Spotted & Review: Salon Perfect - Love Lacquer and Lashes

Last week I spotted a new display by Salon Perfect at Walmart. It reads "Love Lashes and Lacquer" and I'm assuming this was meant for Valentine's Day, but my Walmart must have been late putting it out. I've not heard too much about this display or it's contents anywhere else in the blogosphere. I read a couple of sources that said they also spotted these, fully stocked, in March and not February. Oh, well. Better late than never.

The display had both lashes and nail polish on it. It was at the very end of an aisle and it was on the side of an endcap. (In retail, we call these type of displays "Sidekicks", as they go on the sides of an endcap to "enhance" it and/or the aisle.) The display had both limited edition and permanent products.

All of the lashes and lash products on the display are permanent. No limited edition items there, which was a little disappointing. I really like the limited edition eyelashes they have come out with in the past for Halloween and the holidays; there is so much they could have done here.

The polishes on the display are are mixed of permanent and limited edition. Whoever set up the display did not put the polishes in the correct order. Not 1 row was correctly done, but let me do my best to tell you which polishes are limited edition and which are not. They retail for $3.98.

• "One Love" Limited Edition (top coat) -this is the very 1st polish on the left.
• "Hearts a Flutter" Limited Edition (top coat) -this is the 3rd polish from the left.
• "Touchy Feely" Limited Edition (top coat) -this is actually the 4th to last polish and they left out the "y" on the name on the display.
• "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" Limited Edition (top coat) -this is the 2nd to last polish.
• "Cosmic Black" permanent (top coat) -3rd polish from the end.
• "He's With Me!" permanent -very last polish.
• "In Love" permanent -2nd polish from the left.

So, now for the good part- Swatches! I did some quick swatches on my nails. The paint job isn't perfect, but it's the swatching part that counts!

Here is "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" on the Thumb and Pointer fingers. This is a pink-purple micro-dot top coat. I found this top coat to dry fast and so multiple layers were no problem. On my thumb, you can see I put it over black and the pink/purple color comes through okay. On my pointer finger, it is just simply 3 layers of the top coat alone and I feel it basically just looks white and black.

"Touchy Feely" is on my Middle finger and Pinky. This is a black and white micro-dot top coat. My ring finger sports 3 coats of it by itself and 2 coats over black polish on my pinky. This was also a very fast drying top coat and multiple layers were no problem.

An up-close look at "Touchy Feely". Pretty simply and ordinary if you ask me. Nothing too special. I think this is an easy $3.98 to save.

An up-close look at "Loves Me, Loves Me Not". It's kind of hard to see the pink-purple hue, but it is there. This is the better of the 2 micro-dots, but nothing to rave about.

Another comparison of "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" and "Touchy Feely". Really, not enough difference in my opinion.

"One Love" is a multi-holographic glitter top coat. You can see it with 3 coats on it's own on my Pinky, I put it over a light mint color and over black. I love the effect when putting it over black polish.

"Hearts A Flutter" is a basic fuchsia glitter top coat mixed with gold hearts. The gold hearts are a pain to get out of the bottle. You really have to scoop to get them. Took me several attempts just to get these 2 you see on my Pointer finger and by the time you dig out a heart or 2, you will have a nice big gob of polish, making your top coat really think.

A close-up look of "One Love". This is the winner in the collection, in my opinion.

A close-up look of "Hearts A Flutter". This is cute, but it takes too much work. 

Final Verdict: While the top coats were the only limited edition products in the collection and the only products I picked up, I found they performed well, but were not really all that unique. For $3.98 a bottle I feel you could easily skip on these and similar products are on the market that you can purchase every day.

Spotted: Almay Shadow Softies

I literally just bought all the items I'm about to share. I had to go to Rite Aid real quick to replace my peeling nail file and while I was there, I of course, checked out the displays of cosmetics. 

I was lucky enough to find an untouched display of the new Shadow Softies from Almay. I was really interested about these from the time I first heard about them, because most of Almay's eye shadows are neutrals. I have never really been a fan of Almay products. Growing up, when I had an emergency and I needed something for a recital or competition/performance, my mom would buy Almay or Max Factor -outside of those situations, I never found myself reaching for this brand.

It was a little tempting to grab about half of these colors, but on the chance that they were bad quality I only bought 2 to try. There are 6 matte shades and 6 metallic shades. From the look of the colors on display, the metallic shades looked more like shimmers. Also, Kate Hudson, is wearing 2 of the shades on the display and both looked very soft in color, which is why I was hesitant to buy more than 2.

Almay boasts that the shadows are "whipped to perfection" and "lightweight, crease-free pure color". If you look closely at the display, on the right, there was a shadow you could sample/try before buying.

The 2 shades I bought from left to right: "#160 Midnight Sky" and "#115 Seafoam". I bought coordinating shades so I could use them together.

Here are swatches of the colors. When you first feel the texture of these shadows you most likely will be surprised. They feel ultra smooth and almost silky. They are not powder, but they're not creme either. It's not a mousse by any means though. It's more like a hybrid of a creme and powder, I suppose. It almost has a bouncy like texture to it, similar to the Bouncy Blushes by Maybelline. - The picture is of a few swipes across my hand without primer. The "metallic" shade (which is the lighter one) is definitely more of a frosty shimmer than metallic, in my opinion.  At first notice, I feel these will not stand well on their own if I want the color payoff that I normally wear. If you're someone who likes sheer and light eye make-up then you'll be fine. I'll let you all know more about these later when I get around to actually using them!

On a side note: I also picked up 2 SinfulColors polishes. Thanks to, Nouveau Cheap, I read about a sale going on right now at Rite Aid- buy any SinfulColors polishes  at $1.99 and get $1.99 back in rewards, limit 2. The color on the left is "#841 Daddy's Girl" and is a purple glitter with pink in it. The other color is "#1379 Silver Belle" and is new for this years holiday collection. #841 rang up as .99 cents, so I'm guessing it's being clearanced, even though I did not see it over by the other polishes that were on clearance. I still received the $1.99 reward with the clearance polish!

If you have a review of the Shadow Softies or a post about the current deals going on then link me your blog in the comment and I'll check it out!

Wet 'N Wild Fergie Fall 2013 Display

So, by now most people know that the Fall 2013 line for Fergie's cosmetic line through Wet 'N Wild is out. A lot of people have been searching for this, because it has quite a few limited edition things. This past week (August 25-August 31) Walgreens had a 40% off sale on the Fergie cosmetics. So, I was so hoping that I would find this display in time. Indeed I did! It took a while. I had visited 3 Walgreens and 1 of them I visited about 3 times, and had not found any trace of these. I went out to eat with a friend and decided to stop at the Walgreens around that area and I hit the jackpot! 

***Side note: I feel lately that Walgreens, or at least the ones around my area, have done a real poor job at advertising their cosmetic sales. I check a web site, Nouveau Cheap, every week to find most drug store sales and that's how I knew there was a sale this week at Walgreens for Fergie. However, only 1 of the 4 Walgreens I went into had signs up that told me that there were was a 40% off sale and that was 1 of the stores that did not have this collection. I also would not have known about the sale Walgreens was having on their Sinful Colors polish if it weren't for Nouveau Cheap, because my Walgreens failed to put any signs up until this last week, which is crazy since this sale has been going on for like a month!

The display was just a cardboard display that was sitting on the side of the cosmetics counter. The display seemed untouched. In the photo you'll notice some items missing, but my friend and I had already taken out what we wanted, so that's why.

The first row did not contain anything new. The mascara and the black & brown gel liners are from the core line and not Limited Edition. I did not pick up either of these, nor do I currently own them and I have never tested them.

The second row was a mix of Limited Edition and core line. The Shimmer Take On The Day eye primer and the blue & purple gel liners are Limited Edition. The other eye primer is from the core line. I did purchase all of the Limited Edition products, but skipped the regular primer. 

The third row contained eyeshadow palettes from the core line and you can purchase these any day. They were part of the 40% sale, but they're not new or limited. The palette on the far right (last one) I have previously owned and really liked. I highly recommend! The only reason I don't have it now, is because I dropped it and although the shadow did not break the plastic, clear cover did and I had to throw it out, because I could not fix it.

The last row, which contained 4 different palettes then the row above it were Limited Edition and they had the "Limited Edition" sticker on it. With the 40% off, the palettes dropped to $2.99 from their regular $4.99 price.

Now I'd like to point something out- On Nouveau Cheap's post about this display the creator, G, did not know if the new primer and gel liners were going to be added to the core line or not. While neither have the Limited Edition stickers on them, the displays do say "limited edition" under them, so I'm thinking they will not be added to the core line and if you want them I suggest getting them now! 

That's all I for now. Let me know if you found the display in time for the sale and what you bought. Stay tuned for swatches!