Summer Vacation Displays

Yes, it's been a month since I last posted. I was overly optimistic about what I could get done between my long trip and the shorter one I got back from earlier this week. But now I've managed to get through all the display photos I took on the long trip. I didn't document the shade names for these as I was limited in the time I could spend browsing in stores. Speaking of stores, I only went to ones I came across, so it was all Boots and Superdrug locations in London, Birmingham, and Southampton.

I'd never seen a Barry M display in person before this one. It was mostly filled with Gelly shades, but there were treatments in the upper left and lower right. The bottom row had a few Hi Vis shades.

 

The same store had a little section with six Gelly shades, at least one of which was in the bigger section shown above, so I'm not sure what this was about ... seasonal collection of repromotes maybe. I did note the shade names here: All in One Basecoat Topcoat and Nail Hardener, Espresso, Chai Latte, Raspberry Ripple, Grape Soda, Pistachio, Pineapple Punch.

 

A Superdrug in Southampton had a wider selection of Barry M. This display had In a Flash quick dry colors on the left side, with Hi Viz neon color on the top right, with Velvet matte shades, Gelly Rose Tinted collection, and some glitters below that in the right hand side.

 

That same Superdrug also had a big display with Gelly colors and top/base/treatments. It was so big I didn't get it all in the frame of the photo ... ooops.

 

There were six more Gelly shades featured in that Superdrug in a separate display section. These weren't the same six as in the Boots in London, so not sure what's going on there.

 

 

I admit I was sorely tempted by the Boots brand fake nails, but resisted as I knew I had lots of sets of other brands at home.

 

I'd never heard of the Collection brand before, and only ran into one display for it. The top two rows were Spotlight Shine colors and the bottom two were Gel Effect.
Like the Boots fake nails, I was also tempted by the Elegant Touch ones, as I can't get that brand at home, but again, even though fakes are easier to use up than polish, I really need to use what I already have. (I was not tempted by the Kiss nails, as I have easy access to those.)

 

Essie isn't hard to find at home but it was still interesting to see the displays in England. This one at Superdrug had mini bottles, a line called Love by Essie that I don't recall seeing before (it's plant based), a bunch of shades in the regular line, a smaller selection of Gel Couture, and top/base/treatments.

 

At Boots, the display was similar, but had more shades and instead of the Love line, had an Expressie section.

 

A different Boots had a trending shades section above their main Essie display. This had Ballet Slippers, Birthday Girl (sold out), Cute as a Button, Lilacism, Salt Water Happy, and Mint Candy Apple.

 

I only saw a Kiko display once, at what I thought of as the fancy Boots (it was at least twice as big as any of the others I went into). This had removers, top/base/treatments, and shades from the Power Pro and Smart lines.

 

The only Makeup Academy polishes I saw were in this standing display with neon makeup for summmer.

 

I miss the days when Maybelline had lots of polish releases, so many with interesting colors and finishes. I saw two lines from them in England, both with a fairly tame selection of shades. Here's the Super Stay:

 

And the Fast Gel:

 

I have a soft spot for Max Factor as it was a brand my mom used. Their presence in the US seems to have faded a lot since then but it seems going strong in England. This display had three lines of nail polish: Nailfinity (longwear gel-like colour without a UV lamp), Miracle Pure Nail (plant-based and 100% vegan), and Masterpiece Xpress Quick Dry (60 seconds high shine rich colour).

 

A different store had this arrangement of Nailfinity and Masterpiece Xpress:

 

That store's stock of Miracle Pure Nail appeared to be a limited edition collection from Priyanka Chopra Jonas, with her name printed on the labels. I did get these shade names. Top row: Sparkling Light, Sunrise Glow, Radiant Rose, Vanilla Spice. Bottom: Winter Sunset, Daring Cherry, Bold Rosewood, Starry Night.

 

Like Collection, I hadn't heard of the My Mood brand before I saw the display. This was arranged by groups: Need a Top Up (glitters), Nude Mood (a range of skintone cremes), Nail the Dream (shimmery pastels), Next Level Neon (neons plus a white base), On the Brightside (seems a few pastels snuck into this part), Cult Classics (surprised the blue was here and not with brights), Treatments (bases, topcoat, oil), and Power Couples (pairs of compatible shades).

 

A closer look at the glitters, which almost made me break my no buying polish rule for this trip:

 

The Nails Inc display I saw had two rows of Plant Power shades (vegan and halal-friendly) on top with the traditional line below (neons, nudes, pastels, pinks, glitters, top/base/treatments) along with a row of the 45 Seconds Speedy Gloss shades.

 

The polish in the Revolution display at Superdrug had neons in round bottles and high gloss shades in squar ones.

 

At Boots, the Revolution polishes were not showcased as well but they had more varieties: Express Nails, Neon/Candy Nails, Gel Effect, and Nail Care.

 

This Rimmel display had Super Gel colors in the top rows and 60 Seconds Super Shine below with a few Glitter Bomb shades as well.

 

At another store they had a Rimmel Nail Bar section with a wider range of shades, including a couple glitter top coats. These were mostly 60 Seconds Super Shine with four rows of Super Gel in the upper right.

 

My old friend Sally Hansen had some represention over the pond. At Superdrug, they had a selection of Good Kind Pure, Miracle Gel, Insta Dri, and treatments.

 

At a Boots, they had a similar assortment of Sally Hansen.

 

I am still amazed that I managed to not buy any nail polish on my trip. Whenever I got tempted, I'd remind myself of the many many many beautiful untrieds waiting for me at home. I did buy three concealers and a foundation (and sunscreen and a few other things I used on the trip), and have bought a few polishes since I've been home, so as always I'm a work in progress.

Wheel I14: Shimmery Textures

For a St. Patrick's Day post, there's barely any green on this week's wheel, which is full of shimmery textured polishes.

 

(all two coats, except #7, which was three for some reason) 1. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Sugar Plum [the front labels on these Sugar Shimmers have started to yellow, some more than others; this and some of the other from the line are swatched in this 2014 post]
2. Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Treat-Heart [see this post from 2013 for swatches of some of the Sugar Coat colors]
3. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Berried Under
4. Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle
5. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Cherry Sweet
6. Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Red Velvet
7. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Gummy Grape
8. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Taffy Tart
9. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Sugar Cloud
10. Sally Hansen Sugar Coat Royal Icing [dupe of #9]
11. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Work of Tart
12. Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Mint Tint
13. Cherimoya Pebble Beach Aquamarine Step 3 [these are not very textured, and the very reflective metallic shimmer doesn't help with being able to see what texture there is; the "step" in the names reference the way they were sold so you could buy a pre-coordinated set to make a gradient mani] 14. Cherimoya Pebble Beach Platinum Step 3
15. Cherimoya Pebble Beach Amethyst Step 4 [seems like this one may have changed color, since it's not very purple now]
16. Rimmel Sweetie Crush Candyfloss Cutie [swatched these Sweetie Crush colors in a texture-packed post back in 2014]
17. Rimmel Sweetie Crush Violet Swizzle
18. Rimmel Sweetie Crush Blueberry Whizz
19. Rimmel Sweetie Crush Fizzy Applelicious
20. Rimmel Sweetie Crush Sherbet Sweetheart

Bottles 1 through 5:

 

6 through 10:

 

11 through 15:

 

16 through 20:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 10 of 2016

I've done a Top 20 list every year I've been writing this blog, but 2016 was such a messed up year for me with all the travel and moving and my mom dying that I wasn't even sure if I wore 20 different polishes, so I'd decided to skip it. Then my friend Mel did a series of posts about her favorites in her blog Delicious Color, and I reconsidered. As it turned out, I had worn more than 20 polishes last year, but it was definitely a much smaller pool than prior years, so I decided to do a top 10 this go round.

Rimmel Mind the Gap Victoria, a light cornflower blue creme.



Kiko Velvet Satin Midnight Blue, a very deep navy matte shimmer.



SinfulShine Illusion, a blue shimmer.



Studio M Cherry Blossom, a pale pink shimmer topper, swatched here over Studio M By Design, a vampy berry creme.



LA Colors Color Craze Gel Magical, a lilac with gold and pink shimmer that can be worn alone or as a topper.



Orly Frenemy, a black jelly with silver holo microglitter and flakies, swatched here over Orly Makeup to Breakup, a dark teal blue creme.



Orly Color Blast Multicolored Gloss Glitter, a mulitcolored hex glitter topper, shown here in a jelly sandwich with Essence Nail Candies Peachy Keen:



Revlon Magnetic, blue glitter in a purple/blue duochrome shimmer base.



Lit NYC Power and Lovergirl, the former a blue/purple duochrome shimmer and the lattter a multicolored glitter topper, swatched together here.



I've pretty much gone back to my drugstore roots with this list. That makes sense, since I was on the road so much and dealing with other things, paying attention to indie releases was not a priority (and even if it had been, I wasn't home for weeks at a time, so getting them shipped to me would have been a challenge). I'm not sure what 2017 will bring. I have plenty of older indies in my untrieds, so I may start working through those as a supplement to the things I've been buying off the shelf recently.

Orly and Rimmel Clearance Haul

I was on my way to getting my blogging mojo back when I messed up my new routine by driving to Michigan and back via Chicagoland, visiting with friends and family and getting some things from our house that we wanted out in Idaho sooner rather than later. But now I am back on my mountain and trying to get back in a blogging groove.

As I've probably mentioned way too often already, my retirement budget doesn't allow for as much stash acquisition as I had been doing, and even if it did, our smaller living space should impress upon a sensible person that not growing one's collection would be prudent. I am not that sensible. I happened upon a clearance bin at Kmart that fit my budget quite nicely, with discontinued shades of Orly Color Blast and Rimmel 60 Seconds for half price, making them $3.49 and .97 respectively. I stocked up, space concerns dismissed in the face of cheap pretties.

Top row: Orly Multicolored Gloss Glitter, Shamrock Gloss Glitter, Green Gold Chunky Glitter, and Black Holo Chunky Glitter. (Rather refreshing to have names that make a good effort to describe the polishes.) Bottom row: Rimmel Mind the Gap Victoria, District-ly Come Dancing, Central Love Heart, Round and Round in Circles, Pink-a-Boo, Piccasilly Line, and Pulsating.



Rimmel Round and Round in Circles is a light yellow with very subtle shimmer. I used three coats, which was not surprising for a light yellow. As yellows go, this one is pretty nice.



The shimmer is so subtle that even direct light didn't really coax it out for the camera. I think having it in the formula does help this shade not be streaky like so many yellows are, so I'm not too fussed that it's so shy.



I topped Round and Round with Orly Multicolored Gloss Glitter, which like the name implies, has multiple colors of glitter. There are medium and tiny hexes plus some microglitter in a clear base.



I started with one coat of the glitter and it looked okay, but I did two on my index finger to see if I'd like that better. I did.



Rimmel Mind the Gap Victoria was up next. This is a light cornflower blue creme that covered in two coats. Of course I loved this one, being a cool colors fan.



I paired Mind the Gap Victoria with Orly Shamrock Gloss Glitter, which has green and holo microglitter in a clear base.



I left my index finger bare and put two coats of the glitter on my other digits. It looked more silvery and holo than green.



In low light the holo in Shamrock popped more.



Rimmel District-ly Come Dancing is a light teal crelly. I used three coats for my swatch.



Orly Black Holo Chunky Glitter got into the swatching act at this point. This one has tiny black glitter plus dark holo bar glitter in a slightly smoky clear base.



I put two coats of the glitter on District-ly, dabbing a bit to get the bars to look more random. I don't know why this has "chunky" in the name, as it lays pretty flat.



I also tried District-ly topped by Orly Green Gold Chunky Glitter, which has green, gold, holo, and blue hexes plus silver squares in a clear base. This one also lays pretty flat.





Rimmel Central Love Heat is a slightly orange-leaning red creme. I did three coats for my swatch, but two probably would have been fine.



I added one coat of Orly Black Holo Chunky Glitter to Central Love Heat on all but my index finger; you may be able to see the effect of the smoky base of the glitter on the underlying color.



Rimmel Pink-a-Boo and Piccasilly Line are both purple-y pink cremes. I did three coats of Pink-a-Boo, the lighter of the pair, on my index and middle fingers, and two coats of Piccasilly Line on my ring and pinky.



I topped these two with Orly Multicolored Gloss Glitter. The tiny microglitter shimmer showed up better on these shades than on the yellow earlier.





Rimmel Pulsating is a fuchsia shimmer with a slight blue flash. I did two coats for my swatch, though three might have been better to hide the phantom dirt line.



I'm happy to have all of these in my stash, but my two favorites are Mind the Gap Victoria and Multicolored Gloss Glitter. I really should combine the two at some point, but of course got distracted by other polishes, which I shall post about in coming days. Unless I get distracted by skiing or something.