And Now It's Practically Christmas

I'm going to be travelling into parts known but with uncertain internet the rest of the week, so figured now was good time to catch up on posting displays, clean out those photo folders before I take my hunting on the road.

In my last display post, there was a lot of Halloween content; now it's November and that means mostly Christmas and winter displays, which is fitting for me anyway, since we had snow on the ground for Halloween (though it's since melted, and the storm forecast for this past weekend fizzled out).

Ulta had something new in the Butter London section: the of Peel-Off Glitter collection (all "fashion size"; does Butter London even make new shades in full size anymore? I haven't seen any in ages). Left to right: Black Magic, Glitz, Aura, Gold Rush, Supernova, and Galaxy. Despite my deep love for glitter, I was only briefly tempted by these. The glitter mixes all look rather similar to polishes I already have, and the peel-off feature isn't appealing to me, as I have peel off base coats if I want that and foil method for removal if I don't.



I heard reports of people seeing the China Glaze Grinch collection at Rite Aid, but I wasn't hopeful I would as I don't recall any Rite Aid stores out here ever having China Glaze, but I stopped into a store one night coming home from an event and lo and behold, there it was. Some of the shades were already sold out, but hey, a lot were still there. As someone who has very fond memories of the original Grinch tv holiday special, I'm not convinced we need a new Grinch movie, but I sure like the idea of the nail polish collection with Grinches on the caps.



Later I saw the Grinch polishes at Ulta, tucked in the backlit core display (which I sometimes think they put in the stores just to vex me) where it was hard to see the colors, but at least the shade names were listed there unlike the shelftop dipslay at Rite Aid. Left to right: Grinchworthy (times 2), Resting Grinch Face (x2), Ho Ho No (x2), Who Wonder (x2), You're a Mean One, Deliciously Wicked, Lukewarm Wishes, Merry Whatever.



Ulta had the fake nails for the Grinch collection (though no display for them): Red Sweater (red with gold), Grinch Vines (black with green, and Grinch faces, so that's the one I got), and Green Matte Magic (black/green duochrome). I'm not sure if those are the names given by China Glaze, or just what Ulta named them for their webstore.



Rite Aid was the first place I saw the Essie Winter 2018 collection, Million Mile Hues. Left to right: Million Mile Hues, Hear Me Aurora, Sight on Nightlights, Just the Way You Arctic, Polar-izing, Glow with the Flow. There was also a slot for a new base coat, Here to Stay, but that was empty in this particular display.



At Fred Meyer, I saw a display of just that new basecoat, Here to Stay.



Essie also has the Concrete Glitters collection coming out, which I guess is Holiday 2018. My Ulta had the signage tucked into the backlit display but the polishes weren't there yet.



My backup Ulta had most of the polishes, but if you didn't know to look for them, they'd be easy to miss. Left to right: Venture to the Venue, Beat of the Moment (empty slot), Stay Up Slate, Can't Stop Her in Copper, City Slicker, and Night Owl. These don't look especially glittery; I think they're supposed to be textures and can only hope they're like the Zoya Pixie Dust non-chunky ones.



Rite Aid had Christmas themed Kiss Mani Pop stickers, which seem to be designed to put over nail polish as accents, with most of the stickers having some clear areas to let the base polish show through.



I like looking for new OPI at NW Beauty because they are good at putting new collections where I can see them (sometimes they do put them at the register, which is less good for taking photos, but I can cope). Thus it was that OPI The Nutcracker and the Four Realms was just inside the door when I visited last. The main collection has twelve shades; this display is the Infinite Shine line but the shades are mirrored in the regular line. Top row: Primer, Gloss, Dancing Keeps Me on My Toes, Tinker Thinker Winker, Dreams Need Clara-fication, March in Uniform, Dazzling Dew Drop, Envy the Adventure. Bottom row: Primer, Gloss, Lavendare to Find Courage, Berry Fairy Fun, Toying with Trouble, Candied Kingdom, Ginger's Revenge, Black to Reality. I like this mix of colors; yes, there are pinks and reds for the masses, but there are those blues and green for those of us who like more unusual shades on our tips sometimes.



There are also some glitters in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms release; these were in a separate display at NW Beauty. Left to right: Dreams on a Silver Platter, Gold Key to the Kingdom, I Pull the Strings.



Ulta seems to have gone all in on OPI The Nutcracker and the Four Realms; they had multiple tabletop displays plus a floor display snugged up at the end of the core section (and bottles tucked into the side of the backlit core display, but I didn't take pics of that because annoying). One note: the larger of the sets of minis here doesn't contain colors from this collection but rather best seller core shades, even though the color and design of the box blends right into the Nutcracker collection.





After the grand tour of Walmart stores looking for their big Halloween display that I shared last time, I thought I was done with that holiday at that chain, but no, one of the stores apparently followed up with a Pure Ice only display called Mystical Spirit, which seemed to have the same assortment of colors that the big multi-brand display had.



I got excited when I spotted a Revlon Shoot the Moon display at Fred Meyer that had polish bottles in it, but when I rushed up to look, they were core colors put in the slots where the limited edition ones should have been. I guess credit is due to the person who put them there as color- and finish-wise they at least coordinated with the display. I never heard back from the inquiry I sent to Revlon about what happened with these polishes, so I guess I'll just have to live with the mystery.



With offerings from mainstream brands so scare these days, I ventured into a beauty supply store for the first time in a long while. I found an RK Matte Pearl display that looked like it had been there a while based on all the empty slots. There were eight shades in this collection: Riddling Attitude, Titanium Ring (sold out), Rouge on Nail, Rarest Eyes, Chemise Night, Wear Cashmere (sold out), Blue Gray Cadet, and Designer's Gem.



The RK Mirror display was less picked over, but more painted on. Near as I can read through the vandalism, the shade names are: Dazzling, Glorious, Halo, Luster, Magnificent, Glam, Glistening, Fashionista.



I hadn't seen anything new from Sally Hansen in a while when I spotted the Miracle Gel Color Whirl in a new place, namely Rite Aid, which had this shelf top display. Left to right: Make It N-ice, Steam Punk (Color Whirl), Top Coat, Good Cheer-y, Marble-ous (Color Whirl), Top Coat, Can't Beet Royalty, Frosted Berries, Street Flair.



And then, suddenly, in a Walgreens on a weekend jaunt to the very big city, there was this wonderful Sally Hansen Glam Rock display, with twelve new limited edition Insta Dri Crayola shades, all metallics. I was barely able to make myself take photos before I snatched up some bottles for my stash and hustled to the cash register to use up some of those points I'd been hoarding. Top row: Razzmic Berry, Shimmering Blush, Big Dip O'Ruby, Bittersweet Shimmer, Alloy Orange, Metallic Sunburst. Second row: Sheen Green, Metallic Seaweed, B Dazzled Blue, Sonic Silver, Deep Space Sparkle, Blast Off Bronze. The other two rows have core shades: Cinna Snap, ASAP Apple, Rapid Red, Flashy Fuchsia, Sonic Bloom, Peachy Breeze, Pumped Up Pink, Pink Blink, Sugar Poppy, MAke It Snappy, Petal Pusher, Go for Gold.



Oh, here's one more Halloween display ... Fred Meyer put out their SinfulColors Conjured Color assortment later than some stores had; this had the lime green Powerful Potion that I'd previously only seen at Meijer in the midwest when I was traveling. I never did see this collection at Rite Aid.



Given that I never saw the Halloween display from SinfulColors at Rite Aid around here, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Christmas one there: Jingle Jells. Front section: Candy Apple, Mint Candy, Rock Candy. Back: Candy Apple, Rock Candy, Ginger Candy. These appear to be glitter toppers in jelly bases.



Ulta had a display with their own branded fake nails called Design & Shine; I don't think I've seen that before (they did their own branded nail polish strips back in the day but I don't remember fake nails). There are glitter gradients, chrome finish, iridescent, and nail art-y ones in several different nail shapes: coffin, square oval, rounded, oval, almond. These are glue ons and come with the glue.



As I travel I'll be keeping an eye out for two things especially: the SinfulColors Vanessa Hudgens Christmas collection (which I know about only thanks to other mainstream nail polish addicts, as the SinfulColors website doesn't show them yet, or the Jingle Jells for that matter) and the Essie Gel Couture Sheer Silhouettes collection, which my Ulta had signage for but no polishes (the shades look subdued but new is new and I'm glad to see it).

Halloween is Nearly Here Displays

When I did my last display post, it was almost autumn; now it's fully fall where I am and nearly Halloween everywhere. That means I need to post the holiday (and other) displays I've seen recently, including when I was in the midwest.

Halloween season is glow in the dark nail polish season, and Sally Beauty had a bin with Bitzy glow in the dark topcoat.



The display of China Glaze Ready to Wear fake nails I shared last time only had two designs in it; the one below that I came across at a different Ulta had a third, the one in the middle, which is the short round shape and has several colors of a cable knit texture design.





I was happy to see a China Glaze display at Sally Beauty with shade names on it. This had Ready to Wear on the left (but only half the shades) and Paint It Black (the Halloween collection on the right). Slots for Ready to Wear: Haut Blooded, Throwing Suede, Pay It Fashion Forward, Central Parka, You Don't Know Jacket, and Mustard the Courage (half of these were sold out). Slots for Paint It Black: Pret-a-Potion, Night and Slay, Maliboo-boo, Shadies & Gentlemen, Wicked Liquid, Ash & Burn (one sold out). There was also a jar with mini glow in the dark topcoat bottles.



I popped into a Claire's for the first time in a long time and found they still have loads of nail polish, which was reassuring, expecially lots of places seem to have less and less these days. There were various "collections": Matte Effect, Fuorescent (glow in the dark, Cosmic Babe (shifty shimmers with glitter; these tempted me the most), Liquid Metal, Sand Effect, Mood, and various cremes, shimmers, and glitters.



Claire's also had a lot of fake nails, everything from chrome to creme, some with nail art.



Walgreens had what looks to be the CND Vinylux fall collection, Wild Earth. Five shades here: Brimstone, Spear, Element, Dreamcatcher, Blue Moon, and Arrowhead.



After looking in I don't know how many Walmarts across the country, I finally found one with the full Color Club section, just when I'd given up and was looking for the Halloween displays instead (those will be later in this post). This has six versions of the Seren-dip-ity dip kits (my local stores have two, if any at all) and four sections of polish. Mood Changing: Stone Cold, Cool Story, Total Meltdown, All Fired Up, Overheated, Getting Warmer (sold out), and So Chill. Matte: Study Buddy, All Dolled Up, Cliff Notes, Party Teal Dawn, No Curfew, Play Date, Chalk Board Black, and Chalk It Up. Glitter: Out of This World, Constellation Prize, Invite Only, Zodiac Attack, Fortunate, Turnt Up, and Bedazzled. Holographic: Trick of the Trade, It's a Mystery, Bewitched, Enchanted, Supernatural, Spell It Out, Black Magic, and Don't Harp on It. (I grabbed that one remaining bottle of Black Magic so fast after I took this photo you'd think it was an emergency, and it sort of was ... what if someone else came by and wanted it?)



Sally Beauty had a Halloween display of Dashing Diva MagicPress nails. There were four designs: Shadow Dance, Witching Hour, Purple Haze, and Crimson Spell.



At Ulta, the polish slots in the Essence display were all marked with clearance prices and most were sold out. I don't like the looks of that. They may just be clearing old stock to bring in some new polish lines, but given how the trends are going for mainstream brands, I'm worried they will just fill that space with more makeup.



I was disappointed that none of the Meijer stores I went to had any pumpkin polishes. They did have Fright Night polishes similar to the lineup at Fred Meyer I shared last time, as well as Fright Night fake nails.





Meijer also had a Haunted display in their Halloween section which had some fake nails in it along with other costume items.



Following a tip from the internet, I went into a Spirit of Halloween store and came out with a set of Hocus Pocus Nail polishes: Mary Sanderson, Winifred Sanderson, Sarah Sanderson, and Binx. This was in the section with other Hocus Pocus costume items, not the makeup section (which is where I saw fake nails, which I didn't get a good photo of but that's okay since there wasn't anything too different than the ones at Meijer and other places).



I shared a Kiss Halloween nail art and fake nails display from Walgreens last time. Meijer had those items split across two different displays, with some additional variety in them.





There's also a skinny stand up display with the Kiss Halloween products; I saw this one at a CVS.



In addition, Kiss nails also feature in the big Halloween display some Walmarts have. It's a four-sided affair that I've found in various places in different stores: near the entrance, near the Halloween section, near the beauty aisles, near the housewares. One side is fake eyelashes and spray on haircolor (not shown). One side is Kiss fake nails (and eyelash adhesive), mostly not especially Halloween themed. The other two sides have nail polish which I'll cover below when I get to those brands alphabetically (Pure Ice and LA Colors).



Dollar General is not on my usual polish hunting rounds, but I saw one while I was on the road and went in to find they had some LA Colors collections I'd heard about. Top row, Mermaid Magic: Opal, Sea Life, Mermaid (sold out), Pink Pearl, Coral Reef (sold out), and Mystical. Middle row, Unicorn Sparkle: Sugar Snowflake, Flurry Shine, Candy Cloud, Sweet Enchantment, Unicorn Sparkle, and Sparkling Gem. Bottom row, Metal: Crushed Diamond, Bubbly, Marvelous, Crystal Pink, Majestic, and Sublime.



At Walmart, I saw a sidekick for LA Colors Color Craze Gel. Top row: Frosting (clear topcoat). Second row: Flurry, Vanilla Latte, Chateau, Bright Side. Third row: Sweet Heart, Pink Sugar, Giggle, Mademoiselle, Tea Time (sold out), Flashy. Fourth row: Untamed, Posh, Aura, What's Up, Foxy, Fierce, Red Carpet Ready, Vampy. Fifth row: Rockin' It, Jammin', Never Ending, Hooray (why so many slots for this yellow? is yellow polish now hot?). Bottom row: Anarchy, Dare Devil, Outrage, Magical, Whimsical, Zen, Dazzling.



The third side of the big Walmart Halloween display has LA Colors Glows Color Craze shades, which apparently glow under black light. There are no shade labels on this display, and each one I ran into was different levels of messy by the time I saw them.



The highest number of different shades I saw in this section at any of the stores was 15: Energy, Vapor, Radiation, Ionize, Luminous, Gleaming, Radio Active, Electric, Ultra Violet, Wave Length, Nuclear, Lucent, Fluorescent, Spectrum, X-Ray.



The fourth side has more LA Colors, specifically the Unicorn Sparkle and Mermaid Magic collections as shown in Dollar General display above. They're in with the Pure Ice shown below.

I first saw the OPI Metamorphosis collection of toppers at Sally Beauty, tucked into one side of the Peru display. Left to right: You Little Shade Shifter, This Changes Everything, Metamorphically Speaking, Ecstatic Prismatic, Butterfly Me to the Moon, Can't Be Camouflaged.



Later I saw Metamorphosis at Ulta, with proper signage, tucked into the end of the nail bar display.



Ulta also had two mini kits for this collection. On the left: This Changes Everything, Butterfly Me to the Moon, and You Little Shade Shifter, with Lincoln Park After Dark as the base color. On the right: Metaphorically Speaking, Butterfly Me to the Moon, and You Little Shade Shifter with Alpine Snow for the base.



As I mentioned above, the fourth side of the big Walmart Halloween display has Pure Ice (and LA Colors). There are five limited edition Halloween shades mixed in with a whole bunch of core and repromoted shades.



LE shades: Superstitious, Howling Wind, Bubbling Brew, Good Witch, Coffin Break.



I don't know if the Sally Hansen Salon Neon Light It Up display at Ulta got released late, or I just noticed it late, but I came across it in several stores. It's a different configuration than I'd seen at other places, and has the neon stickers and the white/grey/black Salon Perfect Black to Basics collection polishes: Pearly Whites, All Grey All Night, Grey-Dreaming, Steel My Heart, To the Moon and Black, Lucky Dress.



Sally Hansen has a Halloween display called Midnight Maven that I shared the Walgreens version of last time. The one below was at Meijer, with a pared-down selection of core colors of Xtreme Wear plus nail art pens. Polish colors here are: Black Out, White On, Golden I, Pep-plum, Sun Kissed, and Redi-cal Rockstar.



We don't have CVS out by me, which is maybe why I never saw this Sally Hansen Sweet Shop display that I came across on my travels. It says "curated by Dana's Bakery" which means not much to me. Is it an actual bakery, and if so, why choose them to choose core shades for this display of Complete Salon Manicure and Miracle Gel?



At Walgreens, they had a Sally Hansen Therapy Head to Taupe display with the same limited edition colors as in the Fred Meyer version I shared last time (top row), plus some core shades.



At a CVS, I saw a different version of the Create a Swirled Effect display than I shared last time. This has the two Miracle Gel Color Whirl polishes plus an assortment of base shades to wear them over.



Some Walmarts have a Salon Perfect Halloween display, Drop Dead Gore-geous, with false eyelashes, fake nails, and polish. Polishes, top row (click on image to see bigger): Too Cute to Spook (repromote, but that's cool as I never saw last year's display), Lust at First Bite (new), Dust to Dust (new), Under Her Spell (new). Second row: Glow All Out (repromote), Shapeshifter (new), Ashes to Ashes (new), Nine Lives (repromote). Third row: Too Cute to Spook, Lust at First Bite, Dust to Dust, Mood Ring (core). Bottom row: Glow All Out, Traffic Cone (core), Oil Slick (core), Crystal Clear (core).



I shared the Walgreens version of the SinfulColors Conjured Color display last time; this time I have the sidekick version which I saw at Meijer while traveling. This had a new color that wasn't at Walgreens (I have yet to see this collection at Rite Aid, so not sure what they might have). Top row: Courtney Orange, Gold n' Roses, Spellbound (new). Second row: Gold Medal, Clear Coat, Aubergine, Devil's Stare, Bad Witch (new). Third row: Powerful Potion (new, not at Walgreens), Frenzy, Let's Talk, Snow Me White. Fourth row: Gold Medal, Let's Talk, Green Ocean, Devil's Stare, Bitten. Fifth row: Bitten, Black on Black, Witch Please (new), Electric Sage, Witch Please, Let Me Go. Bottom row: Witch Please, Let Me Go, Glow in the Dark, Spellbound.



Powerful Potion certainly looks like it has an interesting shimmer:



I've seen plenty of Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers Halloween displays with makeup in them, but not until I saw the one below at Meijer did any of them have nail polish. Unfortunately, these turned out to be core colors of Wild Shine: Burgundy Frost, Black Creme, Red Red, and French White Creme. So boring. So different from past years when we'd get limited edition polish collections from them.



Wow, that was more than I thought. Thanks for reading all the way through!