Essie The Girls Are Out and Maximilian Strasse-Her

Found these two beauties in the clearance bin at Rite Aid - The Girls Are Out and Maximilian Strasse-Her, both by Essie.

Note the clearance stickers; Essie polishes usually retail for around $8, but I got these for $3.99 each! :-)

The Girls Are Out is from the Summer 2013 Naughty Nautical collection.  It's a deep fuchsia-berry with  subtle flecks of silver shimmer (say that three times fast).  This is three coats, no topcoat: 

The Girls Are Out tends toward sheer, and you can still see a hint of visible nail line even after three coats.  Application for this one was a bit patchy - I had some trouble with streaking and bald spots on the first coat, but the second coat evened them out and they were gone by the third.  The shimmer is a little more noticeable on the nail than in pictures, but not by much; I've noticed this with several Essie shimmer-fleck polishes (Madison Ave-Hue and most of the Naughty Nautical line comes to mind).  Topcoat might bring the shimmer out a little more, but it would still be mostly invisible in anything but direct sunlight.  Still, it's a pretty shade, one to wear when you want fuchsia but don't want anything too bright and crazy.  I'm still trying to figure out how the name fits into a nautical-themed collection, and the only thing I can think of is a woman going topless on a boat.  O_o

Maximilian-Strasse Her is from the Spring 2013 Madison Ave-Hue collection, and it's an...unusual shade. Shown is three coats, no topcoat:

Maximilian Strasse-Her is a play on the famous street in Munich, Germany, the western end of which is renowned for its luxury shops and hotels.  It's a dusty grayish-green creme without even a hint of shimmer.  This one was a little out of my comfort zone, but it's certainly not bad on my pale hands - I can see myself wearing it in the fall and winter when I want a shade that's a bit more conservative but still out of the ordinary.  It was actually opaque in two coats, but I put on a third to smooth out a couple of dings.  I did notice some very minor streaking, but topcoat would fix that.


All polishes were purchased by me; all opinions are my own.

Syrup manicure with L'Oreal Miss Pixie and China Glaze Fairy Dust

I mentioned Miss Pixie from the L'Oreal Summer 2013 line in my last post, but I wanted to show off the syrup manicure I did with it.  Pardon the not-so-fantastic picture; it was overcast and I was using my phone camera.

Syrup manicures are ridiculously easy; you're just applying layers of a sheer or jelly polish that gradually cover the entire nail.  (A tutorial can be found at Polish Insomniac.)  For this I used Miss Pixie from L'Oreal's Miss Candy line for Summer 2013.  Miss Pixie is a bright, sheer royal blue with a shiny jelly finish.  The formula was fairly smooth, although it did have some minor streaking.

The glitter topping is China Glaze's Fairy Dust, a holographic, very fine microglitter in a clear base.  It's optional - the mani would work just as well without it or with a clear top coat, but the glitter topper adds sparkle and blurs any mistakes.  The polish itself felt kind of goopy, but a few drops of polish thinner should help with that next time.

This was my first attempt at syrup nails, and it didn't turn out quite the way I'd envisioned - I think I made the "bands" too wide - but it's still pretty. 

A trip to Walmart, or This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

I took a trip to the Walmart near my office after work today, and of course I had to go visit the nail polish aisle.  Buying polish at Walmart - at any big-box store, really - is a hit-or-miss affair; you can't always find the latest colors, people love to "test" items that are plainly not meant to be used as testers, and nobody seems to know how to put an thing back where they got it even if its place is only 12 inches away.  But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Walmart recently updated their manicure section, aiming for a brighter and cleaner, more appealing look.  It didn't last very long.  This display is less than a year old, and you can see where budding graffiti artists have "tagged" the shelves with polish - I saw it as it was being installed, and two days later the taggers had struck.  Makes you wonder how many unsuspecting shoppers went home with a gooey, not-quite-full bottle of the color they chose.  Notice the many, many empty slots - I don't think I've ever seen this display completely filled.  The higher-end polishes like Essie and Nicole were fairly well stocked, but the bargain-brand ones were practically decimated.

                                    
This is an endcap for L'Oreal's Summer 2013 "Miss Candy" line, and for some bizarre reason Berry Nice and Miss Pixie are switched.  Miss Pixie is actually a royal blue jelly polish, while Berry Nice is a dark purple jelly.  And note the purple blotch between the color illustrations...another "tagger".

Here we have a three-sided Revlon display that's largely empty except for the nail art duos.  Those are fully stocked probably due to the fact that they're hidden behind another endcap display.  I saw the same thing with a display of Maybelline Color Show polishes; meanwhile the main aisle display is half-empty.  Not exactly good marketing procedures.

These two bottles were on the Essie portion of the display rack.  Take a look at the label - both are the iconic shade "Ballet Slippers".  (Fun fact: this is the only shade of nail polish Queen Elizabeth II ever wears.)  But they're not exactly the same...

One bottle is a pale pink, while the other is more of a buff color.  Maybe one was a different batch, or maybe it's just so old it's changed color over time.  But either way it's kind of off-putting.

The trip wasn't a total loss, though; I went in hoping I'd be able to find the Salon Perfect Neon Collision collection, which has been generating some buzz in the nail-blog community.  I didn't find the collection, but I did find this:

This is Kaboom - neon blue and lime-green matte glitters in a clear base.  It's a mass-market dupe of the popular indie polish called Floam (you can see a side-by-side comparison here), but at less than half the price.  And serendipitously enough, this was the exact polish I was looking for.  Now I'm trying to talk myself out of going back and buying the last remaining bottle as a backup, because I do NOT need it!  

So that was my trip to Walmart.  I promise this whole blog isn't going to be me complaining about store displays, though; there will be manicures, new polishes, and nail art in the future!