Displays from Here and There

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I did do some travelling in August (after my display post went up) and saw some more displays. I've also made a couple trips down to the city and saw some more there. I'm still limiting how many stores I go to, what with the pandemic still pandemic-ing. I did hit up a lot of CVS locations since I don't have those here and their stock seemed to really vary store to store. I am wearing an N95-rated mask now, sometimes with a surgical mask over that, because while I'm vaccinated, I still don't want to get sick or get anyone else sick, and too many folks aren't masking up anymore (if they ever were). At least I have nail polish to take my mind off things. The Essie fall collection was a lot of places. Here's the sidekick at a Meijer somewhere in Michigan. Top two rows have the fall polishes: Off the Record, High Voltage Vinyl, My Happy Boss, Star Struck a Chord, Sound Check You Out, and Fell' Amped. The bottom row has "Our Favorite Shades": Blanc, Ballet Slippers, Mrs. Always Right, Bed Rock & Roll, Wicked, and Off Tropic.

 

Just the High Voltage Vinyl collection was in a shelf top at Ulta. I also saw this same style display at a Target and two other similar but not the same shelftops at Rite Aid and Walgreens.

 

Only one CVS that I stopped at had the Essie Have a Ball collection display with five semi matte finish bright shades. Top row: Make a Racquet (two slots), Serving Looks (two slots), Have a Ball (two slots), Perfect Match Point (two slots). Second row: Doubles Trouble (two slots), Love All Game (two slots), followed by core shades and top/base coats to fill the rest of the space.

 

I saw the Essie Intergalatic Metallics collection at a couple different CVS stores, which made me happy as they've been out a while and I wasn't sure they'd still be around. Left to right: In My Orbit (two slots), Out of This World (two slots), Reflection Perfection, Stars Aligned, Space Out, and Wishing on a Star.

 

Here's a better lit display but it's missing the pink.

 

I was also excited to see the Essie Roll With It collection at some CVS stores. These sparkly shades are right up my alley. Left to right: Roll With It (two slots), Sequin Scene (two slots), Head Over Wheels (two slots), Lace Up & Get Down, Let's Boogie, and Whirl 'n' Twirl.

 

 

I shared an incomplete Essie Expressie display last time. This one at an Ulta had all the shades in this new release: No Time to Pause, Thumb-Surfing, Remote Friends, Ahead of the Gam(er), Don't Glitch Get Better, Take Controller, Leveled Up, Virtual Velocity, and Beat the Clock.

 

As I'd been on my previous trip to Five Below land, I was disappointed in the nail polish selection at the two stores I went to. The one below was typical, with just a few bins of mostly old colors. There were some Essies for $3 so that was something, and I found two Fresh Paint shades I hadn't seen before, but it was a far cry from the days when there were new Funky Fingers and Fresh Paint colors released regularly and the top and bottom bins in this display would be all full of polish. I have seen one photo in a Facebook group of a Five Below that had shelftop displays with new colors from Funky Fingers and Fresh Paint, but I did not see those in the stores I went to. Granted, I did not run all over going to every Five Below I could, wanting to keep my exposure to the public somewhat less than when it's not a pandemic.

 

One CVS had a tall skinny LA Girl display in an aisle with a section of LA Girl Gel neon pastel polishes in in it. In front section: Flex, Giggles, Ta Da, Bazinga. In back: Hi-Lite, Good Vibes Only, Pinky Swear, and Clear.

 

 

A CVS in Montana had the LA Girl Gel Extreme Shine Nudes display. Left to right: Clear, Striking, Sensual, Lingerie, Charming, Goldilocks, Serenade, Cabernet. Guessing these are core shades being repromoted since the names don't hang together as a group.

 

I saw the Morgan Taylor fall collection, No Boundaries, at Sally Beauty. Left to right: Laying Low, Uncharted Territory, Afternoon Escape, Catch Me If You Can (sold out), Keep 'Em Guessing, Totally Trailblazing.

 

 

OPI has entered the "natural" nail polish segment with Nature Strong, which I saw at Ulta. Top row: Nature Strong Top Coat (two slots), Strong as Shell (two slots), A Clay in the Life (two slots), Intentions are Rose Gold, Let Nature Take It's Quartz (two slots), We Canyon Do Better (two slots), For What It's Earth (two slots), Raisin Your Voice. Second row: Knowledge is Flower (two slots), Simply Radishing (two slots), A Bloom With a View (two slots), Give a Garnet, Emflowered, Big Bloom Energy (two slots), Once and Floral, Cactus What You Preach, All Heal Queen Mother Earth, Shor is Something. Bottom row: Natural Movement, Spring Into Action, Thistle Make You Bloom, Achieve Grapeness, A Great Fig World (two slots), Eco-Maniac, Raindrop Expectations, It's Ashually OPI, Dawn ofa New Gray, Right as Rain (sold out), Force of Nature, Onyx Skies, and Make My Daisy.

 

The OPI Downtown LA collection for fall was in that awful backlit display unit at Ulta. I'm not sure what shades are in it exactly.

 

I'd heard Sally Hansen was bringing back the Color Foil line of chrome polishes but hadn't seen it until one CVS in Michigan (and I haven't seen it anywhere else since then, which if I'd know that I would have bought them from that first display). They were in the top row of on side of this two sided display. (The other side was Miracle Gel colors we've seen before.)

 

Left to right: Rose Beam (two slots), Fuschia-ristic, Steel a Kiss, Cutting Hedge, Gold Standard, Sky-Fi, Vio-lit.

 

There were two new SinfulColors displays at Fred Meyer, both collaborations with Saweetie. Punk'd Up has a bunch of shades we've seen before, plus two crelly glitters and a set of alphabet stickers. The two glitters are Hella Clean (cool light brown base) and Skurt Skurt (warm light brown base). There was supposed to be a third glitter with a white base (looks like what she's wearing in the photo) but that's only available with the set online.

 

 

 

The other new SinfulColors display is Go Off. Again, mostly a bunch of stuff we've seen, but this one has three crelly glitters and metallic purpley pink stickers. The glitters are Just Say It (purple), Pop Off (pink), and Not Sorry (blue). I'm glad these were easier to find than the ones earlier this year that only were at some Walmarts and which I missed all but one of.

 

 

 

I went to only a couple Meijer stores while I was on the road and only saw one Studio M polish display. It was called Soak Up the Sun and was completely empty. Ah well. No idea what I missed there. I did glance at the core display for Studio M and nothing jumped out at me.

 

Ulta had a set of their store brand polishes themed around Gilmore Girls. Left to right: Life is Short, Chilton, Miss Patty's, and Peach Sauce.

 

At my local Walmart before I left on my trip, I saw the Wet 'n' Wild Tropic Like It's Hot display with the new-ish Fast Dry AF line. This had 18 limited edition shades, with Tropic Like It's Hot printed on the caps, some of which also touted their "Seaglass Matte Finish". The display was not full when I saw it, but there was still a decent assortment of shades left.

 

Top row: Bahama Mama, Bar-babe-dos (matte), X-Ray Vision (core, 4 slots filled with this).

 

Second row: On Tulum Time, Virgin Daquiri Islands, Seychelles By the Seashore (matte), Mal-Divas in the House, Tahiti Me One More Time.

 

Third row: Costa Rica Chica (two slots), Phuket Let's Go (matte), Bali Ballin', She's No St. Bart's (two slots).

 

Fourth row: Honey-lulu (matte), Puerto Rico Ohhh, Can-cun Can-Can, Miami Miami, Can-cun Can Can (two slots).

 

Bottom row: Here's My Room Key West, Jamaica Me Crazy, Punta Cana Bella Donna (matte), Mal-Divas in the House.

 

This got a little long, so I'm going to save the Halloween displays, the many many Poparazzi variations, and a few odds and ends for next week. Maybe I'll see a few more things before then; some of the stores were still stocking their seasonal sections last time I was down in the city hunting.

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).