chicago where I got scolded for taking photos last September. I was thinking that compared to the dozen polishes I got at the ABC Store, I was pretty restrained here, except then I counted up the bottles and found there were eleven—I guess it seemed like fewer because that was spread across several brands.

I got two from Pop Beauty: Iced Glitz and Poetic Peacock. There were plenty of Pop colors there that I didn't have, but these two were the most appealing to me (and will look great worn together if the swatch I did with the testers on a piece of paper mrsrexy and I were sharing as we made our way through the displays).



I got two Nailtini polishes as well: Sugar Rim and Sparkler. Sparkler was one I was going to buy in Chicago before the sales associate barked at me about taking pictures. Since I don't like to have single bottles of a brand, I had to get Sparkler a friend, and Sugar Rim was the second most interesting shade in the Nailtini section.



I got five GOSH: Spot on Pink, With a Twist, Matt Effect Top Coat, Lazy Green, and Galaxy. I am very proud of myself here in that I did not get all of the special/limited edition colors there were to be had. I limited myself to one of each type of cap design plus the matte topcoat (for my ongoing comparison series) plus Galaxy which was on my official wish list.



I didn't take a photo of the other two polishes I got at Walgreens: Barielle Blue Cotton Candy (which I figured I should have if I still was attracted to it this long after I swatched Lucy's press sample) and Nicole by OPI Pixie Glitter (which I will definitely be swatching in the next several weeks).

There was a big Sephora just down the street from the Walgreens. Amazingly, I did not buy anything there. Not one thing. I was tempted, sure, but I just kept telling myself that I have Sephora online and there's at least one big Sephora store in southeast Michigan (not that I go into it hardly ever since it's not conveniently located; point is that I could if I really wanted to).

The first beauty supply we visited was pretty much on accident; my phone lost its location while navigating so we weren't where we planned to be but mrsrexy spotted a sign that had the name of one of the places we were heading to so we stopped. It turned out to be mostly a hair store that just had the same name as the place we'd been intending to go, but they did have a little bit of nail stuff, including a Ruby Kisses display, from which I chose five colors: Red Romance, All Purpled Out, Snow White, Regaled Out Blue, Crazy Night Out. I'm iffy about the bar glitter in Red Romance, but it seems pretty sparse and this was cheap enough that I won't feel bad if I don't end up liking. All Purpled Out I had to have for the name alone; the fact that it's glittery is a bonus. Snow White I could have probably left there since I have a lot of shimmery toppers already, but again, it was cheap, and also Snow White was one of my favorite characters growing up. Regaled Out Blue I would have skipped over entirely except Amy noticed that it looked like a jelly. Do I have a dark blue jelly? I couldn't think of one. Crazy Night Out seemed like a good choice for a Las Vegas souvenir plus it was purple and glittery so it made the cut. The clerk was actually wearing this one on her nails so I got to see what it looked like out of the bottle before I even bought it.



The real serious dents in my polish budget came when we made it to the beauty and nail supplies we did plan ahead for. I didn't keep good track of what I got where; it all blurred together into one big happy shopping extravaganza. Between brands I'd never seen before, brands I rarely see, and oldie but goodie colors I didn't have from brands I see all the time there was plenty to tempt me. I did not do all that well with resisting.

Morgan Taylor is one of the brands I'd never seen before. They had a wide range of colors but I limited myself to just four shimmers and glitters that I was pretty sure didn't overlap much with my existing stash: Who's That Girl, It's My Party, Let Them Eat Cake, Under the Stars. (They get extra credit from me for proper use of apostrophes in names, and for having a website that makes it easy to see their colors; for example Morgan Taylor purples.) There was one more I would have bought—All the Right Moves—if one of the other ladies hadn't gotten the last bottle in the store (I wasn't mad, it was fair enough that she saw it before I did, and it will come to me at some point if it's meant to be).



Here's a detail shot of Let Them Eat Cake; just look at that yummy blend of colors:



Nabi I've heard of before, of course; I run into random displays of it at random Walgreens stores and have swatched and worn various colors. What I hadn't seen before from them was this particular line of glitters (with a "New & thick formula"). I managed to limit myself to just four: Sky Twinkle, Green Land, Abysis (maybe they meant Abyss?), and Pink Moon Star.



Here's Abysis up close:



There were a bunch of Savina colors with very fine holo glitter; I got three of them plus a couple glitters: Blue Ice, Sparkling Water, Charcoal Sparkle, Gold Flecks, and Black Mist.



I ended up with six from Dare To Wear: Rock Star, Electric Masquerade, Goddess of Samba, Rose Gold Rage, Bold N Bronze, and Love Potion. Rose Gold Rage is a crackle polish; I wasn't going to buy any more crack but I didn't have any from this brand yet and this was such a pretty shimmer I snatched it up. I am not sure at this point what my theory was behind getting Bold N Bronze; it's a fine metallic but surely I already have something close. Maybe this is when my brain was overheating.



Goddess of Samba in detail:



Orly is one of my soft spot brands, so I was delighted by the nail supply which not only had them on racks but also had bins and boxes of Orly ripe for digging through. I came home with five: Ruby Passion, Flagstone Rush, Veriwinkle (dig that old 22 ml bottle!), Blushalicious, and Aquamarine Bliss.



Sation knows the way to my heart is glitter; I'm feeling pretty good that I was able to limit myself to five from them: Class Clown, Band Beauty, Videogame Vixen, Prettiest Player, and Most Hue-nique.



I only ended up with three China Glaze; I'm not sure if that's because I already have so many or the selection wasn't as good as for the other brands. My choices: Emerald Sparkle (which I do already own but this looks like the "good" version and I'm not sure if that's the one I have in my stash), Cafe Mystique, and Sprinkles.



I came home with even fewer OPI, and wouldn't even have these if I hadn't seen one of the other gals getting them which piqued my interest. If I am underendowed in any area of my stash, it's yellows and oranges, so I felt fine getting these two. Nicole Alert is on the left and Osaka-to-me Orange on the right.



Prolana is another new-to-me brand; they didn't have flashy glitters to pull me in but on my second or third lap through the nail supply I happened to pick up a bottle of one of the shimmers and it felt good in my hand and looked good to my eye so I scooped up a few more to go with that first one. My final quintet: Frigid, Turning Blue, Glitterati Red, Cold as Ice, and Cold Hearted.



Where things got almost Island Girl crazy was with a brand called B Touch. They had so many glitters, from micro to chunky. I bought ten bottles and put a few more on my wish list because even I have to draw the line somewhere.

Below: G43 (all others have a name as well as a number but not this one), Fuchsia, Double Rainbow, Red Lavender G (I assume the G stands for Glitter but it's not spelled out), and Lime Green Glitter.



Below: Green Glitter, Multigreen G, Glow It, Good Evening, and Light Blue.



Whew, that's it for my Las Vegas purchases. I did also acquire three more bottles but I didn't buy those, they were given to me, and I think they deserve their own post with swatches.

I realize I acquired more in three days than most people ever buy in a lifetime and am fortunate to be able to indulge like that.

Since I'm on the subject of excess, let me share this image:



That's my family room floor being taken over by piles of polish I've been accumulating in random Helmer drawers and cardboard boxes waiting to be sorted by finish and color so I can get them onto nail wheels for my grand swatching project. In the lower right are the cremes. Just above are the shimmers. The skinny column to the left of the shimmers are holos. The big batch flowing out into the room to the left of the holos are glitters. The small groups along the left side are magnetics, crack & spotteds, color changing (via sun, topcoat, or temperature), holiday (snowmen, pumpkins, tombstones), textures, and flakies. This photo was from Wednesday; I spent most of my free moments yesterday sorting these groups into smaller ones and storing those away to await a swatchathon. I am beginning to really see the wisdom of going on a no buy; I just don't think I have that in me right now. I've happily been on a no buy for yarn for ages, but I'm not there with polish yet. A slow buy, sure. I need to do that. Or else get some more Helmers—they come in yellow now.