Gruß vom Krampus - A limited edition NPB to be released tomorrow!

Gruß  vom  Krampus is dark with multi color sparkle (you may have figured out by now that I love rainbows!) and is inspired by this video by my lovely and talented friend Nathan Jarvis and his band Rue Mevlana.

It is very limited edition (I don't expect to have too much more than 30 bottles available) and will be part of tomorrow's restock at 3PM.

Just a quick note to say...

Thank you all for being fun, gorgeous, kind, supportive and awesome. Nail Pattern Boldness wouldn't be here without each and every one of you and for that I am so thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Time Traveler Collection on Sassy Paints!

Check out the full review here!

Pre-Order available for the Time Traveler Collection

Hey everyone! I've added a tab up top if you'd like to pre-order any of the Time Traveler Collection polishes. Details on price, payment and expected ship dates are listed there as well. This is my first time trying something like this and I'd love to know what you think. Thanks!!

The Time Traveler Collection

Things have been a bit quiet here because I've been hard at work teaching myself how to make colored polishes using pigments!  I am a huge nerd Dr. Who fan, so without further ado here is a sneak peek at my next collection:

I don't have an exact availability date (yet) but it will be sometime between now and Thanksgiving.  It's quite a bit more work to create colors from scratch, so I want to be sure I can produce these consistently (and I'm still in the process of testing for staining).

Hello, Sweetie:   A purple jelly with black, copper and red glitter.  Inspired by River Song.
Slow Invasion:  Cubes of all sizes and colors in a teal jelly base.  Inspired by the invasion of the same name.
Allons-y!:  Teeny tiny glitter in blues, greens, purples, and many more colors.  Inspired by the 10th Doctor.
When A Good Man Goes to War:  Dark times and bloodshed, inspired by the 11th Doctor.
Oodiful:  Pink and white glitters in a grey jelly base.  Inspired by the Ood.
Bigger On The Inside:  A bold blue jelly with blue and silver microglitter.  Inspired by the Tardis.

So I'm dying to know - what do you think?

"silver" flake polish, coming soon!

I'll be releasing this one on November 1st, and it will be significantly less $ than the upcoming Ninja Polish ones.

In progress: a color change polish!

So in my downtime I've been working on new colors, and I couldn't resist when I found this color changing black pigment.  It turns from black to CLEAR - look!

So now I'd like some feedback.  As is it can be worn over any color and will reveal the color underneath when your nails are warm (which if they're short like mine is most of the time).  BUT I could add color to the polish and it would be more of a "traditional" color change, say from red to black, or blue to black etc.

Personally I like the idea that it's customizable, but I want to hear from you! 

Restock Friday at 5PM!

I've updated the restock page with what's available, and have you seen this?

I'll be stocking this sometime in the next week or so with a limited edition name for Halloween, and then it will become part of the core line with a new name (but it will be the exact same polish).

Picture courtesy of Reece at Spit & Polish.

NPB's Hades for Halloween 2012

This will be part of tomorrow's restock at 3PM (I've updated the Restock Info page):

Hades is tinted to darken any color it's worn over, and has different sizes of black and gunmetal glitter plus blue iridescent glitter.  Here it's shown over Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby.

A little something different for Halloween...

This is still in the prototype phases but I had to share.  It's *VERY* hard to capture the glow on camera but it is SO COOL!!

If I'm able to get these thinner I'll be selling them in the shop in a few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Restock tomorrow at 3PM!

Hey everyone!  I've updated the restock page to show what will be available tomorrow.

Unfortunately Glitter Food won't be ready for this restock, I've got to wait for the bubbles to dissipate! 

NPB's Bitches Brew...and some news

So much news! But first a picture:

This is "Bitches Brew" and will be offered as part of the restock this Friday.  It's a new direction for me and I'd love to hear what you think!

Onto the news:

I have teamed up with Llarowe and will be offering my Glitter Food topcoat through her shop!  I'll still be offering it for sale through my Etsy store as well, but this will make it much easier for people to get internationally and will help promote my polishes.

Singaporeans will be able to purchase select colors and Glitter Food from Shop Eclecticco very soon (my first shipment goes out to Annette this week).

I have also realized that I won't be able to keep up with demand if I continue to mix both Glitter Food *and* the suspension base for my polishes.  I've been testing a commercially produced base and am really happy with the results - the formula is easier to work with and it dries to a glossy finish(!!).  The restock this Friday will be made with the new base.

Finally, I will be raising my prices with the restock this Friday as well.  Glitter Food will be $7 and glitter polishes will be $8.  I know that raising prices is never a popular decision, but even with the increase I will still be one of the most affordable indie lines available.

That's all for now!  As always thanks for the kind words, encouragement, and great support!

Flipping Out Hard will become part of the core line!

I am SO excited to announce that Flipping Out Hard will become part of the core line of NPB polishes!  I heard from one of my suppliers this AM about the last color I had to source.  I won't be able to get it for at least a month, but in the meantime I measured all that I have on hand and will be able to produce a run of 80 more bottles to be stocked before the end of the month.

Restock tomorrow is at 2PM!

I've updated the restock page with all the important info AND I have a request!  I'm going to be mixing up a few final batches tonight and it would help me out tremendously if I had an idea which colors you all are hoping to get.  I've created a survey that you can take (anonymously) here so please do consider filling it out!

NPB's Ignition (remix)

I'm so excited to present this polish - it will be available for the first time as part of the restock this Friday.  This is one coat of Ignition (remix) over China Glaze Stone Cold topped with one coat of Glitter Food and one coat of Seche.

Flipping Out Hard is BACK!

But before I show you a picture I want to announce the winner of my 100 Facebook followers/300 bottles shipped giveaway:  Reece!  I've already contacted her and she got back to me right away so CONGRATS!!

And now....I present the newest batch of Flipping Out Hard:

This will be available on Etsy starting this Friday, time to be announced.  I hope to have several TIMES more bottles this time around and I'm also working on sourcing HUGE amounts of this glitter so there is hope that this will become part of the permanent line up soon.

Introducing Colonel Mustard, Sergeant Gray and Miss Scarlett

Restock today at 4:30PM EST!

Le Big Party, Seppuku (With A Frisbee), Don't Drop That Spoon, Mrs. White, Glitter Food, plus a few new colors will be stocked. PLUS I Believe I Can Fly will be BACK!

Bloody Hollow

A great name for a haunted house...or the story of "Ignition (remix)".

Once upon a time I got this idea for an all-holo rainbow hex glitter polish so I ordered holo-hexes in every color.  So confident was I in my supplier and the good luck I'd had with their previous glitters that instead of doing my usual testing of each color, I got excited and impatiently threw them into a bottle with some base.  It looked amazing(!) so I took some pictures, and still excited and impatient I even posted on Facebook.  By now you might be able to guess where this is going....next stop Bloody Hollow!

It took a few days, but eventually some of the glitters started to bleed turning my masterpiece into brown crap.  The problem was that I had mixed them all together so I couldn't tell which.  I knew it was more than one because the base was turning brown, but I could also see that each color was still vibrant within the brown muck.  It was time to do what I should have done in the first place and test each glitter individually.

Once I did that it was obvious that my problems were red, orange, and purple.  I've now replaced those with non-holo versions and honestly, I can't tell the difference. Crisis averted!

It's time for another giveaway!

Two big things happened today:  I hit 100 likes on Facebook, and I shipped my 300th bottle out this AM! 

I know 300 is comparatively small to some of the other indie brands out there, but I'm savoring this early success.  It's big enough that I'm starting to think bigger and order more, which hopefully means more stable supply and more new colors.  It's also small enough that I can still include handwritten thank you's with each order, accommodate custom listings and international shipping, and generally ship each order in a day or two.  It's a good spot to be in!

To celebrate, as promised, I'm having another giveaway!

The Prize:  Full Size bottles of Glitter Food, Cosmic Debris and Red to Green color shifting topcoat

Open to:  Residents of the US and Canada

Enter until:  August 6th, 2012  2PM EST

To enter leave a comment on this post answering the following question (and a way to get in touch with you if you win):

How do you feel about limited edition polishes?   Would you rather see a smaller variety of colors that are consistently stocked, a bigger variety of ever-changing colors, or some combination of the two?

Thanks everyone for your support so far!!

And the winner is...

Today is the day!  As promised I have drawn a name at random from all the comments left and am pleased to announce that the winner is:  Emily!

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to leave a comment, I read and enjoyed every one.

In other news, I have stocked up on Glitter Food ingredients and expect to be able to keep it in stock for quite some time to come.  I'm even thinking of investing in a more industrial-grade mixer!   The etsy shop will be re-opening later today and I'm expecting to be able to continually restock from this point on.

Finally, please like me on Facebook!  You can find a link in the tabs at the top.  I'm planning a special giveaway when I hit 100 followers (I'm at 69 right now).

A few sneak previews...

Here are some bottle shots of upcoming colors and works in progress:

Mrs. White from the Clue collection:



We're Having A Baby from the R. Kelly collection (this one may need more glitter):



Double Up from the R. Kelly collection



I've also updated the Restock page.  I hope to have a few more colors ready before Saturday!

BB Couture Dragon's Breath

Such a vampy color for summer, but I love it! Application was easy and dry time was great.

NPB is on Facebook!

I have to warn you, I'm not "good" at Facebook but now that I have a page, I hope I'll get better!

I'll post updates there (as well as here) so you can keep up with restocks, new colors, etc. however you'd like.

Check it out and let me know what you think and what you'd like to see me post there!

NPB is hitting mail boxes all over the country!

...and ladies with gorgeous nails are blogging about it!

Nicole at Nail Polish Wars is flipping out hard!

Emily has a great post about layering with Purple Rain.

Jen at Lavish Layerings has some beautiful swatches of Seppuku (With A Frisbee) and Le Big Party.

Tini at Narcissistic Nails does an awesome job showing off Le Big Party and Don't Drop That Spoon.

Pryanka writes an excellent review of I Believe I Can Fly.

In the frenzy of sales and shipping and emails I hadn't anticipated how awesome it would be to connect with all these polish lovers out there.  This is so much fun!  Thanks everyone!

A Few Lucky Experiments

After I've finished testing various glitters, I'm left with tons of little bits of glitter in suspension base.  I have a hard time wasting anything, so today I gathered up all the ones that I was done with and starting combining them.  Here's what I came up with:

These are SO unlike anything I've made before but I was really feeling it as I went and I'm pleasantly surprised at how these came out.  I might even try to re-create them. 

And now, my first giveaway!  I had enough to fill mini bottles of these as well, so I'll be giving away a trio of minis (1/8th oz)! 

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment saying which of these is your favorite and an email address that I can contact you at if you are the lucky winner.  My apologies to anyone international but this will be limited to the US only.  The winner will be announced in two weeks on 7/21.

Good luck!

When Good Glitters Go Bad

Part of the work of developing nail polishes is testing the glitter. Here are a few examples of things that can go wrong.

Bleeding:

 

Curling (these are .062" hexes):



I'm not sure quite what to call this, it's like pitting.  These were originally irridescent pink



More curling, except these are square, and they are surprisingly very tiny.




Most of these failed right away, with the exception of the pink hexes which took over a month before they showed any sign of curling. 

China Glaze I'm Not Lion

This is two coats with one coat of NPB's Glitter Food and one coat of Seche.  This was really hard to photograph - my camera didn't want to focus!

I was able to get ALL 70+ orders shipped out on Monday AM with the exception of one Canadian order that will be going out tomorrow.  Phew!  I've already placed an order for more glitter, so that should be coming in soon and I'm also working on some new polishes!  Of course you'll see pictures here before they are for sale so stay tuned.

NPB's tl;dr

I put this on a few days ago so please excuse the tipwear. This is a teal jelly with scattered holographic particles. I may end up offering this for sale, though I only have enough for maybe 8 or 10 bottles. I'm torn between doing that, or making these for myself in every color of the rainbow.

My next collection - nameless and matte

These will all be part of my next restock this Friday at 3PM EST. 

NPB's I Believe I Can Fly

This is the first polish from an R. Kelly series I'm developing.  It's another limited edition one because I ran out of the smaller square glitter I used.  I expect this one to show up in the shop before the end of the month.

China Glaze Under The Boardwalk

This is from the new 2012 Summer Neons collection.  Another one I absolutely love!  The application was easy and dried quickly, but as you can see in the picture (which was taken the day after I applied it) it's not very "tough" and showed lots of wear in just a short time.

Sneak peak from the next collection

It takes a looooong time to test glitters to ensure they'll last in the polishes I make so I've got a lot of things just biding their time until they get the stamp of approval.  Here's one of those soon to be released if all goes well.  If you ordered more than one polish from me recently you'll find a sample of this in your package!

Ozotic 502

Picture Polish recently announced that Ozotic, an Australian based nail polish brand famous for their holos and multichromes, would be discontinuing all of their 500-series polishes. I've had my eye on several of their multichromes for a while, but their high price and my tendencies to procrastinate prevented me from ordering them until now. This is three thin coats with one coat of Seche Vite topcoat.



I LOVE THIS POLISH.

*Edited thanks to my reader Jen - this is actually 502 (not 503 as I had originally posted).

Revlon Lemon Meringue vs Maybelline Banana Puddin'

One of my favorite things to see on other nail blogs are comparison posts, so here's my first attempt at returning the favor! Revlon has a LE summer display out right now of several pastel colors that are also scented. This is the yellow from that collection - Lemon Meringue. Yellows are always tough to apply and this was no exception. I used three coats plus topcoat in the picture below. I will also say that I'm normally not one to go for scented polish but this smells INCREDIBLE. All Revlon polish is on sale this week at Rite Aid for $2.99, and if you can find a $1 off coupon to use it's a great deal.

 I'm comparing this with a long discontinued polish - Maybelline Banana Puddin'. I was able to get this through a generous swap, and I'm really glad I didn't pay $15 for it on eBay. I had an even harder time with application - still three coats but it's even streaker than the Revlon. I've heard this one referred to as a jelly which was why I wanted to try it but in my opinion this is just a streaky non-cooperative cream.



It's pretty obvious these are not dupes, though they are close. I prefer the Revlon because it's easier to apply and I think it looks better with my skintone. My husband however couldn't tell that they were different until I told him, so I'd say this is a great alternative if you've been dying to try Banana Puddin'.

NPB is open for business!

I decided four was enough for now. Just click the 'Shop' tab up above to check it out!

NPB's Purple Rain

This may be my favorite one so far - a dusty jelly purple with lots of different sized hex plus black shredded glitter.  Application was great - this is two coats with one coat of Barielle Manicure Extender followed by one coat of Seche.

Essie Pretty Edgy and Action

I just entered my first nail art contest! I used a dotting tool and striping tape with a matte top coat over everything because I thought it would photograph better.

What do you think?

NPB's Cosmic Debris

Halfway there!!

This was so hard to photograph but thankfully pretty easy to apply. 

Finger Paints Circus Peanuts

This is from a LE Spring Collection by Finger Paints - a brand that is exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply.   I have a few of their colors and found them to be well pigmented and easy to apply...not so much with this one.  It took two coats and was still a little streaky but luckily a coat of Seche smoothed it out.

NPB's Shrieking Mauve

This is my second polish for the shop!  I'll open once I've got six, so we're a third of the way there people!

Another super limited edition one (I think there will be 4 or 5 bottles for sale).