Indie Polish Shops

So I've spent a fair amount of time updating the Indie Polish Shops page (see above) and wanted to make everyone aware of it.

I decided that the best way for me to organize it was by the shops I know/have purchased from and the ones that exist but I haven't had a chance to interact with. And then put everything in alphabetical order because that's just how I need to roll. 

So if anyone has a question about shops I've had experiences with, please feel free to ask! I've thankfully never had a bad experience as far as customer service goes. (Knocking on wood).

I also just want to say that there are many independent polish lines run by very skilled individuals who take time and care when creating their polishes. So please don't let a couple of bad apples sour you to the entire indie community. There are "those people" in every industry, but I can promise that we aren't all bad. In fact, the other polish makers I know are amazing, intelligent, and creative women. So if you haven't given independent lines a chance yet, give it some thought (or wait until mine is available soon!) I am not speaking for indie polish makers as a group, but I know that part of the reason I'm creating a polish line and my own creative business outlet is to have a little corner of the internet that would otherwise be in all of the small businesses that have closed due to the economy.

Those are just some thoughts. I'll probably have more posts like this in the future when I have something to say that's worth reading.

Glitter Bomb Out!

Pretty & Polished: Chelsea Chelsea Bling Bling

Sometimes a girl just needs pink. And glitter.  Together, in one awesome lacquer. The amazing Chelsea at Pretty & Polished knows these sorts of things and she also happened to create Chelsea Chelsea Bling Bling.

(Please ignore that I held the bottle label with wet hands one time and smeared ink. I'm sure that me pointing this out will definitely make sure no one sees it).

 Bling Bling!

 And the reveal . . .

So girly. So fun. Perfect.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Pretty & Polished lacquers!

Paris Sparkles: Celery Stalker

Late nights at work = lack of posting yesterday. But I have a cool, refreshing green to make up for it today. Paris Sparkles Celery Stalker is a calming, green creme base with blue, black, pink, and holo hexes of varying sizes. I must admit, I purchased this polish based on the name alone. I think that the base is very similar to Essie Navigate Her, which I already own, but I couldn't resist.

 Bottle marco:

Here is Celery Stalker on the nails!

Click "Read more" for swatches and information on where to purchase Celery Stalker and other Paris Sparkles lacquers.

Blue Mondays with a-England Order of the Garter & Pretty & Polished: Forgery

First, some Official Business: I am so close to 100 followers on the Tough As Nails Lacquer Facebook page and once I hit that mark, there is going to be an amazing Indie Polish giveaway happening on the blog! The giveaway will feature Tough As Nails Lacquer, Pretty & Polished, All That Glitters, Dollish Polish, Lynnderella, and more! So if you haven't liked the page on Facebook, do so ASAP.

Okay. Now that that's out of the way -- Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Today I have another great combo, this time from a-England and Pretty & Polished.

Check out a-England Order of the Garter, an amazing blue shimmer:

 Here are two coats of Order of the Garter, no topcoat:

And here is Pretty & Polished Forgery, an amazing glitter holo matte topcoat. So genius. Chelsea makes some of my all time favorite polishes.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and the finished look of Forgery over Order of the Garter!

So  + =s . . .

 Swoon. Love this manicure. This is one coat of Forgery over two coats of Order of the Garter.

 Closeups to show off the holo:

I truly love both of these brands and highly recommend both of them. Application was great on both.

 

a-England lacquers can be purchased here (shipping from England) or here (shipping from the US, but to many countries). Make sure to like the a-England Facebook page, too! 

Pretty & Polished lacquers can be purchased here from Chelsea's Etsy shop (and coming soon here). Check out Pretty & Polished's website here or check out Chelsea's Facebook page to stay updated on her polish line and get notices on when polishes will go up for sale.

Cult Nails: Power Thief & Pahlish: Your Silver Lining Combo

As I've stated before, I really like Cult Nails. It's a great brand run by a great woman and they have a whole bunch of brown polishes, which are my new favorite color.

So today I have Cult Nails Power Thief. Power Thief has amazing little flecks of silver throughout that take a basic brown polish to a whole new level.

Check out the bottle macro. And no, Power Thief doesn't have any purple glitter in it, that's just my bad.

 And here are two coats of Power Thief with one coat of a random topcoat. <3

The silver in Power Thief lends to the polish appearing lighter or darker, depending on how the light hits it. Below shows Power Thief at the lightest I saw it:

 It's beautiful no matter what shade it's showing. 

So as you might have noticed since you are reading this blog and literate, I mentioned Pahlish Your Silver Lining in the title. Yet, I haven't shown Your Silver Lining yet. Well this was initially just supposed to be a post about Power Thief, but I apparently really like Cult Nails/Pahlish combos because I have another one.

Click "Read more" for swatches of Pahlish Your Silver Lining over Power Thief!

Lynnderella: I Can Afford It

Sorry for the lack of posting over the last couple of days. The kiddo and I have both been a little under the weather and I'm in the process of getting everything ready for when I open up shop in a few weeks. 

It's a little scary for me to think about the time and energy (and money) I've spent on my polishes and the possibility that I might fail.

Speaking of money, here is Lynnderella I Can Afford It! It's a clear-based lacquer with green hex and square glitters, with some purple and orange squares sprinkled throughout.

 Bottle macro shot:

 And here is I Can Afford It! on the nails:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Lynnderella polishes.

Lush Lacquer: Tutti Frutti

Today was a loong day for me. Summer seems to have a tendenacy to just drag weekdays out and today was one of those days. But something that always makes me smile after the end of the day? Nail polish. And today is no different.

So I spy with my little eye Lush Lacquer Tutti Frutti, a fun orange-tinted glitter polish with large rose hexes throughout. I think that the rose hexes have a holo quality to them. MUCH better results from Lush Lacquer than the first time I swatched one of the mother-daughter duo's polishes here.  I'm really glad that I took advantage of Lush Lacquer's "pick any three minis" because it allowed me to get a nice selection from the brand.

 Look at how much fun is crammed into this bottle!

And here is one coat of Tutti Frutti over Essie Braziliant. Love it! I want to use this for a pedi and take off to the beach ASAP with it.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase this and other Lush Lacquer polishes!

NailsIT: Sour Apple

Sour Apple is the last of the three polishes I recently purchased from NailsIT and it's a beautiful, creamy lime green.

It has teal/pale blue (I'm never really sure how to categorize this specific color but I see it a lot) and orange hexes:

 And here is Sour Apple on the nails:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Sour Apple and other NailsIT lacquers!

Cult Nails: Cruisin' Nude & Pahlish: Bixby Canyon Bridge

Today, I have my favorite nude polish and my favorite brown glitter polish -- together in one great mani!

First up is my absolute favorite nude polish: Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude. Cult Nails is a recently new-to-me brand and I love every polish that I've purchased. If you don't own any Cult Nails lacquers, they are a must for your collection.

What makes Cruisin' Nude so great is that it has the slightest shimmer, which you can see here:

While I love Cruisin' Nude on its own, I wanted to jazz it up a little bit and chose to do so with one coat of Pahlish's Bixby Canyon Bridge:

 This has beautiful gold holo hexes in it, along with brown and orange. LOVE.

And here is the end result. And no, I cannot explain why my index finger has a kind of weird brown smudge at the tip. I think it must have something to do with the shimmer in the polish and the glitter.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Cult Nails and Pahlish!

Blue Mondays with Pretty & Polished: Rainbow Sparkle

The third installation of Blue Mondays is here and today I have Pretty & Polished Rainbow Sparkle, a multicolored glitter with a blue, slightly shimmery base.

 Bottle macro:

 And here is one coat of Rainbow Sparkle over Essie's Mesmerize:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Pretty & Polished lacquers!

NailsIT: Carolyn

It's a lazy Sunday around here. Which means not showering until well into the afternoon, lounging around, flipping through the paper (does anyone else still get the paper?), and taking afternoon naps when no one has really done anything to warrant a nap.

So today I have a another dreamy polish from NailsIT, Carolyn, from her Dark Shadows collection. Carolyn is a shimmery blue lacquer with either white or slightly holographic glitter shards. I can't tell whether the blue base has a holo quality or if its the glitter, but either way it's very pretty. This is another polish that shows you don't need a glitter bomb (even though I love glitter bombs) to be beautiful.

  

Bottle marco shot:

And here are three coats of Carolyn with one coat of OPI topcoat:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information where to purchase Carolyn and other NailsIT lacquers!

NailsIT: Companion Cube

NailsIT is a lacquer shop I stumbled across through blogging. About a week ago, there was a post about a dreamy gray with holo and silver hexes, white squares, and pink hearts and I knew I had to have that lacquer. Thankfully, I didn't have to search far, as NailsIT lacquers are sold through the NailsIT blog.

Yesterday, my package containing the dreamy gray arrived, along with two others that I will post about in the future. And today I finally got to try out Companion Cube.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where you can purchase Companion Cube and other NailsIT lacquers!

Pahlish: Fire in the Taco Bell

Have you ever heard the song Danger! High Voltage by the Electric Six? In case you don't listen to cool tunes, check it:

This is one of my favorite songs in the history of songs. What does this have to do with nail polish, you might be thinking. Well Pahlish's Fire At The Taco Bell takes its title from the chorus of Danger! High Voltage, already making it an amazing polish without ever having seen it. 

But it's a great polish based on what's in the bottle as well.

Fire In The Taco Bell has a orangey, pinkish, coral jelly base with various warm-toned hex and square glitters. It is one of those polishes that tends to shift colors depending on what light you are in, which makes me love it more.

 The light in the shot was too beautiful not to share:

 Here are two thick coats of Fire In The Taco Bell with one coat of Seche Vite top coat:

 Click "Read More" for additional swatches and information on where you can purchase Pahlish lacquers.

All photos were taken in natural light without flash. Application of Fire In The Taco Bell was great. The glitter dispersed evenly and I didn't have to do any kind of placement whatsoever. Pahlish's lacquers are some of my favorites and Fire In the Taco Bell just adds to the list of great ones that Shannon has created.

If you are interested in purchasing Pahlish's Fire In The Taco Bell or any other color, please check out Shannon's Etsy shop.  Or check out Pahlish's Facebook page to keep up to date on polish release dates and other info!