New this week · Week of August 17
Fall lands August 25. Your color chart should land first.
Starbucks put the pumpkin spice latte back on the menu for August 25, and every year the color requests follow the cup by about a week. Twenty-eight new items came in over the last seven days and most of them are fall.
Counts checked August 16. Free shipping on orders over $200 in the contiguous US.
The fall drop arrived in three boxes, not three bottles
Three vendors shipped full fall ranges in the same week, which does not usually happen. If you have been topping up your fall shades two and three at a time, this is the week to stop doing that and buy the range instead. A pre-selected box costs less per bottle than picking singles, and it comes with the chart, which is the part that actually sells the service.
All three are matching systems, so the same shade carries across your gel nail polish and your lacquer, and in two of the three it carries into dip powder nails as well. That is what makes a range worth buying whole. A client picks 118 off the chart and you can give her the same 118 in whichever service she books.
48 shades · HEMA and TPO free · booklet included
$297Thu is autumn in Vietnamese, and Royal built the range to match: mustard and butter yellow at the top, then terracotta, rust, brick, chocolate and two golds. It is HEMA and TPO free, which matters if you are already moving your back bar off HEMA ahead of the reformulation deadlines.
Royal Thu 48 shades $297
PLA Matching Colors, fall collection, 36 colors with chartGel $216 · lacquer $90 · powder $288
Billionaire Imperial matching duo, 39 fall colors$273
PLA Here's the Tea, 18 colors with chart$108
Cre8tion put pumpkin spice on the pedicure menu
Cre8tion shipped two holiday scents in the gallon spa line this week. One is Crushed Candy, which is a December product you can safely ignore until October. The other is Pumpkin Spice Latte, and that one is an August and September product, so it wants to be on your menu board in the next two weeks rather than after the leaves turn.
The four steps are sold separately, which is the sensible way to buy them. Most salons go through soak and scrub twice as fast as masque and lotion, so buying an even case of all four leaves you with lotion you are still working through at Christmas.
SKU 19639 / 19640 / 19626 / 19641 · 1 gallon · sold by step
From $32Sea salt soak $45, honey sugar scrub $49, foot masque $45, lotion massage cream $32. Gallon size, so the per pedicure cost lands well under a retail scent and you can run it as a seasonal upcharge for the six weeks it is worth something.
Cre8tion 4 step pedicure from $32
SKU 18029 · 110V · digital thermostat
$115Paraffin goes from a dead add-on in July to a booked add-on the first cold week, and in Orange County that is usually late October. Digital control is the difference between a warmer you trust with a client's hands and one you keep testing with your wrist.
Paraffin warmer $115Cat eye did not slow down for fall
Three new Diva 9D shades landed this week and they are the ones people reach for once sleeves come back. Silver lilac against a cable knit is the whole pitch. If you want the technique side of it rather than the shade list, we wrote up the Cre8tion cat eye gel kits earlier this season and the magnet handling is the same.
The house now carries over 650 shades of cat eye gel polish, which is more than most salons need and exactly why buying by chart beats buying by guess.
Buy the chart, not the shade
If you own one chair. Take the PLA lacquer set at $90 and one Diva cat eye. You get 36 fall shades on the chart without committing to gel and powder inventory you will not turn over before spring.
If you own a salon. Take a full matching range. Royal Thu at $297 is 48 shades with the booklet, and it is the only one of the three that is HEMA and TPO free, which is worth paying for if you are phasing HEMA out anyway. We covered that shift in our HEMA free gel polish roundup.
If you are stocking for a rush. Add the pumpkin spice pedicure steps now and the paraffin warmer in September. One sells in the heat, the other sells in the cold, and ordering them together saves you a second shipment.
What people asked at the counter
Is a pre-selected fall bundle cheaper than picking the same shades singly?
Yes, on all three of this week's ranges. The bundle also includes the color chart, which is not sold with singles and is the thing that actually closes the service at the desk. Buy singles when you need to replace two bottles, buy the range when you are setting a season.
What does HEMA and TPO free actually change for me?
HEMA is the monomer most often behind client allergy and lifting complaints, and TPO is a photoinitiator that has come under regulatory pressure in the EU. Royal Thu is formulated without either. If you have a client who has reacted to gel before, this is the range to put her on.
Should I buy the pumpkin spice pedicure now or wait until September?
Now. The scent sells against the season people are anticipating, not the season they are in, and that window opens the week the coffee chains switch over. Waiting until the weather turns costs you six weeks of upcharge.
Can I see these in the showroom before I commit to a range?
Yes. All of the charts in this post are on the floor at 13858 Brookhurst St in Garden Grove, and a chart in your hand beats a photo on a screen for a $297 decision. Call ahead on 714-868-7088 if you want a specific range pulled and waiting.
Week of August 17
Fall books itself. The stock does not.
Wholesale pricing for nail professionals and salons across the US.
Call us at 714-868-7088 for volume orders and full kits.
13858 Brookhurst St, Garden Grove, CA 92843, same day pickup.